MAURICE, (DuKE and afterwards ELECTOR) OF SAXONY, eldest son of duke Henry of the Albertine line (see SAxosv), and nephew of duke George (q. v.) the bearded, the most bitter opponent of the reformation, was b. at Freiberg, March 21, 1521; espoused, in 1541, Agues, daughter of the landgraf Philip of Hesse; and later in the same year, succeeded his father in the duchy of Saxony and its dependencies. He was hardly well established in his dominions, till a dispute arose between him and his cousin, the elector John Frederic, reg,arding their respective rights over the bishopric of Meissen, which was the common property of the Ernestine and Albertine lines; but by the influence of Luther and of the landgraf Philip, a temporary reconciliation was effected Maurice took part in the campaign of 1542 against the Turks in Hungary, and gave such signal proof of military talent, that the emperor on his return eagerly pressed him to accept a command in the armies on the western frontier of Germany. Maunce was nothing loath to continue his military career, but insisted on obtaining the protectorate of the bishoprics of Magde burg and Halberstadt, in recompense of his services; a stipulation to which Charles would not consent. Maurice accordingly returned to his duchy, and though still on tho lnost friendly terms with the emperor, took part in the deliberations of the Protestant league of Schmalkald (q. v.), being himself a professed Protestant, and the son-in-law of one of the chiefs of the league. He refused, however, though agreeing with the objects of the league, to become h member; and the judicious gift to him by the emperor of the much-coveted protectorat-e above mentioned, and subsequently (June 19, 1546), a solemn deed of the emperor at Ratisbon, by which the Ernestine portion of Saxony and the electoral title were transferred from John Frederic to Maurice, secured the latter's ener getic support. When Charles, at the commencement of the war, was cooped up in southern Germany bv the army of the league, Maurice, by invading the Saxon electo rate, compelled the Protestants to retire northwards, thus relieving the emperor, and enabling bim to subdue Swabia and the upper Rhine districts. But by this maneuver he drew an overwhehning attack upon himself, and was driven by the incensed John Frederic from the electorate, deprived of his own dominions, and reduced to extremity. At this critical moment, the emperor came to his aid; and Maurice and the duke of Alva (see ALBA), at the battle of Muhlberg, annihilated the elector's army and took him self prisoner. Maurice was now, in accordance with the previous agreement, ruler of the whole of Saxony, with the electoral dignity; and having obtained from the emperor all the gratification of his ambitious desires which could be hoped for from that quarter, :their friendly relations became more dependent upon the course of events. The reten tion in confinement of Philip of Hesse, whom Maurice had prevailed upon to submit to the emperor, was the first cause of estrangement; the incessant attempts of the emperor to increase, by modifications of the impenal system, his own preponderance in Germany, supplied another; and though the new elector zealously supported the interim (q. v.) of Augsburg iu 1,547, he gradually came to see that his close alliance with the emperor was alienating from him the affections of his Protestant subjects.
He accordingly at once abandoned the cause of the emperor with as Tittle scruple as he had formerly sacrificed the interests of his relatives and co-religionists; and, in com mon with the princes of Kulmbach and Hesse, secretly sent (May, 1551) agents to Paris and London to negotiate an alliance against Charles:V., while he leisurely carried on the siege of the rebellious city of Magdeburg, in order to have a pretext for keeping an army afoot. Meanwhile, Charles, at Innsbruck, was employing himself in building up vast schemes of ambition, little dreaming of the mine which the man whom he most of all eoufided in was preparing to sprino. under his feet; till the manifesto, or rather ultima tum of the Protestant princes, in which they demanded the release of Philip of Hesse, and the total abolition of the arbitrary authority of the imperial government; and the capture by them of Augsburg, while their allies, the French, tools Metz; rudely drew away the veil from his eyes. Without money, without troops, without allies, nothing but a secret flight from Innsbruck appeared open to him; but he had only got as far as Ftissen (a town on the Lech, on the borders of Bavaria and the Tyrol), when the news that Maurice was marching in this direction forced him to hasten again to Innsbruck.
On April 18, by the rnediation of Ferdinand, king of Romans, a treaty was concluded .at Linz granting the demands of the Protestants; but as it was not to take effect till May 26, Maurice employed himself in attacking (May 18) the camp of Reitti, in which soldiers were being assembled for the emperor, defeated and wholly dispersed the imperialists, and advanced on Innsbru& with the view of taking Charles captive, when his progress -was stopped by a mutiny in his army; and the emperor esmped. His advance on Inns bruck so alarmed the members of the council of Trent that they fled from the town, -and the sittings were thenceforth suspended for some years. Finally, at a convocation of the electors and princes of the empire at Passau, the terms of a treaty of peace were cliscussed, Maurice directing the cause of the Protestants, and Ferdinand attending to the imperial interests; and it was ultimately ao-reed that Protestants were free to exer cise their mode of worship; that the imperial chamber, from which Lutherans were not to be excluded, should render justice irrespective of religion; and that thc Aulic council should be composed exclusively of German ministers. These conditions, which in polit ical matters secured " Germany for the Germans," and in religious affairs permanently established the principles of toleration, were embodied in the agreement called the Peace of Passau (Aug. 22, 1552). The bitter dislike conceived by the emperor towards Maurice on account of these transactions, prompted him to entertain the idea of deposing him from the electorate, and reponing John Frederic; of which scheme, Maurice being -apprised, he, with his usual subtlety and address, patched up a reconciliation with the emperor, and went to take part in the campaign of 1553 against the Turks, who were graduallygaining ground in Hungary. Returning soon, he found that one of his former allies, Albert, markgraf of Kulmbach, had refused to accede to the treaty of Passau, and continued the war on his own account, making raids on the ecclesiastical princes of the Rhine and Franconia. Maurice speedily discovered that the markgraf's apparent obsti nacy was the fruit of a secret understanding with the emperor, who was anxious to secure the services of a general and army capable of wreaking his vengeance on the per fidious Saxon prince. -So, about midsummer of 1553, Maurice, putting himself at the head of 26,000 men, marched to protect his bishopric of Magdeburg against the eccle siastical spoliator, and falling in with him at Sievershausen, completely defeated him (July 9), but received in the conflict, a bullet wound which proved fatal, July 11, 1553. Thus fell, at the early age of 32, a `twined who had already established his reputation as one of the ablest generals and diplomatists of his time. So thoughtful and reticent, so enterprising and energetic, so correct in judgment and unfailing in action, and at the, same time so wholly devoid of moral sentiment, he is one of the most prominent instances of power without principle which the world's history has ever presented. His calculat ing, plotting mind was concealed under a jovial exterior and a genuine fondness for the favorite pastimes of the age. Yet this unprincipled dissimulator's states were the best governed of the empire; the great vassal was equal with the meanest peasant in the courts of justice; great advances were made in education; and though the least religious man of the time (in fact, honest only in this point, that he did not pretend to a piety which he did not feel), the rights of the various religious sects were strictly maintained. He died at an epoch which was big with the fate of Germany; for his settled programme of action was, after defeating the markgraf, to march upon the Low Countries, unite with the French, with whom lie had formed a firm alliance against the emperor, and them attack the latter. Charles V. would have had apparently little chance of offering a suc cessful resisiance to such an overwhelming attack. See the biographies by Camerarius,. Langenn, and Voigt (1876). His daughter, Anne, became the wife of William of Orange, the liberator of the Netherlands.