Alternative History
Engelbert II
Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap - Titian c. 1510
Duke of Saxony
Reign 1478 - 1488
Predecessor Wenceslaus III
Successor Edmund Alwin
Spouse Maria of Brandenburg-Bohemia
Issue Wenceslaus, Duke of Saxe-Lobnitz

Mari Sophia (died in infancy)
Eberhardina, Queen of Hungary
Otto Edmund Alwin de la Marck (unacknowledged)

Father Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother Princess Louise Beaufort

Engelbert II was the Duke of Saxony from his father's assassination in 1478 until his deposition in 1488. He is considered a weak ruler by historians, whose confused foreign policy, fragile mental and physical health and blind support for the House of Lenzburg during the Lenzburg-Premyslid War almost led to the annexation of Saxony. 

Born the eldest son and heir of Wenceslaus III, Duke of Saxony, Engelbert was nevertheless a sickly boy and grew into a sickly young man. His father was elected Holy Roman Emperor in the early 1470s, at the suggestion of the then-Count of Lenzburg. This resulted in a widespread reaction across Germany that Wenceslaus was a puppet of the Swiss Lenzburgs, whose influence over the Empire itself was resented. In 1478, Wenceslaus was assassinated while hunting, and Engelbert succeeded to the title Duke of Saxony. 

Engelbert passionately denounced the newly formed anti-Swiss faction in the Holy Roman Empire, believing them to have killed his father, claiming that "any man who stood with them commits sacrilege." The Duke of Lenzburg declared his support for the Duke, together with his opinion that King Henry of Bohemia seemed to have "gone insane". Engelbert then unsuccessfully stood in the Imperial Election to succeed his father as Emperor, but it was won by Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor, the King of Bohemia in a decisive victory, following an agreement brokered between Engelbert and Henry that all anti-Swiss, anti-Saxon propaganda would be stopped.

In the years that followed, Engelbert tried in vain to reassert himself and Saxony into positions of power. He attempted to marry his brother Edmund Alwin to Agnes, Duchess of Hesse, to no avail, although ironically the two would go on to have a renowned affair some decades later. Engelbert demanded an investigation into his father's death, and consequently it was found that most evidence pointed to the Thin White Duke, but no more came of this. Engelbert voiced his support for Peter III of Geneva-Lenzburg in the King of Switzerland Competition. By 1480, Engelbert contracted a variety of diseases and stayed in bed for several years. During this time his wife had several children, and although he had not risen from his sickbed all year, Engelbert acknowledged them, controversially, as his.

By 1484, Engelbert and Henry's previous agreement had not succeeded in mitigating tensions between the Swiss and the other German states in the Empire, and the Lenzburg-Premyslid War began. In an official declaration Engelbert confessed that he was "confused" as to how a "Swiss-French-Bohemian War [had] suddenly erupted". As they had always traditionally done, the Duchy of Saxony supported the Swiss Confederacy and sent a number of troops under Otto, Margrave of Lower Mark to aid them, despite warnings from the Emperor Henry. Subsequently, the Army of Brandenburg invaded Saxony to force them to drop out of the war. Engelbert was forced to surrender. Engelbert's brother Edmund Alwin, loyal to the Emperor, was imprisoned by Engelbert after he was found to be encouraging Engelbert's deposition, and put under house arrest. However, he was helped to escape by his friends, led by Wolfgang of Thuringia.

Panicking, Engelbert ordered his uncle Otto to return, but instead the pro-Swiss Margrave merely ordered the rest of the army to join him fighting against the Bohemians and Thuringians, regarding Saxony as a lost cause. Engelbert's attempts to back out of the war and resume neutrality came too late, as the Thin White Duke took charge of the invasion of Saxony, quoting from the Bible to justify his actions. Wittenberg was famously sacked, and much of the Saxon countryside was desecrated. Several of Engelbert's close male and female relatives were imprisoned and forcibly married to the Thin White Duke. Engelbert was forced to send his children to Bohemia to act as wards in the Emperor's court.

Imprisoned, and with his health worsening, Engelbert's mental state also grew more fragile. The Thin White Duke considered euthanising him. Engelbert's wife had another child, named Otto Edmund Alwin, despite Engelbert having had no contact with her for over a year. The child later was made to disappear and its non-existence specified in the Treaty of Zurich at the insistence of the Thin White Duke.

Engelbert finally died in 1488. He had been very ill for some time. In his last moments, he was overheard by his guardsmen seemingly conversing with his dead father, as well as his siblings, his supposed children, and his wife, and his uncle and his mother. Some believed he was secretly poisoned by the Thin White Duke of Thuringia, who has been advocating euthanasia. With the war just about over (at least for Saxony), Engelbert's death marked a fresh start for Saxony and the Saxon peoples. The Duke's funeral was a quiet and modest one compared to those of his predecessors - his father, the Holy Roman Emperor, his grandfather, his great-grandfather before him. Only partway through the funeral procession, the funeral party was attacked by a group of anti-Engelbert thugs, who beat to death one elderly count and stole the money, jewelry and clothes from those attending the funeral, as well as the coffin containing the body of Engelbert. This body was later found dumped on the streets, while the coffin is also found, and has been stripped of all valuable ornate decorations such as jewelry and diamonds. "Hardly a fitting end to a Duke and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, and the son of a Holy Roman Emperor," acknowleged his brother, Edmund Alwin. Following the death of her oldest son and heir, his mother Louise Beaufort, collapsed, a victim of a stroke, and was dead in the space of a week. Although according to the ancient succession laws of the Duchy of Saxony and Saxe-Wittenberg, Engelbert should have be succeeded by his oldest son, Wenceslaus, he was instead succeeded by Edmund Alwin, who remained Duke of Saxony for another 40 years.

This article is part of Merveilles des Morte.