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ALMANACH DE SAXE GOTHA
Societe des Amis de l' Almanach de Saxe Gotha 1763-2010
Gotha Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels

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The Original Royal Genealogical Reference Handbook

 
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THE ALMANACH DE SAXE GOTHA
Annual Genealogical Reference
1763-2010

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Welcome to the Official Website
of The Almanach de Saxe Gotha,
A Register of The Reigning and
Formerly Reigning Imperial and
Royal Sovereign Houses and The
Non-Sovereign Princely & Ducal
Houses of Europe, Together with
The Complete Listing of The Imperial
Nobility of The Holy Roman Empire 

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A Brief History of The
Almanach de Gotha

The Gotha Book entered the language in its own right with the phrase 'all the Gotha
was there'.  Historically the Gotha has charted the Ruling Royal and Princely Houses
of Europe; only coming to an end with the Soviet occupation of the former Saxon Duchy
of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha in the Year 1945 after nearly 182 years of Royal listing.
 
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The Almanach de Gotha made its debut in Saxe-Coburg in 1763, the Court which during
the 1760's under Duke Friedrich III and later under Duke Ernest II attracted the likes
of Voltaire and which in the mid 1800's produced Prince Albert as consort for Queen
Victoria. The Gotha's own familiar crown was stamped on the cover of what was to become
the ultimate power register of the ruling classes. Unmoved by government decrees or
bribes, those not included in its pages found themselves thwarted, Pretenders claims
left in ruins, by the publisher who would not compromise itself for either inclusion
- or exclusion. Napoleon's reaction was typical. On 20 October 1807 the Emperor wrote
to his Foreign Minister, de Champagny :'Monsieur de Champagny, this year's Almanach de
Gotha is badly done. I protest. There should be more of the French Nobility I have
created and less of the German Princes who are no longer sovereign. Furthermore, the
Imperial Family of Bonaparte should appear before all other royal dynasties, and let it
be clear that we and not the Bourbons are the House of France. Summon the Minister of
the Interior of Gotha at once so that I personally may order these changes'.

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Unmoved, the Almanach de Gotha simply produced two editions the following year, the first
the extremely rare "Edition for France - at His Imperial Majesty's Request" and the other
"The Gotha - Correct in All Detail" Historically the Gotha was the determining instrument
when it came to matters of protocol. Not only were orders of precedence easily checked,
but marriages between parties not listed in the same Gotha section were often considered
unequal at some courts, participants thereby loosing dynastic privileges and sometimes
title and rank. The term morganatic applied to the marriage; it derived from the High German
morgangeba, a gift by a groom to his bride on the morning following their wedding. It indicated
that this was the full and only entitlement that the wife could expect from her new husband.
Morganatic marriages were often called 'left hand marriages' due to the fact that inequality in
 rank required the groom to use his left hand instead or the right during the wedding ceremony.

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Some dynastic house laws in existence today continue to exclude members who marry a
spouse from outside the Gotha Part One or Part Two families. Dynasts loose all rights
and refrain from the adoption of ancestral titles. In some German families this can
still mean forfeiture of estates and property. However in a number of recent cases,
marriages have been contracted which clearly fall well beyond the scope of what could
be described as equal, but the head of the family at the time has been able to rely
on obscure sub-clauses of family law which allows discretionary permission for such
marriages to take place within the set family house law concerned. 

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Listings are now in genealogical order and the issue of morganatic marriages and the
marriages themselves are now listed in the main body of the family entry from which
they derive. There are sensible reasons for this. Previously when many more families
were reigning new titles were created and a listing under a new line, in Part Three,
placed the new generation according to rank. It was decided, however, after careful
deliberation, that the Gotha should now retain family entries intact where they continue
using the same name. However where an individual has renounced his rights or becomes
a non-dynast as a result, we have marked this fact against the entry where it is the
wish of the head of the family that we do so. In this way dynastic breaches are still
clearly distinguished. Historically there has been a divergence of opinion on the
question of morganatic marriages. Whilst some families believed the matter to be an
issue of sacred proportions, others, such as Queen Victoria regarded it as ridiculous.

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Only on one occasion in Britain did the question arise, uniquely the letters patent
issued on the creation of the Dukedom of Windsor provided for the rank and style of
Royal Highness for the Duke alone and not his wife or any subsequent issue. But that
itself followed the earlier constitutional ruling by Prime Minister Baldwin, on the
advice of lawyers, who was clear that the wife of a King was the Queen. It is
understandable why, previously a sustained and concerted effort has been made by a
caste to preserve and enhance its own status by means of a highly complex an obscure
set of rules. This did of course occasionally lead to confusion.
 

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The late Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone once recounted that at formal receptions at
the Imperial Court at Berlin, Royal Highnesses were shepherded by the chamberlains into
a room by themselves and were presented to the Kaiser and Kaiserin before the other royals.
Princess Alice recalled that her cousin Princess Pauline of Wurttemberg (Royal Highness,
Part I Princess) was so furious at being separated from her husband the Prince of Wied
(Part II Prince but having only the rank of Durchlaucht, that is a Serene Highness, its
meaning can best be literally described as "not the same") that she never returned to Court.
Princess Alice by contrast, the daughter of one of Queen Victoria's sons, Part I Princess)
but married to Prince Alexander of Teck (Queen Mary's brother but only a Part III Prince)
found the situation hilarious.

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At the end of World War Two when the Soviets occupied Gotha they immediately stormed the
factory where the presses were housed and within five days, in a public display of protest,
destroyed, by burning, most of the genealogical and heraldic archives. Since the books
contained detailed references to the Romanov Dynasty, the attempt to obliterate history was
made against these milestones. But the fate of the entire archive still remains a mystery,
what was to the Soviets a classic symbol of a degenerate bourgeois society, was in any
case a substantial archive of Genealogy on European Royalty and Nobility.
 

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The Officers of The Gotha
1763-2010
  

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The Honorary Société President
of The Almanach de Saxe Gotha
His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain

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The Honorary Chairman of
The Almanach de Saxe Gotha
His Majesty King Michael I of Romania 
    

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The Honorary Deputy Chairmen
of The Almanach de Saxe Gotha
Her Imperial Highness
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia
de jure Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias

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The Index of The Almanach de Saxe Gotha: 
 
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Reigning Sovereign Houses
Encompasses and Lists the Genealogy
of The Imperial and Royal Sovereign
Houses and Families which are still
Reigning in present day Europe, (2010). 

 
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Non Reigning Sovereign Houses
Encompasses and lists the genealogy of
The Imperial and Royal Sovereign Houses
and Families which are not at present
Reigning in Europe, (2010).
 
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Encompasses and lists the genealogy
of The Mediatised Sovereign Houses
of The Holy Roman Empire of The
German Nation, First Reich, (2010).
 
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Princely and Ducal Houses
Encompasses and lists the Genealogy
of The Non-Sovereign Princely & Ducal
Houses and Families of Europe, (2010).

 
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Nobility of The Holy Roman Empire
Encompasses and Lists the Imperial
Nobility of Holy Roman Empire,
to the present day, (2010).

 
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Gotha News, Diary & Gazette 2010
(1): Contains the the Offical Gazete of
The Almanach de Saxe Gotha, showing
The Royal News for 2010 in Three Sections,
(2): The Gotha News, (3): Gotha Social Diary
and (4): European Titles and Styles (2010).
 
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Encompasses and lists the genealogy
of The Gotha Higher Nobility of
Europe to the present day (2010).
 
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The World's Royal Houses
(1): The Gotha Index of Reigning Royal
Houses of the World, present day,
(2): The Index Royal Houses of the World
(3): The Royal Heirs and Pretenders. 
(4): The World's Richest Monarchs
 
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The Gotha Index on the Nobility of
The World, The History and Register
of Nobility and the formal listing of
the Titles of Nobility in the World .
 
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The Gotha Index to the British Peerage
System, The formal listing of the Titles,
Ranks, Styles, Title Holders and their
Heirs, the Date of Creation and the
Present Status of the Peerage listed.
 
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The Gotha Index to the Genealogy
of Selected Royal European Houses.
 
Royal Families of The World
The Gotha Index of the Genealogy
of The Royal Families of The World
 
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His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha , The Prince Consort of The United
Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland .
Francis Augustus Charles
Albert Emanuel, later
HRH The Prince Consort was
born 26th August
1819 and  died on the 14th December
1861, Prince
Albert, was the husband and Consort of
Queen
Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland. He was the only husband of a British Queen
Regnant to have formally held the title of
Prince Consort.
Upon Queen Victoria's death in 1901,
the House of Wettin
( Saxe-Coburg and Gotha )
succeeded the House of Guelph
 ( Hanover ) on the
British throne.
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The History of The Duchy
of Saxe Coburg and Gotha


Saxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (German:
 Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) served as the name of the two
German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha in Germany,
in the present-day states of Bavaria and Thuringia, which
were in personal union between 1826 and 1918. 
 
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The name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha may also refer to the family of the ruling House
of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This family played many and varied roles in 19th
-century European dynastic and political history. The two duchies of Saxe-
Coburg and Saxe-Gotha were both among the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine
branch of the Wettin dynasty. The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha originated
as the personal union of these two in 1826, following the death of the last
Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg without male heirs. His Wettin relations
repartitioned his lands, and the Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (former
husband of Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, the only niece of the last duke)
received Gotha, and changed his title to Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,
although the two duchies remained technically separate. 
 

Ernst I died in 1844 and his elder son and successor, Ernst II, ruled until
his death in 1893. As he died childless, the throne of the Duchy would have
passed to the male descendant's of Ernst's late brother Albert the Prince
Consort, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, the
Duchies' constitutions excluded the King and heir apparent of Great Britain
from the ducal throne if other eligible male heirs exist. Therefore Edward,
Prince of Wales had already renounced his claim to the throne in favour of
his next brother, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred's only son, also named
Alfred, committed suicide in 1899, so when Duke Alfred died in 1900, he was
succeeded by his nephew the Duke of Albany, the sixteen-year-old son of
Queen Victoria's youngest son, Leopold (Duke Arthur of Connaught and his son
did not want to receive the Coburg-Gotha Duchy, so had already renounced
their right to succession). Reigning as Duke Carl Eduard, and under the
regency of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg until he came of
age in 1905, Carl Eduard also continued to use the British title Duke of
Albany. As Carl Eduard fought for Germany in the First World War, he was
stripped of his British titles in 1919. 
 
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Carl Eduard reigned until November 18, 1918 when the Workers' and Soldiers' Council
of Gotha deposed him during the German Revolution. The two Duchies, bereft of a
common ruler, became separate states, but ceased to exist shortly thereafter, with
Saxe-Coburg becoming a part of Bavaria, and Saxe-Gotha merging with other small
states to form the new state of Thuringia in 1920 in the Weimar Republic.
The capitals of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were Coburg and Gotha.
 
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Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the only European country to appoint a diplomatic consul to
the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The consul was
named Ernst Raven, assigned to a position in the State of Texas. Raven applied to the
Confederate Government for a diplomatic exequatur on July 30 1861 and was accepted.

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The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was formerly the Royal House of several
European monarchies, and branches currently reign in Belgium through the
descendants of Leopold I, and in the United Kingdom and its associated
Commonwealth realms through the descendants of Prince Albert. In the United
Kingdom, King George V changed the name from the House of Wettin to the
House of Windsor in 1917, by Royal Proclamation and Decree.

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Other members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha came to rule in various
other European countries. Ernst's younger brother Léopold became King of the
Belgians in 1831, and his descendants continue to serve as Belgian Head of
State. Léopold's only daughter, Charlotte of Belgium, ruled as Empress Carlota
of Mexico, consort to Maximilian I of Mexico in the 1860's. The short lived
monarchy in Mexico would have had its roots in the House of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha. Ernst's nephew Ferdinand married Queen Maria II of Portugal and his
descendants continued to rule Portugal until that country became a republic
on the 4th of October, 1910.

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Another scion of the family, also named Ferdinand, became Prince, and then Tsar,
of Bulgaria, and his descendants continued to rule there until 1946. The current
head of the House of Bulgaria, the former King Simeon II, goes by the name Simeon
Sakskoburggotski and on 24 July 2001 became Bulgaria's Prime Minister. This marked
the first occasion in history where a former monarch returned to a position of
power via democratic election.

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In 1826, a cadet branch of the house inherited the Hungarian princely estate of
Kohary, and converted to Catholic creed. The Princes of Kohary were wealthy and
are magnates of Hungary and Fuerst in the Austrian Empire. They managed to marry
an imperial princess of Brazil, an archduchess of Austria, a royal princess of
"the French", a royal princess of Belgium and a royal princess of Saxony. The
members of the Ducal House consisted of all male-line descendents of Johann Ernst,
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld legitimately born of an equal marriage, males and
females (the last until their marriage), their wives in equal and authorised
marriages, and their widows until remarriage.
 
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According to the House law of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha the full title
of the Duke was: Wir, Ernst, Herzog zu Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, Jülich, Cleve
und Berg, auch Engern und Westphalen, Landgraf in Thüringen, Markgraf zu Meißen,
gefürsteter Graf zu Henneberg, Graf zu der Mark und Ravensberg, Herr zu Ravenstein
und Tonna . Translation : We, Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Jülich, Cleves and
Berg, also Angria and Westphalia, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely
Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark & Ravensberg, Lord of Ravenstein & Tonna.
____________

 
 
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