ART. VII. A Historical Account, interspersed with biographical Anecdotes, of the House of Saxony, tracing the Descent of the present Royal and Ducal Branches, and containing a Memoir of the Life of His Serene Highness Leopold George Christian Frederic, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Dedicated by Permission to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. By Frederic Shoberl. Embellished with Portraits. pp. 196. 7s. 6d. Boards. Ackermann. 1816.

8vo.

AN N English subject, to borrow the words of Mr. Gibbon, may be prompted by a just and liberal curiosity to investigate the origin and history of the house of Saxony; which, after an alliance with the daughters of our kings, may be called by the voice of a free people to the legal inheritance of supreme rank. A matrimonial crown has not yet been conferred by parliament on Prince Leopold, whose pedigree and biography are in this volume illustrated: but the hand of royal love may one day aspire to dispense equality of title and power.

From Wittekind, a zealous worshipper and perhaps a lineal descendant of Odin, the house of Saxony endeavours to deduce its parentage. Wittekind was a chieftain of the Angles settled in Westphalia, and headed them in their continual warfare against the Franks, who occupied their south-west frontier, and acknowleged the jurisdiction of Charlemagne. In the year 780, according to the Saxon chronicle, was fought the decisive battle between the Angles and the Franks. Charlemagne prevailed, totally routed the foe near Lipspring, and consecrated their idol-temple at Paderborn to a Christian saint. Many Saxons submitted to baptism: but Wittekind fled for refuge to the Norman king Sigfried, (Schmidt's Geschichte der Deutschen, vol. i. p. 407.) and once more renewed the war, assisted by a General named Albion. In 785, however, these chieftains were induced to yield, and both received baptism at Attigni: on which occasion, says the present author, Wittekind exchanged the black horse which he had previously borne on his shield of arms, for a white one, which is still used by the kings of Great Britain as dukes of Brunswick Luneberg.

Wittekind habitually resided at his patrimonial domain of Engern but he also possessed the castles of Zörbig and Wettin; and, as these descended to Dedo, Count of Wettin, it is inferred that he was the legitimate heir of Wittekind, although the intervening pedigree cannot nominally be traced. In 1048, Dedo was invested with the dignity of Margrave of Meissen, and he died in 1075. It would be worthy of our lan

guage

guage and constitution to efface in England the Norman title of Marquis, and to restore the Saxon appellation of Margrave. Dedo was succeeded by his nephew Henry, Count of Eulenberg; and he by his cousin Conrad, who in 1127 received from the Emperor Lothair the investiture of the Margraviate of Meissen, and acquired that of Lusatia in 1136 by military achievements. He joined a crusade to Palestine; his piety was invigorated by this approach to the holy sepulchre; and, on his return, finding his bodily strength abated, he determined to assume the religious habit in the convent of Lauterberg. He therefore consecrated his arms at Meissen, divided his worldly property among his five sons, and died in 1157.

Otho, the eldest son of Conrad, began to work the mines at Freyberg in Saxony, and was surnamed the rich, on account of the marked increase of prosperity which this undertaking diffused in his territories. He was succeeded by his brothers Diederich and Henry; then by his sons Albert and Diederich. Henry, the son of the second Diederich, acceded in. 1222; and, by a fortunate marriage with the heiress of the house of Thuringen, he added the domains of that landgrave to the previous possessions of the family: he died in 1288. The pedigree of the house of Thuringen is here inserted, pp.16—36. and forms an entertaining excursion, on account of the anecdotes of Swabian minstrelsy with which it is interspersed.

Albert, son of Henry, was surnamed the Degenerate; he married Margaret, daughter of the Emperor Frederic II.: but, having fallen in love with a lady of her train named Cunegonda of Eisenberg, he attempted to have his wife smothered. She, however, discovered the plot, and fled to her father, but died of regret and apprehension. Albert then married his mistress, and diminished the family-domains as much as he could in favour of the children by the second wife. He died in 1314, and was succeeded by four princes of the name of Frederic; the last of whom, 'called the sixth by his old and the first by his new subjects, inherited in 1422 the dignity of Elector of Saxony, in consequence of the Ascanian line of these princes having become extinct: he died in 1428.

Frederic the Second was remarked for paternal affection, and suffered his brother William to usurp a dangerous power in the land: he died without issue, and the possessions devolved on Ernest and Albert, two sons of William, who were to govern conjointly as their predecessors had done. This agreement lasted twenty years: but at length a partition was found necessary, and thus originated the still subsisting distinction of the Ernestine and Albertine line of Saxon princes. Ernest died in 1486. Frederic the Third succeeded to him, REV. MAY, 1817.

F

and

and in 1502 founded the celebrated university of Wittenberg, the foster-mother of Luther. This elector occasionally received at his table in Schweinitz the professors of that college, and thus was led to take that warm interest in their controversies which prepared him to become the patron of the Reformation, although he outwardly adhered to the Catholic church. His brother John succeeded to him in 1525, and concurred in that protest, dated 1529, which occasioned the Reformers to adopt the designation of Protestants. John Frederic, the eldest son of John, acceded in 1532, and died in 1553 without issue. Of these three princes, engravings are inserted from portraits by Cranach, the correspondent of Luther.

The electoral dignity and territorial dominions of the house of Saxony now passed into the Albertine line, and were transferred to Maurice the son of Duke Henry of Meissen: he was killed in battle near the village of Sivershausen in 1553, and was succeeded by his brother Augustus. This prince married Anna, the daughter of Christian King of Denmark, and attended much to alchemy: so that, as he died rich, it was supposed that he had discovered the philosopher's stone. He was the patron also of agriculture, and always carried with him a bag full of the stones and pips of the best kinds of fruits, which he would cause to be planted wherever he went, and thus conferred an essential benefit on posterity.' He died in 1586, and was succeeded by Christian I., who died in 1591, giving place to Christian II., who died in 1611.

John George, a brother of the preceding prince, was the next elector; his son John George II. acceeded to the title in 1656; his grandson, John George III., in 1680; and his great-grandson, John George IV. in 1691. This prince at his birth was declared heir-apparent to the throne of Denmark, was decorated with the English order of the Garter, and died in 1694.

Frederic Augustus I., a brother of the preceding prince, was distinguished for extraordinary personal strength, being able to break a horse-shoe with his hands, or roll up a silver dish like a sheet of paper. He was elected King of Poland in 1697, and conformed on that occasion to the Catholic religion, which has since been professed by his descendants. He died in 1733. His son Frederic Augustus II. espoused a daughter of the Emperor Joseph the First, ascended the Polish throne, and died in 1763. One of his daughters married a king of Spain, and another was wedded to the Dauphin of France; so that the deposed sovereigns Charles IV. and Louis XVI. were his grand-children. His son Frederic Christian sur

vived him only two months. Frederic Augustus III., a son of Frederic Christian, born in 1750, succeeded his father in 1763, under the guardianship of his uncle. This mild and intelligent prince, long a friend to peace, to literature, and to the fine arts, latterly embraced the French party in Germany, and in 1806 accepted from Bonaparte the title of King. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, withdrew all his acquired and part of his hereditary dominions; and the Prussians, both in the seven years' war and lately, have borne hard on the house of Saxony in his person.

The Ernestine line of the house is resumed at p. 119.; and the allotment, in 1547, of certain towns and districts in Thuringen, to John Frederic, is mentioned. This John Frederic acquired in 1593, by the death of his half-brother John Ernest, the principality of Coburg; which, with various other possessions, was secured to him in the year following by the convention of Naumburg. He was succeeded by John Frederic II., who in 1558 received as his aunt, and harboured, a female adventuress, who pretended to be Anne of Cleves, the divorced wife of Henry VIII. This insane personage was afterward placed in a proper state of confinement, where she died. The prince, rash in every thing, also interfered in some provincial civil war of the empire, which occasioned hist deposition: he died in 1595; and his domains were partitioned between his brother and his sons. To John Casimir, the elder

of the sons, was allotted the principality of Coburg: he married Anne, a daughter of the Elector of Saxony. This lady attached herself to an Italian adventurer of the name of Scotto, who passed for a conjuror; and, through his inveiglement, she had an intrigue with Ulrich of Lichtenstein. A trial and a sentence of decapitation ensued; but the punishment was commuted for divorce and perpetual imprisonment. John Casimir took for his second wife Margaret, a princess of Brunswick, but died without issue in 1633. He founded the Gymnasium, or academy at Coburg; and was succeeded by a younger brother, who also died without children, in 1634. The estates now devolved on the house of Saxe-Weimar ; they were much desolated during the thirty years' war, but were preserved to William by his younger brother Bernard, the celebrated General of Gustavus Adolphus. John Ernest succeeded his father, Duke William, in the principality of Weimar, during the year 1662, and died in 1683. William Ernest adopted for his coadjutor first his brother John Ernest, and secondly his son Ernest Augustus; probably from a conscious deficiency of intellect: this son survived his father, but died without issue in 1748.

The houses of Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Meinungen, Saxe-Romhild, Saxe-Eisenberg, Saxe-Hildburghausen, are severally treated, and finally the house of Saxe-CoburgSaalfeld. We will extract this concluding pedigree, to which the others are only preparatory, but from each of which this stream derives some portion of tributary water.

"House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

John Ernest, seventh son of Ernest the Pious, was the founder of this house, originally called Saxe-Saalfeld, till, upon obtaining the principality of Coburg, it assumed the above title.

Christian Ernest and Francis Josias governed jointly after the death of their father in 1729, till the decease of Christian Ernest, in 1757, left his brother the sole possessor. He died in 1764.

Ernest Frederic, d. 1800.

Francis Frederic Anthony, married firstly, in 1776, Ernestina Frederica Sophia, daughter of Duke Ernest Frederic Charles, of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who died in the same year; and secondly in 1777, Augusta Carolina Sophia, daughter of Count Henry XXIV. Reuss. of Ebersdorf, by whom he had issue:

Ernest Anthony Charles Lewis, the reigning duke born Jan. 2. 1784, succeeded his father, Dec. 3. 1806.

His brothers and sisters are;

Sophia Frederica Carolina Louisa, born Aug. 18. 1778, and married in 1804 to Count Mensdorf, a colonel in the Austrian service.

'Antoinette Ernestina Amelia, born Aug. 19. 1779, married in 1798 to Charles Alexander Frederic, brother to the King of Wirtemberg, a General in the Russian service, and governor of Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland.

Juliana Henrietta Ulrica, born Sept. 23. 1781, married in 1796 to the Grand-duke Constantine of Russia, when she assumed the name of Anne Feodorowna.

Ferdinand George Augustus, born March 28. 1785.

Maria Louisa Victoria, born Aug. 17. 1786, married in 1803 to Prince Emich Charles, of Leiningen, by whom she has been left a widow.

Leopold George Christian Frederic, born Dec. 16. 1790, married May 2. 1816, to her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of

Wales.'

To the genealogical history succeeds a lively biographical memoir, from which also we shall select some information.

"We have seen that all the ducal houses of Saxony are branches of the elder or Ernestine line, which, without regard to primogeniture, long retained the custom of dividing the possessions left by the father among all his sons. In process of time, however, the law of primogeniture began to be adopted, but it was not introduced into the house of Saxe-Coburg till the reign of Francis Josias, in the middle of the eighteenth century.

• This