Friedenstein Palace
Friedenstein Palace is an early Baroque palace built in the mid-17th century by Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha at Gotha, Germany. In Germany, Friedenstein was one of the largest palaces of its time and one of the first Baroque palaces built. Friedenstein served as the main seat of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha and as one of the residences of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha linked with the Royal Family of Great Britain through the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the final two ruling Dukes were both princes of the United Kingdom. The palace complex today houses several museums, it is notable for hosting the Ekhof-Theater, one of the oldest theatres in operation in Germany, still featuring the original Baroque machinery for changing the scenery. The site where Friedenstein stands today, dominating the town of Gotha and its surroundings, was occupied by Grimmenstein Castle, it was first mentioned in 1316 and rebuilt in 1531-43 when it was fortified in accordance with the changed requirements for a fortress in the age of gunpowder.
In 1547, the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin as members of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League had lost the Battle of Mühlberg against the Catholic forces of Emperor Charles V. As a result, Johann Friedrich I, Kurfürst von Sachsen was stripped of his title as "Elector of Saxony". Imperial forces blew up the fortifications of Grimmenstein but left the castle itself intact, it was rebuilt in 1552-54. However, in 1567 the fortress was completely razed as a result of the attempt of Johann Friedrich II to regain the Kurwürde by force of arms. In 1640, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha known as Ernst der Fromme, first ruler of the newly created Duchy of Saxe-Gotha, settled on Gotha as the site for his Residenz. Gotha at the time was the largest town in the Duchy. In 1641/42 work began on the park, followed by construction of the palace itself in 1643. In naming the castle Friedenstein, Ernst made a point of drawing a clear line between this new palace and the warlike history of its predecessor. In addition, with the Thirty Years War still ongoing, the name expressed a desire for peace after decades of warfare.
Based on plans by Casper Vogell, Andreas Rudolph was in charge of building the castle. When it was finished in 1656, Friedenstein was the first Residenz in the Baroque style built on German soil, completed during the lifetime of the ruler who ordered it. To justify the expense of such a vast structure, Ernest explicitly referred to the need to accommodate the administration for the new Duchy. In July 1655, work began on fortifying the castle. By 1672, four bastions had been completed; the outer works were finished by 1687 and, beginning in 1663, the town of Gotha was fortified. In 1672, the House of Saxe-Altenburg ended and most of the Duchy passed to Ernst, who now was ruler of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Although the Duchy now had two Residenzen, Gotha was by far the more important one. However, Ernst was unwilling to exclude any of his surviving sons from his heritage. So after his death in 1675, the Duchy was split in 1680/81 into seven separate territories: Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Römhild, Saxe-Eisenberg, Saxe-Hildburghausen and Saxe-Saalfeld.
Ernst's oldest son, Friedrich I, became Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, with his main Residenz at Gotha. In 1826, after the death of the heirless Friedrich IV, the Duchy was split and Gotha passed to Ernst I of the House of Saxe-Coburg and father of Albert, Prince Consort, to marry Queen Victoria. Ernst I now styled himself "Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha", although he technically held the two separate Duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in personal union. For the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the latter was only a secondary residence, the focus was squarely on Coburg, where the Ehrenburg Palace was the main residence. Ernst II, successor of Ernst I and older brother of Albert, did not live in the castle when in Gotha, but at the Winterpalais in the town. During his long reign, the castle only housed the administration of the Duchy. Since Ernst II was without heir, he made his nephew, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, his heir. Alfred renounced his title of Duke of Edinburgh and his seat in the House of Lords and went to Germany.
In 1899, his only son Alfred shot himself during his parents' 25th wedding anniversary celebrations at Friedenstein. After being cared for in the castle for some days he was sent to a sanatorium near Meran, where he died on 6 February 1899; as Alfred's uncle, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught, both renounced their right of succession to the Duchy, the title passed to Charles Edward, the son of the Duke of Albany, fourth son of Victoria and Albert. Since Charles Edward was only 16 at the time, until his 21st birthday on 19 July 1905 a regency was installed. World War I caused a conflict of loyalties for Charles Edward/Karl Eduard, but he sided with Germany, leading the British government to strip him of his titles in the United Kingdom. In November 1918, during the German Revolution Charles Edward was deposed by the local "Workers' and Soldiers' Council" and on 23 November he signed his abdication, thus ending the existence of the Duchy; the castle was now used as a museum.
During World War II an air raid shelter was constructed in the casemates of the castle. In 1944, part of the park and outbuildings were damaged by Allied bombing. After the end of the war, a significant part of the art treasures of the Friedenstein museums was transported to the Soviet Union as war reparations. However, m
Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Meiningen was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestine duchy of Saxe-Gotha among the seven sons of deceased Duke Ernst der Fromme, the Saxe-Meiningen line of the House of Wettin lasted until the end of the German monarchies in 1918; the Wettiner had been the rulers of sizeable holdings in today's states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia since the Middle Ages. In the Leipziger Teilung of 1485, the Wettiner were split into two branches named after their founding princes Albrecht and Ernst. Thuringia was part of the Ernestine holdings of Kursachsen. In 1572, the branches Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach and Saxe-Weimar were established there; the senior line again split in 1641/41 including the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha. Duke Ernst I who founded this duchy with its seat at Gotha opposed the system of primogeniture; as a result, on his death in 1675 all of his sons inherited part of his holdings and were supposed to rule under the leadership of his oldest son.
In practice, this proved complicated and brought on three settlements in 1679, 1680 and 1681 that established the following princedoms: Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Eisenberg, Saxe-Hildburghausen and Saxe-Saalfeld. Bernhard, Ernst I third son, received the town of Meiningen as well as several other holdings. Bernhard became the first Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. From 1682 Duke Bernhard I had the Schloss Elisabethenburg built and in 1690 established a court orchestra, in which Johann Ludwig Bach became the Kapellmeister. In the reshuffle of Ernestine territories that occurred following the extinction of the Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg line upon the death of Duke Friedrich IV in 1825, Duke Bernhard II of Saxe-Meiningen received the lands of the former Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen as well as the Saalfeld territory of the former Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld duchy; as Bernhard II had supported Austria in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, the prime minister of victorious Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, enforced his resignation in favour of his son Georg II, after which Saxe-Meiningen was admitted to join the North German Confederation.
By 1910, the Duchy had grown to 278,762 inhabitants. The ducal summer residence was at Altenstein Castle. Since 1868, the duchy comprised the Kreise of Hildburghausen and Saalfeld as well as the northern exclaves of Camburg and Kranichfeld. In the German Revolution after World War I, Duke Bernhard III, brother-in-law of Emperor Wilhelm II, was forced to abdicate and his oldest son Ernst on 11/12 November 1918 refused the succession; the succeeding "Free State of Saxe-Meiningen" was merged into the new state of Thuringia on 1 May 1920. As of 2012 the head of the Ducal House of Saxe-Meiningen, Prince Konrad, has no children, so the representation of his house will pass to Prince Constantin, son of his half brother Friedrich Ernst. Bernhard I Ernst Ludwig I, son of Bernhard I Ernst Ludwig II, son of Ernst Ludwig I Karl Friedrich, son of Ernst Ludwig I Friedrich Wilhelm, son of Bernhard I Anton Ulrich, son of Bernhard I Karl Wilhelm, son of Anton Ulrich Georg I, son of Anton Ulrich, father of Queen Adelaide Bernhard II, son of Georg I Georg II, son of Bernhard II Bernhard III, son of Georg IINotes: Friedrich Wilhelm and Friedrich II of Saxe-Gotha reigned as guardians for the minor Karl Friedrich in 1729-1733 Friedrich Wilhelm and Anton Ulrich reigned jointly in 1743-46 Charlotte Amalie reigned as regent/guardian for the minors Karl Wilhelm und Georg I in 1763-82 Luise Eleonore reigned as regent/guardian for the minor Bernhard II in 1803-1821 Dukedom abolished in 1918.
Bernhard III Prince Ernst Prince Georg III Prince Bernhard IV Prince Konrad Ernestine duchies Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Saxe-Meiningen". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press
Wartburg
The Wartburg is a castle built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of 410 meters to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. In 1999, UNESCO added Wartburg Castle to the World Heritage List, it was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament of the Bible into German, the site of the Wartburg festival of 1817 and the supposed setting for the legendary Sängerkrieg, it was an important inspiration for Ludwig II. Wartburg is the most-visited tourist attraction in Thuringia after Weimar. Although the castle today still contains substantial original structures from the 12th through 15th centuries, much of the interior dates back only to the 19th century; the name of the castle is derived from German: Warte, a watchtower, in spite of a tradition which holds that the castle's founder, on first laying eyes on the site, exclaimed, "Warte, Berg -- du sollst mir eine Burg tragen!". It is a German play on words for mountain and fortress.
Wartburg is located on a 410 meters precipice to the southwest of, overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. The hill is an extension of Thuringian Forest, overlooking Mariental to the south-east and the valley of the Hörsel to the north, through which passed the historical Via Regia; the Rennsteig passes not far to the south of the castle. The castle's foundation was laid about 1067 by the Thuringian count of Schauenburg, Louis the Springer, a relative of the Counts of Rieneck in Franconia. Together with its larger sister castle Neuenburg in the present-day town of Freyburg, the Wartburg secured the extreme borders of his traditional territories. Louis the Springer is said to have had clay from his lands transported to the top of the hill, not quite within his lands, so he might swear that the castle was built on his soil; the castle was first mentioned in a written document in 1080 by Bruno, Bishop of Merseburg, in his De Bello Saxonico as Wartberg. During the Investiture Controversy, Louis's henchmen attacked a military contingent of King Henry IV of Germany.
The count remained a fierce opponent of the Salian rulers, upon the extinction of the line, his son Louis I was elevated to the rank of a Landgrave in Thuringia by the new German king Lothair of Supplinburg in 1131. From 1172 to 1211, the Wartburg was one of the most important princes' courts in the German Reich. Hermann I supported poets like Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach who wrote part of his Parzival here in 1203; the castle thus became the setting for the legendary Sängerkrieg, or Minstrels' Contest in which such Minnesänger as Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Albrecht von Halberstadt and many others took part in 1206/1207. The legend of this event was used by Richard Wagner in his opera Tannhäuser. At the age of four, St. Elisabeth of Hungary was sent by her mother to the Wartburg to be raised to become consort of Landgrave Ludwig IV of Thuringia. From 1211 to 1228, she was renowned for her charitable work. In 1221, Elisabeth married Ludwig. In 1227, Ludwig died on the Crusade and she followed her confessor Father Konrad to Marburg.
Elisabeth died there in 1231 at the age of 24 and was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church just five years after her death. In 1247, Heinrich Raspe, the last landgrave of Thuringia of his line and an anti-king of Germany, died at the Wartburg, he was succeeded by Margrave of Meissen. In 1320, substantial reconstruction work was done after the castle had been damaged in a fire caused by lightning in 1317 or 1318. A chapel was added to the Palas; the Wartburg remained the seat of the Thuringian landgraves until 1440. From May 1521 to March 1522, Martin Luther stayed at the castle under the name of Junker Jörg, after he had been taken there for his safety at the request of Frederick the Wise following his excommunication by Pope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms, it was during this period that Luther translated the New Testament from ancient Greek into German in just ten weeks. Luther's was not the first German translation of the Bible but it became the most well known and most circulated.
From 1540 until his death in 1548, Fritz Erbe, an Anabaptist farmer from Herda, was held captive in the dungeon of the south tower, because he refused to abjure anabaptism. After his death, he was buried in the Wartburg near the chapel of St. Elisabeth. In 1925, a handwritten signature of Fritz Erbe was found on the prison wall. Over the next centuries, the castle fell into disuse and disrepair after the end of the Thirty Years' War when it had served as a refuge for the ruling family. In 1777, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed at the Wartburg for five weeks, making various drawings of the buildings. On 18 October 1817, the first Wartburg festival took place. About 500 students, members of the newly founded German Burschenschaften, came together at the castle to celebrate the German victory over Napoleon four years before and the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, condemn conservatism and call for German unity under the motto "Honour - Freedom - Fatherland". Speakers at the event included Heinrich Hermann Riemann, a veteran of the Lützow Free Corps, the philosophy student Ludwig Rödiger, Hans Ferdinand Massmann.
With the permission of the absent chaplain Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the Code Napoléon and other books were burned'in effigy': instead of the costly volumes, scraps of parchment with the titles of conser
Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen was a duke of Saxe-Meiningen. He was the sixth but third surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg and Elisabeth Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg. After the death of his father, in 1675, the duchy was jointly governed by his brothers. Bernhard became the founder of the Saxe-Meiningen line; the building of an official residence in Meiningen began immediately. The residence was finished in 1692 and was called Schloss Elisabethenburg, in honor of Bernhard's second wife. Like his brother Ernst, Bernhard's financial stability in his duchy was remarkable; the sales of chamber goods and the additional charge of taxes to the population were the result. Bernhard's will ordered the indivisibility of the duchy, but not Primogeniture; this allowed his sons to govern the duchy jointly after his death. He married in Gotha, on 20 November 1671 Marie Hedwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, they had seven children: Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Bernhard. Johann Ernst. Marie Elisabeth. Johann Georg.
Frederick Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Georg Ernst, he married secondly in Schöningen on 25 January 1681 Elisabeth Eleonore of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel daughter of Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. They had five children: Abbess of Gandersheim Abbey. Eleonore Frederika, a nun at Gandersheim. Anton August. Wilhelmine Luise, married on 20 December 1703 to Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Bernstadt. Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Hannelore Schneider, Das Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen unter seinen ersten Herzögen. In: 300 Jahre Schloss Elisabethenburg. Südthüringer Research, vol. 27, Meiningen 1994. L. Hertel, Meiningische Geschichte von 1680 bis zur Gegenwart. In: Schriften des Vereins für Sachsen-Meiningische Geschichte und Landeskunde, vol. 47, Hildburghausen 1904
John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Johann Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. He was the tenth but seventh surviving son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha and Elisabeth Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg. After the death of his father in 1675, Johann Ernest governed the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, jointly with his six older brothers, as set out in their father's will. However, in 1680, the brothers concluded a treaty dividing the paternal lands and Johann Ernest became duke of Saxe-Saalfeld, with the towns of Gräfenthal, Probstzella and Pössneck; as he was the youngest, he kept the smallest portion of the lands. Johann Ernest and his brother Ernest soon found themselves financially overstretched as a result of the partition, they both made a protest. Over the following years, the controversy continued and increased, as their older brothers Albert of Saxe-Coburg, Henry of Saxe-Römhild and Christian of Saxe-Eisenberg died without male heirs. During these years, Johann Ernest took possession of Römhild and 5/12 of Themar.
The "Coburg-Eisenberg-Römhilder Erbstreit" was resolved in 1735, six years after the death of Johann Ernest. His descendants retained Coburg; the decision was accepted, most by the descendants of his older brother Bernhard, who had a claim to Coburg. In Merseburg on 18 February 1680, Johann Ernst married firstly Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Merseburg, a daughter of Christian I, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg, they had five children: Christiane Sophie. Stillborn daughter. Christian Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Charlotte Wilhelmine, married on 26 December 1705 to Philip Reinhard, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg. Stillborn son. In Maastricht on 2 December 1690 Johann Ernst married secondly Charlotte Johanna of Waldeck-Wildungen, they had eight children: Wilhelm Frederick. Karl Ernst. Sophia Wilhelmina, married on 8 February 1720 to Frederick Anton, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Henriette Albertine. Louise Emilie. Charlotte. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Henriette Albertine. 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. Ernst Wülcker: Johann Ernst. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol XIV. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 372–374. Jahrbuch fur Europäische Geschichte 2007, vol. VIII, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, p. 104. Johann Samuel Ersch, Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, section 21, Leipzig, 1842, p. 254. WW-Person: A data base of the higher nobility in Europe, by Herbert Stoyan
House of Henneberg
Henneberg was a medieval German comital family which from the 11th century onwards held large territories in the Duchy of Franconia. Their county was raised to a princely county in 1310. Upon the extinction of the line in the late 16th century, most of the territory was inherited by the Saxon House of Wettin and subsequently incorporated into the Thuringian estates of its Ernestine branch; the distant origins of this family are speculative yet seem to originate in the Middle Rhine Valley, east of modern-day France. Charibert, a nobleman in Neustria is the earliest recorded ancestor of the family, dating before 636. Five generations pass between the next descendant of note, Robert III of Worms. Both the Capetian dynasty and the Elder House of Babenberg are direct male lineal descendants of Count Robert I and therefore referred to as Robertians; the denotion Babenberger, named after the castle of Bamberg, was established in the 12th century by the chronicler Otto of Freising, himself a member of the Babenberg family.
The House of Babenberg, which ruled what became the Duchy of Austria, claimed to come of the Popponid dynasty. However, the descent of the first margrave Leopold I of Austria remains uncertain. In the 11th century, the dynasty's estates around the ancestral seat Henneberg Castle near Meiningen belonged to the German stem duchy of Franconia, they were located southwest of the Rennsteig ridge in the Thuringian Forest forming the border with the possessions held by the Landgraves of Thuringia in the north. In 1096 one Count Godebold II of Henneberg served as a burgrave of the Würzburg bishops, his father Poppo had been killed in Battle in 1078. In 1137 he established Vessra Abbey near Hildburghausen as the family's house monastery; the counts lost their position as the bishops were raised to "Dukes of Franconia" in the 12th century. In the course of the War of the Thuringian Succession upon the death of Landgrave Henry Raspe, Count Herman I of Henneberg in 1247 received the Thuringian lordship of Schmalkalden from the Wettin margrave Henry III of Meissen.
After the extinction of the Bavarian House of Andechs upon the death of Duke Otto II of Merania in 1248, the Counts of Henneberg inherited their Franconian lordship of Coburg. In 1274 the Henneberg estates were divided into the Schleusingen, Aschach-Römhild and Hartenberg branches. Count Berthold VII of Henneberg-Schleusingen was elevated to princely status in 1310, his estates comprised the towns of Schmalkalden and Coburg. In 1343 the Counts of Hennberg purchased the Thuringian town of Ilmenau; the Coburg lands passed to the Saxon House of Wettin upon the marriage of Countess Catherine of Henneberg to Margrave Frederick III of Meissen in 1347. After the Imperial Reform of 1500, the County of Henneberg formed the northernmost part of the Franconian Circle, bordering on the Upper Saxon Ernestine duchies and the lands of the Upper Rhenish prince-abbacy of Fulda in the northwest. A thorn in the side remained the enclave of Meiningen, a fief held by the Bishops of Würzburg, not acquired by the counts until 1542.
Whereas the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct in 1246, the Counts of Henneberg lived on until 1583. In 1554 William IV of Henneberg-Schleusingen had signed a treaty of inheritance with Duke John Frederick II of Saxony. However, when the last Count George Ernest of Henneberg died, both the Ernestine and the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty claimed his estates, that were divided in 1660 among the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Gotha and the Albertine duke Maurice of Saxe-Zeitz; the Lordship of Schmalkalden fell to Landgrave William IV of Hesse-Kassel, according to an inheritance treaty of 1360. After the Congress of Vienna, the former Albertine parts around Schleusingen and Suhl fell to the Prussian province of Saxony. King Frederick William III of Prussia assumed the title of a Princely Count of Henneberg, which his successors in the House of Hohenzollern have borne since. Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, Prince-elector and archbishop of Mainz, son of George, count of Henneberg-Römhild.
Count Otto von Henneberg, known as Otto von Botenlauben from 1206 born in 1177 in Henneberg, died in Reiterswiesen near Bad Kissingen before 1245, was a German minnesinger and founder of Frauenroth Abbey. Herman I, Count of Henneberg Catherine of Henneberg William II, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen William III, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen William IV, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen Bishopric of Würzburg Vessra Abbey Aura Abbey Römhild Sondheim Münnerstadt Irmelshausen Bad Kissingen Poppo William II, German Emperor/Scraps Schmalkalden-Meiningen Wartburgkreis Hildburghausen List of states in the Holy Roman Empire Schwennicke, Detlev. Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge. BAND II, Tafel 10:Die Robertiner I und die Anfänge des Hauses Capet, 922-923 König der Westfranken, Verlag von J. A. Stargardt Historische Landkarte: Grafschaft Henneberg 1755 mit den Ämtern Schleusingen, Suhl, Kühndorf mit Bennshausen, Reprint 2003, Verlag Rockstuhl, ISBN 3-936030-15-4 Johannes Mötsch: Regesten des Archivs der Grafen von Henneberg-Römhild.
Volumes 1 und 2. Böhlau, Köln etc. 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-35905-8 Media related to Henneberg at Wikimedia Commons Henneberg Genealogy Direct male descent of Babenberger from Robertiner family, in the German Wikipedia Early Babenberger genealogy, in the German Wikipedia
Albert IV, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach
Albrecht, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach, was a ruler of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach. He was the seventh son of Johann, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Dorothea Maria of Anhalt, his regnal name Albert IV derives from the numbering of the duchy of Saxony as a whole, not to the succession in Saxe-Eisenach. Albrecht received his first instruction from the Field Marshal Frederick of Kospoth, he studied at the University of Jena with his brothers. In the years 1619-1621 he completed his Cavalierstour with his younger brother Johann Frederick; the two princes travelled to Switzerland. After his return in 1621, Albrecht occupied himself with administrative duties until 1626, he represented his absent brothers as regent. In Weimar on 24 June 1633 Albrecht married Dorothea of Saxe-Altenburg, daughter of Frederick William I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar; the marriage was childless. In accordance with a divisionary treaty concluded with his brothers, Albrecht received Eisenach in 1640, he died four years after which his state was merged with Saxe-Weimar under Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar.
August Beck: Albrecht, Herzog von Sachsen-Eisenach. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, S. 319
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Upper Saxon Circle (1512–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire