Casimir was the son of Margrave Friedrich the Elder of Brandenburg, who has come to be known as one of the “mad princes” of the German Renaissance. Sources differ on just how mad he actually was. One contemporary chronicle describes him as “somewhat deranged in his head from too much racing and jousting.” Most agree that he was given to fits of inexplicable rage, as well as to the sponsorship of wild, extravagant festivals, said often to have degenerated into bacchanalian orgies.
