MAURIZIO, duke and elector of SASSONIA. — Born at Freiberg on 21 March 1521. He belonged to the ducal (Albertine) branch of the Wettta family and succeeded his father, Duke Enrico, in 1541. He had already embraced Lutheranism and in 1539 had married Agnese d’Assia, daughter of Landgrave Filippo, one of the founders of the League of Schmalkalden.
Nevertheless, concerned to defend his domains in opposition to the Elector of Saxony Giovanni Federico (of the Ernestine branch), he did not openly commit himself to the Lutheran cause and maintained good relations with the Emperor. When, after the Peace of Crépy, Carlo V placed the Landgrave of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony under the ban of the Empire, he drew closer to the Emperor, attracted by the promise of obtaining the Saxon electorate. He thus took part, in Carlo V’s retinue, in the battle of Mühlberg (1547), and was rewarded with the bestowal of the electorate. He now had nothing more to gain from the Emperor and began to distance himself from him, troubled by Carlo V’s absolutist tendencies. He secretly negotiated with the Lutheran princes and with the King of France, and in 1535, when Enrico II began his expedition against Metz, M. suddenly revealed his hostile intentions toward Carlo V, forcing him to undertake the famous nocturnal flight to Innsbruck and south of the Brenner. In this way M. saved the endangered fortunes of German Protestantism, of which he would have become the leader had he not died shortly afterward, on 9 July 1553, in the battle of Sievershausen against Alberto di Brandenburgo. His disappearance induced the Lutheran princes to join the negotiations that led to the Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555).