In the iith century a new dominion was founded by Louis the Bearded, who by purchase, gift or marriage obtained several coun ties in Thuringia. ,These passed on his death in 1056 to his son Louis the Springer (d. 1123), who took part in the Saxon risings against the emperors Henry IV. and Henry V. His son Louis was appointed landgrave of Thuringia in 1130 by the emperor Lothair II.; by his marriage with Hedwig of Gudensberg in 1137 he obtained a large part of Hesse. Louis was succeeded in 1140 by his son Louis II. the Hard, who married Judith, a sister of the emperor Frederick I., and on his behalf took a leading part in the opposition to his powerful neighbour Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. In 1172 he was succeeded by his son Louis III. the Pious. He acquired the Saxon palatinate in 1179, on the death of Adalbert, count of Sommerschenburg, went to Italy to assist Frederick I. in 1157, joined in the war against Henry the Lion in 1180, and distinguished himself at the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade, on the return from which he died at Cyprus in i190. He was succeeded by his brother Hermann I., during whose reign Thuringia suffered greatly from the var between Philip duke of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. The next landgrave (1217-27) was his son Louis IV., a celebrated figure in mediaeval German lit erature, who married St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II., king of Hungary, and died at Otranto while accompanying the emperor Frederick II. on crusade. The next ruler was Henry Raspe, who made himself regent on behalf of his nephew Hermann II. from 1227 to 1238 and in 1241 succeeded his former ward as landgrave.
After a disputed succession to the landgraviate it fell in 1263, together with the Saxon palatinate, to Henry III. margrave of Meissen. Two years later Henry apportioned Thuringia to his son Albert the Degenerate, who sold it in 1293 to the German king Adolph of Nassau for 12,000 marks of silver. Albert's sons Frederick the Undaunted and Dietrich contested this trans action, and the attempts of Adolph and his successor Albert I. to enforce it led to the infliction of great hardships upon the Thurin gians. Frederick defeated Albert decisively and in 1314 was for mally invested with Thuringia by the emperor Henry VII. His son Frederick II. the Grave (1323-49) consolidated the power of his dynasty against rebellious vassals and the neighbouring counts of Weimar and Schwarzburg. His son Frederick III. the Strong (1349-81) and his grandson Balthasar (1381-1406) fur ther extended their dominion by marriage and conquest, and the latter of these founded the university at Erfurt (1392). Balthasar's son, Frederick the Peaceful, became landgrave in 1406 but left the government largely to his father-in-law Gaither, count of Schwarzburg. He died childless in 1440, and Thuringia then passed to the electoral dynasty of Saxony. After a joint rule by Frederick II. and his brother William, the latter in 1445 be came sole landgrave as William III. and died without sons in 1482. In 1485 his nephews and heirs Albert and Ernest made a division of their lands, and Thuringia was given to the Ernestine branch of the family of Wettin, with which its history down to 1918 is identified (see SAXONY) .