Frederick I

elector of Saxony

Also known as: Frederick the Warlike, Friedrich der Streitbare

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Quick Facts

Byname:: Frederick The Warlike

German:: Friedrich Der Streitbare

Born:: April 11, 1370

Died:: Jan. 4, 1428, Altenburg, Thuringia (aged 57)

Also Known As:: Friedrich der Streitbare; Frederick the Warlike

Frederick I (born April 11, 1370—died Jan. 4, 1428, Altenburg, Thuringia) was the elector of Saxony who secured the electorship for the House of Wettin, thus ensuring that dynasty’s future importance in German politics.

An implacable enemy of the Bohemian followers of Jan Hus, church reformer and accused heretic, Frederick aided the Holy Roman emperor Sigismund against them from 1420 on. When the last Saxon elector of the Ascanian dynasty, Albert III, died in 1422, the emperor Sigismund, ignoring the claims of the elector Frederick I of Brandenburg, in whose hands he did not wish to see another electorate, awarded that dignity to Frederick the Warlike.

Recurrent territorial conflicts between Frederick and his relatives were resolved by the Naumburg treaty, which made Wettin lands inalienable.

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