Frederick | |
---|---|
Duke of Saxe-Altenburg prev. Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen |
|
Duke of Saxe-Altenburg | |
Reign | 1826–1834 |
Predecessor | New Creation |
Successor | Joseph |
Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen | |
Reign | 1780–1826 |
Predecessor | Ernest Frederick III |
Successor | Dissolved |
Regent | Prince Joseph |
Born |
Hildburghausen |
29 April 1763
Died | 29 September 1834 Jagdhaus Hummelshain, Altenburg |
(aged 71)
Spouse | Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |
Issue | Prince Joseph Georg Catherine Charlotte, Princess Paul of Württemberg Princess Caroline Joseph Princess Fredericke Therese, Queen of Bavaria Louise, Duchess of Nassau Prince Franz Frederick Georg Prince Frederick Wilhelm Prince Maximilian Prince Eduard |
House | House of Saxe-Hildburghausen |
Father | Ernest Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen |
Mother | Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar |
Religion | Lutheranism |
Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (Hildburghausen, 29 April 1763 – Jagdhaus Hummelshain, Altenburg, 29 September 1834), was duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1780–1826) and duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1826–1834).
He was the youngest child, but only son, of Ernst Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, by his third wife, Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar.
Frederick succeeded his father Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1780, when only seventeen years old; because of this, his great grand uncle, the prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, assumed the regency on his behalf, this regency only ended in 1787 at the death of Prince Joseph.
Until 1806 he was subject to the restrictions of the imperial debit commission, which had placed the duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen under official administration, because of his predecessors' dissolute financial policy. In 1806 Frederick joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and in 1815 the German Confederation, under whose guarantee he gave 1818 the duchy a new basic condition.
In Hildburghausen on 3 September 1785, Frederick married Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. They had twelve children:
Frederick was considered popular and intelligent. During his reign, along with his beautiful wife, Charlotte, cultural life in the small town reached its zenith. So many poets and artists spent their time there that Hildburghausen was nicknamed "Klein-Weimar" (Little Weimar). When the last duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died without issue in 1825, the other branches of the house decided on a rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies. On 12 November 1826, Frederick became Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, to which he gave a first Basic Law in the year 1831; in exchange, he ceded Saxe-Hildburghausen to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.