Duke Of Saxecoburgsaalfeld Franz

Vocation

Notable

Family

Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and one of the ruling Thuringian dukes of the House of Wettin. As progenitor of a line of Coburg princes who, in the 19th and 20th centuries, mounted the thrones of several European realms, he is a patrilineal ancestor of, among others, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Philippe of Belgium and Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, former Tsar Simeon II and Prime Minister of Bulgaria. He is the great-great-great-great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. He was the eldest son of Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. In Hildburghausen on 6 March 1776, Franz married Princess Sophie of Saxe-Hildburghausen. She died on 28 October 1776, only seven months after her wedding. There were no children born from this marriage. In Ebersdorf on 13 June 1777, Franz married Countess Augusta Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf. They had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Franz was commissioned into the allied army in 1793 when his country was invaded by the Revolutionary armies of France. The allied forces included Hanoverians, Hessians, and the British. He fought in several actions against the French. Franz succeeded his father as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1800. Emperor Francis II dissolved the Holy Roman Empire on 6 August 1806, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. Duke Franz died on 9 December 1806, aged 56, in Coburg. Link to Wikipedia biography