Dietrich, Margrave of Meissen

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Dietrich, Margrave of Meissen

Dietrich I (11 March 1162 – 18 January 1221), called the Oppressed, was the Margrave of Meissen from 1198 until his death. He was the second son of Otto II, Margrave of Meissen

Otto II, Margrave of Meissen

Otto II was the Margrave of Meissen from 1157 until his death in 1190. His father was Conrad the Great and his son was Dietrich I, Margrave of Meissen....
and Hedwig von Brandenburg.

rich fell out with his brother, Albrecht the Proud as his mother persuaded his father to change the succession so that Dietrich was given the Margraviate of Meißen

Margraviate of Meissen

The March or Margraviate of Meissen was a medi?val principality, a Marches, of the Holy Roman Empire in the area of the modern German state of Saxony....
and Albrecht (although the older son) the Margraviate of Weißenfels

Weißenfels

Wei?enfels is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle ....
.

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Dietrich I (11 March 1162 – 18 January 1221), called the Oppressed, was the Margrave of Meissen from 1198 until his death. He was the second son of Otto II, Margrave of Meissen

Otto II, Margrave of Meissen

Otto II was the Margrave of Meissen from 1157 until his death in 1190. His father was Conrad the Great and his son was Dietrich I, Margrave of Meissen....
and Hedwig von Brandenburg.

Biography

Dietrich fell out with his brother, Albrecht the Proud as his mother persuaded his father to change the succession so that Dietrich was given the Margraviate of Meißen

Margraviate of Meissen

Weißenfels

Wei?enfels is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle ....
. Albrecht took his father prisoner to try to make him return the succession to the way it had been. After Otto obtained his release by order of the emperor Frederick I

Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick I Barbarossa was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt am Main on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1154, and finally crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155....
, he had only just renewed the war when he died in 1190. Albrecht took back the Meißen margraviate from his brother. Dietrich attempted to regain the margraviate, supported by Landgraf

Graf

Graf is a historical German nobility title equal in rank to a count or a British earl . A derivation ultimately from the Greek verb graphein 'to write' may be fanciful: Paul the Deacon wrote in Latin ca 790: "the count of the Bavarians that they call gravio who governed Bolzano and other strongholds?" ; this may be read to make...
Hermann I of Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen States of Germany ....
, whose daughter he was married to. In 1195, however, he left on a pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

File:Supplicating Pilgrim at Masjid Al Haram. Mecca, Saudi Arabia.jpgIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long quest or search of great moral significance....
to Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
.

Albrecht's Death

After Albrecht's death in 1195, leaving no children, Meissen, with its rich mines, was seized by the emperor Henry VI

Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197....
as a vacant fief of the empire. Dietrich finally came into possession of his inheritance two years later on Henry's death.

At the time of the struggle between the two rival kings Philip of Swabia

Philip of Swabia

Philip of Swabia was king of Germany and duke of Swabia, the rival of the emperor Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor....
and Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto IV of Brunswick was one of two rival kings of the Holy Roman Empire from 1198 on, sole king from 1208 on, and emperor from 1209 on. The only king of the Welf dynasty, he was deposed in 1215....
, Phillip gave Dietrich the tenure of the march of Meißen again. After that time, Dietrich was on Phillip's side and remained true to the Staufer

Hohenstaufen

The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of List of German Kings and Emperors , many of whom were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Swabia....
even after Phillip was murdered in 1208.

Dietrich became caught up in dangerous disagreements with the city of Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig is, with a population of over 511,252, the largest city in the States of Germany of Saxony, Germany....
and the Meißen nobility. After a fruitless siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by Battle of attrition and/or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit." A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender ....
of Leipzig, in 1217 he agreed to a settlement but then took over the city by trickery, had the city walls taken down and built three castles of his own within the city, full of his own men.

Death

Margrave Dietrich died on February 18, 1211, possibly poisoned by his doctor, instigated into doing so by the people of Leipzig and the dissatisfied nobility. He left behind a widow, Jutta, daughter of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia. Some of his children had already died.