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John George IV
- John George IV (born Oct. 18, 1668, Dresden, Saxony—died April 27, 1694, Dresden) was the elector of Saxony (1691–94).
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John (30 June 1468 – 16 August 1532), known as John the Steadfast or John the Constant (Johann, der Beständige), was Elector of Saxony from 1525 until 1532 from the House of Wettin. He is notable for organising the Lutheran Church in the Electorate of Saxony from a state and administrative level.
John was an elector of Saxony and a fervent supporter of Martin Luther; he took a leading part in forming alliances among Germany’s Protestant princes against the Habsburg emperors’ attempts at forced reconversion.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The electors of Saxony from John the Steadfast onwards were Lutheran until Augustus II of Saxony converted to Catholicism in order to be elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His descendants (including all Kings of Saxony) have since been Catholic.
ImageNameReign838 – 840Comes et marchio850 – 12 March 864 or 866Comes et marchio12 March 864 or 866 – 2 February 880Comes et marchio2 February 880 – 30 November 912first Duke of the Younger stem duchyJohn George I of Saxony (born March 5, 1585, Dresden, Saxony—died Oct. 18, 1656, Dresden) was the elector of Saxony from 1611, and the “foremost Lutheran prince” of Germany, whose policies lost for Saxony opportunities for ascendancy and territorial expansion.
- Establishment of The Electorate
- Beginning of Wettin Rule
- The Reformation
- Thirty Years' War
- Augustan Age
- Rétablissement and Transformation to A Kingdom
- Bibliography
Background
From the end of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century, a narrow circle of imperial electors emerged that succeeded in excluding others from their number. The electoral college consisted initially of two ecclesiastical and two secular princes, one of whom was the duke of Saxony. The circle was extended in the 13th century to seven: the archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne plus the count palatine of the Rhine, the margrave of Brandenburg, the king of Bohemiaand the duke of Saxony. Tying...
Saxe-Wittenberg becomes Electoral Saxony
The Wittenberg Ascanians Albert I, Albert II and Rudolf I (r. 1298–1356) ruled as dukes of Saxony for almost 150 years. They secured the continuity of the dynasty with their sons and asserted themselves as heirs to the Saxon electoral privilege. The electors were mainly concerned with external conflicts with other territorial rulers and pushed forward the territorial development of the still sparsely populated area. In 1290 the duchy was extended to include the Burgraviate of Magdeburg and th...
Re-Enfeoffment of the Electorate
In November 1422 Albert III (r. 1419–1422), Elector and Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg, died without descendants who were entitled to inherit. The German king, on the basis of the provisions of the Golden Bull, confiscated the duchy as a vacant imperial fiefdom. Both the Lauenburg Ascanians under Duke Erich V and the Meissen Wettins in the person of Frederick I(r. 1423–1428) laid claim to Saxe-Wittenberg and the associated electoral privilege. Frederick I's claim was based on his support of the Cath...
Formation of the territorial complex in the late Middle Ages
Since the ruler's place of residence and his visibility to the people gained in importance in the early phase of the Renaissance, the Wettins created a new seat in the Dresden valley of the Elbe towards the end of the 15th century. Dresden became the permanent residence of the elector, his councilors and administrative officials. The elector's increased expenses for equipping and maintaining an army and for his own court could no longer be met as before. The solution was to levy new types of...
Joint rule of Ernest and Albert
When Elector Frederick II died in Leipzig on 7 September 1464, his eldest son Ernest (r. 1464–1486) succeeded him at the age of 23. It marked the beginning of an almost twenty-year period of joint rule with his brother Duke Albert. Initially the two ruled in harmony, favored by the onset of a long economic upswing and increasing urban development. Agreement on political actions and decisions was ensured by a joint court in Dresden Castle. Together the brothers had the Albrechtsburg Castle bui...
Renewed division
Tensions that had their origins in family relations increased between the two brothers Ernest and Albert and culminated in the Partition of Leipzig of 11 November 1485.It was not originally intended to be permanent, but in the end it significantly weakened the powerful position of the Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire and led to open confrontation. Ernest had his main focus in the north with his residence at Torgau and held the prestigious electoral district in the north. His terr...
When Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in Wittenberg in 1517, the electoral district and Ernestine possessions of Saxony became the focus of European attention since it was there that the first phase of the Protestant Reformation was anchored. Elector Frederick the Wise (r. 1486–1525) protected Luther, most notably when he sheltered him at the War...
The 1618 Defenestration of Prague, in which angry Protestants threw Catholic officials out of a window of Prague Castle, marked the end of a long period of religious peace. Elector John George I (r. 1611–1656) joined the emperor's side with the goal of preserving the status quo of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Initially he and the elector of Mainz tr...
Absolutism and splendor
On 27 April 1694 the prince who until then had scarcely made an appearance took over the affairs of state of Saxony as Elector Frederick Augustus I (r. 1694–1733), better known as Augustus II the Strong. Festivities, baroque splendor, art and patronage, as well as lavish grandeur and ostentation characterized both his reign and the period. Augustan Dresden continued to develop into the "Florence on the Elbe". The period saw the building of the Zwinger Palace, the Taschenbergpalais, the Pillni...
Personal union with Poland
After the death of the Polish king John III Sobieski in 1696, Augustus II the Strong converted to Catholicism and with Habsburg support, military pressure and bribes, won the free election for the kingship in 1697, becoming King Augustus II of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The political calculation behind a dynastically based personal union with the elective kingdom of Poland-Lithuaniawas rooted in the aspirations for independence among German territorial princes. Saxony's rulers, like...
The Electorate stood on the verge of national bankruptcy after the Hubertusburg Peace. The national debt had reached 49 million thalers, about ten times the year's state revenue. Thomas von Fritsch and the restoration commission of which he was president placed the systematic reduction of the national debt at the center of a Saxon reconstruction pr...
Sources in German: 1. Reiner Groß: Die Wettiner. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018946-1. 2. Reiner Groß (Hrsg.): Landtage in Sachsen 1438–1831.Beiträge auf dem von der Professur Regionalgeschichte Sachsens der Technischen Universität Chemnitz veranstalteten wissenschaftlichen Kolloquium am 25. Februar 2000. Technische Universität...
John George IV was the elector of Saxony (1691–94). At the beginning of his reign his chief adviser was Hans Adam von Schöning (1641–96), who counselled a union between Saxony and Brandenburg and a more independent attitude toward the emperor Leopold I.
JOHN (1468–1532), called the Steadfast, elector of Saxony, fourth son of the elector Ernest, was born on the 30th of June 1468. In 1486, when his eldest brother became elector as Frederick III., John received a part of the paternal inheritance and afterwards assisted his kinsman, the German king Maximilian I., in several campaigns.
