William III, Landgrave of Thuringia
Landgrave of Thuringia
1425 CE to 1482 CE
William III (April 30, 1425 – September 17, 1482), called the Brave (in German Wilhelm der Tapfere), is landgrave of Thuringia (from 1445) and claimant duke of Luxemburg (from 1457).
He is actually the second William to rule Thuringia, and in Luxembourg; he is the third Margrave of Meissen named William.
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The Great Crossroads
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The Division of Altenburg, which follows a dispute over the division of certain Wettin family lands between Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Duke William III, eventually leads to growing tensions between the two brothers and an inability to agree on who rules which areas.
The Saxon Fratricidal War breaks out after failed attempts at reconciliation.
The war, which lasts or five years, is destructive and has no clear winner before being ended with a peace treaty at Naumburg.
The Saxons loss much of their former power and influence within the different German states and families following the war and subsequent divisions.
Frederick II is the eldest of the seven children of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, and Catherine of Brunswick and Lunenburg.
After the death of his father in 1428, he had taken over the government together with his younger brothers William III, Henry and Sigismund.
In 1433 the Wettins had finally concluded peace with the Hussites.
In 1438, in what is considered the first federal state parliament of Saxony, the parliament receives the right to find together in case of innovations in fiscal matters, also without summoning by the ruler.
After Henry's death in 1435, and after Sigismund is forced in 1440 to renounce his claim and become a bishop, Frederick and William divide their possessions.
In the Division of Altenburg in 1445, William III had received the Thuringian and Frankish part, and Frederick got the eastern part of the principality.
The mines remain common possessions.
Disputes over the distribution had led, however, in 1446 to the Saxon Fratricidal War, which finds an end only on January 27, 1451, with the peace of Naumburg.
In the Treaty of Eger in 1459, elector Frederick, Duke William III and the king of Bohemia George of Podebrady will fix the borders between Bohemia and Saxony, at the height of the Ore Mountains and the middle of the Elbe.
The border, which still holds today, belongs therefore to the oldest extant borders of Europe.