Formation
After the dissolution of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the name Saxony was first applied to a small territory on the middle Elbe river around the city of Wittenberg, which formerly had belonged to the March of Lusatia and about 1157 was held by Albert the Bear, the first Margrave of Brandenburg. When Emperor Frederick Barbarossa deposed the Saxon duke Henry the Lion in 1180, the Wittenberg lands belonged to Albert's youngest son Count Bernhard of Anhalt, who assumed the Saxon ducal title. Bernard's eldest son, Albert I, ceded Anhalt to his younger brother Henry, retained the ducal title and added to this territory the lordship of Lauenburg. His sons divided the possessions into the duchies of Saxe-Wittenberg and Saxe-Lauenburg. Both lines claimed the Saxon electoral dignity, which led to confusion during the 1314 election of the Wittelsbach duke Louis of Bavaria as King of the Romans against his Habsburg rival Duke Frederick the Fair of Austria, as both candidates received one vote each from the two rivaling Ascanian branches.
Louis was succeeded by the Luxembourg king Charles of Bohemia. After being crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355, Charles issued the Golden Bull of 1356, the fundamental law of the Empire settling the method of electing the German King by seven Prince-electors. The rivaling Wittelsbach and Habsburg dynasties got nothing, instead the Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg, Archmarshal of the Empire, received the right to elect, in company with six other Princes of the Empire, the King of the Romans and Emperor-to-be. In this way, the country, though small in area, obtained an influential position.
The electoral dignity was connected with it the obligation of primogeniture; that is, only the eldest son could succeed as ruler. This forbade the division of the territory among several heirs, preventing the disintegration of the country. The importance of this stipulation is shown by the history of most of the fragmented German principalities (e.g. the Saxon Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg) which were not electorates.
Read more about this topic: Electorate Of Saxony
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