Saxe-Coburg

Saxe-Coburg (German: Sachsen-Coburg) was a duchy held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in today's Bavaria, Germany.

History

Ernestine Line

When Henry IV, Count of Henneberg – Schleusingen, died in 1347, the possessions of the House of Henneberg – Schleusingen was divided between his widow, Jutta of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, and Henry’s younger brother, John, and Jutta was given the so-called “New Herrschaft”, with Coburg among other properties. Six years later, the death of Jutta was followed by the distribution of the new Herrschaft under three of her daughters. The second daughter, Catherine of Henneberg, was awarded the southeastern part of the Coburger Land.

Frederick III, the Margrave of Meissen from the House of Wettin and the husband of Catherine of Henneberg, asked, after the wedding in 1346, for his wife’s dowry, the Coburger Land with the name of “Pflege Coburg”, but this was met with resistance by his father-in-law. So Frederick III of Meissen could not touch it until after the death of Jutta in 1353. In it, the Coburger Land was the southernmost part of the Saxon territories. With the Treaty of Leipzig in 1485, the Great Division of the Saxon States (Großen Sächsischen Landesteilung) between the Albertine and Ernestine lines, sent the Coburger Land, along with the greater part of the Landgraviate of Thuringia and the possessions in the Vogtland, to Ernest of Saxony and, through him, to the Ernestine side of the House of Wettin.