The Electorate of Saxony (German: Kurfürstentum Sachsen, also Kursachsen), sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was 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 t...
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The Electorate of Saxony (German: Kurfürstentum Sachsen, also Kursachsen), sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was 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 assumed the title of a King of Saxony.
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...
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