Albrecht

Aantekeningen:

1428: keurvorst van Saksen
Vijftiende gekende schakel van het huis van Wettin en Saksen.

Wettin DYNASTY,

major European dynasty, genealogically traceable to the start of the 10th century AD. Its earliest known ancestors were active in pushing Germany's frontier eastward into formerly Slav territory; and by the end of the 1080s two of their descendants, brothers, held not only the countship of Wettin (on a crossing of the Saale River downstream from Halle), but also, farther east, the margravate of Meissen (on the Elbe River). The Wettins of Meissen vastly enlarged their line's territory by becoming landgraves of Thuringia in 1264 and electors of Saxony in 1423.

Of major importance was the division of the Wettin dynasty into Ernestine and Albertine lines in 1485. The Albertines secured the electorate of Saxony from the Ernestines in 1547. The Ernestines retained thereafter some less important possessions in Thuringia which they constantly subdivided between themselves. Their possessions became known as the Saxon duchies and included
Saxe-Weimar, saksen-Coburg, saksen-Eisenach, saksen-Altenburg, and saksen-Gotha, among others. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Ernestine Wettins of the saksen-Coburg branch rose to unprecedented heights. One became king of the Belgians as Leopold I in 1831, and another, Albert, married the British queen Victoria in 1840 and was the ancestor of five successive British
sovereigns (though the name Wettin was rarely cited in England, and that of the house of saksen-Coburg-Gotha was officially changed, for the British, to the house of Windsor in 1917). Yet another Ernestine, Ferdinand, married Maria II of Portugal in 1836 and was the founder of the Portuguese royal house that reigned from 1853 to 1910. And finally, a fourth Ernestine became
prince of Bulgaria in 1887 and king in 1908, as Ferdinand I, with his descendant reigning until 1946.

The Albertines were electors of Saxony from 1547 and kings from 1806 to 1918. They also provided two kings of Poland, Augustus II and Augustus III, between 1697 and 1763. See also Saxon duchies; Windsor, house of.

Saxon duchies,

also called ERNESTINE DUCHIES, German SÄCHSISCHE HERZOGTÜMER, or ERNESTINISCHE HERZOGTÜMER, several former states in the Thuringian region of east-central Germany, ruled by members of the Ernestine branch of the house of Wettin between 1485 and 1918; today their territory occupies Thuringia Land (state) and a small portion of northern Bavaria Land
in Germany.

The house of Wettin had accumulated possessions in Thuringia from the middle decades of the 13th century onward. It received the Pleissnerland, centred at Altenburg, from the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II in 1243; won the landgraviate of Thuringia, with control over the Eisenach and Gotha areas, in 1264, after the war of 1256-63; obtained Neustadt by marriage to the heiress of Arnshaugk in 1300; acquired Coburg and Hildburghausen from the house of Henneberg, and Weimar from that of Orlamünde,
between 1347 and 1374; and purchased Saalfeld from Schwarzburg in 1389 and Weida from the house of the Vögte (imperial advocates) in 1410-27. The accession of the Wettins to the electorate of Saxony in 1423 gave rise to the use of the prefix saksen- (German: Sachsen-) for their dynastic ramifications in Thuringia.

The Ernestine duchies originated in 1485, when the electorate of Saxony was partitioned between Ernest and Albert, the sons of Elector Frederick II. The title of elector (i.e., a prince with the right to participate in choosing the Holy Roman emperor) was kept by Ernest, and by his son Frederick III the Wise (reigned 1486-1525), who was the protector of Martin Luther. The Ernestine line lost the electoral title and much of its territory in 1547 but retained Weimar (with Jena), Gotha, Eisenach, Saalfeld, and Coburg
and later recovered Altenburg, Eisenberg (1554), and other lands (including Meiningen) in 1583. From then until the early 19th century, the Ernestine lands underwent successive divisions and regroupings. The most outstanding ruler of saksen-Weimar-Eisenach was Charles Augustus (duke from 1775 to 1828), patron of the great German writers Goethe, Herder, and Schiller, under whom Weimar was the intellectual heart of Germany. All the Ernestine duchies in 1807 adhered to the Confederation of the Rhine, organized by Napoleon, and in 1815 became sovereign members of the German Confederation.

From 1826 there were four duchies: the grand duchy of saksen-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach); the duchy of
Saxe-Meiningen-Hildburghausen (Sachsen-Meiningen-Hildburghausen); the duchy of saksen-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg); and the duchy of saksen-Coburg-Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha). The territories of the duchies were fragmented, and in the same area there were several exclaves of Prussian and other territories. saksen-Meiningen-Hildburghausen sided with Austria in the Seven Weeks' War (1866); the other duchies with victorious Prussia. All joined the North German Confederation (1867) and the
German Empire in 1871. In the German revolution of 1918 all the Ernestine rulers abdicated, and in 1920 their former lands were merged in the new Thuringia, with the exception of Coburg, which joined Bavaria.

The saksen-Coburg-Gotha branch in the 19th and 20th centuries became one of the most prominently connected of the European dynasties: one of its members became the first king of Belgium in 1831 as Leopold I. Another, Albert, became the prince consort of Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1840, and from them have descended the five British sovereigns of the 20th century. A third, Ferdinand, became the prince consort of Queen Maria II of Portugal in 1836, and from them descended the Portuguese royal dynasty that reigned from 1853 until 1910. A fourth was chosen prince of Bulgaria in 1887 and founded a dynasty that reigned there until 1946.

Friedrich trouwt Margaretha van OOSTENRIJK 3 jun 1431. Margaretha geboren 1416/1417; overleden 12 feb 1486. [Gezinsblad]

Aantekeningen:

daughter of the duke Ernest of Austria