March of Lusatia

While the term Ostmark stayed in use for centuries, the Lusatian March appeared as a separate administrative unit from at least as early as 965 with the concurrent establishments of the Marches of Meissen, Merseburg and Zeitz. The division between Lower Lusatia and the adjacent Milceni lands around Bautzen and Görlitz (later Upper Lusatia), then part of Meissen, was also apparent even that early.

In 1002, the Marches of Lusatia and Meissen were conquered by Polish ruler Boleslaus the Brave during King Henry II's campaign against revolting Henry of Schweinfurt.[1] This sparked a German–Polish War, which ended by the 1018 Peace of Bautzen. Henry's successor Conrad II waged two campaigns, in 1031 and 1032, which reconquered both Lower and Upper Lusatia from Mieszko II of Poland.

By the reign of King Henry IV from 1056, Lusatia had been reincorporated into the Holy Roman Empire and it formed one of the four divisions of Upper Saxony along with Meissen, the Ostmark, and Zeitz. These regions were not always ruled by separate margraves, but were mainly administrative divisions. Lusatia and the Ostmark were ruled together and eventually the Ostmark was reduced to little more than Lower Lusatia. Under Henry IV, Upper Lusatia was detached from the Lusatian march and granted as a fief to Bolesław II of Poland.

Wettin marches of Lusatia and Meissen (pink), about 1260

The first "Margrave of Lusatia" is only known from 1046. Under Emperor Lothair III, Upper and Lower Lusatia were once again reunited in 1136. The terms "Ostmark" and "Lusatia" were interchangeable into the 12th century, though in 1128 Count Henry of Groitzsch is recorded as Margrave of the Ostmark, but as not receiving the Lusatian march until 1131. While in 1156 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa invested Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia with Upper Lusatia, the territory of the Margraviate of (Lower) Lusatia was further reduced by the establishment of the Margraviate of Landsberg (Osterland), the Principality of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg.

From 1210 on the remaining March of Lower Lusatia was held by the Meissen margraves from the Saxon House of Wettin. Upon the death of Margrave Henry III of Meissen in 1288, his lands were divided: while the Meissen territory passed to his eldest son Albert II, the Lusatian lands fell to his grandson Frederick Tuta, son of the late Margrave Theodoric of Landsberg. A fierce inheritance quarrel arose, whereupon Albert's son Theodoric IV (Diezmann) campaigned Lusatia and took it in possession after Frederick Tuta's death (presumably poisoned) in 1291.

In 1303 Theodoric IV sold the Lusatian march to the Ascanian margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg. The Brandenburg Ascanians had already acquired neighbouring the adjacent "Upper Lusatian" estates around Bautzen and Görlitz, as well as the Margraviate of Landsberg in 1291; nevertheless, when the dynasty became extinct in 1319, the territorial complex again disintegrated. The Lower Lusatian lands were seized by the Wittelsbach king Louis the Bavarian and with Brandenburg ceded to his son Louis V. His brother Otto finally sold Lower Lusatia to the Luxembourg emperor Charles IV in 1367 whereafter it was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Centuries later, both crown lands of Lower and Upper Lusatia passed to the Wettin Electors of Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague.

• Dietrich II the Oppressed, 1210–1221, also Margrave of Meissen since 1198
• Henry IV the Illustrious, 1221–1288, last Wettin margrave of Lusatia

• Frederick Tuta, 1288–1291, grandson of Henry IV
• Dietrich IV, 1291–1303, grandson of Henry IV

The Margraviate of Lusatia (Ostmark) was purchased by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg in 1303

• Otto I, 1303–1308
• Waldemar, 1308–1319, line extinct, Lusatia seized by Emperor Louis IV
• Louis I, 1323–1351
• Louis II, 1351–1365
• Otto II, 1365–1367

Lusatia became a Bohemian crown land in 1367.