Frederick (German: Friedrich) I (september 21, 1371 – september 20, 1440) was Burgrave of Nuremberg as Frederick VI and Margrave of Brandenburg as Frederick I from the House of Hohenzollern. He was a son of Burgrave Frederick V of Nuremberg and Elisabeth of Meißen.

Life

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Frederick entered early into the service of Austria and fought at the side of Hungarian King (and later Holy Roman Emperor) Sigismund. After he returned he divided the inheritance from his father with his brother Johann who received Bayreuth, Frederick kept Ansbach. At first he tried to mediate in the imperial confusion between king Wenceslaus and the party of Ruprechts of the Palatinate, nevertheless he fought on the side of Ruprecht in September 1399.

He resumed his rule of Ansbach in 1409 and after heavy feuding entered into the service of king Sigismund. As a representative of Brandenburg he took part 20 September 1410 in the election of the emperor in Frankfurt am Main and helped Sigismund to become Holy Roman Emperor. In gratitude, King Sigismund made him Obersten Hauptmann and Verwalter der Marken (1411). With an iron hand Frederick fought against the rebellious nobility of the Margravate of Brandenburg (in particular, the Quitzows family) and, in the end, restored security.

At the Council of Constance 30 April 1415 king Sigismund granted him the titles of margrave and elector of Brandenburg. On 21 October 1415 the Brandenburg states meeting in a Landtag asked him to rule in Berlin. The king awarded him the formal enfeoffment of the margravate 18 April 1417. As Frederick did not agree with the forcible action of Sigismund against the Hussites, relations between them cooled. But also the constant feuds and disorders in Brandenburg annoyed Frederick, so that he withdrew in 1425 to his castle at Cadolz and transferred the regency of the margravate to his son Johann (Frederick, however, remained elector). After 1427 he organized the imperial war against the Hussites and helped on the occasion of the Council of Basel substantially in the mediation by the Prager Kompaktaten (30 November 1433).

Family and children

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He married Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut, daughter of Duke Frederick of Bavaria-Landshut and Maddalena Visconti. Their children were:

1. Johann "der Alchemist"
2. Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg.
3. Albrecht Achilles.
4. Friedrich "der Fette" (ca. 1424–6 October 1463, Tangermünde).
5. Elisabeth (1403–31 October 1449, Liegnitz), married:
   1. in Konstanz ca. 1420 Duke Ludwig II of Liegnitz and Brieg;
   2. ca 1438 Duke Wenzel I of Teschen.
6. Cäcilie (ca. 1405–4 January 1449), married in Berlin 30 May 1423 Duke Wilhelm I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.
7. Margarete (1410–27 July 1465, Landshut), married:
   1. in 1423 to Duke Albrecht V of Mecklenburg;
   2. in Ingolstadt 20 July 1441 to Duke Louis VIII, Duke of Bavaria;
   3. in 1446 to Martin von Waldenfels.
8. Magdalene (ca. 1412 –27 October 1454, Scharnebeck), married in Tangermünde 3 July 1429 to Duke Friedrich of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.
9. Sofie, born and died 1417.
10. Dorothea (9 February 1420–19 January 1491, Rehna), married 1432 to Duke Heinrich IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Sources

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• Mast, Peter: Die Hohenzollern - Von Friedrich III. bis Wilhelm II., Graz, Wien, Köln 1994.

Electors of Brandenburg | House of Hohenzollern | Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach | Margraves of Bayreuth | Burgraves of Nuremberg | People from Nuremberg | 1371 births | 1440 deaths

Friedrich I. (Brandenburg) | Frederik I van Brandenburg | Fredrik I av Brandenburg | 腓特烈一世 (勃兰登堡)