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Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse

Landgrave of Hesse

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ469397 ↗
Source-derived summary

Louis I (German: Ludwig; 6 February 1402 – 17 January 1458), nicknamed the Peaceful (German: der Friedsame), was Landgrave of Hesse from 1413 to 1458. Following Louis' death, his sons, Henry III and Louis II, divided Hesse into Upper and Lower sections.

Life

Louis was born at Spangenberg, the son of Hermann II, Landgrave of Hesse, and Margaret, the daughter of Frederick V of Nuremberg. He married Anna (5 June 1420 - 17 September 1462) daughter of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony on 13 September 1436. Their children were:

Louis II (7 September 1438 - 8 November 1471)

Henry III (15 October 1440 - 13 January 1483)

Hermann IV, Archbishop of Cologne (1450 - 19 October 1508)

Elisabeth (14 December 1453 - 22 April 1489), married John III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg

Friedrich (1458- 1 June 1463)

After 1425 a conflict with the Electorate of Mainz over claims to power in Hesse broke out into open conflict and Archbishop Conrad III of Mainz suffered a decisive defeat at Fulda in 1427.

References

Ludwig I. v. Hessen Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Band 52, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 115.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse” is landgrave of Hesse. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Louis, Landgrave and Hesse, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1402, 1458, 1413, 1420—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1402-02-06. For this dossier, Louis, Landgrave and Hesse is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “landgrave of Hesse” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q469397. VIAF identifies the subject as 57401867. The Library of Congress control number is no2019026120. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1402, 1458, 1413 and 1420.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.