Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Herzogtum Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg (German) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1672–1826 | |||||||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||||||
.svg) Territories of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg within the Ernestine duchies of Thuringia, before 1826 | |||||||||||||
| Status | State of theHoly Roman Empire, State of theConfederation of the Rhine, State of theGerman Confederation | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Gotha | ||||||||||||
| Government | Duchy | ||||||||||||
| Duke | |||||||||||||
• 1680–1691 | Frederick I(first) | ||||||||||||
• 1822–1825 | Frederick IV(last) | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern Europe | ||||||||||||
| 1672 | |||||||||||||
• Duchy established | 1672 | ||||||||||||
• Partitioned betweenSaxe-Coburg-Saalfeld andSaxe-Hildburghausen | 1826 | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| 1800[1] | 3,007 km2 (1,161 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1800[1] | 187,000 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (German:Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg) was a duchy ruled by theErnestine branch of theHouse of Wettin in today'sThuringia,Germany. The extinction of the line in 1825 led to a major re-organisation of theThuringian states.
In 1640 the sons of the late Ernestine dukeJohn II of Saxe-Weimar divided their paternal heritage (Ernestinische Teilung) whereby DukeErnest the Pious, a younger son, received the newly established Duchy ofSaxe-Gotha. In 1636 Ernest had marriedElisabeth Sophie, the only child of DukeJohn Philip of Saxe-Altenburg. Upon her father's death in 1639, the Duchy ofSaxe-Altenburg passed to her uncle DukeFrederick William II and her cousinFrederick William III.
The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was nominally created in 1672, when Duke Frederick William III of Saxe-Altenburg died at the age of 14 and Ernest the Pious, by his marriage with Elisabeth Sophie, inherited the major part of his possessions. It was common for theErnestine duchies to merge and split; Ernest's combined duchy was divided again after his death in 1675, and the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg proper came into existence in 1680 with the completion of this division and the accession of his eldest son,Frederick to the subdivision centered on the towns ofGotha andAltenburg.
Frederick had already served asregent in Saxe-Altenburg since 1672 and assumed responsibility for government affairs from his diseased father two years later. His residence remained atFriedenstein Castle in Gotha, he also had theBaroque palace ofFriedrichswerth built nearby. Frederick I decisively secured his family's possessions with the implementation of theprimogeniture in 1685. His son and successor DukeFrederick II gained further Ernestine territories upon the death of DukeAlbert V of Saxe-Coburg in 1699 and DukeChristian of Saxe-Eisenberg in 1707.
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg remained one of the mightiest Ernestine duchies under the rule of DukeFrederick III from 1732. He had the palaces and gardens in Gotha rebuilt in a lavish Baroque style and supported the religious refugees of theMoravian Church inNeudietendorf. His sisterAugusta married PrinceFrederick of Wales in 1736, their first-born sonGeorge III was crownedKing of Great Britain and Ireland in 1760. Frederick made his court a centre of theEnlightenment (Aufklärung), continued by his son and successorErnest II, who ruled from 1772. At the instigation ofJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, he promoted the painting oeuvre ofJohann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein; he also appointedFranz Xaver von Zach director of theGotha Observatory established in 1787.
Nevertheless, when the last dukesEmil August, a fervent admirer of the rise ofNapoleon, and his brotherFrederick 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 KingFrederick Augustus I of Saxony in 1826, the Ernestine duchies were rearranged and Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was again split:
After the abolition of German monarchies in the course of theGerman Revolution of 1918–1919, all former duchies became part of the newly created state ofThuringia in 1920.
Ernestine duchies after the Division of Erfurt (1572) | ||
|---|---|---|
|  | |
 Upper Saxon Circle (1512–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire | ||
|---|---|---|
| Electorates |  | |
| Ecclesiastical | ||
| Secular | ||
| Prelates | ||
| Counts /Lords | ||
Circles est. 1500:Bavarian,Swabian,Upper Rhenish,Lower Rhenish–Westphalian,Franconian,(Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512:Austrian,Burgundian,Upper Saxon,Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories See also:Ernestine duchies | ||
States of theConfederation of the Rhine (1806–1813) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank elevated byNapoleon |
|  | ||||||
| States created |
| |||||||
| Pre-existing states |
| |||||||
| ||||||||
States of the German Confederation (1815–1866) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empires |  | ||||||||
| Kingdoms | |||||||||
| Electorates | |||||||||
| Grand duchies | |||||||||
| Duchies |
| ||||||||
| Principalities |
| ||||||||
| Free cities | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
