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John George (31 May 1613 – 22 August 1680) was the Elector of Saxony from 1656 to 1680. He belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. ==Biography== He was the third (fourth in order of birth) but eldest surviving son of the Elector John George I of Saxony and Magdalene Sybille of Prussia, his second spouse. He succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony when John George I died on 8 October 1656.〔See the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on John George I for his date of death—immediately before the article on John George II .〕 In 1657 John George made an arrangement with his three brothers with the object of preventing disputes over their separate territories, and in 1664 he entered into friendly relations with Louis XIV. He received money from the French king, but the existence of a strong anti-French party in Saxony induced him occasionally to respond to the overtures of the emperor Leopold I. The elector's primary interests were not in politics, but in music and art. He adorned Dresden, which under him became the musical centre of Germany; welcoming foreign musicians and others he gathered around him a large and splendid court, and his capital was the constant scene of musical and other festivals. He commissioned the building of the first opera house, the Opernhaus am Taschenberg. In 1658 John George was accepted into the Fruitbearing Society, through the patronage of Duke William of Saxe-Weimar. His enormous expenditure on the arts compelled John George in 1661 to grant greater control over monetary matters to the estates, a step which laid the foundation of the later system of finance in Saxony. Also, his government was less effective in establishing absolutist rule and a standing army than were Bohemia or Prussia. John George's reign saw the slow economic reconstruction of Saxony after the Thirty Years' War. New trades and manufactures developed, such as textiles, hard coal and glass. Locally mined silver filled the Electorate's empty treasury, and the Leipzig Trade Fair and the Bohemian ''Exulanten'' of 1654 also stimulated economic activity. John George died in Freiberg on 22 August 1680. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John George II, Elector of Saxony」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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