FREDERICK II  . (1411–1464), called " the Mild," elector and duke of Saxony, eldest son of the elector Frederick I., was born on the 22nd of August 1411 . He succeeded his father as elector in 1428, but shared the family lands with his three brothers, and was at once engaged in defending Saxony against the attacks of the Hussites . Freed from these enemies about 1432, and turning his attention to increasing his possessions, he obtained the burgraviate of Meissen in 1439, and some part of Lower Lusatia after a struggle with Brandenburg about the same time . In 1438 it was decided that Frederick, and not his rival, Bernard IV., duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, was entitled to exercise the Saxon electoral vote at the elections for the German throne; and the elector then aided Albert II. to secure this dignity, performing similar service for his own brother-in-law, Frederick, afterwards the emperor Frederick III., two years later . Family affairs, meanwhile, occupied Frederick's attention . One brother, Henry, having died in 1435, and another, Sigismund (d . 1463), having entered the church and become bishop of Wulizburg, Frederick and his brother William (d . 1482) were the heirs of their childless cousin, Frederick " the Peaceful," who ruled Thuringia and other parts of the lands of the Wettins . On his death in 1440 the brothers divided Frederick's territory, but this arrangement was not satisfactory, and war broke out between them in 1446 . Both combatants obtained extraneous aid, but after a desolating struggle peace was made in January 1451, when William received Thuringia, and Frederick Altenburg and other districts . The remainder of the elector's reign was uneventful, and he died at Leipzig on the 7th of September 1464 .

By his wife,

Margaret (d . 1486), daughter of Ernest, duke of Styria, he left two sons and four daughters . In July 1455 occurred the celebrated Prinzenraub, the attempt of a knight named Kunz von Kaufungen (d . 1455) to abduct Frederick's two sons, Ernest and Albert . Having carried them off from Altenburg, Kunz was making his way to Bohemia when the plot was accidentally discovered and the princes restored . See W . Schafer, Der Montag vor Kilian; (1855); J . Gersdorf, Einige Aktensti cke zur Geschichte des sdchsischen Prinzenraubes 1855); and T . Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, vol. iv . London, 1899) .