After the death of John Ernest IV in 1729, his sons
Christian Ernest II and
Francis Josias ruled the country, consisting of two distinct and separate areas, together, but at different residences. Christian Ernst remained in Saalfeld, while Franz Josias chose
Coburg as his residence. In 1745, when Christian Ernest II died childless, his domains were inherited by his brother, Duke Francis Josias. In 1747 Francis Josias was able to anchor his birthright (
primogeniture) in the Line of Succession laws and confer it on his rapidly growing family for the long-term survival of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His youngest son
Prince Frederick Josias made himself and the Duchy famous with his sieges and victories as an Imperial general and field marshal in the
Austro-Turkish War and the
War of the First Coalition against
France. His brother and Regent Duke Ernest Frederick was known more for the perilous finances of his Duchy, which underwent from 1773 onwards a forced management of debts by an Imperial
Debit Commission until 1802 and affected the fortunes of his successors. Duke
Francis Frederick Anton, who ruled for only six years (from 1800 to 1806), was forced in 1805, especially by his minister Theodor Konrad von Kretschmann, for the renewal of the ailing Duchy to make a contract between the two duchies, Coburg and Saalfeld, for a uniform state system with a state administration of the Principality, which regained its full independence in 1806 with the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire. It was the children of Duke Francis Frederick Anton who assured the dynastic success and survival of the House of Saxe-Coburg. The fame of Prince Frederick Josias led to the wedding of his daughter,
Princess Juliane (later Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna), with
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia. Another daughter, Princess
Marie Luise Victoire, married
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, in 1818, and became the mother of
Queen Victoria. The youngest surviving son, Prince Leopold, was elected in 1831 as
Leopold I, King of the
Belgians. In 1816, his elder brother,
Prince Ferdinand, married
Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág, who came from one of the wealthiest aristocratic families in Hungary, and founded the Catholic line of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry. Their namesake son, Prince Ferdinand, became in 1837
Dom Fernando II, King of
Portugal and the other son, Prince August, was the father of
Ferdinand I, who became the Sovereign Prince of
Bulgaria in 1887 and the Tsar in 1908. In addition, the heir to the throne of Saxe-Coburg was Prince Ernst, who became Duke
Ernest III in 1806. He was the father of
Prince Albert, who married his cousin, Queen Victoria, in 1840 and became
The Prince Consort of
Great Britain and
Ireland. On 15 December 1806, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, along with the other Ernestine duchies, entered the
Confederation of the Rhine. From November 1806 until the
Peace of Tilsit in July 1807, the Principality was occupied by the French. Only then Duke Ernst I was able to return from his exile in
Königsberg in
East Prussia. A border treaty with the
Kingdom of Bavaria in 1811 led to a territorial swap of the disputed territories. The towns of
Fürth am Berg,
Hof an der Steinach,
Niederfüllbach and
Triebsdorf came to Saxe-Coburg;
Gleußen, the Schleifenhan mill,
Buch am Forst and
Herreth went to Bavaria. In 1815, as the reward for fighting in 1813 on the Allied side against
Napoleon, the
Congress of Vienna sent an area left of the
Rhine River, later called the
Principality of Lichtenberg, a territorial gain as well as membership in the
German Confederation for the sovereign. On 8 August 1821, the Duchy received a
constitution. The extinction of the oldest line,
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in 1825 again led to inheritance disputes among the other lines of the Ernestine family. On 12 November 1826 the decision, from the arbitration of the supreme head of the family, King
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, resulted in the extensive rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies. Most of Saxe-Hildburghausen and Saalfeld were given to Saxe-Meiningen along with a few various cities. The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha was left without the Districts of
Kranichfeld and Römhild, which fell to Saxe-Meiningen, and without the domain of
Altenburg (Districts of Altenburg, Ronneburg,
Eisenberg, Roda and
Kahla), which turned the Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen into the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. But Saxe-Coburg gained from Saxe-Hildburghausen the two Districts –
Königsberg and Sonnefeld. The new duchy of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born as a
personal union of the two duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha. Ernest III, the last Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, then became Ernest I, the first Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. ==Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld==