Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg


Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
He was born in Gotha, the fifth child and first son of Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels.
After the death of his father, in 1691, Frederick II assumed the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
Because he was still under age, a guardianship and co-regency was formed between his uncles, the dukes Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen and Heinrich of Saxe-Römhild. In 1693, after he returned from a journey to Holland and England, he wrote to the emperor for a license of adult age and took independent control of the government of his duchy. Frederick was a splendor-loving baroque ruler; maintaining his court and standing army, which he had taken over from his father and even expanded, devoured a considerable amount of his income. As a solution, Frederick hired out his soldiers to foreign princes, which caused him great difficulties in 1702, when the King Louis XIV of France hired his troops and used them in his war against the Emperor.
Relating to domestic affairs, Frederick essentially continued the policy of his father. He created an orphanage in Altenburg, a workhouse and a lunatic asylum in Kahla, as well as the Magdalenenstift - in honor of his mother and wife -, an endowment for unmarried noble women. For 100,000 thaler from his private property, he bought the famous numismatic collection of Prince Anton Günther of Schwarzburg Arnstadt, which formed the basis of the current collection of coins at Schloss Friedenstein.
By accumulation of parts of Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Eisenberg and Saxe-Römhild, he succeeded to all, however only at long hereditary disputes under the other Ernestine duchies, which went only to 1735 with an arbitral award of the Emperor finally to end reaching in each case area increases for his country. He died in Altenburg.

Issue

At Friedenstein Castle in Gotha on 7 June 1696, he married his first cousin, Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst.
They had nineteen children:
  1. Sophie.
  2. Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.
  3. Stillborn son.
  4. Wilhelm, married on 8 November 1742 to Anna of Holstein-Gottorp. Their marriage was childless.
  5. Karl Frederick
  6. Stillborn daughter.
  7. Johann August.
  8. Christian.
  9. Christian Wilhelm, married on 27 May 1743 to Luise Reuss of Schleiz. Their marriage was childless.
  10. Ludwig Ernst
  11. Emanuel.
  12. Moritz.
  13. Sophie.
  14. Karl.
  15. Fredericka, married on 27 November 1734 to Johann Adolf II, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.
  16. Stillborn son.
  17. Magdalena Sibylle.
  18. Augusta, married on 8 May 1736 to Frederick, Prince of Wales. They had 9 children, their second child later became King George III of Great Britain.
  19. Johann Adolf.

    Ancestry