Casper, Count of Zeitz-Grima (Merveilles des Morte)

Casper, Count of Zeitz-Grima
Portrait of Casper, 1595
Count of Zeitz-Grima
Reign	1601-1605
Coronation	20 February 1601
Predecessor	Dietrich III
Successor	Philip II
Born	5 August 1574 Zeitz, County of Zeitz-Grima, Holy Roman Empire
Died	13 July 1605 Lucka, Margraviate of Meissen Holy Roman Empire
House	House of Schönberg
Father	Dietrich II
Mother	Barbara Wolfgangia de la Marck
Religion	Jungism

Casper (5 August 1574 - 13 July 1605) was a Count of Zeitz-Grima from 1601 until his death. He was the son of famed military commander Dietrich II and the younger brother of Dietrich III, who he succeeded in 1601 following his Dietrich II's death in battle.

Casper ascended to the throne at the time of the Forty Years' War. Unlike his father and brother, Casper was not a military man, and had been left in charge of administering Zeitz-Grima when Dietrich II departed for Hesse in the service of Joktan, Holy Roman Emperor. When Dietrich III was appointed military commander and elected to stay in Hesse, Casper organized supplies and reinforcements to be sent west, and made preparations in Zeitz to bolster defenses and stockpiles.

For the next several years Casper continued to support Jungist causes and build up the meager army that remained of his county. He battled with the League of Jessen, a Catholic partisan group from Saxony, and on one occasion was nearly assassinated by a Catholic radical. In 1605 Catholic forces crossed into Rätian territory and devastated the surrounding countryside. Casper elected to lead forces for the first time in defense of his holdings, but was killed in battle in July, although he succeeded in defending Zeitz from total destruction. His death caused chaos in the court of Zeitz-Grima, as his only son was only a year old at the time of Casper's death, and he was declared Philip II. The young count would have his domain governed by relatives from the House of de la Marck, as well as the Jungist commander Barnabas von Jenagotha.