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Electors of Saxony

Electorate of Saxony
Kurfürstentum Sachsen  (German)
State of the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial elector
Personal union with Poland
(1697–1706 and 1709–1763)
1356–1806
Flag Coat of arms
  Saxon Electorate within the Holy Roman Empire
upon the 1648 Peace of Westphalia
Capital
Government Feudal monarchy
Prince-Elector
 •  1356 Rudolph I (first)
 •  1419–1422 Albert III (last Ascanian)
 •  1423–1428 Frederick I (first Wettin)
 •  1763–1806 Frederick Augustus III (last)
Historical era Early modern Europe
 •  Golden Bull 10 January 1356
 •  Merged with Meissen and Thuringia 6 January 1423
 •  Treaty of Leipzig 26 August 1485
 •  Capitulation of
Wittenberg
19 May 1547
 •  Acquired Lusatia by Peace of Prague 15 June 1635
 •  Personal union with Poland 1697–1706 & 1709–63
 •  Raised to kingdom 20 December 1806
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Armoiries Saxe.svg Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg
Kingdom of Saxony
Today part of  Germany
 Poland

The Electorate of Saxony (German: , also Kursachsen), sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356. Upon the extinction of the House of Ascania, it was enfeoffed to the Margraves of Meissen from the Wettin dynasty in 1423, who moved the residence up the Elbe river to Dresden. After the Empire's dissolution in 1806, the Wettin electors raised Saxony to a kingdom.

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 rival Ascanian branches.


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