This article lists dukes, electors, and kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 6th century to the end of the German monarchies in 1918. The electors of Saxony from John the Steadfast onwards were Lutheran until Augustus II of Saxony converted to Catholicism in order to be elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His descendants (including all Kings of Saxony) have since been Catholic. Old Saxony The original Duchy of Saxony comprised the lands of the Saxons in the north-western part of present-day Germany, namely, the contemporary German state of Lower Saxony as well as Westphalia and Western Saxony-Anhalt, not corresponding to the modern German state of Saxony. Frankish king Charlemagne conquered Saxony and integrated it into the Carolingian Empire. In the later 9th century, power began to shift from the (Eastern) Frankish king to the local Saxon rulers, resulting in the emergence of the Younger stem duchy. Independent Saxony Hadugato (fl. c. 531) Berthoald (fl. c. 622) Theoderic (fl. c. 743–744) Widukind (c. 777–785), leader against Charlemagne Albion (fl. c. 785–811) Saxony as part of Frankish kingdom(s) With the removal of the Welfs in 1180, the Duchy of Saxony was sharply reduced in territory. Westphalia fell to the Archbishop of Cologne, while the Duchy of Brunswick remained with the Welfs. The Ascanian Dukes had their base further east, near the Elbe, in what is sometimes called the younger Duchy of Saxony, resulting in the name Saxony moving towards the east. After the division, the counting of the dukes started anew. Though the first Ascanian duke is competingly counted as Bernard III (because of two predecessors of the same name before 1180) or as Bernard I, his successor, Albert I is already usually counted as the first, although before 1180 he had one predecessor of the same name, Albert the Bear. In the 10th century the Emperor Otto I had created the County Palatine of Saxony in the Saale-Unstrut area of southern Saxony. The honour was initially held by a Count of Hessengau, then from the early 11th century by the Counts of Goseck, later by the Counts of Sommerschenburg, and still later by the Landgraves of Thuringia. When the Wettin landgraves succeeded to the Electorate of Saxony, the two positions merged. The Younger Saxony: The Duchy and the Electorate The new dukes replaced the Saxon horse emblem