Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels

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He was the first son of August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels and his first wife, Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Accession to the Duchy and Continuation of the Patronage

After the death of his father (4 June 1680) and the loss of the Diocese of Magdeburg, Johann Adolf dedicated his first efforts to finished the still incomplete Schloss Neu-Augustusburg; the works in the castle were resumed on 18 August 1680.

The consecration of the castle Chapel could take place on 1 November 1682 and in the year 1694 the castle was finally paved. By that time, was built a large Theatrum with a comedy hall, who was already starting from 1685 to show opera performances in German language.

In his state, near to the House of the Guard ("Kavaliershaeuser"), Johann Adolf create the most important Baroque Garden of his time in the Central German area. In 1690 was built a tube line, which supplies the castle complex with water from the Selauer Area and which jumping well brings in the gardens on the conditions of the time. The paving of the roads and places was advanced. Two new Fire Orders should contain the danger of devastating fires. The city of Weissenfels so increasingly not only to an administrative but also to an economic center.

Johann Adolf continued the patronage of the Arts following the model of his father and other members of his family in the sense of absolutist ruler; in that way he appointed as High Chapel Master (Hofkapellmeister) to Johann Philipp Krieger, who was already under the service of the late duke. Also Johann Adolf discovered the musical talent of the son of his High Surgeon Georg Händel and pushed this to let the young Georg Frederick train in music.

Like his father (who had functioned even as his head), Johann Adolf was accepted in the Fruitbearing Society.

Controversy over the Barby Inheritance

After the extinction to the line of the the counts of Barby and the Lords of Rosenberg (1659), the duke August continue -like the Diocese of Magdeburg- the administration of this areas (not his possession), despite the protest of the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, who desire that lands, according to the regulations of the Peace of Westphalia.

The Elector of Saxony finally consents in 1666 to give Barby and Rosenberg to the duke August until the extinction to the Weissenfels line; however this not change the dispute on 3 March 1679 for 16.000 Taler to Hans Adam of Ende, the High Master ("Hofmeister") of his second wife Johanna Walpurgis of Leiningen-Westerburg. After the death of the duke, Barby was inherited by one of his younger sons, Heinrich.

Johann Adolf, which sees his estate debauched by the paternal acting, protested; however, was intimidated by the father. After the death of the duke August, Johann Adolf turns however to the Brandenburg Electorate to reach over a declaration of nullity of the sales contract and hands besides a tidy complaint at the government in Halle.

When Hans Adam of Ende sees that his thing stands awkwardly, he sells the Lordship of Rosenberg -during the current complaint- in April 1681 for 60.000 Taler to the Elector Frederick of Brandenburg. The process is protracted on the part of Brandenburg always further and runs finally in the sand. Johann Adolf has thus a checking.

Due to the debts, which still his father had accumulated by his splendid patronage attitude, Johann Adolf was finally forced in 1687 to the sales of Burg bei Magdeburg, which had likewise arrived as splitting off from the Diocese of Magdeburg at Saxe-Weissenfels, at Brandenburg.

Dispute with the Electorate of Saxony

After the death of Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony in 1680, the will of his father Johann Georg I concerning to the appanages of his younger sons was protested by the new Elector Johann Georg III; he refused to recognized the principalities and collateral lines of his cousins. This gave some difficulties to Johann Adolf after saw himself suspended by a possible Saxonian Electorate crew to a permanent threat. The conflict could only be settled with the Contract of Torgau (12 May 1681), and two others contracts in Dresden in 12 September 1682 and 1688; for this pacts, Johann Adolf confirm his government over Querfurt and the seat and voice on the Upper-Saxonian Council ("Kreistag").

On his death, his three surviving sons, Johann Georg, Christian and Johann Adolf II, successively assumed the duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels.

Marriages and Issue

In Altenburg on 25 October 1671, Johann Adolf married with Johanna Magdalene of Saxe-Altenburg. They had eleven children:
#Magdalene Sibylle (b. Halle, 3 September 1673 - d. Eisenach, 28 November 1726), married on 28 July 1708 to Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach.
#August Frederick (b. Halle, 15 September 1674 - d. Halle, 16 August 1675).
#Johann Adolf (b. Halle, 7 June 1676 - d. Halle 18 June 1676).
#Johann Georg, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. Halle, 13 July 1677 - d. Weissenfels, 16 March 1712).
#Stillborn son (Halle, 24 July 1678).
#Johanna Wilhelmine (b. Halle, 20 January 1680 - d. Halle, 4 July 1730).
#Frederick Wilhelm (b. Weissenfels, 18 January 1681 - d. Weissenfels, 20 November 1681).
#Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. Weissenfels, 23 February 1682 - d. Sangerhausen, 28 June 1736).
#Anna Marie (b. Weissenfels, 17 June 1683 - d. Sorau, 16 March 1731), married on 16 June 1705 to Erdmann II, Count of Promnitz.
#Sophie (b. Weissenfels, 2 August 1684 - d. Rosswald, Silesia, 6 May 1752), married firstly on 16 October 1699 to Georg Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and secondly on 14 July 1734 to Joseph Albert, Count of Hoditz and Wolframitz.
#Johann Adolf II, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. Weissenfels, 4 September 1685 - d. Leipzig, 16 May 1746).

After the death of his wife in 1686, Johann Adolf married a second time in Querfurt on 3 February 1692 to Christiane Wilhelmine of Bünau. This marriage was morganatic and only made by contract; the completion of the marriage in the presence of a priest was left at his discretion. Johann Adolf give her 6,000 Taler as "Morgengabe" and an annual rent of 3,000 Taler as dowage as well as the use of the Schloss Dahme as her residence. He admonished his sons to show her due respect, and should any children come from this marriage he would make further divisions over the family lands. After five years of marriage and by a request of her husband (1697), Christiane Wilhelmine was created Imperial Countess ("Reichgräfin"). They had no children. [ [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/royalty/g_morganat.htm#Saxony Morganatic and Unequal Marriages in German Law ] ]

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