- House of Wettin
Royal house
surname = House of Wettin
estate = Saxony, Meissen and Thuringia
coat of arms =
country =Saxony
titles = Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia, Duke of Saxony, Grand Duke of Saxony, Elector of Saxony, King of Saxony, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Poland#Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Poland#Dukes_of_Warsaw Duke of Warsaw]
founder = Thiedericus
final ruler = Multiple sovereigns until 1918
current head = Prince Michael, titular Grand Duke of Saxony
founding year = 900s A.D.
dissolution = 1918
nationality = German
cadet branches = In order of seniority:Ernestine:Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Grand Duchy of Saxony)Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Albertine:Saxony (Kingdom of Saxony )The House of Wettin was a dynasty of German
count s,duke s, prince-electors (Kurfürsten) and kings that ruled the area of today's German states ofSaxony , the Saxon part ofSaxony-Anhalt andThuringia for more than 800 years as well as holding at times the kingship ofPoland . Agnates of the House of Wettin have, at various times, ascended the thrones ofGreat Britain ,Portugal ,Bulgaria ,Poland ,Saxony , andBelgium ; of these, only the British andBelgian lines retain their thrones today. (See list of members.)Origins: Wettins of Saxony
The oldest member of the House of Wettin who is known for certain was Thiedericus (died 982), who was probably based in the
Liesgau (located at the western edge of theHarz ). Around 1000, as part of the German conquest of Slavic territory, the family acquiredWettin Castle , after which they named themselves. Wettin Castle is located in Wettin in theHosgau on theSaale River . Around 1030, the Wettin family received the Eastern March as a fief. [ Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. IX, col. 50, Munich 1969-1999]The prominence of the Wettin family in the Slavic
marches caused Emperor Henry IV to invest them with theMarch of Meissen as a fief in 1089. The family advanced over the course of theMiddle Ages : in 1263 they inherited the landgraviate ofThuringia (though withoutHesse ), and in 1423 they were invested with theDuchy of Saxony , centred atWittenberg , thus becoming one of theprince-elector s of theHoly Roman Empire .Ernestine and Albertine Wettins
The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 when the sons of
Frederick II, Elector of Saxony divided the territories hitherto ruled jointly.The elder son Ernest, who had succeeded his father as
Prince-elector , received the territories assigned to the Elector ("Electoral Saxony") andThuringia , while his younger brother Albert obtained theMarch of Meissen , which he ruled fromDresden . As Albert ruled under the title of "Duke of Saxony", his possessions were also known as "Ducal Saxony".The older, Ernestine branch remained predominant until 1547 and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant reformation. Their predominance ended in the
Schmalkaldic War , which pitted the ProtestantSchmalkaldic League against Emperor Charles V. Although itself Protestant, the Albertine branch rallied to the Empire's cause; Charles V rewarded them by forcing the Ernestines to sign away their rights to the Electoral title and lands to the Albertines. The Ernestine line was thereafter restricted to Thuringia, and its dynastic unity swiftly crumbled.The 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, few of which survived for significant lengths of time. The Ernestine Wettins, on the other hand, repeatedly subdivided their territory, creating an intricate patchwork of small duchies and counties in Thuringia.The junior Albertine branch ruled as Electors (1547–1806) and Kings of Saxony (1806–1918) and also played a role in Polish history: two Wettins were Kings of Poland (between 1697–1763) and a third ruled the
Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1814) as a satellite of Napoleon. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Albertine branch lost about 40% of its lands, including the old Electoral Saxony, to Prussia, restricting it to a territory coextensive with the modernSaxony ),The House of 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 regnant ofPortugal (Ferdinand II of Portugal ) and theUnited Kingdom (Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria), as well as toMaximilian I of Mexico (Carlota of Mexico, the first Belgian princess). As such, the British, Portuguese, and for a time, Mexican, thrones became a possession of persons who belonged to the House of Wettin.From George I to Queen Victoria, the British Royal family was variously called
Hanover ,Brunswick andGuelph . In the late 19th century, Queen Victoria charged theCollege of Heralds in England to determine the correct personal surname of her late husband, Prince Albert ofSaxe-Coburg and Gotha - and, thus, the proper surname of the Royal Family upon the accession of her son. After extensive research they concluded that it was Wettin, but this name was never used, either by the Queen or by her son or Grandson, Edward VII andGeorge V of the United Kingdom , but they were simply called 'Saxe-Coburg-Gotha'.Severe anti-German sentiment during
World War I led some influential members of the public to quietly question the loyalty of the Royal Family, because they had a German or German-sounding name. George V and the German-born Queen Mary thus became the first monarch and consort since Queen Anne who did not speak with a German accent. Byorder-in-council , the name of the British royal family was legally changed to Windsor, prospectively for all time.When Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952, a question arose as to whether the royal family's name would change after her to 'Mountbatten' - the name adopted by the Queen's husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, from his mother's family ('Battenberg' translated to English). The reply from
Buckingham Palace was immediate that the Royal Family's name would remain "Windsor" in perpetuity. However, the Queen issued an order in 1957, which provides that those of her descendants who do not reign and have no other title may use the surname "Mountbatten-Windsor".List of branches of the House of Wettin and its agnatic descent
* Margraves of Meissen
* Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves of Thuringia
* Electors of Saxony
* Kings of Poland and Grand Dukes of Lithuania
* Dukes ofSaxe-Coburg
* Dukes ofSaxe-Altenburg (first line of Altenburg)
* Dukes ofSaxe-Weimar
* Dukes ofSaxe-Eisenach
* Dukes ofSaxe-Gotha
* Dukes ofSaxe-Gotha and Altenburg (second line of Altenburg)
* Dukes ofSaxe-Meiningen
* Dukes ofSaxe-Hildburghausen , then Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg (third line of Altenburg)
* Dukes of Saxe-Coburg (Gotha later added)
* Kings and Queen of the United Kingdom (House of Windsor )
* Princes ofSaxe-Coburg-Kohary
* Kings of Portugal (Braganza-Wettin, last reigning from Royal House of Portugal)
* Kings of Bulgaria (sometimes had been known as "Kohary" and as "Sakskoburggotski")
* Kings of Belgium
* Dukes of "Saxe-Dresden"
* Electors of Saxony
* Kings of Saxony, currently Prinz/Prinzessin von Sachsen
*Saxe-Zeitz
*Saxe-Merseburg
*Saxe-Weissenfels
* Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves of Thuringia, Dukes of Luxembourg
*Saxe-Landsberg
*Saxe-Jena See also
*
Rulers of Saxony , a list containing many Wettins
*Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt , the city from which the Wettin dynasty originatedReferences
External links
* [http://www.die-sachsen-kommen.de/en/wettinen.htm The House of Wettin]
* [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/wettin/index.html Genealogy of the Wettin dynasty from Genealogy.eu]
* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/saxony.html Genealogical tables of the Saxony families] from [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/gotha.htm An Online Gotha]
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