Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Ferdinand Philipp Maria August Raphael of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (28 March 1844 – 3 July 1921) was the second prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and lord of Csábrág and Szitnya [sk], both in modern-day Slovakia.

Prince Philipp
Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry
Tenure26 July 1881 – 3 July 1921
PredecessorPrince August
SuccessorPrince Pedro Augusto
BornPrinz Ferdinand Philipp von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha
(1844-03-28)28 March 1844
Paris
Died3 July 1921(1921-07-03) (aged 77)
Coburg
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1875; div. 1906)
IssuePrince Leopold Clement
Dorothea, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein
Names
Ferdinand Philipp Maria August Raphael
HouseSaxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry
FatherPrince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
MotherPrincess Clémentine of Orléans
ReligionRoman Catholic

Life

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Born in the Tuileries Palace in Paris as Ferdinand Philipp Maria August Raphael of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he was the eldest son of August, prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His mother, Clémentine of Orléans, was a daughter of King Louis Philippe I of France. He was a member of the Catholic Koháry line of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry and an elder brother of Ferdinand, tsar of Bulgaria.

In 1870, he became a Major in the Hungarian army. He was a close confidant to his brother-in-law, Crown Prince Rudolf.[1] On the morning of 30 January 1889, he and Count Josef Hoyos-Sprinzenstein and valet Johann Loschek discovered the bodies of Rudolf and his teenage mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, who had also been shot dead.[2]

Philipp spent his last years at Bürglaß castle [de] in Coburg, where he died in 1921, aged 77. He was buried in the Koháry crypt in the St. Augustin church in Coburg.

Marriage and issue

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In Brussels on 4 February/4 May 1875, Philipp married Louise, princess of Belgium, both his second cousin and first cousin once removed, daughter of Leopold II, king of the Belgians and granddaughter of Leopold I, king of the Belgians, brother of Philipp's grandfather Ferdinand, and Louise of Orléans, sister of Phillip's mother Clémentine.

The marriage of Philip and Louise proved disastrous and she left her husband in 1896. In 1898, she lost parental power over her children and on 15 January 1906, the divorce was pronounced in Gotha.[3] The reason for the separation was her long-standing relationship with Count Géza of Mattachich-Keglevich (1867-1923), with whom Philipp had dueled on the orders of Emperor Franz Josef I.[4][5] Louise had had other affairs before she met Géza, among others with Philipp's adjutant.

They had two children:

Numismatics

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Prince Philip had an important collection of coins from Saxony, the East and overseas. He published about Oriental numismatics. His coin collection was auctioned in 1928 by the auction house Leo Hamburger in Frankfurt. Several commemorative medals were issued during his lifetime, for example in 1875 on the occasion of his marriage to Louise and in the same year for his honorary membership of the Belgian Numismatic Society.

Honours

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Ancestry

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ "Mayerling: Die Personen". www.mayerling.de. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  2. ^ Margot Judtmann: Mayerling ohne Mythos: ein Tatsachenbericht, Kremayr & Scheriau, 1982, S. 35
  3. ^ Karl Kraus, Frank Wedekind: Briefwechsel 1903 bis 1917, Königshausen & Neumann, 2008, p. 390
  4. ^ "Belgien, deutschsprachig - Belgien Service - Belgien Ratgeber - BELGIENINFO.net: Belgiens unglückliche Bräute, Teil 3". Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  5. ^ Christoph Ohlig: Wasserhistorische Forschungen: Schwerpunkt Montanbereich, Books on Demand, 2003, p. 142
  6. ^ Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtums Sachsen-Altenburg (1869), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 18
  7. ^ Belgien (1875). Almanach royal officiel: 1875. p. 55.
  8. ^ Boettger, T. F. "Chevaliers de la Toisón d'Or - Knights of the Golden Fleece". La Confrérie Amicale. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  9. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (1883), "Großherzogliche Orden und Ehrenzeichen", p. 14
  10. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreichs Bayern (1906), "Königliche-Orden" p. 9
  11. ^ "Real y Distinguida Orden de Carlos III", Guía Oficial de España (in Spanish), 1887, p. 158, retrieved 21 March 2019
  12. ^ Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) The Knights of England, I, London, p. 212
  13. ^ The London Gazette, issue 27965, p. 7552
  14. ^ a b c Justus Perthes, Almanach de Gotha (1921) p. 89
  15. ^ Journal de Monaco
  16. ^ "Grand Crosses of the Order of the Tower and Sword". geneall.net. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  17. ^ "Rother Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1886, p. 41{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden". Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 4 – via hathitrust.org.