The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (/ˌsæks ˈkoʊbərɡ ... ˈɡɒθə, - ˈɡɒtə/ SAKS KOH-bərg ... GOT(H)-ə; German: Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), known until 1826 as the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Haus Sachsen-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.
| House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |
|---|---|
| Parent house | Wettin (Ernestine line) |
| Country | Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
|
| Founded | 1826 |
| Founder | Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Current head | Hubertus, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (official) Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (agnatic) Charles III (cognatic) |
| Deposition | 1910 (in Portugal) 1918 (in Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) 1946 (in Bulgaria) |
| Cadet branches |
|
Founded in 1826 by Ernest Anton, the sixth duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, it is a cadet branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. One agnatic branch currently reigns in Belgium—the descendants of Leopold I—and another reigned in the United Kingdom until the death of Elizabeth II—the descendants of Albert, Prince Consort.
In 1917, the First World War caused the British king George V to officially change the name from "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "Windsor" in the United Kingdom. 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" (French), "van België" (Dutch) or "von Belgien" (German), 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 (especially since King Philippe of Belgium wants to limit the number of princes and princesses of Belgium, and thus the use of the designation "of Belgium", to only a select group of his family).
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 (1784–1844). 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 (as Ernest III) 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 (1819–1861), married his first cousin Queen Victoria in 1840 (Victoria's mother was a sister of Ernest I). 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 queen regnant of Portugal;
- an imperial princess of Brazil;
- an archduchess of Austria;
- a French royal princess;
- a royal princess of Belgium;
- a royal princess of Saxony.
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 (the latter until their marriage), 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:
Wir, Ernst, Herzog zu Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, Jülich, Cleve und Berg, auch Engern und Westphalen, Landgraf in Thüringen, Markgraf zu Meißen, gefürsteter Graf zu Henneberg, Graf zu der Mark und Ravensberg, Herr zu Ravenstein und Tonna usw.
We, Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Jülich, Cleves and Berg, also Angria and Westphalia, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of Mark and Ravensberg, Lord of Ravenstein and Tonna, and so forth.
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 (destroyed in World War II) and in Coburg (now the Coburg State Theater), 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 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
- Ernest I (1826–1844)
- Ernest II (1844–1893)
- Alfred (1893–1900)
- Charles Edward (1900–1918)
Heads of the house since 1918
- Charles Edward (1918–1954)
- Friedrich Josias (1954–1998)
- Andreas (1998–2025)
- Hubertus (2025–present)
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 (the future Edward VII of the United Kingdom) 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, Prince 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.
- Coat of arms of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Heraldic shield of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Personal arms of the family since the reign of Charles Edward
- Veste Coburg, ancestral seat of the House of Saxe-Coburg
- Ehrenburg Palace, Coburg (summer residence)
- Friedenstein Castle, Gotha (winter residence)
- Reinhardsbrunn Castle, Gotha
- Rosenau Castle, Coburg
- Callenberg Castle, Coburg
- Greinburg Castle, Grein, Austria
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.
- Palais Coburg in Vienna, today a hotel
- Palace of Svätý Anton in Slovakia, today a museum
- Ebenthal, Lower Austria, today private property
- Walterskirchen castle near Poysdorf, Lower Austria is still owned by the family
- L'Huillier-Coburg Palace, acquired 1831, today owned by the Hungarian state
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.
- King Manuel II (r. 1908–1910, d. 1932)
Kingdom of Bulgaria
From the accession of Boris III in 1918 onward, this branch of the family belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
- Ferdinand I (1887–1918)
- Boris III (1918–1943)
- Simeon II (1943–1946) – in 2001, elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria as Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, also known as Simeon "Sakskoburggotski" (Сакскобургготски).
- King Simeon II of Bulgaria (r. 1943–1946)
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.
- Leopold I (1831–1865)
- Leopold II (1865–1909)
- Albert I (1909–1934)
- Leopold III (1934–1951)
- Baudouin (1951–1993)
- Albert II (1993–2013)
- Philippe (2013–present)
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.
- King Philippe of Belgium and Queen Mathilde of Belgium
- Royal Palace of Brussels
- Royal Castle of Laeken
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.
- Edward VII (1901–1910)
- George V (1910–1936)
- Edward VIII (January–December 1936)
- George VI (1936–1952)
- Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
- Charles III (2022–present)
- King Edward VII (r. 1901–1910)
- Buckingham Palace in 1910
- Windsor Castle in 1907
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.
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