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Frederick III

Type Figure Region Saxony Time 1463–1525 Also known as Frederick III (the Wise)、Elector of Saxony

Elector of Saxony (1486–1525), founder of the University of Wittenberg, who sheltered Martin Luther at the Wartburg after the Diet of Worms, providin…

Timeline

  1. 1486–1517Wittenberg · WittenbergSucceeded as Elector of Saxony in 1486, founded the University of Wittenberg in 1502, and recruited Luther and Melanchthon to teach there. He promoted imperial constitutional reform and in 1519 supported the election of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor.
  2. 1520–1522Wartburg · EisenachHe refused to carry out the pope's excommunication order against Luther. After the Diet of Worms in 1521, he arranged for Luther to be spirited away in a staged kidnapping on his return journey and hidden at the Wartburg for about ten months, allowing him to translate the New Testament and write treatises, while keeping Saxony free from the imperial ban.
  3. 1522–1525Lohau · AnnabergIn his later years he witnessed upheavals such as the German Peasants' War. He died on May 5, 1525, at the hunting castle of Lohau, aged 62, and was buried in the Castle Church at Wittenberg. On his deathbed he received communion in both kinds, and later generations regarded him as leaning toward the evangelical faith.

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