Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Margraviate of Brandenburg
drawn on the map 1260–1351, 1385–1414
A northeastern march raised under the Ascanians (from Albert the Bear, mid-12th century), it gained the electoral dignity confirmed by the Golden Bull (1356). After the Ascanians it passed to the Wittelsbachs and the Luxembourgs (King Sigismund was margrave until 1415), then—decisively—to the House of Hohenzollern from 1415 (Frederick I).
- Shown on the map
- 1260–1351, 1385–1414 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 80k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
A northeastern march raised under the Ascanians (from Albert the Bear, mid-12th century), it gained the electoral dignity confirmed by the Golden Bull (1356). After the Ascanians it passed to the Wittelsbachs and the Luxembourgs (King Sigismund was margrave until 1415), then—decisively—to the House of Hohenzollern from 1415 (Frederick I). Berlin was its seat. In 1618 the electorate inherited the Duchy of Prussia, forming Brandenburg-Prussia; from 1701 its history merges with the Kingdom of Prussia. The elector held the office of Arch-Chamberlain of the Empire.
Common questions
- What was the Margraviate of Brandenburg?
- A northeastern march raised under the Ascanians (from Albert the Bear, mid-12th century), it gained the electoral dignity confirmed by the Golden Bull (1356). After the Ascanians it passed to the Wittelsbachs and the Luxembourgs (King Sigismund was margrave until 1415), then—decisively—to the House of Hohenzollern from 1415 (Frederick I).
- When is the Margraviate of Brandenburg shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Margraviate of Brandenburg 1260–1351, 1385–1414, in 2 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Margraviate of Brandenburg?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Margraviate of Brandenburg covered about 80,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, German History in Documents and Images, national institutions such as the Swiss Federal Council and the National Museum of Denmark, and the scholarship of Peter H. Wilson and Joachim Whaley on the Holy Roman Empire. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Margraviate of Brandenburg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margraviate_of_Brandenburg
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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