Electorate of Saxony - Schmalkaldic War

Schmalkaldic War

Meanwhile in the Albertine lands Duke Albert's son George (1500–39), founder of the Catholic League of Dessau, was a strong opponent of the Lutheran doctrine and had repeatedly sought to influence his Ernestine cousins in favour of the Catholic Church. However, George's brother and successor, Duke Henry IV of Saxony (1539–41), finally was won over to Protestantism by the influence of his wife Catherine of Mecklenburg, and thus the Catholic diocese of Meissen was abolished. Henry's son and successor Duke Maurice was one of the most conspicuous persons of the Reformation period: although a zealous Protestant, ambition and desire to increase his possessions led him to join the Emperor against the members of the Schmalkaldic League established by his Ernestine cousin John Frederick.

After the outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War, Elector John Frederick was placed under the Imperial ban and finally defeated and captured by Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg on 24 April 1547. In the Capitulation of Wittenberg of May 19, he was obliged to yield former Saxe-Wittenberg with the electoral dignity to his Albertine cousin Duke Maurice, who had switched sides as tables turned. After the Capitulation, the Ernestine branch of the Wettin family only retained its possessions in Thuringia, which, by repeated divisions among the heirs from 1572 onwards, was soon cut up into the minor Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach et al. Those still in existence at the time of the 1918 German Revolution after World War I were the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and the duchies of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg.

The Saxon Electorate after the Wittenberg Capitulation consisted of former Saxe-Wittenberg and Meissen together, and remained under the authority of the Albertine line of the Wettin family. Partly from resentment at not receiving also what was left of the Ernestine possessions, but moved still more by his desire to have a Protestant head to the empire, Maurice again fell away from Charles V. After the Emperor had issued the Augsburg Interim, Maurice concluded an alliance with King Henry II of France and by the 1552 Treaty of Chambord gave the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine to France. Maurice secretly shared in all the princely conspiracies against the Emperor, who only escaped capture by flight. During the same year, Charles V was obliged by the Peace of Passau to grant freedom of religion to the Protestant Estates.

Maurice died in 1553 at the age of 32. His brother and successor Elector Augustus (died 1586) seized the Catholic dioceses of Merseburg and Naumburg-Zeitz for himself. The last Bishop of Merseburg, Michael Helding called Sidonius, died at Vienna in 1561. The Emperor demanded the election of a new bishop, but Augustus forced the election of his son Alexander, who was eight years old, as administrator; when Alexander died in 1565 he administered the diocese himself. In the same manner after the death of Julius von Pflug, the last Catholic Bishop of Naumburg, in 1564, the Elector confiscated his bishopric and forbade the exercise of the Catholic religion. Those cathedral canons who were still Catholic were only permitted to exercise their religion for ten years more. In 1581, John of Haugwitz, the last Bishop of Meissen, resigned his office, and in 1587 became a Protestant. The episcopal domains fell likewise to Saxony, and the cathedral chapter ceased to exist.

During the reigns of the Elector Augustus (1553–86) and Christian (1586–91), a movement called Crypto-Calvinism gained strength in the electorate. During the reign of Christian II (1591–1611), the Saxon chancellor, Nikolaus Krell, who had spread the doctrine was overthrown and beheaded (1601). A more strict adherence to Lutheranism was reintroduced and with it a religious oath.