Dietrich I, Margrave of Meissen

Infobox Person
name = Dietrich, Margrave of Meissen


image_size = 190px
caption = Dietrich, Margrave of Meissen seen in front of his son's horse while walking his horse back to his home from the Codex Manesse
birth_date = birth date|1162|3|11|df=y
birth_place = ?
death_date = death date and age|1221|1|18|1162|3|11|df=y
death_place = ?
occupation = Royalty
spouse = Jutta (sirname unknown)
parents = Otto the Rich and Hedwig von Brandenburg
children = Hedwig
Otto
Sophia
Konrad (illegitimate)
Jutta
Henry the Illustrious
Dietrich II of Meißen (illegitimate son)
Heinrich (illegitimate son)

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 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 and Albrecht (although the older son) the Margraviate of Weißenfels. 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, 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 Hermann I of Thuringia, whose daughter he was married to. In 1195, however, he left on a pilgrimage to Palestine.

Albrecht's Death

After Albrecht's death in 1195, leaving no children, Meissen, with its rich mines, was seized by the emperor Henry VI 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 and Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, 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 even after Phillip was murdered in 1208.

Dietrich became caught up in dangerous disagreements with the city of Leipzig and the Meißen nobility. After a fruitless siege 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.

References