The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Wettin, one of the oldest dynasties in Europe, which once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt. The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire, and many ruling monarchs outside Germany were later tied to its cadet branch, the current House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who changed to the House of Windsor in England. In 1423, Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (1370 – 1428), received the Saxon Electorate from Emperor Sigismund, founder of the Order of the Dragon. Frederick I’s son, Frederick II, Elector of Saxony (1412 – 1464), a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, married Margaret of Austria, daughter of Ernest, Duke of Austria (1377 – 1424), of the House of Habsburg and a member of the Order of the Dragon. Sigismund was succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by Margaret’s brother was Frederick III.
The family split into two ruling branches in 1485, when the sons of Frederick II agreed to the Treaty of Leipzig in 1485, dividing the territories hitherto ruled jointly. Frederick II’s elder son Ernest, Elector of Saxony (1441 – 1486), who had succeeded his father as Prince-elector, received the Electorate of Saxony and Thuringia, while his younger brother Albert III, Duke of Saxony (1443 – 1500), a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, obtained the March of Meissen, which he ruled from Dresden. Albert III’s possessions were also known as Ducal Saxony. Albert III’s son, George, Duke of Saxony, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, married Barbara Jagiellon, the sixth daughter of King Casimir IV of Poland and Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, who was named after her great-grandmother, Barbara of Cilli, who co-founded the Order of the Dragon with her husband Emperor Sigismund. Barbara was the sister of Sigismund I the Old, whose daughter Anna Jagiellon married Stephen Bathory, sponsor of John Dee and uncle of Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous “Blood Countess.”
The older Ernestine branch played a key role during the Protestant Reformation. Ernest’s son was Frederick III the Wise, Elector of Saxony (1463 – 1525), one of the most powerful early defenders of Martin Luther, hiding him at Wartburg Castle. Frederick III’s brother was Elector John (1468 – 1532), was known for organizing the Lutheran Church in the Electorate of Saxony. It was Elector John’s son John Frederick I of Saxony (1503 – 1554) who commissioned the creation of the Luther Rose, a widely recognized symbol for Lutheranism, featuring the White Rose of York, superimposed by a cross within a heart. John Frederick would go on to later head the Schmalkaldic League, a military alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire, with Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who married Christine of Saxony, the daughter of George, Duke of Saxony and Barbara Jagiellon. Philip I’s descendants would found the Rosicrucian movement. Philip I of Hesse’s granddaughter Anna of Saxony would marry the famous William the Silent, Prince of Orange (1533 – 1584). Philip’s grandson, Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, known as “the Learned,” was a close friend of the grandson of William the Silent, Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596 – 1632), whose marriage to Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James, was celebrated in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, by Johann Valentin Andreae, which followed the Rosicrucian manifestos. The invitation to the royal wedding includes John Dee’s symbol of Monas Hieroglyphica, representing the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1623, around which the advent of the Rosicrucian movement was timed.
The direct male line of the Romanovs ended when Peter the Great’s daughter Empress Elizabeth of Russia died in 1762, thus the House of Holstein-Gottorp—a cadet branch of the German House of Oldenburg that reigned in Denmark—ascended to the throne in the person of Peter III (1728 – 1762), the son of Elizabeth’s sister Anna Petrovna and Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1700 – 1739). Through his great-great-grandmother, Peter III was also descended from the Albertine branch of the German House of Wettin, founded by Albert III, Duke of Saxony, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Peter’s second wife, was his second cousin Catherine the Great (1729 – 1796), who succeeded him as Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796. Catherine the Great is remembered as one of the “Enlightened Monarchs,” because she implemented several political and cultural reforms on behalf of the Illuminati. Voltaire, with whom she maintained regular correspondence, called her “Semiramis of Russia,” in reference to the ancient Babylonian queen, on whom the worship of the goddess Astarte was based.
Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was descended from Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (1601–1675), who married John Frederick I’s great-great-granddaughter Elisabeth Sophie. The duchies were later merged into Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was founded by Ernest I’s descendant, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (1784 – 1844), the sixth duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Ernest I’s younger brother Leopold I (1790 – 1865) became King of the Belgians in 1831, and his descendants continue to serve as Belgian monarchs. Leopold I was a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, as was his son and successor, Leopold II, who infamous for his extensive atrocities as the owner Congo Free Sate. Ernest I married Louise, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the daughter of Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Alternberg (1745 – 1804), the first cousin of King George III of England. In 1775, Ernest II was appointed Grand Master of the Landesloge of Germany (Zinnendorf system), one of the founding members of the United Grand Lodges of Germany. In 1783, Ernest II became a member of the Illuminati. In 1787, following the disbanding of the order, Ernst II granted asylum in Gotha to its fugitive founder Adam Weishaupt. It was the Freemason Leopold I who promoted the marriage of his niece, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, to his nephew, Prince Albert, who thus is the progenitor of the British royal family, called the House of Windsor since 1917.
Victoria and Albert’s children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet of “the grandmother of Europe,” and spreading hemophilia in European royalty. Queen Victoria’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VII (1841 – 1910), married Princess Alexandra of Denmark, a daughter of Christian IX and the Danish Queen Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817 – 1898), of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, who had been intimately connected with the Rothschilds and the Rosicrucians. Louise’s grandfather was Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (1747 – 1837), whose brother Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel was a friend of Comte St. Germain and a member of the Illuminati and Grand Master of the Asiatic Brethren, the first to use the swastika as their symbol. Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel was descended from the Alchemical Wedding of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth Stuart. Prince Charles’ father, Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel, married Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of King George II of England, Queen Victoria’s great-great-grandfather. Queen Louise was a close friend of the wife of Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, the founder of Synarchism, Marie de Riznitch, Comtesse de Keller (1827 – 1895), a Polish noble woman with mediumistic capacities from Odessa. Marie was a relative of Ewelina Hańska, the famous patron and wife of Honoré de Balzac, and the sister of the writer Henryk Rzewuski and Russian spy Karolina Rzewuska. Karolina was a friend of Alexander Pushkin and the Frankist Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, though claim that she was his mistress.
Christian IX and Louise’s six children married into other royal families across Europe, earning him the sobriquet “the father-in-law of Europe.” The majority of the royals sitting on the thrones of Europe are his descendants. Margrethe II of Denmark, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Philippe of Belgium, Harald V of Norway, Felipe VI of Spain, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Constantine II of Greece, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, Queen Sofia of Spain, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are among his descendants. Louise of Great Britain, the youngest surviving daughter of King George II, married the King of Denmark Christian VII (1749 – 1808). In 1792, Prince Charles obtained a patent from England a Provincial Grand Master, and in the same year induced Christian VII to issue an order in Council recognizing Freemasonry his dominions on condition of being acknowledged as Grand Master. Christian VII’s grandfather, Christian VI, had been a member of Zinzendorf’s Order of the Grain of the Mustard Seed. Princess Louise Augusta of Denmark, officially regarded as the daughter of King Christian VII, married Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1765 – 1814), a member of the Illluminati. Prince William of Hesse-Kassel (1787 – 1867), the son of Charles’ brother Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, married Christian VII’s granddaughter, Princess Charlotte of Denmark.
Queen Victoria’s son, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1844 – 1900), also a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the daughter of Alexander II. Another daughter of Louise and Christian IX, Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), married Maria Alexandrovna’s brother, Tsar Alexander III (1845 – 1894), the son of Alexander II. Another daughter of Victoria, Princess Alice, married Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837 – 1892), the great-grandson of Frederick William II of Prussia, who belonged to the Golden and Rosy Cross and fell under the influence of two other members, who also belonged to the Asiatic Brethren, Johann Christoph von Wöllner and Johann Rudolf von Bischoffwerder. Their daughter, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) (1872 – 1918), married the son of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna, the last Emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II Romanov (1868 – 1918), a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (founder of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty, member of Fruitbearing Society) + Elisabeth Sophie
Elisabeth Dorothea + Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (Fruitbearing Society)
Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt + Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach
Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt + Countess Charlotte of Hanau-Lichtenberg
Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt + Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken
Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse + Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
Marie of Hesse (interested in occultism) + Alexander II of Russia
Natalia Alexeievna + Paul I Romanov
Tsar Alexander I (1801–1825, under influence of Madame von Kruderer, famous psychic and friend of Madame Germaine de Staël)
Tsar Nicholas I (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Charlotte of Prussia (1798 – 1860, d. of Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, son of Frederick William II of Prussia, who belonged to the Golden and Rosy Cross)
Tsar Alexander II (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Marie of Hesse (interested in occultism) - (see above)
Tsar Alexander III of Russia (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)
Maria Alexandrovna + Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (see below)
Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Fruitbearing Society) + Magdalena Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg + Magdalene Auguste (see below)
Dorothea Marie of Saxe-Gotha + Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (see below)
Fredericka + Johann August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (without issue)
John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (founder of ducal house of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld) + Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Merseburg
Christian Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld + Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld + Princess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld + Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf
Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg + Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (see below)
Leopold I of Belgium (first King of the Belgians, ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE, and Grand Master of the ORDER OF THE FLEUR DE LYS)
Leopold II of Belgium (ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE)
Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE) + Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
King Albert I of the Belgians (ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE) + Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria
Leopold III of Belgium (ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE) +
Albert II of Belgium (ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE)
Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel + Frederick V of Denmark
Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark + Duchess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Princess Louise Charlotte + Prince William of Hesse-Kassel
Prince William of Hesse-Kassel (1787 – 1867) + Princess Louise Charlotte
Louise of Hesse-Kassel + Christian IX of Denmark
Alexandra, Queen of the United Kingdom + King Edward VII
Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) + Tsar Alexander III
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) - (see below)
Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1649 – 1706) + Marie Hedwig of Hesse-Darmstadt
Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen + Dorothea Marie of Saxe-Gotha
Princess Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen + Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
ERNEST II, DUKE OF SAXE-GOTHA-ALTERNBURG (gave refuge to Adam Weishaupt) + Charlotte of Sase-Meiningen (see below)
Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen + Elisabeth Eleonore of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen + Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Philippsthal
Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen + ERNEST II, DUKE OF SAXE-GOTHA-ALTERNBURG (see above)
Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg + Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg + Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (see above)
Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha + QUEEN VICTORIA
Victoria, Princess Royal + Frederick III, German Emperor
Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859 – 1941)
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha + Maria Alexandrovna (see above)
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha + Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia
King Edward VII (1841 – 1910) + Alexandra, Queen of the United Kingdom (d. of Louise of Hesse-Kassel + Christian IX of Denmark)
Prince Albert Victor (1864 – 1892, aka “Jack the Ripper”)
George V (1865 – 1936) + Mary of Teck
Princess Alice + Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837 – 1892, the great-grandson of Frederick William II of Prussia, who belonged to the Golden and Rosy Cross)
Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) (1872 – 1918) + Tsar Nicholas II (Order of the Golden Fleece, 1868 – 1918)