Individual Details

Rudolf III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg

(1378 - 11 Jun 1419)

According to Wikipedia:

Rudolf III (c.?1378 - 11 June 1419), a member of the House of Ascania, was Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg and Elector of Saxony from 1388 until his death.

Life
He was probably born at the Saxon Wittenberg residence, the eldest son of Duke Wenceslaus I of Saxe-Wittenberg and his wife Cecilia, daughter of Francesco I da Carrara, Lord of Padua.

Rudolf III took up government after his father's sudden death on 15 May 1388. Rudolf was involved in a long-running dispute with the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. He donated numerous gifts to the Wittenberg All Saints' Church.

Like his father, Rudolf was a loyal supporter of the Imperial House of Luxembourg. In 1419, Emperor Sigismund sent him to Bohemia, in order to quash the Hussite uprising that had begun with the Defenestration of Prague. He died on his way there, probably after being poisoned.

Rudolf was buried in the Franciscan monastery in Wittenberg. His coffin was moved to the crypt of the Wittenberg All Saints' Church in the 19th century, and to the family grave during the Second World War. As he had outlived his male heirs, he was succeeded by his younger brother Albert III.

Marriage and issue
About 1387/89 Rudolf married with Anna of Meissen (d. 4 July 1395), a daughter of the Wettin landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia and secondly in March 1396 with Barbara (d. 17 May 1435), daughter of the Piast duke Rupert I of Legnica.

He had five children:

Scholastica (1393-1463), married Duke Jan I of Zagan
Rudolph (d. 1406),
Wenceslas (d. 1407),
Siegmund (d. 1407),
Barbara (1405-1465), married Margrave John of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

References
Otto von Heinemann (1889), "Rudolf III. (Herzog und Kurfürst von Sachsen)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), 29, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 555-556
Lorenz Friedrich Beck (2005), "Rudolf III.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 22, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 186-186

Events

Birth1378
MarriageMar 1396Barbara of Legnica
Death11 Jun 1419

Families

SpouseBarbara of Legnica ( - 1435)
ChildBarbara of Saxe-Wittenberg (1405 - 1465)
FatherWenceslaus I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg (1337 - 1388)
MotherCecilia of Carrara ( - 1435)
SiblingAnna of Saxe-Wittenberg ( - 1327)