House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha


The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, known until 1826 as the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, is a European royal house of German origin. It takes its name from its oldest domain, the Ernestine duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and its members later sat on the thrones of Belgium, Bulgaria, Portugal, and the United Kingdom and its dominions.
Founded in 1826 by Ernest Anton, the sixth duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, it is a cadet branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. Cognatic branches of the family currently reign in Belgium and in the United Kingdom, although the latter branch was officially renamed to House of Windsor by British king George V in 1917, during the First World War, amid anti-German sentiment.
In Belgium, due to similar resentment against Germany after the Great War, the use of the name was also changed in 1920 by King Albert I to "de Belgique", "van België" or "von Belgien", meaning "of Belgium". However, the "Saxe-Coburg" house name of the Belgian royal family was never officially abolished, and since relations between Belgium and Germany have been normalized for a long time, the use of this family name has been slowly reintroduced since the 2010s.
WWW sachsen-coburg-gotha.deFandom cs.historika:Sasko-Koburs...

History

Origins of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Following the death of Duke Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha in 1675, his seven sons divided their inheritance in the Gothaer Hauptrezess of 1680. The youngest, John Ernest IV, received Saalfeld and became the progenitor of what later became the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. After the childless death of his brother Albert in 1699, a succession dispute over Saxe-Coburg ended in 1735 with most of the territory transferred to Johann Ernest's line, forming the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Johann Ernest's sons, Christian Ernest and Francis Josias, at first governed the newly formed duchy together. Following Christian Ernest's death in 1745, Francis Josias became the sole ruler and introduced primogeniture in 1747 to prevent future partitions. He was succeeded in turn by his descendants, Ernest Frederick, Francis, and finally Ernest I. For his military service against Napoleon, Ernest I received the Principality of Lichtenberg in 1816, but later sold it to Prussia in 1834 due to unrest and its distance from the core territories.

Origins of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

The first duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was Ernest I, who ruled from 1826 until his death in 1844. Before the territorial reorganization of 1826, he had reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from 1806 onward.
Ernest's younger brother Leopold became King of the Belgians in 1831, and his descendants continue to serve as Belgian monarchs. Leopold's only daughter, Princess Charlotte of Belgium, was the consort of Maximilian I of Mexico, and she was known as Empress Carlota of Mexico in the 1860s.
Ernest I's second son, [Prince Albert V, Duke of Saxe-Coburg|Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Prince Albert], married his first cousin Queen Victoria in 1840. Prince Albert thus is the progenitor of the United Kingdom's current royal family, called the House of Windsor since 1917.

Cadet branches and royal houses

In 1826, a cadet branch of the house inherited the Hungarian princely estate of the Koháry family and converted to Roman Catholicism. Through this line its members contracted marriages with:
A scion of this branch, Ferdinand, became ruling Prince and then Tsar of Bulgaria, and his descendants continued to reign there until 1946. The current head of the Bulgarian branch of the family, the former tsar Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was deposed and sent into exile after World War II. Under the name Simeon Sakskoburggotski he later served as Bulgaria's prime minister from 2001 to 2005.

Ducal house, titles and residences

The ducal house consisted of all male-line descendants of John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld who were legitimately born of an equal marriage, males and females, their wives in equal and authorised marriages, and their widows until remarriage. According to the House law of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the full title of the duke was:
There were two official residences, at Gotha and at Coburg. Accordingly, the whole ducal court, including the court theatre, moved twice a year: from Gotha to Coburg for the summer and from Coburg to Gotha for the winter.
For the court theatre, two almost identical buildings were erected in 1840 in Gotha and in Coburg, and thereafter maintained simultaneously. In addition to the residential castles, Friedenstein Palace in Gotha and Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg, the ducal family also used Schloss Reinhardsbrunn in Friedrichroda near Gotha, as well as Schloss Rosenau and Callenberg Castle in Coburg, and a hunting lodge, Greinburg Castle, in Grein.

Branches

Ducal branch

Dukes from 1826 to 1918

Heads of the house since 1918

Although the ducal branch is eponymous with the dynasty, its head is not the senior member of the family genealogically or agnatically. In 1893, the reigning duke Ernest II died childless, whereupon the throne would have devolved, by male primogeniture, upon the descendants of his brother Prince Albert. However, as heirs to the British throne, Albert's descendants consented and the law of the duchy ratified that the ducal throne would not be inherited by the British monarch or heir apparent. Therefore, the German duchy became a secundogeniture, hereditary among the younger princes of the British royal family who belonged to the House of Wettin, and their male-line descendants.
Instead of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales inheriting the duchy, it was diverted to his next brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Upon the latter's death without surviving sons, it went to the youngest grandson of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, [Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Charles Edward, Duke of Albany]. Charles Edward's uncle Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and his male line had renounced their claim. Although senior by birth, they were either not acceptable to the German Emperor as either a member of the British military or unwilling to move to Germany.
The current head of the ducal branch is Hubertus, the great-grandson of Charles Edward. Since the duchy was abolished in 1918, the heads use the title Prince rather than Duke.

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry

The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry is a Catholic cadet branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was founded with the marriage of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, with Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág. Their second son Prince August inherited the estates of the House of Koháry in Hungary and Austria. August's youngest son became Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.

Kingdom of Portugal

The Portuguese line was founded by Prince Ferdinand's eldest son, Ferdinand the younger, who married Queen Maria II of the House of Braganza and became king himself. It was overthrown in the Revolution of 1910, after which it became extinct in 1932 upon the death of Manuel II. Duarte Nuno of Braganza and his successors were descendants of the banished Miguelist line.

Kingdom of Bulgaria

From the accession of Boris III in 1918 onward, this branch of the family belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Kings of the Belgians

The Belgian line was founded by Leopold, youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Following Leopold's conversion to Catholicism to take the newly-created Belgian throne, this line of the house is predominantly Catholic.

Belgian royal house

Because of the First World War, the title of the family was unofficially changed in 1920 or 1921 to "of Belgium", and the armorial bearings of Saxony were removed from the Belgian royal coat of arms. Since the 2017 Carnet Mondain, the title "Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha" is again in use for all the descendants of Leopold I, with the exception of King Philippe, his wife, his sister and his brother who keep their title "of Belgium"; therefore the descendants of Astrid of Belgium do not bear this title, but that of "of Austria-Este" of their father. The armorial bearing of Saxony was put back in 2019.

United Kingdom

The British line was founded by King Edward VII, eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His successor and son, King George V, changed the name of this line of the royal house and family to Windsor in 1917.

Genealogy

Patrilineality, descent as reckoned from father to son, had historically been the principle determining membership in reigning families until late in the 20th century, thus the dynasty to which the monarchs of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha belonged genealogically throughout the 1900s is the House of Wettin, despite the official use of varying names by different branches of the patriline.