Notes :

⁽¹⁾Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, and died in the same town in 1546. He was the son of Hans Luder, a master coppersmith, and Margarethe Lindemann. Initially destined for a career in law, he defied his father and entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt in 1505. He studied theology and was ordained as a priest in 1507. After obtaining a doctorate in theology in 1512, he left for the University of Wittenberg, where he held a position as a professor of biblical studies. He came into conflict with the Papacy in 1517 when he published his 95 Theses, which strongly condemned certain practices of the Catholic Church. Despite his excommunication in 1521, he retained considerable political support in the German Empire. In 1522, he published a German version of the New Testament. In 1525, he married Katharina von Bora, a former nun who had fled her convent a few years earlier. They had six children. In 1534, he published the Old Testament and the "apocryphal" books, thus completing what history calls the Luther Bible. Suffering from various ailments, such as kidney stones and arthritis, he died in Eisleben in 1546. He is buried in the church of Wittenberg Castle.

⁽²⁾Johann Friedrich I of Saxony, also known as "The Generous" or "The Magnanimous", was born in 1503 and died in 1554. He was a member of the powerful Wettin dynasty. He was the eldest son of John I, Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia, and Sophie of Mecklenburg, daughter of Duke Magnus II of Mecklenburg and Sophie of Pomerania. In 1527, he married Sibylle of Cleves, daughter of John III of Cleves and Mary of Jülich-Berg, with whom he had four children. He inherited the titles of Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia upon his father's death in 1532. Following the political and religious unrest that ravaged the German Empire at the time of the emergence of the Lutheran Reformation, he led the Schmalkaldic League, a coalition of German princes who had become Protestants, against the Catholic Emperor Charles V, from 1531 onwards. Defeated by Catholic troops at the Battle of Mühlberg on 24 April 1547, Johann Friedrich was sentenced to death. The Emperor reversed his decision under pressure from numerous German nobles and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Following the signing of the Peace of Passau in 1552 between the members of the Schmalkaldic League and the Emperor, guaranteeing freedom of worship for Protestants, he was released, but not without having to relinquish his rights as prince-elector and many of his estates. Nevertheless, he retained the title of Landgrave of Thuringia until his death in March 1553.

⁽³⁾Christian II of Saxony was born in Dresden in 1583 and died in the same city in 1611. He was the son of Elector Christian I of Saxony and Sophie of Brandenburg, daughter of Elector Johann II Georg of Brandenburg and Sabine of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He inherited the title of Elector of Saxony upon his father's death in 1591, when he was only 8 years old. The regency was assumed by a distant cousin, Frederick William I of Saxe-Weimar (Saxe-Altenburg). In 1602, he married Hedwig of Denmark, daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark and Norway, and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. He became full Elector of Saxony upon the death of Frederick William I in 1602. He died childless in 1611.