Wettin (dynasty)

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The Wettin dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors (Kurfürsten) and kings ruled the area of today's German state of Saxony for more than 800 years as well as holding for a time the kingship of Poland. Agnates of the House of Wettin have, at various times, ascended to the thrones of Great Britain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Poland, Saxony, and Belgium; of these, only the British and Belgian lines retain their thrones today.

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[edit] Origins: Wettins of Saxony

The Wettin family first came to prominence with their creation as margraves of Meissen in 1089. The family advanced over the course of the Middle Ages, being created landgraves of Thuringia in 1263, and dukes of Saxony in 1423 with the dignity of electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 when the sons of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony concluded that 20 years of joint rule had not been satisfactory. The elder son Ernest, Elector of Saxony received the power of the Electorship and established his seat at Wittenberg, and his younger brother Albert, Duke of Saxony ruled his lands from Dresden. Saxony was thus divided into Electoral Saxony (mainly coextensive with Thuringia), ruled by the Ernestine Wettins, and Ducal Saxony (mainly coextensive with the modern Saxony), ruled by the Albertine Wettins.

[edit] Ernestine and Albertine Wettins

The inheritance patterns of the two branches differed markedly. Albertine Wettins maintained most of the territorial integrity of Saxony, preserving it as a significant power in the region, and using small appanage fiefs for their cadet branches, which a bit surprisingly did not survive really many generations. The Ernestine Wettins, on the other hand, repeatedly subdivided their territory, creating an intricate patchwork of small duchies and counties in Thuringia. Additionally, in 1540s, about a half of Ernestine branch's lands passed to the Albertine branch because of the actions of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, against protestant uprisings. In the end, the Albertine branch held, in one hands (as one country), approximately three fourths of the House's patrimony, and the Ernestine branch had altogether approximately one fourth (southern Thuringia) as a bunch of small principalities.

The junior Albertine branch ruled as electors of Saxony (1547-1806), kings of Poland (1697 - 1763) and Saxony (1806 - 1918), and headed the French-backed Duchy of Warsaw (1807 - 1814) after Russian invasion had thwarted its assumption of a hereditary Polish kingship under the Polish Constitution of 1791. At Napoleonic Wsrs, Albertine branch lost about 40% of its lands to Prussia.

[edit] The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Main article: Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

The senior Ernestine branch lost the electorship to the Albertine in 1547, but retained its holdings in Thuringia, dividing the area into a number of smaller states. One of the resulting Ernestine houses, that of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, went on to contribute kings of Belgium (from 1831) and Bulgaria (1908 - 1946), as well as furnishing consorts to queens of Portugal and the United Kingdom (Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria). As such, the British and Portuguese thrones became a possession of persons who belonged to the House of Wettin. The actual name Wettin, a German medievalism, was never used in Britain.[citation needed]

Although the British Royal Family's Royal House name was Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the male-line descendants of Victoria and Albert had their own House name as well as their personal surname changed to Windsor by an Order-in-Council of King George V in 1917.

As a result of Queen Elizabeth II's marriage to Prince Philip of Greece, the throne will pass to his House, agnatically Oldenburg, although they will probably continue using the name Windsor as a house name and Mountbatten-Windsor as a personal surname, as prescribed by Queen Elizabeth's 1960 Order-in-Council.

Mountbatten is an Anglicisation of Battenberg, the title of Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.

[edit] List of families, sub-houses and branches of the House of Wettin and its agnatic descent

  • Margraves of Meissen
  • Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves of Thuringia
  • Electors of Saxony
  • Dukes of Saxe-Coburg
  • Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg (first line of Altenburg)
  • Dukes of Saxe-Weimar
  • Brena family
  • Dukes of Saxe-Eisenach
  • Dukes of Saxe-Gotha
  • Dukes of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg (second line of Altenburg)
  • Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen
  • Dukes of Saxe-Hildburghausen, then Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg (third line of Altenburg)
  • Dukes of Saxe-Coburg (Gotha later added)
  • House of Windsor
  • Princes of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary
  • Saxe-Coburg-Braganza, last reigning Royal House of Portugal
  • Royal House of Bulgaria (sometimes had been known as "Kohary" and as "Sakskoburggotski")
  • Royal House of Belgium ("de Belgique")
  • Dukes of "Saxe-Dresden"
  • Electors of Saxony
  • Royal House of Saxony, currently Prinz/ Prinzessin von Sachsen
  • Saxe-Zeitz
  • Saxe-Merseburg
  • Saxe-Weissenfels
  • Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves of Thuringia, Dukes of Luxembourg
  • Saxe-Landsberg

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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