Hugh de la Marck (Merveilles des Morte)
Hugh de la Marck was the first Duke of Saxe-Wachemer in Kolumbia, and the youngest son of Henry V, Duke of Saxony, and his only surviving son with Matilda Burkhart. He was born in 1560, to the Duke and Duchess of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. Since establishing colonies in the New World in the Western Hemisphere, the Hanseatic League had gradually began granting land to those outside the League, in order to compete with other colonizing powers and expand rapidly. The Dukes of Saxony had always been very much interested in the prospects of the New World and thus Hugh's father Henry, immediately began to make deals with the Hansea to secure land grants in his name. In the late 1580s, as a young man, Hugh's cousin Edmund Alwin de la Marck, Duke of Saxe-Lochau, declared his intention to renounce his European titles and emigrate to the New World, which he saw as a land of opportunity. The Hansea agreed to appoint him the Governor of a small collection of towns started by Saxons in their colonies, but only if Hugh, as the grandson of the ruler of Hamburg-Lübeck, would accompany Edmund Alwin. Hugh agreed, and they left the shores of Europe forever to journey to Kolumbia. Edmund Alwin regrettably died of an unknown disease after living in the area for three years, and Hugh de la Marck succeeded him as Governor of the province, which was known as Wachemer (possibly after the Wachemer people who had lived there for some time). Following the death of his father Henry, Hugh was appointed "the official ruler and Duke of the Saxons' Wachemer", according to Henry's will, with the agreement of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Duchy of Saxe-Wachemer thus became a semi-independent entity in the New World in Kolumbia.
