Saxony

The Reformation

elector Ernest was suc ceeded in 1486 by his son, Frederick the Wise, one of the most illustrious princes in German history. Under him Saxony was perhaps the most influential state in the empire, and became the cradle of the Reformation. He died in 1525 while the Peasants' War was desolating his land, and was succeeded by his brother John, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the reformed faith and who shared with Philip, landgrave of Hesse, the leadership of the league of Schmalkalden. John's son and successor, John Frederick the Magnanimous, who became elector in 1532, might with equal propriety have been surnamed the Unfortunate. He took part in the war of the league of Schmalkalden, but in 1547 he was captured at Miihlberg by the Emperor Charles V. and was forced to sign the capitulation of Wittenberg. This deed transferred the electoral title and a large part of the electoral lands from the Ernestine to the Albertine branch of the house, whose astute representative, Maurice, had taken the imperial side during the war. Only a few scattered territories were re served for John Frederick's sons, although these were in creased by the treaty of Naumburg in 1554, and on them were founded the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg. For the sec ond time in the history of the Saxon electorate the younger line secured the higher dignity, for the Wittenberg line was junior to the Lauenburg line. The Albertine line became later the royal line of Saxony.

Maurice, who became elector of Saxony in consequence of the capitulation of Wittenberg, was a Protestant, but he did not allow his religious faith to blind him to his political interests. He refused to join the other Protestant princes in the league of Schmalkalden, but made a secret treaty with Charles V. His fidelity to Charles V. was rewarded by the capitulation of Wittenberg. All the lands torn from John Frederick were not, however, assigned to Maurice ; he was forced to acknowledge the superiority of Bohemia over the Vogtland and the Silesian duchy of Sagan. Moreover, Roman Catholic prelates were re instated in the bishoprics of Meissen, Merseburg and Naumburg Zeitz. Recognizing now as a Protestant prince that the best alliance for securing his new possessions was not with the em peror, but with the other Protestant princes, Maurice began to withdraw from the former and to conciliate the latter. In 1552, suddenly marching against Charles at Innsbruck, he drove him to flight and then extorted from him the peace of Passau.

Amid the distractions of outward affairs, Maurice had not neglected the internal interests of Saxony. To its educational advantages, already conspicuous, he added the three Fiirsten schulen at Pforta, Grimma and Meissen, and for administrative purposes, especially for the collection of taxes, he divided the country into the four circles of the Electorate, Thuringia, Meis sen and Leipzig. During his reign coal-mining began in Saxony. Over 200 religious houses were suppressed, the funds being partly applied to educational purposes. The country had four universities, those of Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena and Erfurt books began to increase rapidly, and, by virtue of Luther's translation of the Bible, the Saxon dialect became the ruling dialect of Germany.

Augustus I., brother and successor of Maurice, was one of the best domestic rulers that Saxony ever had. He increased the

area of the country by the "circles" of Neustadt and the Vogt land, and by parts of Henneberg and the silver-yielding Mans feld, and he devoted his long reign to the development of its resources. Under him lace-making began on the Erzgebirge, and cloth-making flourished at Zwickau. With all his virtues, how ever, Augustus was an intolerant Lutheran, and used very severe means to exterminate the Calvinists. Under John George (suc ceeded 1611) the country was devastated by the Thirty Years' War. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Liitzen, not far from Leipzig, in 1632, the elector, who was at heart an imperialist, detached himself from Sweden with whom he had been allied since 1629, and in 1635 concluded the peace of Prague with the emperor. By this peace he was confirmed in the possession of Upper and Lower Lusatia. Saxony had now to suffer from the Swedes a repetition of the devastations of Wallenstein. No other country in Germany was so scourged by this terrible war. When the war was ended by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, Saxony found that its influence had begun to decline in Germany. John George's will made the decline worse by detaching the three duchies of Saxe-Weissenfels, Saxe Merseburg and Saxe-Zeitz as appanages for his younger sons. By 1746, however, these lines were all extinct, and their pos sessions had returned to the main line.

The 18th Century.

The next three electors, who each bore the name of John George, had uneventful reigns. John George IV. was succeeded in 1694 by his brother Frederick Augustus I., or Augustus the Strong. This prince was elected king of Poland as Augustus II. in 1697, but any weight which the royal title might have given him in the empire was more than counter balanced by the fact that he became a Roman Catholic in order to qualify for the new dignity. In order to defray the expenses of Poland's wars with Charles XII. Augustus pawned and sold large districts of Saxon territory, while he drained the electorate of both men and money.

From this reign dates the privy council (Geheimes Kabinet), which lasted till 183o. The caste privileges of the estates (Stdnde) were increased by Augustus, a fact which tended to alienate them more from the people, and so to decrease their power. Frederick Augustus II., who succeeded his father in the electorate in 1733, and was afterwards elected to the throne of Poland as Augustus III., was an indolent prince, wholly under the influence of Count Heinrich von Briihl (q.v.). Under him Saxony sided with Prussia in the First Silesian War, and with Austria in the other two. It gained nothing in the first, lost much in the second, and in the third, the Seven Years' War (1756-63), suffered renewed miseries. The country was deserted by its king and his minister, who retired to Poland. By the end of the war it had lost 90,000 men and Ioo,000,000 thalers, its coinage was debased and its trade ruined; and the whole country was in a state of frantic disorder. The elector died seven months after his return from Poland; Briihl died 23 days later. The connection with Poland was now at an end. The elector's son and successor, Frederick Christian, sur vived his father only two months, dying also in 1763, leaving a son, Frederick Augustus III., a boy of 13. Prince Xaver, the elector's uncle, was appointed guardian, and he set himself to the work of healing the wounds of the country.