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Wenceslaus I
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Portrait of Wenceslaus I, 1520
Duke of Saxe-Lobnitz
Reign 1533-1545
Predecessor

Title Created
(Edmund Alwin as
Duke of Saxony)

Successor Wenceslaus II
Duke of Saxe-Ringia
Reign 1534
Predecessor Title Created
Successor Title Abolished
Born 11 July 1480
Wittenberg,
Duchy of Saxony,
Holy Roman Empire
Died 4 August 1545
Lobnitz, Duchy of Saxe-Lobnitz,
Holy Roman Empire
Spouse Joanna von Jenagotha
Issue Wenceslaus II
House House of La Marck
Father Engelbert II of Saxony
Mother Maria of Brandenburg-Bohemia
Religion

Jungism (1513-)
Roman Catholicism (-1513)

Wenceslaus I (11 July 1480 - 4 August 1545; born Wenceslaus IV of Saxe-Wittenberg) was Duke of Saxe-Lobnitz from 1534 until his death. He was the eldest son of Engelbert II, the Duke of Saxony, and was considered the heir apparent. Both his grandfathers were Holy Roman Emperors. After the Lenzburg-Premyslid War he was disinherited, and as Wenceslaus was only an infant, he was made a ward of his grandfather Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor.

Wenceslaus grew up in a tumultuous time, in the midst of the Lenzburg-Premyslid War. His maternal grandfather, Henry of Bohemia, had unilaterally disinherited his mother and her siblings and declared her a bastard, instead choosing to recognize his eight other sons as his heirs. This was likely politically motivated, and intended to show Henry's opposition to the de La Marcks, along with the Lenzburgs who had arranged his marriage to Wenceslaus's grandmother. Wenceslaus's mother was later raped by the Thin White Duke of Thuringia during the War, along with various other members of the ruling dynasty of Saxony, resulting in children such as Japeth the Vermillion.

His father grew increasingly stressed and worried during this time about his own position as well as that of his family and his country. Following the Thin White Duke's invasion and devastating "rape" of the Duchy of Saxony, Engelbert II became increasingly frail, falling ill and beginning to hallucinate. Left all alone, Wenceslaus was forced to fend for himself, until he was eventually sent to Bohemia, as per the wishes of the Emperor. His father secretly attempted to have Wenceslaus's journey to Bohemia diverted so he could be taken to Saxony's allies the Swiss Confederacy instead, but this plan failed.

When his father died soon after, rather than succeeding him as Duke of Saxony, Wenceslaus's uncle Edmund Alwin was installed as Duke following Engelbert's decision to side against the Emperor in the war. Wenceslaus resented this as he was growing up, but grew close to his uncle, who was something of a father figure to him, and competed for the Duke's attention alongside Edmund Alwin's actual children. As his sons grew up, Edmund Alwin grew increasingly disappointed in them: Louis was sadistic and participated in animal cruelty, Alwin was indecently lustful, Wolfgang was, at one point, suspected of cannibalism, while Edmund was a Catholic. Edmund Alwin referred to his own children as "louts", "thugs", "gratuitous brutes", "heathens", "madmen" and "a bunch of yahoos". He grew closer to Wenceslaus, who, he wrote in his diary, reminded him of his older brother as he was when they were young, carefree and friends. Wenceslaus may have worked to integrate himself with Edmund Alwin.

Following Edmund Alwin's death, for a brief time, Wenceslaus claimed the late Duke had named him as his heir on his deathbed and declared himself Duke. However, he and his cousins soon reached a compromise, with Saxony being partitioned and Wenceslaus being awarded the title Duke of Saxe-Lobnitz. Nevertheless, he was relegated to play second fiddle to his more powerful and infamous cousins for the rest of his life, often being seated behind them at official events and being denied the honours he would have received had he been a trueborn son of Edmund Alwin. He came to peace with this situation later in life, however, and came to love his wife and son more than anything else, and ceased to care about his standing in the family. Regrettably, however, Engelbert II's "stain" was passed on down several generations before Wenceslaus's line died out. He was eventually succeeded by his son who became Duke Wenceslaus II.

This article is part of Merveilles des Morte.

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