Editing John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg

{{Short description|Elector of Brandenburg 1486 to 1499}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=de|date=December 2024}}
{{Single source|date=April 2017}}
{{infobox royalty
| name = John Cicero
| image = JohannCicero1500.JPG
| caption = 
| succession = [[Elector of Brandenburg]]
| reign = 11 March 1486 – 9 January 1499
| predecessor = [[Albert III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg|Albert III Achilles]]
| successor = [[Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg|Joachim I Nestor]]
| house = [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]]
| father = [[Albert III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg]]
| mother = [[Margaret of Baden]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Margaret of Thuringia]]|1476}}
| issue = {{Plainlist|
* [[Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg]]
* [[Albert of Mainz|Albert, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz]]
* [[Anna of Brandenburg]]
* [[Ursula of Brandenburg|Ursula, Duchess of Mecklenburg]]
}}
| birth_date = {{birth_date|1455|8|2|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Ansbach]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1499|1|9|1455|8|2|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Arneburg]] Castle
| place of burial = [[Berlin Cathedral]] (tomb lost, 1750), originally at [[Heilsbronn Abbey]]
}}
'''John II''' (2 August 1455 – 9 January 1499) was [[List of rulers of Brandenburg|Elector of Brandenburg]] from 1486 until his death, the fourth of the [[House of Hohenzollern]]. After his death he received the [[cognomen]] '''''Cicero''''', after the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] orator [[Cicero|of the same name]], but the elector's eloquence and interest in the arts is debatable.<ref name="Eulenberg">Herbert Eulenberg. ''The Hohenzollerns''. Translated by M.M. Bozman. The Century Co. New York, 1929.</ref>

==Life==
John Cicero was the eldest son of Elector [[Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg|Albert III Achilles of Brandenburg]] with his first wife [[Margaret of Baden]]. As his father then ruled as [[Principality of Ansbach|Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach]] (from 1457 also as [[Principality of Bayreuth|Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach]]), he was born at the Hohenzollern residence of [[Ansbach]] in [[Franconia]], where he spent his childhood years until in 1466 he received the call to [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] as presumed heir by his uncle Elector [[Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick II]]. He joined him in the [[War of the Succession of Stettin]] with the [[Duchy of Pomerania|Pomeranian]] dukes, until Frederick resigned in 1470 and was succeeded by John's father, who in 1473 appointed him [[regent]] of the Brandenburg lands. After the Pomeranian struggle he also had to deal with the inheritance conflict upon the 1476 death of the [[Silesian Piasts|Piast]] duke [[Henry XI of Głogów]], husband of his half-sister [[Barbara of Brandenburg (1464–1515)|Barbara]].

On 25 August 1476 in [[Berlin]] John married [[Margaret of Thuringia|Margaret of Wettin]], a daughter of Landgrave [[William III, Landgrave of Thuringia|William III of Thuringia]] with [[Anne of Austria, Landgravine of Thuringia|Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg]]. Their children were:
# Wolfgang, born and died 1482.
# [[Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg]] (21 February 1484 – 11 July 1535), Elector of Brandenburg.
# Elisabeth, born and died 1486.
# [[Anna of Brandenburg]] (27 August 1487, Berlin – 3 May 1514, [[Kiel]]), married 10 April 1502 to King [[Frederick I of Denmark]].
# [[Ursula of Brandenburg]] (17 October 1488 – 18 September 1510, [[Güstrow]]), married 16 February 1507 to Duke [[Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg]].
# [[Albert of Brandenburg|Albert of Mainz]] (1490, Berlin – 24 September 1545, [[Mainz]]), Cardinal since 1518, [[Archbishop of Magdeburg]] in 1513–45, [[Archbishop of Mainz]] in 1514–45.

John succeeded his father as elector in 1486, while the Franconian possessions of the Hohenzollern dynasty passed to his younger brothers [[Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach|Frederick I]] and [[Siegmund, Margrave of Bayreuth|Siegmund]]. He decreed that the ''[[Stadtschloss, Berlin|Stadtschloss]]'' in [[Berlin]], erected at the behest of his uncle Frederick II, should serve as the permanent residence of the Brandenburg electors, the beginning of the city's history as a state capital. He also implemented an [[excise]] tax on [[beer]] in 1488, which sparked several disturbances, mainly in the towns of the [[Altmark]] region. 

In 1490 John was able to purchase the former [[Lower Lusatia|Lusatian]] territory around [[Zossen]], acknowledged by the [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemian]] king [[Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary|Vladislaus II]], and maintained the succession claims of the Hohenzollern dynasty to the Pomeranian lands held by the [[House of Griffins]]. He died in 1499 from [[pleural effusion]] at [[Arneburg]] Castle and was succeeded by his eldest son [[Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg|Joachim I]]. John was the first of the Hohenzollern electors to be buried in Brandenburg, first at [[Lehnin Abbey]], later transferred to [[Berlin Cathedral]] by order of his grandson [[Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg|Joachim II]].

== Ancestry ==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg'''
|2= 2. [[Albert III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg]]
|3= 3. [[Margaret of Baden]]
|4= 4. [[Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg]]
|5= 5. [[Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut]]
|6= 6. [[Jacob, Margrave of Baden-Baden]]
|7= 7. [[Catherine de Lorraine (1407—1439)|Catherine of Lorraine]]
|8= 8. [[Frederick V, Burgrave of Nuremberg]]
|9= 9. [[Elisabeth of Meissen]]
|10= 10. [[Frederick, Duke of Bavaria|Frederick of Bavaria-Landshut]]
|11= 11. [[Maddalena Visconti]] 
|12= 12. [[Bernard I, Margrave of Baden-Baden]]
|13= 13. Anna of Oettingen
|14= 14. [[Charles II, Duke of Lorraine]]
|15= 15. [[Margaret of the Palatinate]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-hou|[[House of Hohenzollern]]|2 August|1455|9 January|1499}}
{{S-reg|}}
|-
{{S-bef | before=[[Albert III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg|Albert III Achilles]]}}
{{S-ttl | title=[[Elector of Brandenburg]] | years=1486–1499 }}
{{S-aft | after=[[Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg|Joachim I Nestor]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Electors of Brandenburg}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandenburg, John Cicero, Elector Of}}
[[Category:1455 births]]
[[Category:1499 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Ansbach]]
[[Category:Prince-electors of Brandenburg|John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg]]
[[Category:House of Hohenzollern|John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg]]