March of Lusatia
The March or Margraviate of Lusatia (German: Mark(grafschaft) Lausitz) was an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was finally incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367.
Margraviate of LusatiaMarkgrafschaft Lausitz
State of the Holy Roman Empire,
Crown land of the Saxon Eastern March (965–1303)
Crown land of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1303-1367)
Crown land of the Bohemian Crown
(1367–1635)
Odo I (first)
Otto of Wittelsbach (last)
965
1002–1031
1032
1288
1303
1367
1635
Geography[edit]
The territory of the margraviate roughly corresponded with the present-day region of Lower Lusatia. It originally stretched from the border of the Saxon stem duchy along the Saale River in the west to the border with Poland on the Bober (Bóbr) River in the east. From about 1138, the adjacent territory beyond the river was part of the Duchy of Silesia (Lower Silesia). In the north, the March of Lusatia bordered on the Northern March, which was following the Great Slav Rising of 983 established as the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear in 1157, as well as on Land Lebus, nucleus of the Brandenburg Neumark territory from 1248 onwards. In the south, the Margraviate of Meissen likewise arose from the former Marca Geronis, its western part merged with the later Electorate of Saxony, while the eastern Milceni lands emerged as Upper Lusatia.
Over the centuries, the margravial territory diminished in favour of the Ascanian County of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. Further territories in the west were split off by means of distribution, like the Osterland ruled by the Margraves of Landsberg or the County of Brehna.