March of Lusatia

Margraviate of Lusatia
Markgrafschaft Lausitz
State of the Holy Roman Empire
965–1367
Coat of arms
March of (Lower) Lusatia around 1000
Capital		Lübben
Government		Margraviate
Margraves
•	965–993	Odo I (first)
•	1365–1367	Otto of Wittelsbach (last)
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Partitioned from Marca Geronis	965
•	Conquered by Poland	1002–1031
•	Appointment of Dietrich II of Wettin	1032
•	Death of Henry IV	1288
•	Sold to Brandenburg	1303
•	To Bohemia	1367
•	To Saxon electorate	1635
Preceded by Succeeded by Marca Geronis Lands of the Bohemian Crown

Coat of arms

The March or Margraviate of Lusatia (German: Mark(grafschaft) Lausitz) was as an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was finally incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367.

The territory of the margraviate roughly corresponded with the present-day region of Lower Lusatia. It originally stretched from the border of the Saxon stem duchy along the Saale River in the west to the border with Poland on the Bober (Bóbr) River in the east. From about 1138, the adjacent Polish territory beyond the river was part of the Duchy of Silesia (Lower Silesia). In the north, the March of Lusatia bordered on the Northern March, which was lost in the Great Slav Rising of 983 and re-established as the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear in 1157. In the south, the Margraviate of Meissen likewise arose from the former Marca Geronis, its western part became the nucleus of the later Electorate of Saxony, while the eastern Milceni lands emerged as Upper Lusatia.