In 1070 Otto of Nordheim, duke of Bavaria, who held large estates in this country, was accused of a plot to murder Henry, and his lands were confiscated. Otto, in alliance with Magnus, won considerable support in Saxony, but after some fighting both submitted and were imprisoned ; and Magnus was still in con finement when on his father's death in 1072 he became titular duke of Saxony. As he refused to give up his duchy he was kept in prison, while Henry confiscated the estates of powerful nobles, demanded the restoration of ducal lands by the bishops, and gar risoned newly-erected forts with Swabians. These proceedings aroused suspicion and discontent, which were increased when the emperor assembled an army, ostensibly to attack the Slays. The Saxon nobles refused to join the host until their grievances were redressed, and in 1073 a league was formed at Wormesleben. When the insurgents under Duke Otto were joined by the Thurin gians, Henry was compelled in 1074 to make various concessions to them, and in particular to release Magnus. At last Henry, having obtained help from the princes of the Rhineland, attacked and defeated the Saxons at Hohenburg near Langensalza but par doned Otto, whom he appointed administrator of the country. The Saxons, however, were not quite subdued; risings took place from time to time, and the opponents of Henry IV. found con siderable support in Saxony. During the century which followed the death of Hermann Billung, there had been constant warfare with the Slays, but although the emperors had often taken the field, the Saxons had been driven back to the Elbe, which was at this time their eastern boundary. In 1106 Magnus died, and the German king Henry V. bestowed the duchy upon Lothair, count of Supplinburg, whose wife Richenza inherited the Saxon estates of her grandfather Otto of Nordheim, on the death of her brother Otto in '216. Lothair quickly made himself independent, defeated Henry at Welfesholz in 1115, and prosecuted the war against the Slays with vigour. In 1125 he became German king, and in 1137 gave Saxony to Henry the Proud, duke of Bavaria, who had married his daughter Gertrude, and whose mother Wulf hild was a daughter of Magnus Billung. The succeeding German king Conrad III. refused to allow Henry to hold two duchies, and gave Saxony to Albert the Bear, margrave of Brandenburg, who like his rival was a grandson of Magnus Billung. Albert's attempts to obtain possession failed, and after Henry's death in 1139 he formally renounced Saxony in favour of Henry's son, Henry the Lion (q.v.). The new duke improved its internal condition, increased its political importance, and pushed its eastern frontier towards the Oder. In 1180, however, he was placed under the imperial ban and Saxony was broken up. Henry retained Bruns wick and Luneburg; Westphalia, as the western portion of the duchy was called, was given to Philip, archbishop of Cologne, and a large part of the land was divided among nine bishops and a number of counts who thus became immediate vassals of the emperor. The title duke of Saxony was given to Bernard, the sixth son of Albert the Bear, together with the small territories of Lauenburg and Wittenberg, which were thus the only portions of the former duchy which now bore the name of Saxony. Ber nard, whose paternal grandmother, Eilicke, was a daughter of Magnus Billung, took a prominent part in German affairs, but lost Lauenburg which was seized by Waldemar II., king of Den mark. Dying in 1212, Bernard was succeeded in Wittenberg by his younger son Albert I., who recovered Lauenburg after the defeat of Waldemar at Bornhoved in 1227. Albert died in 1260, and soon of ter his death his two sons divided his territories, when the elder son John took Lauenburg which was sometimes called lower Saxony, and the younger, Albert II., took Wittenberg or upper Saxony. Both retained the ducal title and claimed the electoral privilege, a claim which the Lauenburg line refused to abandon when it was awarded to the Wittenberg line by the Golden Bull of 1356.
Saxe-Lauenburg was governed by John until his death in 1285, when it passed to his three sons John II., Albert III. and Eric I. As Albert had no sons the duchy was soon divided into two parts, until on the death of duke Eric III., a grandson of John II., in 1401, it was reunited by Eric IV., a grandson of Eric I. When Eric IV. died in 1412 he was succeeded by his son Eric V., who made strenuous but vain efforts to obtain the electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, which fell vacant on the death of the elector Albert III. in 1422. Eric died in 1436 and was followed by his
brother Bernard IV., whose claim to exercise the electoral vote was quashed by the electors in 1438; and who was succeeded by his son John IV. in 1463. The next duke, John's son Magnus I., spent much time in struggles with the archbishop of Bremen and the bishop of Ratzeburg; he also assisted the progress of the Reforma tion in Lauenburg. Magnus, who was formally invested with the duchy by the emperor Charles V. in 1530, was the first duke to abandon the claim to the electoral privilege. After his death in 1543 his son Francis I. reigned for the succeeding 28 years, and his grandsons, Magnus II. and Francis II., until 1619. Francis, who did something to improve the administration of his duchy, was succeeded in turn by his two sons and his two grandsons; but on the death of Julius Francis, the younger of his grandsons, in 1689 the family became extinct.
Several claimants to Saxe-Lauenburg thereupon appeared, the most prominent of whom were George William, duke of Lune burg-Celle, and John George III., elector of Saxony. George Wil liam based his claim upon a treaty of mutual succession made in 1369 between his ancestor Magnus II., duke of Brunswick, and the reigning dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg. John George had a double claim. Duke Magnus I. had promised that in case of the extinc tion of his family Lauenburg should pass to the family of Wettin, an arrangement which had been confirmed by the emperor Maxi milian I. in 1507. Secondly, John George himself had concluded a similar treaty with Julius Francis in 1671. In 1689 the elector received the homage of the people of Lauenburg. George William, however, took Ratzeburg, and held it against the troops of a third claimant, Christian V., king of Denmark; and in 2702 he bought off the claim of John George, his successor being invested with the duchy in 1728. Since that date its history has been identified with that of Hanover (q.v.).
In Saxe-Wittenberg Albert II. was succeeded in 1298 by his son Rudolph I., who was followed in 1356 by his son Rudolph II. He in turn was succeeded in 1370 by his half-brother Wenceslaus, who temporarily acquired the duchy of Liineburg for his house. He was followed in 1388 by his eldest son Rudolph III. Lavish expenditure during the progress of the council of Constance reduced Rudolph to poverty and on the death in 1422 of his brother Albert III., who succeeded him in 1419, this branch of the family became extinct.
A new era in the history of Saxony dates from 1423, when the Emperor Sigismund bestowed the vacant electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg upon Frederick, margrave of Meissen. Fred erick was a member of the family of Wettin, which since his day has played a prominent part in the history of Europe, and he owed his new dignity to the money and other assistance which he had given to the emperor during the Hussite war. The new and more honourable title of elector of Saxony now superseded his other titles, and the name Saxony gradually spread over his other possessions, which included Meissen and Thur ingia as well as Saxe-Wittenberg. His new position as elector combined with his personal qualities to make him one of the most powerful princes in Germany, and had the principle of primogeniture been established in his country, Saxony and not Prussia might later have been the leading power in the German empire. He died in 1428, just before his lands were ravaged by the Hussites in 1429 and 1430. The division of his territory between his two sons, the elector Frederick II. and William, occasioned a destructive internecine war. Frederick II.'s two sons, Ernest and Albert, succeeded to their father's possessions in 1464, and for 20 years ruled together peaceably. The land prospered rapidly during this respite from the horrors of war. The childless death of their uncle William in 1482 brought Thuringia to the two princes, and Albert insisted on a division of their common possessions. The important partition of Leipzig accordingly took place in 1485, and resulted in the foundation of the two main lines of the Saxon house. The lands were never again united. Ernest, the elder brother, obtained Saxe-Witten berg with the electoral dignity, Thuringia and the Saxon Vogt land ; while Albert received Meissen, Osterland being divided between them. Something was still held in common, and the division was probably made intricate to render war difficult.