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Ernst von Sachsen was born 24 March 1441 to Friedrich II. von Sachsen (1412-1464) and Margarete von Österreich (c1416-1486) and died 26 August 1486 Colditz, Germany of falling off a horse. He married Elisabeth von Bayern-München (1443-1484) 19 November 1460 JL .


Ernst was founder of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes, ancestor of George I of Great Britain, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as well as his wife and cousin Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and their cousins Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico.

He was the second son (but fourth in order of birth) of the eight children of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Margarete of Austria, sister of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.

The death of his older brother Frederick (1451) made him the new heir apparent to the position of Elector of Saxony.

In 1455 Ernst was kidnapped, along with his brother Albert, by the knight Kunz von Kaufungen an episode famous in German history as the "Prinzenraub" (i. e. The Stealing of the Princes).

In 1464, he succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony, and annexed Thuringia in 1482, and three years later (Treaty of Leipzig, 1485) shared his territory with his brother Albert, until he arranged the division of the common possession.

In the Division of Leipzig he received area around Wittenberg, the south Thuringian part, the Vogtland and parts of the Pleissnerland. As residence he selected Wittenberg. He provided for the welfare of the country and introduced the constitution.

One year after the division elector Ernest died in Colditz, at the age of 46 years, the consequence of a fall off a horse.


Children


Offspring of Ernst von Sachsen and Elisabeth von Bayern-München (1443-1484)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Christina von Sachsen (1461-1521) 25 December 1461 Torgau, Saxony, Germany 8 December 1521 Odense, Denmark Hans of Denmark (1455-1513)
Frederick III. von Sachsen (1463-1525)
Ernst II. von Sachsen (1464-1513)
Albrecht von Sachsen (1467-1484)
Johann von Sachsen (1468-1532) 30 June 1468 Meißen, Saxony, Germany 16 August 1532 Schweinitz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany Sophie von Mecklenburg (1481-1503)
Margarete von Anhalt (1494-1521)
Margarete von Sachsen (1469-1528) 4 August 1469 Meißen, Saxony, Germany 7 December 1528 Weimar, Thuringia, Germany Heinrich I. von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1468-1532)
Wolfgang von Sachsen (c1473-1478)



This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Ernest, Elector of Saxony. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.





Footnotes (including sources)

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