Henry III, Margrave of Meissen

Henry III, called der Erlauchte ("the Illustrious") (c. 1215–15 February 1288) from the House of Wettin was Margrave of Meissen and last Margrave of Lusatia (as Henry IV) from 1221 until his death; from 1242 also Landgrave of Thuringia.

Life

Born probably at the Albrechtsburg residence in Meissen, Henry was the youngest son of Margrave Dietrich I of Meissen and his wife Jutta, daughter of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia. In 1221 he succeeded his father as Margrave of Meissen and Lusatia, at first under guardianship of his maternal uncle, Landgrave Louis IV of Thuringia, and after his death in 1227, under that of Duke Albert I of Saxony. In 1230 he was legally proclaimed an adult.Henry experienced his first armed combat at Balga during the 1237 Prussian Crusade led by the Teutonic Knights. In 1245 after many years of conflict with the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, he was forced to cede the fortresses of Köpenick, Teltow and Mittenwalde north of Lower Lusatia. In 1249 however, the Silesian duke Bolesław II the Bald granted him the eastern area around Schiedlo Castle at the Oder river, where Henry founded the town of Fürstenberg.

In the struggle between...
Read More