Who was the Last King of Saxony?
Line of succession to the former Saxon thrones
The Kingdom of Saxony was abolished in 1918 when King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony abdicated. The succession law until the abolition of the monarchy was semi-Salic primogeniture and required the successor to be born of an equal marriage, approved in advance by the head of the house. Accordingly, the last undisputed male member of the family was Prince Albert of Saxony, who assumed the headship of the royal house and the title "Margrave of Meissen" upon the death of his brother the Margrave Maria Emanuel in July 2012. This was challenged, however, by his nephew Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe who also claimed the headship based on a 1997 agreement, and who is said to have reached an agreement with Albert just prior to the funeral of Maria Emanuel which recognised Alexander as the dynasty's heir. With the death of Albert in October 2012 the dispute continued with Prince Rüdiger of Saxony, the only agnatic great grandson of the last King of Saxony, claiming the headship.
Princess Frederica Caroline of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Princess Frederica Caroline of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess in Saxony (24 June 1735 – 18 February 1791) was a princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld by birth and through marriage the last Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Bayreuth.
Duchy of Saxony
In 1288 Albert II applied at King Rudolph I for the enfeoffment of his son and heir Duke Rudolph I with the Palatinate of Saxony, which ensued a long lasting dispute with the eager clan of the House of Wettin. When the County of Brehna was reverted to the Empire after the extinction of its comital family the king enfeoffed Duke Rudolph. In 1290 Albert II gained the County of Brehna and in 1295 the County of Gommern for Saxony. King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia succeeded in bringing Albert II in favour of electing Adolf of Germany as new emperor: Albert II signed an elector pact on 29 November 1291 that he would vote the same as Wenceslaus. On 27 April 1292 Albert II, with his nephews still minor, wielded the Saxon electoral vote, electing Adolf of Germany.
Kingdom of Saxony
Following the defeat of Saxony's ally Prussia at the Battle of Jena in 1806, Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained within the Confederation until its dissolution in 1813 with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Following the battle, in which Saxony — virtually alone of all the German states — had fought alongside the French. King Frederick Augustus I was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Prussians and considered to have forfeited his throne by the allies, who put Saxony under Prussian occupation and administration. This was probably more due to the Prussian desire to annex Saxony than to any crime on Frederick Augustus's part, and the fate of Saxony would prove to be one of the main issues at the Congress of Vienna. In the end, 40% of the Kingdom, including the historically significant Wittenberg, home of the Protestant Reformation, was annexed by Prussia, but Frederick Augustus was restored to the throne in the remainder of his kingdom, which still included the major cities of Dresden and Leipzig. The Kingdom also joined the German Confederation, the new organization of the German states to replace the fallen Holy Roman Empire.
Anthony of Saxony
Anthony (27 December 1755 in Dresden – 6 June 1836 in Dresden), also known by his German name Anton (full name: "Anton Clemens Theodor Maria Joseph Johann Evangelista Johann Nepomuk Franz Xavier Aloys Januar"), was a King of Saxony (1827–1836) from the House of Wettin. He became known as "Anton der Gütige", (en: "Anthony the Kind").
Princess Amalie of Saxony
Amalie Marie Friederike Auguste (10 August 1794 – 18 September 1870), Princess of Saxony, full name Maria Amalia Friederike Augusta Karolina Ludovica Josepha Aloysia Anna Nepomucena Philippina Vincentia Franziska de Paula Franziska de Chantal, was a German composer writing under the pen name "A. Serena", and a dramatist under the name "Amalie Heiter". She was the daughter of Prince Maximilian of Saxony and Princess Carolina of Parma. She was the granddaughter of Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony; niece of Frederick Augustus I, King of Saxony and Anthony, King of Saxony; sister of Frederick Augustus II, King of Saxony and John, King of Saxony; and aunt of Albert, King of Saxony and George, King of Saxony.
Ottonian dynasty
Liudolf already held the high social position of a Saxon "dux", documented by the marriage of his daughter Liutgard with Louis the Younger, son of the Carolingian king Louis the German in 869. Liudolf's sons Bruno and Otto the Illustrious ruled over large parts of Saxon Eastphalia, moreover, Otto acted as lay abbot of the Imperial abbey of Hersfeld with large estates in Thuringia. He married Hedwiga, a daughter of the Babenberg duke Henry of Franconia. Otto possibly accompanied King Arnulf on his 894 campaign to Italy; the marriage of his daughter Oda with Zwentibold, Arnulf's illegitimate son, documents the efforts of the Carolingian ruler to win the mighty Saxon dynasty over as an ally. According to the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Otto upon the death of the last Carolingian king Louis the Child in 911 was already a candidate for the East Frankish crown, which however passed to the Franconian duke Conrad I.
Line of succession to the former Saxon thrones
The line of succession within the Saxe-Gessaphe line is:
The other claimant to the headship of the Royal House is Prince Rüdiger of Saxony, the only direct male line great grandson of the last king of Saxony. He was born into the cadet Moritzburg branch of the Royal House of Saxony, which was named after the palace where his grandfather and the founder of the branch Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony lived and where Ruediger and his family returned to after German reunification. Prince Ernst Heinrich had three sons the Princes Dedo (1922-2009), Timo (1923-1982) and Gero (1925-2003), however only Prince Timo married and had issue including an only son Prince Ruediger. Like the Afif-Saxony marriage, the marriage of Ruediger's father to his mother Margrit Lucas was also morganatic.
Saxony
After King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony abdicated on 13 November 1918, Saxony, remaining a constituent state of Germany (Weimar Republic), became the Free State of Saxony under a new constitution enacted on 1 November 1920. In October 1923 the federal government under Chancellor Gustav Stresemann overthrew the legally elected SPD-Communist coalition government of Saxony. The state retained its name and borders during the Nazi era as a (Gau Saxony), but lost its quasi-autonomous status and its parliamentary democracy.
Princess Anna of Saxony (1836–1859)
Princess "Anna" Maria Maximiliane Stephania Karoline Johanna Luisa Xaveria Nepomucena Aloysia Benedicta of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony (Full German name: "Prinzessin Anna Maria Maximiliane Stephania Karoline Johanna Luisa Xaveria Nepomucena Aloysia Benedicta von Sachsen, Herzogin zu Sachsen"; born 4 January 1836 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony; died 10 February 1859 in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) was the seventh child and fourth eldest daughter of John of Saxony and his wife Amalie Auguste of Bavaria and a younger sister of Albert of Saxony and George of Saxony. Through her marriage to Archduke Ferdinand, Hereditary Prince of Tuscany, Anna was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and an Archduchess and Princess of Austria and Princess of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and Tuscany. Ann died shortly before her husband succeeded his father as Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Georg Gradnauer
Georg Gradnauer (16 November 1866 – 18 November 1946) was a German newspaper editor and politician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the first elected Minister-President of Saxony following the abolition of the Kingdom of Saxony.
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick Augustus was proclaimed king of Saxony on 20 December 1806. After the Treaty of Tilsit, which Frederick William III of Prussia and Czar Alexander I of Russia concluded with Napoleon in July 1807, Frederick Augustus was also named duke of Warsaw. Although he had rejected the offer of the kingdom of Poland in 1795 by the Sejm, he could not refuse a Polish title a second time.
History of Saxony
When the Frankish kingdom was divided by the Treaty of Verdun (843) the territory east of the Rhine became the East Frankish Kingdom, from which the present Germany has developed. A strong central authority was lacking during the reigns of the weak East Frankish kings of the Carolingian dynasty. Each German tribe was forced to rely upon itself for defence against the incursions of the Norsemen from the north and of the Slavs from the east, consequently the tribes once more chose dukes as rulers. The first Saxon duke was Otto the Illustrious (880-912) of the Liudolfinger line (descendants of Liudolf); Otto was able to extend his power over Thuringia. Otto's son Henry was elected king of Germany (919-936); Henry is justly called the real founder of the German Empire. His son Otto I (936-973) was the first non-Carolingian German king to receive from the pope the imperial Roman crown (962). Otto I was followed as king and emperor by his son Otto II (973-983), who was succeeded by his son Otto III (983-1002); both the kings last mentioned vainly endeavoured to establish German authority in Italy. The line of Saxon emperors expired with Henry II (1002–1024), who was canonized in 1146. Henry I had been both King of Germany and Duke of Saxony at the same time. Mainly for the sake of his ducal possessions he had carried on a long and difficult struggle with the Slavs on the eastern boundary of his country. The Emperor Otto I was also for the greater part of his reign Duke of Saxony. Otto I brought the Slavonic territory on the right bank of the Elbe and Saale under German supremacy and Christian civilization. He divided the region he had acquired into several margraviates, the most important being: the North Mark, out of which in the course of time the Kingdom of Prussia developed, and the Margraviate of Meissen, from which sprang the Kingdom of Saxony. Each mark was divided into districts, not only for military and political purposes but also for ecclesiastical: the central point of each district was a fortified castle. The first churches built near these castles were plain buildings of wood or rubble-stone.
History of Saxony-Anhalt
After Charlemagne's conquest of the Saxons (772–804), their land was incorporated into the Carolingian empire, and late in the 9th century it became the first Duchy of Saxony. It occupied nearly all the territory between the Elbe and Saale rivers to the east and the Rhine to the west; it bordered on Franconia and Thuringia in the south. It was itself divided into four provinces: Westphalia, Angria, Eastphalia, and Nordalbingia, with modern Saxony-Anhalt mostly lying within Eastphalia. Duke Henry I (Henry the Fowler) of Saxony was elected German king in 919, and his son, Emperor Otto I, bestowed (961) Saxony on Hermann Billung (d. 973), a Saxon nobleman, whose descendants held the duchy until the extinction of the male line in 1106. Lothair of Supplinburg bestowed it on his Guelphic son-in-law, Henry the Proud, who was already Duke of Bavaria.
In 1142 the duchy passed to Henry the Lion, son of Henry the Proud. The struggle between Henry the Lion and Emperor Frederick I ended with Henry's loss of all his fiefs in 1180. The stem duchy was broken up into numerous fiefs. The Guelphic heirs of Henry the Lion retained only their allodial lands, the Duchy of Brunswick. The ducal title of Saxony went to Bernhard of Anhalt, a younger son of Albert the Bear of Brandenburg and founder of the Ascanian line of Saxon dukes. Besides Anhalt, Bernard received Lauenburg and the country around Wittenberg on the Elbe. These widely separate territories continued after 1260 under separate branches of the Ascanians as Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg.
Saxony
In 1854 Frederick Augustus II's brother, King John of Saxony, succeeded to the throne. A scholar, King John translated Dante. King John followed a federalistic and pro-Austrian policy throughout the early 1860s until the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War. During that war, Prussian troops overran Saxony without resistance and then invaded Austrian (today's Czech) Bohemia. After the war, Saxony was forced to pay an indemnity and to join the North German Confederation in 1867. Under the terms of the North German Confederation, Prussia took over control of the Saxon postal system, railroads, military and foreign affairs. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Saxon troops fought together with Prussian and other German troops against France. In 1871, Saxony joined the newly formed German Empire.
Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony
In the spring of 1918, newspapers announced the prince's engagement to Duchess Marie Amelia, daughter of Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Württemberg. The end of the Saxon monarchy and the prince's desire to become a priest apparently led to the end of the engagement. The duchess died unmarried in 1923.
Magnus, Duke of Saxony
Magnus ( – 23 August 1106) was the duke of Saxony from 1072 to 1106. Eldest son and successor of Ordulf and Wulfhild of Norway, he was the last member of the House of Billung.
Line of succession to the former Saxon thrones
The Moritzburg branch, in order of primogeniture, is:
Yet another potential successor to the former monarchy's royal crown, due to the semi-Salic succession law used in Saxony, is Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern. He is the eldest son and heir of Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern (1924–2010), who was the son of Princess Margaret of Saxony (1900–1962), the eldest aunt of Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen. The succession would fall to Prince Karl Friedrich in case the marriage of Anna, the mother of the Saxe-Gessaphe claimant and elder sister of the margrave, is deemed non-dynastic despite the actions of the margrave and agnates to de-morganatize it.
Ludolph of Saxony
Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1295 – 1378), also known as Ludolphus de Saxonia and Ludolph the Carthusian, was a German Roman Catholic theologian of the fourteenth century.
Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony (given names: "Andreas Michael Friedrich Hans Armin Siegfried Hubertus"; born 21 March 1943) has been the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha since 1998. He is the grandson of Charles Edward, the last ruling duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Karl von Habsburg
Karl von Habsburg (Karl Thomas Robert Maria Franziskus Georg Bahnam; born 11 January 1961), also known as Karl of Austria and referred to by his ancestral titles as Archduke of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia, is an Austrian politician, the current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine which ruled the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Empire of Austria, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the Kingdom of Hungary as well as the Crown lands of Bohemia and Croatia by hereditary right until the end of World War I. Born in Starnberg, Germany, in 1961, he is the son of Archduke Otto von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen, and the grandson of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Austrian People's Party 1996–1999. Like his father, he is known as an advocate for the Pan-European movement.
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), often called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England. His death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England.
Oda of Saxony
Oda of Saxony (877 – aft. 952) was a Saxon princess. She was the daughter of Otto I, Duke of Saxony (880 – 912) and Hedwiga of Babenberg. She married King Zwentibold of Lotharingia and at his death in August 900 (when Oda was younger than 15), she contracted a second marriage with Count Gerhard I of Metz. From this union were born:
Anthony of Saxony
The Electress gave birth for last time in 1799 to another stillborn child. After this Anton became, officially, the Heir to the Electorate and, from 1806, the Kingdom of Saxony.
Otto I, Duke of Saxony
According to Widukind of Corvey, the "Saxon and Franconian people" offered Otto the kingship of East Francia after the death of the last Carolingian monarch Louis the Child in 911. He did, however, not accept it on account of his advanced age, instead suggesting Duke Conrad of Franconia. The truthfulness of this report is considered doubtful.
Henry X, Duke of Bavaria
When Emperor Lothair died on his way back from Italy in December 1137, Henry's wealth and position made him a formidable candidate for the German crown. According to the contemporary chronicler Otto of Freising, after his appointment as Duke of Saxony he boasted of a realm stretching "from sea to sea, from Denmark to Sicily". However, the same qualities which earned him the cognomen of "the Proud" aroused the jealousy of the princes and so ultimately prevented his election. The new king, Conrad III, demanded the Imperial Regalia which Henry had received from Lothair, and the duke in return asked for his investiture with the Saxon duchy. But Conrad, who feared his power, refused to assent to this on the pretext that it was unlawful for two duchies to be in one hand. Attempts at a settlement failed, and when in July 1138 Henry refused to take the oath of allegiance, he was banned and deprived of both his duchies. Bavaria was given to the Babenberg margrave Leopold IV of Austria, a half-brother of the new king Conrad. Saxony, which he had attempted to hold but was not officially invested with, was given to the Ascanian count Albert the Bear, son of Eilika of Saxony, a younger daughter of the last Billung duke Magnus.
Salian dynasty
After the death of the last Saxon of the Ottonian Dynasty in 1024, the elective titles of King of the Germans and then three years later Holy Roman Emperor both passed to the first monarch of the Salian dynasty in the person of Conrad II, the only son of Count Henry of Speyer and Adelheid of Alsace (both territories in the Franconia of the day). He was elected German King in 1024 and crowned Holy Roman Emperor on 26 March 1027.
Francia
By 623 the Austrasians had begun to clamour for a king of their own, since Chlothar was so often absent from the kingdom and, because of his upbringing and previous rule in the Seine basin, was more or less an outsider there. Chlothar thus granted that his son Dagobert I would be their king and he was duly acclaimed by the Austrasian warriors in the traditional fashion. Nonetheless, though Dagobert exercised true authority in his realm, Chlothar maintained ultimate control over the whole Frankish kingdom.
During the joint reign of Chlothar and Dagobert, who have been called "the last ruling Merovingians", the Saxons, who had been loosely attached to Francia since the late 550s, rebelled under Berthoald, Duke of Saxony, and were defeated and reincorporated into the kingdom by the joint action of father and son. When Chlothar died in 628, Dagobert, in accordance with his father's wishes, granted a subkingdom to his younger brother Charibert II. This subkingdom, commonly called Aquitaine, was a new creation.
Albert of Saxony
On the death of his father King John on 29 October 1873, the Crown Prince succeeded to the throne as King Albert. His reign proved uneventful, and he took little public part in politics, devoting himself to military affairs, in which his advice and experience were of the greatest value, not only to the Saxon corps but to the German army in general. During his reign, the Saxon monarchy became constitutional.
List of rulers of Saxony
The electors of Saxony from John the Steadfast (or, according to some accounts, Frederick the Wise) onwards have been Lutheran until Augustus II of Saxony converted to Roman Catholicism in order to be elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His descendants (including all Kings of Saxony) have since been Roman Catholic.
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Nevertheless, when the last dukes Emil August, a fervent admirer of the rise of Napoleon, and his brother Frederick IV had both died without male heirs, the house of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg finally became extinct in 1825 and quarrels arose between the three remaining Ernestine lines about the succession. As a result of an arbitration issued by King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony in 1826, the Ernestine duchies were rearranged and Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was again split:
Georg Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg
George Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg ("William George Moritz Ernest Albert Frederick Charles Constantine Edward Maximilian"; 13 May 1900 – 13 February 1991), was the last head of the ducal house of Saxe-Altenburg and nominal Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He devoted much of his life to promote anthroposophy.
Anthony of Saxony
Without surviving male issue, Anton was succeeded as king by his nephew, Frederick Augustus II.
Saxe-Gessaphe
The family descends from Princess Anna of Saxony (13 December 1929 – 13 March 2012) and her husband Roberto de Afif (1916–1978). Anna was a sister of Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen, the childless head of the ex-royal House of Saxony and, as such, King of Saxony. Of the five children of the late Prince Friedrich Christian (1893–1968), son and heir of Saxony's last king Friedrich August III (who was obliged to abdicate in 1918 coincident with Germany's surrender in World War I), Anna is the only one who has living, legitimate children.
George, King of Saxony
George (; 8 August 1832 – 15 October 1904) was a King of Saxony of the House of Wettin.
Princess Charlotte of Prussia
Princess Charlotte of Prussia (Viktoria Elisabeth Auguste Charlotte; 24 July 1860 – 1 October 1919) was Duchess Consort of Saxe-Meiningen as the wife of Bernhard III, the duchy's last ruler. Born at the "Neues Palais" in Potsdam, she was the second child and eldest daughter of Prince Frederick of Prussia, a member of the House of Hohenzollern who became Crown Prince of Prussia in 1861 and German Emperor in 1888. Through her mother Victoria, Princess Royal, Charlotte was the eldest granddaughter of the British monarch Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Saxony
In 1806, French Emperor Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and established the Electorate of Saxony as a kingdom in exchange for military support. The Elector Frederick Augustus III accordingly became King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Frederick Augustus remained loyal to Napoleon during the wars that swept Europe in the following years; he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon. Prussia intended the annexation of Saxony but the opposition of Austria, France, and the United Kingdom to this plan resulted in the restoration of Frederick Augustus to his throne at the Congress of Vienna although he was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia. These lands became the Prussian province of Saxony, now incorporated in the modern state of Saxony-Anhalt except westernmost part around Bad Langensalza now in the one of Thuringia. Also Lower Lusatia became part of Province of Brandenburg and northeastern part of Upper Lusatia became part of Silesia Province. The remnant of the Kingdom of Saxony was roughly identical with the present federal state, albeit slightly smaller.
Old Saxony
For the most part, the Saxon lands were a broad plain, save on the south, where they rose into hills and the low mountainous country of the Harz and Hesse. This low divide was all that separated the country of the Saxons from their ancient enemies and ultimate conquerors, the Franks. The lack of clear physical definition along this border, from time immemorial, had been the cause of incessant tribal conflict between them. Saxons as inhabitants of present-day Northern Germany are mentioned in 555, when Theudebald, the Frankish king, died and the Saxons used this opportunity for war. The Saxons were defeated by Chlothar I, Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, while others were allied with them; Chlothar II won a decisive victory against the Saxons.
Charles of Saxony, Duke of Courland
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia had been created in 1561 by Gotthard Kettler, last master of the Livonian Order, and had been ruled by his descendants until the dynasty died out in 1737. Then, Empress Anna of Russia herself the widow of Frederick William the penultimate Duke of Courland, managed to place her lover, Ernst Johann von Biron, on the Ducal throne of Courland. Empress Anna died only three years later and was succeeded by her infant grand-nephew Ivan VI, at which time von Biron had become regent of Russia. His regency lasted only three weeks. Von Biron was hated by the Russian aristocracy because of his extravagances and autocratic behaviour and also for the arrogance he had shown during Empress Anna's lifetime, as her lover. The young Tsar's mother, Anna Leopoldovna and the influential minister Burkhard Christoph von Munnich conspired to remove von Biron from office, confiscated his estates and exiled him to Siberia in the winter of 1740-41. Only months later, in November 1741, Russia witnessed another coup which brought Empress Elizabeth, a cousin of the late Empress Anna, to the throne. The child-Tsar Ivan VI, his mother Anna Leopoldovna and all other members of their family were arrested. Now, certainly, the new Tsarina Elisabeth granted a pardon to von Biron, allowed him to return from Siberia and ordered him to live in Yaroslavl. However, because of her fear that he could again return to great power as he had done during Empress Anna's reign, she refused to restore his former privileges or the Duchy of Courland.
Titles and emblems of the German Emperor after 1873
According to Widukind of Corvey, before the Frankish conquest, the tribal Duchy of Saxony had already existed from parts of Westphalia, Engers and Eastphalia. During the government of Gelnhausen, after the imperial ban of Henry the Lion by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa on the grounds of a refusal of the army, the Duchy of Saxony was divided in 1180. The part which lay in the area of the archdiocese of Cologne and the bishopric of Paderborn, were combined into the new Duchy of Westpahlia and Engers, which at first belonged to the Archbishop of Cologne, Philipp von Heinsberg. The eastern part went to the Ascanian Bernhard as a "younger" Duchy of Saxony. Since the 12th century, the name of Engers has been out of use. Only the term "Engers" has only been used continuously in the titles. For example, the ruler of the younger Duchy of Saxony ("Duke of Saxony, Engers and Westphalia"). With the takeover of Westphalia in 1815, the title "Westphalia and Engers" went to the Prussian King Frederick William III.
Duchy of Bavaria
The last Ottonian duke, Henry II's son Henry III, was elected King of the Romans in 1002. At different times the duchy was ruled by the German kings in personal union, by dependent dukes, or even by the emperor's sons, a tradition maintained by Henry's Salian successors. This period saw the rise of many aristocratic families, such as the Counts of Andechs or the House of Wittelsbach. In 1061 the dowager empress Agnes of Poitou enfeoffed the Saxon count Otto of Nordheim. Nevertheless, her son King Henry IV again seized the duchy on fallacious grounds, which ultimately led to the Saxon Rebellion of 1073. Henry entrusted Bavaria to Welf, a scion of the Veronese margravial House of Este and progenitor of the Welf dynasty, which intermittently ruled the duchy for the next 110 years.
Hastein
Jarl Hastein is a recurring character in Bernard Cornwell's "The Saxon Stories", as a former ally and then opponent of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. In the television adaptation "The Last Kingdom" he is played by Norwegian actor Jeppe Beck Laursen.
History of Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony sided with Prussia against France early in the French Revolutionary Wars, but changed sides in 1806. For this act its elector was raised to royal rank, becoming King Frederick Augustus I. His failure to change sides again before Napoleon's fall cost him (1815) nearly half his kingdom at the Congress of Vienna. The Kingdom of Saxony lost Lower Lusatia, part of Upper Lusatia, and all its northern territory including Wittenberg and Merseburg to Prussia. Its principal remaining cities were Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Plauen. The larger part of the territories ceded in 1815 were incorporated with several other Prussian districts into the Prussian province of Saxony, with Magdeburg as its capital. This was united after 1945 with Anhalt to form the state of Saxony-Anhalt and became part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949. From 1952 to 1990 Saxony-Anhalt was divided into the East German districts of Halle and Magdeburg. In 1990, prior to German reunification, the districts were reintegrated as a state.
Hugh of Saxony
Hugh of Saxony or Hugh de Saxony(ca. 850 – 880) was a Frankish prince, a member of the Carolingian dynasty. He was born in Saxony around 850, the illegitimate son of Louis the Younger, and an unnamed concubine. It is possible he was also the brother of another illegitimate son, Bernhard. He was born during the reign of his grandfather Louis the German.
List of last scions
Male members of the House of Habsburg held many regnal titles in Europe from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries, most importantly those of Holy Roman Emperor (and its German associate and predecessor titles) and King of Spain. Its last male scion was "Emperor Charles VI" (1685–1740). His daughter "Maria Theresa of Austria" (1717–1780), who succeeded to some of her father's titles by inheritance and gained power of the rest of her father's domains when her husband was elected Emperor, was the last member of the royal house. Her descendants, the House of Lorraine, continued to hold this power and were styled the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Princess Mathilde of Saxony (born 1936)
Princess Mathilde of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony (; 17 January 1936 – 18 March 2018) was a Princess of Saxony and member of the House of Wettin by birth and a Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as consort to Prince Johannes Heinrich of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Mathilde is the fifth and youngest child of Friedrich Christian, Margrave of Meissen and his wife, Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn and Taxis, and a younger sister of Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen, the late head of the Royal House of Saxony and senior claimant to the defunct throne of the Kingdom of Saxony.
Albert III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg
Albert III (; – before 12 November 1422) was the last Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg and Elector of Saxony from the House of Ascania. After his death, King Sigismund ceded his duchy and the Saxon electoral dignity to Margrave Frederick IV of Meissen from the House of Wettin.
Ottonian dynasty
The Ottonian dynasty () was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings ("Liudolfinger"), after its earliest known member Count Liudolf (d. 866) and one of its primary leading-names. The Ottonian rulers were successors of the Germanic king Conrad I who was the only Germanic king to rule in East Francia after the Carolingian dynasty and before this dynasty.
Conrad II of Italy
In December 1080, the Saxon lords who had supported the kingship of the late Rudolf of Swabia against Henry gathered "to discuss the state of their kingdom [Saxony]" in Bruno of Merseburg's words. Henry sent envoys to the Saxons asking them to accept his son Conrad as their king, and in exchange he promised never to enter Saxony. (Conrad was apparently back in Germany.) Otto of Northeim, speaking for the Saxons, "desired neither the son nor the father" since he had "often seen a bad calf begotten by a bad ox."
History of Saxony
The Frankish king Clovis I (481-511) united the various Frankish tribes, conquered Roman Gaul, and with his people accepted Christianity. The new Frankish kingdom was able to bring all German tribes except the Saxons under its authority and to make them Christian. For more than a hundred years there was almost uninterrupted warfare between Frank and Saxon. Many Anglo-Saxon Christian missionaries sought to convert the Saxons, some were killed, some driven away; the names of only a few of these men have been preserved, as St. Suitbert, St. Egnert, the saint called Brother Ewald, St. Lebuin, etc. St. Boniface also preached without success among the Saxons.
Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg
Princess Charlotte Agnes of Saxe-Altenburg (; 4 March 189916 February 1989) was the eldest child of Ernst II, the last reigning duke of Saxe-Altenburg.
Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Charles Edward died of cancer in Coburg in his flat in Elsässer Straße on 6 March 1954 as a "penniless criminal" according to one report. He was the second-to-last ruling prince of the German Reich to die (only Ernst II of Saxe-Altenburg outlived him, see . He is buried at the Waldfriedhof Cemetery (Waldfriedhof Beiersdorf) near Schloss Callenberg, in Beiersdorf near Coburg.
Frederick Augustus II of Saxony
From his birth, it was clear that one day Frederick Augustus would become the ruler of Saxony. His father was the only son of the Elector Frederick Christian of Saxony who left surviving male issue. When the King Frederick Augustus I died (1827) and Anton succeeded him as King, Frederick Augustus became second in line to the throne, preceded only by his father Maximilian.
Duchy of Saxony
The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295. The definite partitioning of the Duchy of Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg (), jointly ruled by the brothers Albert III, Eric I and John II and Saxe-Wittenberg (), ruled by Albert II took place before 20 September 1296. The Vierlande, Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg), the Land of Ratzeburg, the Land of Darzing (today's Amt Neuhaus), and the Land of Hadeln are mentioned as the separate territory of the brothers. Albert II received Saxe-Wittenberg around the eponymous city and Belzig. Albert II thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg.
George, King of Saxony
Prince George was a Generalfeldmarschall before his ascension. It gradually became clear that George's older brother Albert I (1828–1902) and his wife Queen Carola (1833–1907) would not have any children, thereby making George the heir presumptive to the throne. He succeeded Albert I as King of Saxony on 19 June 1902, albeit for just a brief two-year reign. He died in Pillnitz and was succeeded by his eldest son Frederick Augustus III (1865–1932), who was deposed in 1918.
Saxony
Parts of Saxony were possibly under the control of the Germanic King Marobod during the Roman era. By the late Roman period, several tribes known as the Saxons emerged, from which the subsequent state(s) draw their name.
Duchy of Saxony
The Saxon stem duchy covered the greater part of present-day Northern Germany, including the modern German states () of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt up to the Elbe and Saale rivers in the east, the city-states of Bremen and Hamburg, as well as the Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Holstein region () of Schleswig-Holstein. In the late 12th century, Duke Henry the Lion also occupied the adjacent area of Mecklenburg (the former Billung March).
Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz
Moritz Wilhelm (English: Maurice William; 12 March 1664 – 15 November 1718), a member of the Saxon House of Wettin, was the second and last Duke of Saxe-Zeitz from 1681 until his death.
Saxons
If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were to be preached to the most obstinate people of the Saxons with as much determination as the payment of tithes has been exacted, or as the force of the legal decree has been applied for fault of the most trifling sort imaginable, perhaps they would not be averse to their baptismal vows.
Charlemagne's successor, Louis the Pious, reportedly treated the Saxons more as Alcuin would have wished, and as a consequence they were faithful subjects. The lower classes, however, revolted against Frankish overlordship in favour of their old paganism as late as the 840s, when the "Stellinga" rose up against the Saxon leadership, who were allied with the Frankish emperor Lothair I. After the suppression of the "Stellinga", in 851 Louis the German brought relics from Rome to Saxony to foster a devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. The Poeta Saxo, in his verse "Annales" of Charlemagne's reign (written between 888 and 891), laid an emphasis on his conquest of Saxony. He celebrated the Frankish monarch as on par with the Roman emperors and as the bringer of Christian salvation to people. References are made to periodic outbreaks of pagan worship, especially of Freya, among the Saxon peasantry as late as the 12th century.
Prince Albert of Saxony (1875–1900)
Prince Albert Karl Anton Ludwig Wilhelm Viktor of Saxony (25 February 1875 in Dresden – 16 September 1900 in Schönwölkau) was a Saxon prince from the House of Wettin. He was the youngest son of King George and his consort, Maria Anna of Portugal.
Salian dynasty
After the death of the last Saxon Emperor Henry II the first Salian regent Conrad II was elected by the majority of the Prince-electors and was crowned German king in Mainz on 8 September 1024. Early in 1026 Conrad went to Milan, where Ariberto, archbishop of Milan, crowned him king of Italy. When Rudolph III, King of Burgundy died 1032, Conrad II also claimed this kingship on the basis of an inheritance Henry II had extorted from the former in 1006. Despite some opposition, the Burgundian and Provençal nobles paid homage to Conrad in Zürich in 1034. This Kingdom of Burgundy would become known as the Kingdom of Arles under Conrad's successors.
Line of succession to the former Saxon thrones
The conflict over the headship stems from the fact that the last undisputed head of the house Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen, and the other princes of his generation either had no children or, in the case of Prince Timo, had children (including Prince Rüdiger of Saxony) who were not recognised by Margrave Maria Emanuel as dynastic members of the Royal House of Saxony. The first designated dynastic heir of Maria Emanuel was his and Albert's nephew Prince Johannes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, only son of their youngest sister Princess Mathilde of Saxony by her marriage to Prince Johannes Heinrich of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, dynast of a ducal branch of the House of Wettin senior patrilineally to the royal branch.
Archduke Felix of Austria
Archduke Felix of Austria (given names: "Felix Friedrich August Maria vom Siege Franz Joseph Peter Karl Anton Robert Otto Pius Michael Benedikt Sebastian Ignatius Marcus d'Aviano"; 31 May 1916 – 6 September 2011) was the last surviving child of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I and a member of the House of Habsburg. He was a younger brother of former Crown Prince Otto of Austria, who predeceased Felix by two months.
Maximilian, Hereditary Prince of Saxony
Since he was the youngest son of the family, Maximilian initially had little chance to inherit the Electorate of Saxony. However, by 1800, Maximilian was the third in line to the Electorate, because all the children of his two older brothers, Frederick Augustus and Anthony, died in infancy, except Maria Augusta, Frederick Augustus's only surviving offspring. After the creation of the Kingdom of Saxony in 1806, Maximilian became a Prince of Saxony.
Titles and emblems of the German Emperor after 1873
In contrast to most of the other states of the Confederation of the Rhine, Saxony had remained loyal to Napoleon during the German Campaign of 1813. Prussia wanted to incorporate the state as a part of Prussia. The complete removal of the Saxon state was prevented at the Congress of Vienna by Austrian state Chancellor Metternich, but Prussia was able to annex three-fifths of Saxony territory. Saxony lost, among other things, the Wittenberg district, the former Duchy of Saxony, next to Torgau, Lower Lusatia, half of Upper Lusatia and all the regions in Thuriniga. The King of Prussia therefore called himself "Duke of Saxony".
List of rulers of Saxony
This article lists dukes, electors, and kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 9th century to the end of the Saxon Kingdom in 1918.
Saxony
While the Saxons were facing pressure from Charlemagne's Franks, they were also facing a westward push by Slavs to the east. The territory of the Free State of Saxony, called White Serbia was, since the 5th century, populated by Slavs before being conquered by Germans e.g. Saxons and Thuringii. A legacy of this period is the Sorb population in Saxony. Eastern parts of present Saxony were ruled by Poland between 1002 and 1032 and by Bohemia since 1293.
Albert I, Duke of Saxony
Albert I () (c. 1175 – 7 October 1260) was a Duke of Saxony, Angria, and Westphalia; Lord of Nordalbingia; Count of Anhalt; and Prince-elector and Archmarshal of the Holy Roman Empire. Even though his grandfather Albert the Bear had held the Saxon dukedom between 1138 and 1142, this Albert is counted as the first.
August of Saxony
August of Saxony (7 September 1589, Dresden – 26 December 1615, Naumburg) from the Albertine line of the House of Wettin was Administrator of the diocese of Naumburg-Zeitz.
Prince Johann Georg of Saxony
Prince "Johann Georg" Pius Karl Leopold Maria Januarius Anacletus of Saxony, Duke of Saxony (Full German name: "Prinz Johann Georg Pius Karl Leopold Maria Januarius Anacletus von Sachsen, Herzog zu Sachsen") (born 10 July 1869 in Dresden, Saxony; died 24 November 1938 at Schloss Altshausen in Altshausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) was the sixth child and second-eldest son of George of Saxony and his wife Maria Anna of Portugal and a younger brother of the Kingdom of Saxony's last king, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Johann Georg was a well-known arts expert and an avid art collector.
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad inherited a kingdom troubled by numerous problems. The duchies of Saxony and Lorraine were in opposition to his rule, as well as his cousin Conrad of Carinthia. To secure his reign, Conrad went on a tour of Germany, making stops in Augsburg to receive the support of Bishop Bruno, and at Strasbourg to receive the support of Bishop Werner, the brothers of the late Emperor Henry II. Both were appointed to high-ranking offices at Conrad's court. Traveling from Cologne to Aachen, the site of Charlemagne's old capital, Conrad continued the tradition of claiming the right to rule Germany as successor to Charlemagne. Despite the continuance of this Ottonian tradition, the Duchy of Lorraine still did not accept his rule. Conrad then traveled north to Saxony, visiting Abbess Adelaide I of Quedlinburg and Abbess Sophia I of Gandersheim, both daughters of the late Ottonian Emperor Otto II. Their support of Conrad's rule greatly influenced the Saxony nobility. Celebrating Christmas at Minden, the Saxon nobles, led by Duke Bernard II, recognized Conrad as their king after he promised he would respect Saxon law. Conrad and Gisela would remain in Saxony during the winter until March 1025. Upon leaving Saxony, Conrad traveled to the Duchy of Swabia, celebrating Easter at Augsburg. He then traveled to the Duchy of Bavaria to celebrate Pentecost at Regensburg. Conrad next traveled to Zurich near the German-Burgundian border. In 1016, Emperor Henry II forced the childless Burgundian King Rudolph III to name him as his heir. With Henry's death in 1024, Conrad claimed the same rights over Burgundy. This ended his tour of Germany, visiting all major regions of the kingdom within ten months of his election.
History of Saxony
Otto I laid the basis of the organization of the Church in this territory by making the chief fortified places which he established in the different marks the sees of dioceses. The Byzantine emperors also aided much in bringing to Christianity the great Slavonic people, the Poles, who lived on the right bank of the Oder, as for a time the Polish country was under German suzerainty. The beginnings of Christian civilization among the Slavs were largely destroyed by the Slavonic rebellions in the years 980 and 1060. In 960 Otto I had transferred the ducal authority over Saxony to a Count Hermann, who had distinguished himself in the struggle with the Slavs, and the ducal title became hereditary in Count Hermann's family. This old Duchy of Saxony, as it is called in distinction from the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, became the centre of the opposition of the German princes to the imperial power during the era of the Franconian or Salian emperors. With the death of Duke Magnus in 1106 the Saxon ducal family, frequently called the Billung line, became extinct. The Emperor Henry V (1106–25) gave the Duchy of Saxony in fief to Count Lothair of Supplinburg, who in 1125 became King of Germany, and at his death (1137) transferred the Duchy of Saxony to his son-in-law, Duke Henry the Proud, of the princely family of the Welf (Guelph). The hundred years of war waged by the family of Guelph with the Hohenstaufen emperors is famous in history. The son of Henry the Proud (died 1139) was Henry the Lion (died 1195), who extended German authority and Christianity into the present Mecklenburg and Pomerania, and re-established Christianity in the territories devastated by the Slavonic revolts. Henry the Lion refused to aid the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in his campaign against the cities of Lombardy in 1176, consequently in 1180 the ban of the empire was proclaimed against Henry at Würzburg, and 1181 the old Duchy of Saxony was cut up at the Diet of Gelnhausen into many small portions. The greater share of its western portion was given, as the Duchy of Westphalia, to the Archbishopric of Cologne. The Saxon bishops, who had before this possessed sovereign authority in their territories, though under the suzerainty of the Duke of Saxony, gained imperial immediacy subject only to the imperial government; the case was the same with a large number of secular counties and cities.
History of Saxony
The new kingdom was an ally of France in all the Napoleonic wars of the years 1807-13. At the beginning of the great German Campaign of 1813 the king sided neither with Napoleon nor with his allied opponents, but united his troops with those of France when Napoleon threatened to treat Saxony as a hostile country. At the Battle of Leipzig (16–18 October 1813), when Napoleon was completely defeated, the greater part of the Saxon troops deserted to the allied forces. The King of Saxony was taken as a Prussian prisoner to the Castle of Friedrichsfeld near Berlin. The Congress of Vienna (1814–15) took from Saxony the greater part of its land and gave it to Prussia, namely with about 850,000 inhabitants; this ceded territory included the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, the former possessions of the Dioceses of Merseburg and Naumburg, a large part of Lusatia, etc. What Prussia had obtained, with the addition of some old Prussian districts, was formed into the Province of Saxony.
The Kingdom of Saxony had left only an area of with a population at that era of 1,500,000 inhabitants; under these conditions it became a member of the German Confederation that was founded in 1815. King John (1854–73) sided with Austria in the struggle between Prussia and Austria as to the supremacy in Germany. Consequently, in the War of 1866, when Prussia was successful, the independence of Saxony was once more in danger; only the intervention of the Austrian Emperor saved Saxony from being entirely absorbed by Prussia. The kingdom, however, was obliged to join the North German Confederation of which Prussia was the head. In 1871 Saxony became one of the states of the newly founded German Empire. King John was followed by his son King Albert (1873–1902); Albert was succeeded by his brother George (1902–04); the son of George is King Frederick Augustus III. Prince Maximilian (born 1870), a brother of the present king, became a priest in 1896, was engaged in parish work in London and Nuremberg, and since 1900 has been a professor of canon law and liturgy in the University of Freiburg in Switzerland. The Kingdom of Saxony is the fifth state of the German Empire in area and third in population; in 1905 the average population per square mile was 778.8. Saxony is the most densely peopled state of the empire, and indeed of all Europe; the reason is the very large immigration on account of the development of manufactures. In 1910 the population amounted to 5,302,485; of whom 218,033 were Catholics; 4,250,398 Evangelical Lutherans; 14,697 Jews; and a small proportion of other denominations. The Catholic population of Saxony owes its present numbers largely to immigration during the 19th century. Catholicism that can be traced back to the period before the Reformation is found only in one section, the governmental department of Bautzen. Even here there is no continuous Catholic district, but there are a number of villages where the population is almost entirely Catholic, and two cities (Ostritz and Schirgiswalde) where Catholics are in the majority. It should also be mentioned that about 1.5 of the inhabitants of Saxony consists of the remains of a Slavonic tribe called by the Germans Wends, and in their own language "Serbjo". These Wends, who number about 120,000 persons and live in Saxon and Prussian Lusatia, are entirely surrounded by a German population; consequently owing to German influence the Wendic language, manners, and customs are gradually disappearing. About 50,000 Wends live in the Kingdom of Saxony; of these about 12,000 belong to the Catholic Church; some fifty Wendic villages are entirely Catholic. There is also a large Wendic population in the city of Bautzen, where among 30,000 inhabitants 7,000 are Wends.
John I, Duke of Saxony
Duke John I of Saxony (1249 – 30 July 1285, Wittenberg upon Elbe) was the elder son of Duke Albert I of Saxony and his third wife Helen of Brunswick and Lunenburg, a daughter of Otto the Child. John and his younger brother Albert II jointly ruled the Duchy of Saxony after the death of their father Albert I in 1260.
Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (German: Ernst I. Friedrich Paul Georg Nikolaus von Sachsen-Altenburg) (16 September 1826 in Hildburghausen – 7 February 1908 in Altenburg), was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the first son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Marie Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1853 he succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was of a retiring disposition and he took little active part in running the country. After a reign that lasted fifty five years, he died without a living direct male heir; because of this, he was succeeded by his nephew, Ernst.
Duchy of Saxony
The Duchy of Saxony (, ) was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Saxony was one of the five German stem duchies of East Francia; Duke Henry the Fowler was elected German king in 919.
Widukind of Corvey
In view of his name, he possibly was a descendant of the Saxon leader and national hero Widukind, mentioned in the "Royal Frankish Annals", who had battled Charlemagne in the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Widukind the Chronicler entered the Benedictine abbey of Corvey in the Westphalian part of Saxony around 940/42, probably to become a tutor. It is widely assumed that he had reached the age of 15 upon his access, though it has been recently suggested that he may have joined the Order as a child. In 936 Henry the Fowler, the first East Frankish king of the Saxon ducal Ottonian dynasty had died and was succeeded by his son Otto the Great.
Rudolf Heinze
From July to November 1918, Heinze was Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Saxony and briefly the last "Ministerpräsident" of the King of Saxony.
List of rulers of Saxony
The male line of the Saxe-Lauenburgish Ascanians was extinguished in 1689, after Julius Francis' death. In spite of having left two daughters to inherit the rights to the duchy, the House of Welf usurped the duchy, preventing the succession of the legitimate heiress, Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, and resucceeded with its Brunswick and Lunenburg-Celle line. In fact, George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg was a great-great-grandson of Magnus I through his great-grandmother Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. His descendants became Monarchs of Great Britain from 1714 on. In 1814, after being deposed by various occupations in the Napoleonic Wars, George III's son, Regent George agreed to pass Saxe-Lauenburg to his Danish cousin in a general territorial realignment at the Congress of Vienna. This cousin was Frederick VI of Denmark, who changed the official colours of Saxe-Lauenburg to red and gold. The duchy changed hands again when, in 1865, Christian IX of Denmark was deposed in Second Schleswig War and resigned by Treaty of Vienna; Saxe-Lauenburg passed to William I of Prussia, to whom the Estates of Saxe-Lauenburg offered the ducal throne. The coat-of-arms of Saxe-Lauenburg was changed to the colours red and silver, with a border in the Prussian colours of black and white. Both duke and estates decided to merge Saxe-Lauenburg into Prussia, as district Duchy of Lauenburg, with effect from 1 July 1876.
Albrecht von Thaer
Albrecht von Thaer (2 June 1868 - 23 June 1957) was a German General Staff Officer and of the last King of Saxony. He came to prominence in connection with his successful participation in the controversial in 1892 and, later, on account of his First World War diaries, when these were published posthumously.
Saxons
The Saxons long resisted becoming Christians and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom. In 776 the Saxons promised to convert to Christianity and vow loyalty to the king, but, during Charlemagne's campaign in Hispania (778), the Saxons advanced to Deutz on the Rhine and plundered along the river. This was an oft-repeated pattern when Charlemagne was distracted by other matters. 
They were conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns, the Saxon Wars (772804). With defeat came enforced baptism and conversion as well as the union of the Saxons with the rest of the Germanic, Frankish empire. Their sacred tree or pillar, a symbol of Irminsul, was destroyed. Charlemagne also deported 10,000 Nordalbingian Saxons to Neustria and gave their now largely vacant lands in Wagria (approximately modern Plön and Ostholstein districts) to the loyal king of the Abotrites. Einhard, Charlemagne's biographer, says on the closing of this grand conflict:
Archduchess Ilona of Austria
Archduchess Ilona (Helene) of Austria was born in Budapest, Hungary the second daughter and child of Archduke Joseph Francis of Austria and his wife Princess Anna of Saxony. Her father was the son of Archduke Joseph August of Austria who was one of the heads of the provisional government of Hungary following the removal of King Charles IV. Her mother was a daughter of the last king of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III.
Electorate of Saxony
After the dissolution of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the name "Saxony" was first applied to a small territory midway along the river Elbe, around the city of Wittenberg, which had formerly belonged to the March of Lusatia. Around 1157 it was held by Albert the Bear, the first Margrave of Brandenburg. When Emperor Frederick Barbarossa deposed the Saxon duke, Henry the Lion in 1180, the Wittenberg lands belonged to Albert's youngest son, Count Bernhard of Anhalt, who assumed the Saxon ducal title. Bernard's eldest son, Albert I, ceded the territory known as, Anhalt to his younger brother, Henry, retaining the ducal title and attched to this territory the lordship of Lauenburg. His sons divided the territory into the duchies of Saxe-Wittenberg and Saxe-Lauenburg. Both lines claimed the Saxon "electoral dignity" or privilege, which led to confusion during the 1314 election of the Wittelsbach duke, Louis of Bavaria as King of the Romans against his Habsburg rival, Duke Frederick the Fair of Austria, as both candidates received one vote each from each of the two rival Ascanian branches.
Louis was succeeded by the Luxembourg king, Charles of Bohemia. After his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in 1355, Charles issued the "Golden Bull of 1356", the fundamental law of the Empire settling the method of electing the "German King" by seven Prince-electors. The rival Wittelsbach and Habsburg dynasties got nothing, instead the Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg, Archmarshal of the Empire, received the right to elect the King of the Romans and the prospective Emperor, together with six other elector Princes of the Empire. Thus, the country, though small in area, gained influence far beyond its extent.
East Francia
In 911 Saxon, Franconian, Bavarian and Swabian nobles no longer followed the tradition of electing someone from the Carolingian dynasty as a king to rule over them and on November 10, 911 elected one of their own as the new king. Because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it very hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and struggle against Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria cost Conrad I his life. On his deathbed Conrad I chose Henry of Saxony as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne. Henry, who was elected to kingship by only Saxons and Franconians at Fritzlar, had to subdue other dukes and concentrated on creating a state apparatus which was fully utilized by his son and successor Otto I. By his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power as was happening in West Francia and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. After Otto I was crowned as the Emperor in Rome in 962 the era of the Holy Roman Empire began.
Duchy of Saxony
The Saxons were one of the most robust groups in the late tribal culture of the times, and eventually bequeathed their tribe's name to a variety of more and more modern geopolitical territories from Old Saxony () near the mouth of the Elbe up the river via the Prussian Province of Saxony (in present-day Saxony-Anhalt) to Upper Saxony, the Electorate and Kingdom of Saxony from 1806 corresponding with the German Free State of Saxony, which bears the name today though it was not part of the medieval duchy (see map on the right).
John of Saxony
When his uncle Anton succeeded his older brother as king (1827), John became the third in line to the throne, and after his father Maximilian renounced his succession rights in 1830, John became in the second in line. John's older brother became King Frederick Augustus II in 1836; now he was the first in line of succession to the throne. The King, married twice, was childless. John remained as heir presumptive during all the reign of his brother.
John became King of Saxony after the death of his brother Frederick Augustus II on 9 August 1854.
Louis the Younger
Louis the Younger (830/835 – 20 January 882), sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis II the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and his elder brother Carloman as King of Bavaria from 880 to 882. He died in 882 and was succeeded in all his territories, which encompassed most of East Francia, by his younger brother, Charles the Fat, already King of Italy and Emperor.
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony
Frederick Augustus also did not participate in the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, which led to the final dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. With respect to the Prussian idea of a north German empire, within which Saxony was supposed to be raised to a kingdom, he appeared reserved. However, when Napoleon advanced as far as Thuringia after September 1806 in response to the Berlin Ultimatum, which demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the left bank of the Rhine, Frederick Augustus joined with Prussia. At the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 the Prussian – Saxon troops suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Napoleon. Separated from Prussia, whose state and army leadership withdrew headlong to the east, left without any information concerning Prussian intentions, and with Napoleon's troops about to occupy Saxony, Frederick Augustus had to conclude peace. On 11 December 1806 in Poznań a treaty was signed by authorized representatives of both sides. Saxony was forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine and had to surrender areas of Thuringia to the recently organized Kingdom of Westphalia. As compensation, Saxony was given the area around Cottbus and was raised to the status of a kingdom alongside the Confederation states of Bavaria and Württemberg.
Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
Ernst became the only former reigning German prince who accepted German Democratic Republic citizenship after World War II, refusing an offer to leave his beloved "Palace of Happy Returning" and relocate to the British occupation zone. The Schloß had been confiscated by the Soviet occupiers, but Ernst had been granted free use of it until his death. In March 1954, with the death of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he became the last survivor of the German princes who had reigned until 1918. One year later, he died at the Schloß.
Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, Duke of Saxony () (9 December 1896 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony – 14 June 1971 in Neckarhausen, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany) was a member of the Saxon Royal Family. Ernst Heinrich was the youngest son of the last Saxon monarch Frederick Augustus III and his wife Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany. From 1923 through 1945, Ernst Heinrich was Administrative Chief of the association „"House of Wettin – Albertinische Linie e.V.“".
Prince Maximilian of Saxony (1870–1951)
Maximilian Wilhelm August Albert Karl Gregor Odo of Saxony was born in Dresden, capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, the seventh of the eight children of Prince George of Saxony and his wife Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal. He was born with the titles Prince and Duke of Saxony, with the style Royal Highness. Amongst his siblings was the last Saxon king Frederick Augustus III and Princess Maria Josepha mother of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I.
Princess Sophie of Luxembourg
Sophie married Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, youngest son of the last Saxon monarch Frederick Augustus III and his wife Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany, on 12 April 1921 at Schloss Hohenburg. Sophie and Ernst Heinrich had three sons, three grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren:Sophie died on 24 May 1941 at age 39 in Munich of pneumonia. Following her death, Ernst Heinrich married secondly and morganatically to Virginia Dulon on 28 June 1947 in Paris.
Carola of Vasa
Carola of Vasa (Karoline Frederikke Franziska Stephanie Amalia Cecilia; 5 August 1833 at Schönbrunn – 15 December 1907 at Dresden) was a titular princess of Sweden, and the queen consort of Saxony. She was the last Queen of Saxony.
Saxons
The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to the terms offered by the king; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people.
Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries such as the Abodrites and the Wends, often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the 10th century, but they lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, into war in Lombardy.
Kingdom of Saxony
Wilhelm I's grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 as a result of Germany's defeat in World War I. King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony followed him into abdication and the erstwhile Kingdom of Saxony became the Free State of Saxony within the newly formed Weimar Republic.
Albert II, Duke of Saxony
The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295. The definite partitioning of the Duchy of Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg, jointly ruled by the brothers Albert III, Eric I and John II and Saxe-Wittenberg, ruled by Albert II took place before 20 September 1296, when the Vierlande, Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg), the Land of Ratzeburg, the Land of Darzing (later Amt Neuhaus), and the Land of Hadeln are mentioned as the separate territory of the brothers. Albert II received Saxe-Wittenberg around the eponymous city and Belzig. Albert II thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg.
Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Bernhard III Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht Georg, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1 April 1851 – 16 January 1928), was the last reigning duke of Saxe-Meiningen.
Saxe-Gessaphe
However the Margrave's brother, Prince Albert, subsequently stated that he did not accept that decision as binding. He preferred that Rüdiger Prinz von Sachsen, the son of his first cousin the late Prince Timo of Saxony (1923 - 1982) (and Rüdiger's three sons) succeed to the royal Saxon claim. Since Rüdiger's mother was a commoner, retroactive "de-morganatization" of the late Timo's marriage was required to "dynaticize" his offspring, an act the agnates of the royal house who participated in the 1997 decision did not undertake. In some circumstances German princely law ("Fürstenrecht") did allow a consensus of dynasts - or the last surviving male dynast - to dynasticize the issue of a morganatic marriage through unanimous and irrevocable action. Albert had become the last prince of the male line when he died on 6 October 2012).
Titles and emblems of the German Emperor after 1873
The House of Ascania was enfeoffed with a reduced Duchy of Saxony after the fall of Henry the Lion. The Ascanians divided this duchy into the Duchies of Saxe-Lauenberg and Saxe-Wittenberg. When the male line of the Lauenberg branch died out the House of Welf which ruled Hanover usurped the title, but was later confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor. After Napoleon's defeat the Welfs gave Saxe-Lauenberg to the King of Denmark. After the Second Schleswig War the King of Denmark renounced the title, and King William I of Prussia, descended from a previous Duke of Saxe-Lauenberg, was elected duke and later annexed Saxe-Lauenberg to Prussia.
House of Sax
Johann Peter (1462-1540) was the last Count of Sax-Misox. He fought numerous incursions into his lands by the Confederation, Milan and the cadet line of Sax-Grono. As Milan the still occupied the Misox valley, he sold it in 1480 to the Milanese commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Three years later he sold the estates in the high valleys of Graubünden. Through his second marriage with the Countess Clementine from Montfort-Werdenberg, Johann Peter gained the county of Werdenberg and Wartau in 1483. Short of money he sold Werdenberg and Wartau and to the city of Lucerne in 1485. Impoverished, he entered the service of the Dukes of Austria and Milan. He died in Castrisch and was buried in the local church.
List of rulers of Saxony
The Holy Roman Empire came to an end in 1806. The Elector of Saxony, allied to Napoleon I, anticipated its dissolution by becoming the ruler of an independent Kingdom of Saxony in 1806.