Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a German princess of the House of Wettin. By marriage, she was a Duchess of Württemberg. Through her eldest surviving son, she is the ancestress of today's House of Württemberg. Born in Coburg, she was the second daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, she was the elder sister of King Leopold I of Belgium and the aunt of both Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. Her maternal grandparents were Heinrich XXIV, Count Reuß-Ebersdorf and Karoline Ernestine von Erbach-Schönberg, her paternal grandparents were Ernst Friedrich and Antoinette of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. In Coburg on 17 November 1798, she married Alexander of Württemberg; the couple settled in Russia, where Alexander, as a maternal uncle of both Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I made a military and diplomatic career. Antoinette, regarded as influential, was bearer of the Grand Cross of the Imperial Russian Order of Saint Catherine.
Antoinette died in St. Petersburg, she was buried in the Ducal crypt of Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha, where her husband and sons Paul and Frederick found their final resting place. According to Queen Louise of Prussia, Antoinette could have had an illegitimate child, her brother George wrote on 18 May 1802: " The Württemberg couple didn't speak to each other in 2 years, but she was with child and the father was some Herr von Höbel, a Canon. I know all this from the Duke of Weimar, is holy true." Duchess Marie of Württemberg. She remained unwed until the age of 33 and on 23 December 1832, she married her mother's own brother, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, thus became the step-mother of Prince Albert Duke Paul of Württemberg died in infancy at the age of one Duke Alexander of Württemberg he married Princess Marie d'Orléans on 17 October 1837, they had one son. Duke Ernest of Württemberg he married Natalie Eischborn on 21 August 1860, they had one daughter: Alexandra von Grünhof she married Robert von Keudell on 15 September 1883.
They had three children: Walter von Keudell he married Johanna von Kyaw on 6 February 1912. They had four children. Otto von Keudell he married Maria Momm on 14 August 1920, they have seven children. He remarried Edelgarde von Stülpnagel on 5 September 1947, they have four children. Hedwig von Keudell she married Karl von der Trenck on 17 July 1918, they had five children. Duke Frederick Wilhelm Ferdinand of Württemberg. Died at the age of four years old. Von Wiebeking, Carl Friedrich. Biographie des Herzogs Alexander zu Württemberg. Munich, 1835. Sauer, Paul. "Alexander." In Das Haus Württemberg. Ein biographisches Lexikon, ed. Sönke Lorenz, Dieter Mertens, Volker Press. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1997. ISBN 3-17-013605-4 Media related to Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld at Wikimedia Commons
Monarchy of Belgium
The monarchy of Belgium is a constitutional and popular monarchy whose incumbent is titled the King or Queen of the Belgians and serves as the country's head of state. There have been seven Belgian monarchs since independence in 1830; the incumbent, ascended the throne on 21 July 2013, following the abdication of his father. When Belgium became independent in 1830 the National Congress chose a constitutional monarchy as the form of government; the Congress voted on the question on 22 November 1830, supporting monarchy by 174 votes to 13. In February 1831, the Congress nominated Louis, Duke of Nemours, the son of the French king Louis-Philippe, but international considerations deterred Louis-Philippe from accepting the honour for his son. Following this refusal, the National Congress appointed Erasme-Louis, Baron Surlet de Chokier to be the Regent of Belgium on 25 February 1831. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was designated as King of the Belgians by the National Congress and swore allegiance to the Belgian constitution in front of Saint Jacob's Church at Coudenberg Palace in Brussels on 21 July.
This day has since become a national holiday for its citizens. As a hereditary constitutional monarchy system, the role and operation of Belgium's monarchy is governed by the Constitution; the royal office of King is designated for a descendant of the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I. Since he is bound by the Constitution the King is intended to act as an arbiter and guardian of Belgian national unity and independence. Belgium's monarchs are inaugurated in a purely civil swearing-in ceremony; the Kingdom of Belgium was never an absolute monarchy. In 1961, the historian Ramon Arango, wrote that the Belgian monarchy is not "truly constitutional". King Leopold I was head of Foreign Affairs "as an ancien régime monarch", the foreign ministers having the authority to act only as ministers of the king. Leopold I became one of the most important shareholders of the Société Générale de Belgique. Leopold's son, King Leopold II is chiefly remembered for the founding and capitalization of the Congo Free State which caused public resentment when the atrocities perpetrated by the Belgians were made public.
Millions of Congolese were killed as a result of Leopold's policies in the Congo. Neither the Belgian monarchy nor the Belgian state have apologized for these atrocities. On several occasions Leopold II publicly expressed disagreement with the ruling government and was accused by Yvon Gouet of noncompliance with the country's parliamentary system. In a similar manner, Albert I of Belgium would state that he was in command of the Belgian army contrary to his Prime Minister Charles de Broqueville against the Belgian Constitution. Louis Wodon, thought the King's oath to the Constitution implied a royal position "over and above the Constitution", he compared the King to a father, the head of a family, "Regarding the moral mission of the king," said Arango, "it is permissible to point to a certain analogy between his role and that of a father, or more of parents in a family. The family is, of course, a legal institution, but what would a family be where everything was limited among those who compose it to legal relationships?
In a family when one considers only legal relationships one comes close to a breakdown in the moral ties founded on reciprocal affection without which a family would be like any other fragile association" According to Arango, Leopold III of Belgium shared these views about the Belgian monarchy. In 1991, towards the end of the reign of Baudouin, Senator Yves de Wasseige, a former member of the Belgian Constitutional Court, cited four points of democracy which the Belgian Constitution lacks: the King chooses the ministers, the King is able to influence the ministers when he speaks with them about bills and nominations, the King promulgates bills, the King must agree to any change of the Constitution The Belgian monarchy was from the beginning a constitutional monarchy, patterned after that of the United Kingdom. Raymond Fusilier wrote the Belgian regime of 1830 was inspired by the French Constitution of the Kingdom of France, the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the old political traditions of both Walloon and Flemish provinces.
"It should be observed that all monarchies have suffered periods of change as a result of which the power of the sovereign was reduced, but for the most part those periods occurred before the development of the system of constitutional monarchy and were steps leading to its establishment." The characteristic evidence of this is in Great Britain where there was an evolution from the time when kings ruled through the agency of ministers to that time when ministers began to govern through the instrumentality of the Crown. Unlike the British constitutional system, in Belgium "the monarchy underwent a belated evolution" which came "after the establishment of the constitutional monarchical system" because, in 1830–1831, an independent state, parliamentary system and monarchy were established simultaneously. Hans Daalder, professor of political science at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden wrote: "Did such simultaneous developments not result in a possible failure to lay down the limits of the royal prerogatives with some precision—which implied that the view of the King as the Keeper of the Nation, with rights and duties of its own, retained legitimacy?"For Raymond Fusil
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty. Established in 1699, the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield line lasted until the reshuffle of the Ernestine territories that occurred following the extinction of the Saxe-Gotha line in 1825, in which the Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld line received Gotha, but lost Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen. After the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Ernest the Pious, died on 26 March 1675 in Gotha, the Principality was divided on 24 February 1680 among his seven surviving sons; the lands of Saxe-Saalfeld went to the youngest of them, who became John Ernest IV, the Duke of Saxe-Saalfeld. But the new Principality did not have complete independence, it had to depend on the higher authorities in Gotha for the matters of administration of its three districts, Saalfeld and Probstzella – the so-called “Nexus Gothanus” – because, the residence of John Ernest's oldest brother, who ruled as Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Saalfeld was the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Saalfeld from 1680 to 1735.
When Albert V, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, died in 1699 without any surviving descendants, disputes arose over the inheritance with Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen, they were not settled until 1735. Most of the Saxe-Coburg properties were given to the new Ernestine line of Saxe-Saalfeld and the Principality of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was born with John Ernest as its Duke. However, the Districts of Sonneberg and Neuhaus am Rennweg had to be handed over to Saxe-Meiningen and the District of Sonnefeld had to be given to Saxe-Hildburghausen. One-third of the District of Römhild and five-twelfths of the District of Themar remained with Saxe-Coburg. After the death of John Ernest IV in 1729, his sons Christian Ernest II and Francis Josias ruled the country, consisting of two distinct and separate areas, but at different residences. Christian Ernst remained in Saalfeld. In 1745, when Christian Ernest II died childless, his domains were inherited by his brother, Duke Francis Josias. In 1747 Francis Josias was able to anchor his birthright in the Line of Succession laws and confer it on his growing family for the long-term survival of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
His youngest son Prince Frederick Josias made himself and the Duchy famous with his sieges and victories as an Imperial general and field marshal in the Austro-Turkish War and the War of the First Coalition against France. His brother and Regent Duke Ernest Frederick was known more for the perilous finances of his Duchy, which underwent from 1773 onwards a forced management of debts by an Imperial Debit Commission until 1802 and affected the fortunes of his successors. Duke Francis Frederick Anton, who ruled for only six years, was forced in 1805 by his minister Theodor Konrad von Kretschmann, for the renewal of the ailing Duchy to make a contract between the two duchies and Saalfeld, for a uniform state system with a state administration of the Principality, which regained its full independence in 1806 with the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, it was the children of Duke Francis Frederick Anton who assured the dynastic success and survival of the House of Saxe-Coburg. The fame of Prince Frederick Josias led to the wedding of his daughter, Princess Juliane, with Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia.
Another daughter, Princess Marie Luise Victoire, married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, in 1818, became the mother of Queen Victoria. The youngest surviving son, Prince Leopold, was elected in 1831 as King of the Belgians. In 1816, his elder brother, Prince Ferdinand, married Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág, who came from one of the wealthiest aristocratic families in Hungary, founded the Catholic line of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry, their namesake son, Prince Ferdinand, became in 1837 Dom Fernando II, King of Portugal and the other son, Prince August, was the father of Ferdinand I, who became the Sovereign Prince of Bulgaria in 1887 and the Tsar in 1908. In addition, the heir to the throne of Saxe-Coburg was Prince Ernst, who became Duke Ernest III in 1806, he was the father of Prince Albert, who married his cousin, Queen Victoria, in 1840 and became The Prince Consort of Great Britain and Ireland. On 15 December 1806, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, along with the other Ernestine duchies, entered the Confederation of the Rhine.
From November 1806 until the Peace of Tilsit in July 1807, the Principality was occupied by the French. Only Duke Ernst I was able to return from his exile in Königsberg in East Prussia. A border treaty with the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1811 led to a territorial swap of the disputed territories; the towns of Fürth am Hof an der Steinach, Niederfüllbach and Triebsdorf came to Saxe-Coburg. In 1815, as the reward for fighting in 1813 on the Allied side against Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna sent an area left of the Rhine River called the Principality of Lichtenberg, a territorial gain as well as membership in the German Confederation for the sovereign. On 8 August 1821, the Duchy received a constitution; the extinction of the oldest line, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in 1825 again led to inheritance disputes among the other lines of the Ernestine family. On 12 November 1826 the decision, from the arbitration of the supreme head of the family, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, resulted in the extensive rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies.
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld became Saxe-Saalfeld with the District of Themar from Saxe-Meiningen. The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha was left without the Districts of Kranichfeld and Römhild, which
Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1800–1831)
Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was the wife of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the mother of Duke Ernst II and Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. She was the paternal grandmother of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, she is the paternal great-great-great grandmother of Elizabeth II. Princess Louise was the only daughter of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his first wife Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. On 31 July 1817 in Gotha, sixteen-year-old Louise married her thirty-three-year-old kinsman Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld after he failed to win the hand of a Russian grand duchess. Louise was considered "young and beautiful", they had two children: Ernst, who inherited his father's lands and titles, Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. The marriage was unhappy because of Ernst's infidelities and the couple separated in 1824.
St. Wendel, in the Principality of Lichtenberg, was assigned as her new residence, Louise was forced to leave her two sons behind. Biographer Lytton Strachey noted in 1921: "The ducal court was not noted for the strictness of its morals. There were scandals: one of the Court Chamberlains, a charming and cultivated man of Jewish extraction, was talked of. On 31 March 1826 their marriage was dissolved. Seven months on 18 October 1826, Louise secretly married in St. Wendel her former lover, the Baron Alexander von Hanstein. In her previous marriage, she had taken great interest in the social life of the principality and was revered as its Landesmutter; this happy life ended in February 1831, when her secret marriage to von Hanstein was discovered and she lost her children permanently. Louise died of cancer on 30 August 1831. Years after her death, Queen Victoria described Louise in an 1864 memorandum: "The princess is described as having been handsome, though small. Louise was reinterred from her initial burial site at Morizkirche to the ducal mausoleum at Friedhof am Glockenberg after it had been completed in 1859.
Grey, Hon. Charles; the Early Years of His Royal Highness The Prince Consort. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Weintraub, Stanley. Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert. London: John Murray Inc. ISBN 0-7195-5756-9. Media related to Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg at Wikimedia Commons
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was a German prince who became the first King of the Belgians following the country's independence in 1830. He reigned between July 1831 and December 1865. Born into the ruling family of the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon's defeat, Leopold moved to the United Kingdom where he married Princess Charlotte of Wales, second in line to the British throne and the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent. Charlotte died after only a year of marriage, but Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain. After the Greek War of Independence, Leopold was offered the crown of Greece but turned it down, believing it to be too precarious. Instead, Leopold accepted the kingship of the newly established Kingdom of Belgium in 1831; the Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his diplomatic connections with royal houses across Europe, because as the British-backed candidate, he was not affiliated with other powers, such as France, which were believed to have territorial ambitions in Belgium which might threaten the European balance of power created by the 1815 Congress of Vienna.
Leopold took his oath as King of the Belgians on 21 July 1831, an event commemorated annually as Belgian National Day. His reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and by internal political division between liberals and Catholics; as a Protestant, Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation, playing an important role in encouraging the creation of Belgium's first railway in 1835 and subsequent industrialisation. As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to expand the monarch's powers during his reign, he played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium. He died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II. Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790, he was the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Ln 1795, at just five years old, Leopold was given an honorary commission of the rank of colonel in the Izmaylovsky Regiment, part of the Imperial Guard, in the Imperial Russian Army. Seven years he received a promotion to the rank of Major General; when French troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, Leopold went to Paris where he became part of the Imperial Court of Napoleon. Napoleon offered him the position of adjutant. Instead, he went to Russia to take up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry, at war with France at the time, he campaigned against Napoleon and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kulm at the head of his cuirassier division. By 1815, the time of the final defeat of Napoleon, he had reached the rank of lieutenant general at only 25 years of age. Leopold received British citizenship in 1815. On 2 May 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent George and therefore second in line to the British throne.
Charlotte had been engaged to the Prince of Orange, but finding him distasteful, broke it off in favour of Leopold. The Prince Regent was displeased, but found Leopold to be charming and possessing every quality to make his daughter happy, thus approving of their marriage; the same year he received an honorary commission to the rank of Field Marshal and Knight of the Order of the Garter. On 5 November 1817, after having suffered a miscarriage, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son, she herself died the next day following complications. Leopold was said to have been heartbroken by her death. Had Charlotte survived, she would have become queen of the United Kingdom on the death of her father and Leopold would have assumed the role of prince consort taken by his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Despite Charlotte's death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818. From 1828 to 1829, Leopold had an affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte.
Caroline was a cousin of his advisor Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar. She came to England with her mother and took up residence at Longwood House, a few miles from Claremont House. But, by mid-1829, the liaison was over, the actress and her mother returned to Berlin. Many years in memoirs published after her death, she declared that she and Leopold had engaged in a morganatic marriage and that he had bestowed upon her the title of Countess Montgomery, he would have broken this marriage. The son of Baron Stockmar denied that these events happened, indeed no records have been found of a civil or religious marriage with the actress. Following a Greek rebellion against the Ottoman Empire, Leopold was offered the throne of an independent Greece as part of the London Protocol of February 1830. Though showing interest in the position, Leopold turned down the offer on 17 May 1830; the role would subsequently be accepted by Otto of Wittelsbach in May 1832 who ruled until he was deposed in October 1862.
At the end of August 1830, rebels
Duchess Marie of Württemberg
Duchess Marie of Württemberg was a daughter of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She was Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1832 to 1844 as the second wife of Duke Ernest I; as such, she was the stepmother of consort of Queen Victoria. Marie was born on 17 September 1799, the eldest child of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and his wife Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, she had Duke Alexander and Duke Ernest. The Kingdom of Württemberg, as it was known from 1806 onward, was a prominent entity in Germany on the level of Prussia and Saxony, with connections to the English and Russian royal families. Marie was raised at Schloss Fantaisie in Bayreuth; as her father was a general in the Russian army, governor of Belarus, Marie lived from 1802 to 1832 at Jelgava and in a St. Petersburg palace. In Coburg on 23 December 1832, Marie became the second wife of 48-year-old Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernest had been eager to find a new bride after the death of his first, estranged wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
While Ernest sought a wife of high status, he found that his age and poor reputation limited his choices. He settled for Marie, thirty-three years old and his niece – uncle-niece relationships were by this time becoming discouraged among European royalty, Marie was the daughter of Ernest's sister Antoinette; as a result of this union, Marie became stepmother of Ernest II and Prince Albert, future husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Marie was their first-cousin. Ernest and his sons met Marie at Thalwitz Castle and accompanied her to the duchies to begin her marriage, she would maintain a happy relationship until death with both of her stepsons, becoming godmother of Victoria and Albert's first son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1841. Historian Gillian Gill describes Marie as a "severe and melancholy lady". Marie and Ernest would have no children, the two grew apart living on separate estates. By 1843 Marie had adopted a child of "humble parentage", though Albert cautioned her to avoid giving it hopeless aspirations to rank.
He wrote, "I wish you more success than attends the education of poor children of the lower ranks by persons of our own."While Albert referred to her as "dear mama" in his letters to her, Marie opted not to attend several important events in her stepsons' lives, such as their confirmation and Queen Victoria's coronation. Albert and Marie maintained correspondence throughout their lives, which has helped historians gain a better understanding of their relationship. Marie was interested in literature, music and art; the newly built Landestheater Coburg was opened on her 41st birthday. From 1842, Franz Liszt visited her. In 1836, she assumed the management of the Gothaer Marien-Institut, a private educational institution for girls. On May 3, 1842, she donated 2000 thalers for establishing an refuge for young children in Coburg, modeled on a similar institute in the capital, Gotha; the "Marienschulstiftung" began operation that same year and has run a Kindergarten since also a "Kinderkrippe", as an independent foundation.
The institution has been housed since 1869 in a building, in Coburg. Ernest I died in 1844, the dowager duchess chose as her dower residence Schloss Reinhardsbrunn, Schloss Friedrichsthal, Schloss Friedenstein, all in Gotha, she opted to return to Coburg to meet with her visiting English relatives. Marie died at Schloss Friedenstein at 7:45pm on 24 September 1860, the year before Albert's death, she is buried in the ducal mausoleum of the Friedhof. Works cited
Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was one of the ruling Thuringian dukes of the House of Wettin. As progenitor of a line of Coburg princes who, in the 19th and 20th centuries, mounted the thrones of several European realms, he is a patrilineal ancestor of, among others, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Philippe of Belgium and King Simeon II of Bulgaria, he was the eldest son of Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He received a private and comprehensive education and became an art connoisseur. Francis initiated a major collection of books and illustrations for the duchy in 1775, which expanded to a 300,000-picture collection of copperplate engravings housed in the Veste Coburg, he was commissioned into the allied army in 1793 when his country was invaded by the Revolutionary armies of France. The allied forces included Hanoverians and the British, he fought in several actions against the French. Francis succeeded his father as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1800.
In the discharge of his father's debts the Schloss Rosenau had passed out of the family but in 1805 he bought back the property as a summer residence for the ducal family. Emperor Francis II dissolved the Holy Roman Empire on 6 August 1806, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. Duke Francis died 9 December 1806. On 15 December 1806, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, along with the other Ernestine duchies, entered the Confederation of the Rhine as the Duke and his ministers planned. In Hildburghausen on 6 March 1776, Francis married Princess Sophie of Saxe-Hildburghausen, a daughter of his Ernestine kinsman, Duke Ernst Friedrich II, she died on 28 October 1776, only seven months after her wedding. There were no children born from this marriage. In Ebersdorf on 13 June 1777, Francis married Countess Augusta Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf, they had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood: His male-line descendants established ruling houses in Belgium, United Kingdom and Bulgaria, while retaining the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until 1918.
His son Leopold ruled as Leopold I of the Belgians. A grandson reigned jure uxoris as King Ferdinand II of Portugal while a great-grandson named Ferdinand became the first modern king of Bulgaria. One of his granddaughters was Empress Carlota of Mexico, while another was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom; the latter's son, Edward VII, a patrilineal as well as matrilineal great-grandson of Francis, inaugurated the male line which wore the British crown until the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. August Beck: Franz Friedrich Anton, Herzog von Sachsen-Koburg-Saalfeld. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie vol. VII, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 296. Carl-Christian Dressel: Die Entwicklung von Verfassung und Verwaltung in Sachsen-Coburg 1800 - 1826 im Vergleich, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-12003-1. Christian Kruse: Franz Friedrich Anton von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld: 1750 - 1806, in: Jahrbuch der Coburger Landesstiftung, Coburg 1995
Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold in 1835.[3]
