Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (, 15 July 1750 – 9 December 1806), was a reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, one of the ruling Thuringian dukes of the House of Wettin. As progenitor of a line of Coburg princes who, in the 19th and 20th centuries, ascended the thrones of several European realms, he is a patrilineal ancestor of the royal houses of Belgium and Bulgaria (and also of Portugal until the death of King Manuel II in 1932 and the United Kingdom until the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022), as well as of several queens consort and the empress consort of Mexico in the 1860s.

Biography Francis was born on 15 July 1750. He was the eldest son of Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Duchess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Francis received a private, careful and comprehensive education and became an art connoisseur. Francis initiated a major collection of books and illustrations for the duchy in 1775, which eventually expanded to a 300,000-picture collection of copperplate engravings currently housed in the Veste Coburg. The Grand Attack on Valenciennes by Philip James de Loutherbourg, 1794. He is amongst the officers around the Duke of York. Francis was commissioned into the allied army in 1793 when his country was invaded by the Revolutionary armies of France. The allied forces included Hanoverians, Hessians, and the British. He fought in several actions against the French.

Francis succeeded his father as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1800. boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; 1= 1. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 2= 2. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 3= 3. Princess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 4= 4. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 5= 5. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 6= 6. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 7= 7. Princess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel 8= 8. John Ernest IV 9= 9. Countess Charlotte Johanna of Waldeck-Wildungen 10= 10. Louis Frederick I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 11= 11. Princess Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 12= 12. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern 13= 13. Princess Christine of Hesse-Eschwege 14= 14. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick 15= 15. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen