Wettin

The House of Wettin was a dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, named after Wettin Castle on the Saale, acquired around 1000. In 1089 Emperor Henry IV invested the family with the March of Meissen.

The Wettins inherited Thuringia in 1263 and in 1423 were enfeoffed with Saxe-Wittenberg and the Saxon electoral dignity. In 1485 the Treaty of Leipzig divided the family into the Ernestine and Albertine lines. The Ernestines kept the electorate until 1547 and led the early Reformation, with Elector Frederick the Wise protecting Martin Luther at Wittenberg.

After the Schmalkaldic War the electorate passed to the Albertines, who became kings of Saxony in 1806 and supplied two kings of Poland between 1697 and 1763. The Ernestines retained Thuringian duchies; their Saxe-Coburg line produced Leopold I, elected king of the Belgians in 1831.