Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, Prince of Kohary
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Ferdinand Georg August of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. Coburg, 28 March 1785 - d. Vienna, 27 August 1851), was German prince of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and prince of Čabrad and Sitno, both in the today Slovakia.
He was born Prince Ferdinand Georg August of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke in Saxony, as the second son of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, and later became a prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha after the territorial swap by his father in Ehrenburg Castle in the Bavarian town of Coburg.
In Vienna on 30 November 1815 Ferdinand married with Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág, a Catholic Hungarian noblewoman and the richest heiress of his time, heiress of Čabrad and Sitno, both in the today Slovakia. They had four children:
- Ferdinand August Franz Anton (b. Vienna, 29 October 1816 - d. Lisbon, 15 December 1885), King Consort of Portugal.
- August Ludwig Viktor (b. Vienna, 13 June 1818 - d. Schloß Ebenthal, 26 July 1881).
- Viktoria Franziska Antonia Juliane Luise (b. Vienna, 14 February 1822 - d. Claremont House, 10 November 1857), married on 26 April 1840 to Louis d'Orléans, Duc de Nemours.
- Leopold Franz Julius (b. Vienna, 31 January 1824 - d. Vienna, 20 May 1884).
In 1826 Ferenc József, Fürst Koháry de Csábrág et Szitnya (Ferdinand's father-in-law), died, and he assumed the headship of the house and the title of Fürst Kohary de Csábrág et Szitnya (Čabrad and Sitno) by the right of his wife.[citation needed] From here, his line took the name of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary.
Because of the inheritance of Kohary, this branch of the previously fully Protestant Coburg family became Catholics, and good marriage material to Catholic royalties.
