strange spectacle of two emperors reigning together. It was so unheard of an event that the pontiff himself, when the news reached him, refused belief. For many years Frederick and Ludwig lived in the closest intimacy, faithfully sharing honours and duties, joys and sorrows; and when Ludwig, in the year 1327, had to leave the realm for a short time to make war against the king of Poland, he unhesitatingly intrusted his friend with the sole government of the empire. But Frederick, never very strong, was not able to bear long the burden of the imperial dignity, and after repeated entreaties prevailed at last on his friend and co-regent to allow him to retire to the castle of Guttenstein in Lower Austria, there to end his days in prayer and meditation. His own prediction of an early death was soon fulfilled; he died January 13, 1330. The life of Frederick, besides being the subject of innumerable tales and romances, has received poetical treatment at the hands of Schiller in his poem, Deutsche Treue; and of Uhland in the drama, Ludwig der Baier.—F. M.
Frederick I., surnamed der Streitbare, Elector and Duke of Saxony from 1423 to 1428, a son of Duke Frederick the Severe, was born March 29, 1369, at Altenburg. At the death of his father, Frederick, with his two younger brothers whom he tenderly loved, resolved that they would govern the dukedom in common, under the guardianship of their mother, Catherine of Henneberg. But it was soon found that this plan could not be carried out; and after years of quarrels the brothers finally agreed to divide the land among them, Frederick retaining the major part, including the city of Leipsic, the university of which had been founded in 1409. The chief event of Frederick's reign was his participation in the war against the adherents of Huss, the Bohemian reformer. On the demand of the emperor of Germany, Frederick collected an army against the Hussites, and won several battles, for which he was recompensed by having the dignity of elector bestowed upon him. The tide of war soon turned, however, and by a sudden attack the Bohemians deprived him of the greater part of his forces. Collecting in great haste another army of twenty thousand, he led it against the enemy, but was once more defeated, his forces being nearly annihilated, in the sanguinary battle of Aussig, in 1426. Frederick never recovered from this defeat. Utterly broken down in health and spirits, he retired to his castle of Meissen, and having built himself a tomb within the precincts of the dome—still called the Fürstenkapelle—died there January 4, 1428. He was succeeded by his son—
Frederick II., surnamed der Sanftmüthige, Elector and Duke of Saxony from 1428 to 1464, born August 22, 1412. Though only sixteen at the death of his father, he entered immediately on the government of the dukedom, and was invested with the electorate a year after. His reign was on the whole a sad one, being distinguished only by a continuation of the now defensive struggle against the Hussites, and by never-ending quarrels with his uncles and brothers respecting the partition of Saxony, which eventually led to open warfare, and necessitated the interference of the emperor. These dissensions also brought about an event unexampled perhaps in the history of royalty, namely, the attempted kidnapping of the two children of the elector, known (and graphically described by Mr. Thomas Carlyle) under the name of the Prinzen-raub. An adventurous knight, Kunz von Kaufungen, succeeded, July 7, 1455, in abducting the two princes, Ernest and Albert, respectively fourteen and twelve years old, and fled with them towards Bohemia. But he was arrested in time by an honest charcoal-burner, and for his daring crime paid the forfeit of his life. The two princes so stolen became the founders of the two great branches of the princely house of Saxony, denominated the Ernestine and Albertine lines, the former represented by the various dukes, and the latter by the king of Saxony. Frederick died at Leipsic, September 7, 1464.—F. M.
Frederick III., surnamed the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was born at Torgau, 17th January, 1463. He succeeded his father, the Elector Ernest, in 1486, in the sole government of Saxony, and jointly with his brother John in the government of Thuringia and other possessions of the Ernestinian-Saxon line. He was distinguished for his wisdom, integrity, and humanity as a ruler, and attained high influence in the affairs of the German empire. When the Emperor Maximilian I. visited Italy in 1496, he intrusted to Frederick the vicariat of the empire. One of the chief acts of his government was the foundation of the university of Wittemberg, the interests of which he continued to watch over with the greatest solicitude to the end of his life. He used to call the young university his daughter, and spared neither pains nor expense to procure for its schools the most distinguished professors. By the appointment of Luther and Melancthon to two of its chairs, he unwittingly became the patron and founder of the reformation school—unwittingly, for the last thing he thought of was to prepare or organize a revolt from the Church of Rome. When Luther began his great movement in 1517, Frederick was a good catholic. In 1493 he had even made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, had been made in Jerusalem a knight of the holy sepulchre, and had returned to Wittemberg with a treasure of five thousand relics for the enrichment of the church of All-Saints. But, with all his devotion to the Church of Rome, his mind had not remained closed against worthy ideas respecting the supreme authority and value of the word of God. The writings of Erasmus and other precursors of Luther had given currency to such ideas. Hence the more biblical character which distinguished the theological teaching of Wittemberg from its foundation, in opposition to the more scholastic features of the older theological faculties; and hence, too, the respect with which the elector listened to the teaching of Luther and Melancthon, and the powerful protection which he extended to the infant cause of the Reformation, when it was in danger of being stifled by its enemies. He felt that Luther had the word of God on his side; and till the reformer should be proved by fair argument from that supreme word to be a heretic, as his adversaries alleged, he felt bound as a christian prince to protect him from the wrath both of pope and emperor. It was by his friendly procurement that Luther was carried off to the Wartburg, and sheltered there till the storm raised by his heroic stand at Worms should blow over. Still, in all the elector did for the reformer and his cause, he was rather passive than active. He conducted himself throughout with the greatest prudence and circumspection, and he accomplished the important mission which Providence assigned to him at that critical era, rather by quietly thwarting the designs of others against Luther, than by taking any direct or aggressive action in his favour. Hence his surname of the Wise, as distinguished from his more energetic brother John, who, putting himself forward as the avowed promoter of Luther's cause, earned for himself the honourable epithet of Der Beständige (the Constant). Frederick died at Lochau, 5th May, 1525, and lies buried in the church of All-Saints in Wittemberg, close to the graves of Luther and Melancthon.—P. L.
Frederick I., Elector Palatine, surnamed der Siegreiche (the Victorious), second son of Elector Louis III., was born in 1425, and at his father's death in 1439, inherited a part of the dominions of the electorate. At the death of his elder brother, ten years after, he became administrator, or regent, of the other and larger part of the country; and this arousing the jealousy of the neighbouring princes, he was attacked by several of them, and ultimately, through some intrigues at the court of the emperor, was put under the "reichsacht," or ban of the empire. At the same time an army under Elector Albert Achilles of Brandenburg, was sent against him; but he succeeded in repulsing the invaders at the battle of Seckendorf in 1462, and thenceforth ruled unmolested till his death, which occurred in 1476. Early in life Frederick married the beautiful daughter of a citizen of Augsburg, one Master Dettin, and, ennobling her, originated the house of Dettingen, which, after giving several distinguished men to Germany, is now merged in the family of the princes and counts of Lowenstein.—F. M.
Frederick II., Elector Palatine, surnamed der Weise (the Wise), fourth son of Elector Philip der Edelmüthige, was born in 1483, and in 1544 succeeded his elder brother Ludwig in the government of the electorate. Soon after his accession he got into disputes with the emperor, Charles V., one of whose personal favourites he had formerly been, and it required all the influence of Frederick's friends to prevent the irritated emperor from laying him under the ban of the empire. The most remarkable action of Frederick's life was his commanding the army of the empire before Vienna in 1529, during the siege of that city by Sultan Solyman II. But he did not distinguish himself particularly in that affair. He died in 1556.—F. M.
Frederick III., Elector Palatine, born in 1515, the founder of the Reformed or Calvinistic church of the palatinate, was the eldest son of John II. of Pfalzsimmern, and was brought
