undertook the government of the remnant of electoral Saxony which the emperor allowed the Ernestine branch of the Wettin family to keep. Released in 1552 John Frederick the elder died two years later, and his three sons ruled Ernestine Saxony together until 1557, when John Frederick was made sole ruler. This arrangement lasted until 1565, when John Frederick shared his lands with his surviving brother, John William (1530–1573), retaining for himself Gotha and Weimar. The duke was a strong, even a fanatical, Lutheran, but his religious views were gradually subordinated to the one idea of regaining the electoral dignity then held by Augustus I. To attain this end he lent a willing ear to the schemes of Wilhelm von Grumbach, who came to his court about 1557 and offered to regain the electoral dignity and even to acquire the Empire for his patron. In spite of repeated warnings from the emperor Ferdinand I., John Frederick continued to protect Grumbach, and in 1566 his obstinacy caused him to be placed under the imperial ban. Its execution was entrusted to Augustus who, aided by the duke’s brother, John William, marched against Gotha with a strong force. In consequence of a mutiny the town surrendered in April 1567, and John Frederick was delivered to the emperor Maximilian II. He was imprisoned in Vienna, his lands were given to his brother, and he remained in captivity until his death at Steyer on the 6th of May 1595. These years were mainly occupied with studying theology and in correspondence. John Frederick married firstly Agnes (d. 1555) daughter of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and widow of Maurice, elector of Saxony, and secondly Elizabeth (d. 1594) daughter of Frederick III., elector palatine of the Rhine, by whom he left two sons, John Casimir (1564–1633) and John Ernest (1566–1638). Elizabeth shared her husband’s imprisonment for twenty-two years.
See A. Beck, Johann Friedrich der Mittlere, Herzog zu Sachsen (Vienna, 1858); and F. Ortloff, Geschichte der Grumbachischen Händel (Jena, 1868–1870).
JOHN GEORGE I. (1585–1656), elector of Saxony, second son
of the elector Christian I., was born on the 5th of March 1585,
succeeding to the electorate in June 1611 on the death of his
elder brother, Christian II. The geographical position of
electoral Saxony hardly less than her high standing among the
German Protestants gave her ruler much importance during
the Thirty Years’ War. At the beginning of his reign, however,
the new elector took up a somewhat detached position. His
personal allegiance to Lutheranism was sound, but he liked
neither the growing strength of Brandenburg nor the increasing
prestige of the Palatinate; the adherence of the other branches
of the Saxon ruling house to Protestantism seemed to him to
suggest that the head of electoral Saxony should throw his weight
into the other scale, and he was prepared to favour the advances
of the Habsburgs and the Roman Catholic party. Thus he was
easily induced to vote for the election of Ferdinand, archduke
of Styria, as emperor in August 1619, an action which nullified
the anticipated opposition of the Protestant electors. The new
emperor secured the help of John George for the impending
campaign in Bohemia by promising that he should be undisturbed
in his possession of certain ecclesiastical lands. Carrying out
his share of the bargain by occupying Silesia and Lusatia, where
he displayed much clemency, the Saxon elector had thus some
part in driving Frederick V., elector palatine of the Rhine, from
Bohemia and in crushing Protestantism in that country, the
crown of which he himself had previously refused. Gradually,
however, he was made uneasy by the obvious trend of the imperial
policy towards the annihilation of Protestantism, and by
a dread lest the ecclesiastical lands should be taken from him;
and the issue of the edict of restitution in March 1629 put the
coping-stone to his fears. Still, although clamouring vainly
for the exemption of the electorate from the area covered by the
edict, John George took no decided measures to break his
alliance with the emperor. He did, indeed, in February 1631
call a meeting of Protestant princes at Leipzig, but in spite
of the appeals of the preacher Matthias Hoë von Hohenegg
(1580–1645) he contented himself with a formal protest. Meanwhile
Gustavus Adolphus had landed in Germany, and the elector
had refused to allow him to cross the Elbe at Wittenberg, thus
hindering his attempt to relieve Magdeburg. But John George’s
reluctance to join the Protestants disappeared when the imperial
troops under Tilly began to ravage Saxony, and in September
1631 he concluded an alliance with the Swedish king. The
Saxon troops were present at the battle of Breitenfeld, but were
routed by the imperialists, the elector himself seeking safety in
flight. Nevertheless he soon took the offensive. Marching into
Bohemia the Saxons occupied Prague, but John George soon
began to negotiate for peace and consequently his soldiers
offered little resistance to Wallenstein, who drove them back
into Saxony. However, for the present the efforts of Gustavus
Adolphus prevented the elector from deserting him, but the
position was changed by the death of the king at Lützen in 1632,
and the refusal of Saxony to join the Protestant league under
Swedish leadership. Still letting his troops fight in a desultory
fashion against the imperialists, John George again negotiated
for peace, and in May 1635 he concluded the important treaty
of Prague with Ferdinand II. His reward was Lusatia and
certain other additions of territory; the retention by his son
Augustus of the archbishopric of Magdeburg; and some concessions
with regard to the edict of restitution. Almost at once he
declared war upon the Swedes, but in October 1636 he was beaten
at Wittstock; and Saxony, ravaged impartially by both sides,
was soon in a deplorable condition. At length in September
1645 the elector was compelled to agree to a truce with the
Swedes, who, however, retained Leipzig; and as far as Saxony
was concerned this ended the Thirty Years’ War. After the
peace of Westphalia, which with regard to Saxony did little
more than confirm the treaty of Prague, John George died
on the 8th of October 1656. Although not without political
acumen, he was not a great ruler; his character appears to
have been harsh and unlovely, and he was addicted to drink.
He was twice married, and in addition to his successor John
George II. he left three sons, Augustus (1614–1680), Christian
(d. 1691) and Maurice (d. 1681) who were all endowed with
lands in Saxony, and who founded cadet branches of the Saxon
house.
John George II. (1613–1680), elector of Saxony, was born on the 31st of May 1613. In 1657, just after his accession, he made an arrangement with his three brothers with the object of preventing disputes over their separate territories, and in 1664 he entered into friendly relations with Louis XIV. He received money from the French king, but the existence of a strong anti-French party in Saxony induced him occasionally to respond to the overtures of the emperor Leopold I. The elector’s primary interests were not in politics, but in music and art. He adorned Dresden, which under him became the musical centre of Germany; welcoming foreign musicians and others he gathered around him a large and splendid court, and his capital was the constant scene of musical and other festivals. His enormous expenditure compelled him in 1661 to grant greater control over monetary matters to the estates, a step which laid the foundation of the later system of finance in Saxony. John George died at Freiberg on the 22nd of August 1680.
John George III. (1647–1691), elector of Saxony, the only son of John George II., was born on the 20th of June 1647. He forsook the vacillating foreign policy of his father and in June 1683 joined an alliance against France. Having raised the first standing army in the electorate he helped to drive the Turks from Vienna in September 1680, leading his men with great gallantry; but disgusted with the attitude of the emperor Leopold I. after the victory, he returned at once to Saxony. However, he sent aid to Leopold in 1685. When Louis XIV.’s armies invaded Germany in September 1688 John George was one of the first to take up arms against the French, and after sharing in the capture of Mainz he was appointed commander-in-chief of the imperial forces. He had not, however, met with any notable success when he died at Tübingen on the 12th of September 1691. Like his father, he was very fond of music, but he appears to have been less extravagant than John George II. His wife was Anna Sophia, daughter of Frederick III. king of
