Wettin (dynasty)
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The Wettin dynasty of German counts, dukes, Prince Electors (Kurfürsten) and kings ruled the area of today's German state of Saxony for more than 800 years as well as holding for a time the kingship of Poland.
Created margraves of Meissen in 1089 and dukes of Saxony in 1423 with the dignity of electors of the Holy Roman Empire, the family also acquired the landgravate of Thuringia in 1263, but divided into two branches in 1485.
The junior Albertine branch ruled as kings of Poland (1697 - 1763) and Saxony (1806 - 1918), and headed the French-backed Duchy of Warsaw (1807 - 1814) after Russian invasion had thwarted its assumption of a hereditary Polish kingship under the Polish Constitution of 1791.
The senior Ernestine branch lost the electorship to the Albertine in 1547, but retained its holdings in Thuringia, dividing the area into a number of smaller states. One of the resulting Ernestine houses, that of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, went on to contribute kings of Belgium (from 1831) and Bulgaria (1908 - 1946), as well as furnishing consorts to queens of Portugal and the United Kingdom (Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria). As such, the British throne became a possession of the Wettin family.
Although the British Royal Family's Royal House name was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the descendants of Victoria and Albert had the personal surname of Wettin until 1917, when both the Royal House name and the personal family surname was changed to Windsor by an Order-in-Council by King George V. As a result of Queen Elizabeth's marriage to Prince Philip of Greece, the throne will, when their son becomes King, pass to his family, the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, although they probably will continue using the name Windsor as a house name and Mountbatten-Windsor (Mountbatten being an Anglicisation of Battenberg, from the title of Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg) as a personal surname, as prescribed by Queen Elizabeth's 1960 Order-in-Council.
See also:
- Rulers of Saxony - a list containing many Wettins
Wettin is also the name of the city from which the Wettin dynasty originated, see Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt.de:Wettiner fr:Maison de Wettin pl:Wettynowie ru:Веттин sv:Wettin zh:維丁王朝