SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

'Saxe-Coburg and Gotha' or 'Saxe-Coburg-Gotha' () served as the name of the two German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha in Germany, in the present-day states of Bavaria and Thuringia, which were in personal union between 1826 and 1918.
The name 'Saxe-Coburg-Gotha' may also refer to the family of the ruling House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This family played many and varied roles in 19th-century European dynastic and political history.

Duchy

The two duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha were both among the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty. The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha originated as the personal union of these two in 1826, following the death of the last Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg without male heirs. His Wettin relations repartitioned his lands, and the Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (former husband of Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, the only niece of the last duke) received Gotha, and changed his title to ''Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'', although the two duchies remained technically separate.
Ernst I died in 1844 and his elder son and successor, Ernst II, ruled until his death in 1893. As he died childless, the throne of the Duchy would have passed to the male descendant's of Ernst's late brother Albert the Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, the Duchies' constitutions excluded the King and heir apparent of Great Britain from the ducal throne if other eligible male heirs exist.^[1]. Therefore Edward, Prince of Wales had already renounced his claim to the throne in favour of his next brother, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred's only son, also named Alfred, committed suicide in 1899, so when Duke Alfred died in 1900, he was succeeded by his nephew the Duke of Albany, the sixteen-year-old son of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Leopold (Duke Arthur of Connaught and his son did not want to receive the Coburg-Gotha Duchy, so had already renounced their right to succession). Reigning as Duke Carl Eduard, and under the regency of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg until he came of age in 1905, Carl Eduard also continued to use the British title Duke of Albany. As Carl Eduard fought for Germany in the First World War, he was stripped of his British titles in 1919.^[2]
Carl Eduard reigned until November 18, 1918 when the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha deposed him during the German Revolution. The two Duchies, bereft of a common ruler, became separate states, but ceased to exist shortly thereafter, with Saxe-Coburg becoming a part of Bavaria, and Saxe-Gotha merging with other small states to form the new state of Thuringia in 1920 in the Weimar Republic.
The capitals of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were Coburg and Gotha. By 1914 the area and populations of the two duchies were: ^[1]

Duchy	Area	Population
Sachsen-Coburg	1415 km²	74818
Sachsen-Gotha	562 km²	182359
'Total'	'1977 km²'	'257177'

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the only European country to appoint a diplomatic consul to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The consul was named Ernst Raven, assigned to a position in the State of Texas. Raven applied to the Confederate Government for a diplomatic exequatur on July 30, 1861 and was accepted.[1]

House

The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was formerly the Royal House of several European monarchies, and branches currently reign in Belgium through the descendants of Leopold I, and in the United Kingdom and its associated Commonwealth realms through the descendants of Prince Albert. In the United Kingdom, King George V changed the name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor in 1917. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a line of the Saxon House of Wettin.
Other members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha came to rule in various other European countries. Ernst's younger brother Léopold became King of the Belgians in 1831, and his descendants continue to serve as Belgian Head of State. Léopold's only daughter, Charlotte of Belgium, ruled as Empress Carlota of Mexico, consort to Maximilian I of Mexico in the 1860's. The short lived monarchy in Mexico would have had its roots in the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernst's nephew Ferdinand married Queen Maria II of Portugal, and his descendants continued to rule Portugal until that country became a republic in 1910.
Another scion of the family, also named Ferdinand, became Prince, and then Tsar, of Bulgaria, and his descendants continued to rule there until 1946. The current head of the House of Bulgaria, the former King Simeon II, goes by the name ''Simeon Sakskoburggotski'' and on 24 July 2001 became Bulgaria's Prime Minister. This marked the first occasion in history where a former monarch returned to a position of power via democratic election.
In 1826, a cadet branch of the house inherited the Hungarian princely estate of Kohary, and converted to Catholic creed. The Princes of Kohary were wealthy and are magnates of Hungary and Fuerst in the Austrian Empire. They managed to marry an imperial princess of Brazil, an archduchess of Austria, a royal princess of "the French", a royal princess of Belgium and a royal princess of Saxony. The members of the Ducal House consisted of all male-line descendents of Johann Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld legitimately born of an equal marriage, males and females (the last 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.''
Translation: ''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 the Mark and Ravensberg, Lord of Ravenstein and Tonna, et cetera.''

Main branch

Dukes, 1826 - 1918

★ Ernst I 1826-1844

★ Ernst II 1844-1893

★ Alfred 1893-1900

★ Carl Eduard 1900-1918

Heads of the House since 1918

★ Carl Eduard 1918-1954

★ Prince Friedrich Josias 1954-1998

★ Prince Andreas 1998-present

Other branches

Kingdom of Belgium

★ Leopold I (1831-1865)

★ Leopold II (1865-1909)

★ Albert I (1909-1934)

★ Leopold III (1934-1951)

★ Boudewijn I/Baudouin I (1951-1993)

★ Albert II (1993- )

Names of the Belgian Royal House

Because of the First World War, King Albert I decided in 1920 to no longer use the name ''Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'' as the official family name of the Belgian royal family. The decision was done in silence and not enacted in an official royal decree. Therefore there is still some confusion in other countries and even in Belgium that ''Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'' still is the family name used by the Belgian royals. The family name was changed to ''van België'', ''de Belgique'' and ''von Belgien''. As Belgium is a country with three official languages, it was chosen to employ all three language versions as official family name with none having precedence over the other, probably making the Belgian royals the only family in the world with three different but equally valid family names. It is this family name which is used on the royals' identity cards and which they use in all official documents (marriage licenses, etc.)
On the accession of a member of the royal family to the Belgian throne, his/hers family name is officially changed to ''der Belgen'' - ''des Belges'' as to denote the fact that Belgium is a popular monarchy.

Kingdom of Portugal

: ''Note: In Portugal the Royal House is usually not distinguished from the House of Bragança, and when so, it is known as House of Bragança-Wettin.''

★ Pedro V (1853–1861)

★ Louis (1861–1889)

★ Carlos (1889–1908)

★ Manuel II (1908–1910) (d.1932)

Tsardom of Bulgaria

★ Ferdinand I (1887–1918)

★ Boris III (1918–1943)

★ Simeon II (1943–1946) In 2001, elected^[4] as Prime Minister of Bulgaria (Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) – also known as Simeon 'Saxecoburggotski'.^[5]^[6]^[7]

United Kingdom

★ Edward VII (1901–1910)

★ George V (1910–1936, Until 1917 when the name was changed and the Royal House and family were to be known as Windsor).
According to the official website of the British Monarchy, however, "the only British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was King Edward VII, who reigned for nine years…. King George V replaced the German-sounding title with that of Windsor during the First World War. The name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha survived in other European monarchies, including the former monarchies of Portugal and Bulgaria and in the Belgian Royal Family until 1920."[2]

Names of the British Royal House

Ernst I's younger son, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, became Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, Ernst's niece through his sister Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. As a consequence of their marriage, ''Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'' became the Royal House name of the British Royal Family from the accession of Edward VII in 1901 until changed to Windsor by King George V in 1917 because a German name was deemed unpatriotic during World War I.
Contrary to common belief, ''Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'' was not the ''personal surname'' of either Prince Albert, his wife or their descendants. Neither Albert nor Victoria, in fact, knew their actual surname (royalty had no need of and never used such common labels) until in the late 19th century Queen Victoria launched an inquiry to identify her surname. After an exhaustive search her advisors concluded that Prince Albert (and thus the Queen — by virtue of her marriage) had the surname ''Wettin''.
George V changed both ''Wettin'' and ''Saxe-Coburg and Gotha'' to ''Windsor'' in 1917. However, an Order-in-Council in 1960 again separated the Royal House name and the personal family surname of the monarch and her family. It decreed that while the Royal House name would remain ''Windsor'', the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh would use the surname ''Mountbatten-Windsor''. However, Prince Philip belongs to the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and, technically, so will his descendants in the male line.

References

1. Das Haus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha 1826 bis 2001, , Harold, Sandner, Neue Presse GmbH, ,
2. The Titles Deprivation Act, 1917, , Almeric, Fitzroy, The London Gazette,
3. Das Haus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha 1826 bis 2001, , Harold, Sandner, Neue Presse GmbH, ,
4. ''Bulgaria: Timeline'' – BBC, London, 27 June 2007.Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
5. ''Former king marks first year as Bulgarian Prime Minister'' – Radio Free Europe, 26 July 2002.Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
6. ''Bulgarian (or Spanish) Prime Minister?'' – Bulgaria Development Gateway, 24 July 2003. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
7. Lord Alderdice speaking in the UK's House of Lords on 19 May 2005, ''Hansard, Lords''.Retrieved on 2007-07-28.

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