Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/181

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IV. SAXONY.

(K6NIGREICH SACHSEN.)

Reigning Sovereign and Family.

Johann I., King of Saxony, born Dec. 12, 1801, second son of Duke Maximilian of Saxony and of Princess Caroline of Parma. Studied jurisprudence, and, in 1822, entered the Ministry of Finance, of which he was nominated president in 1830. Com- mander-in-Chief of the national guards of the kingdom, 1831-1846. Succeeded to the throne, at the death of his brother, King Friedrich August II., Aug. 9, 1854. Married Nov. 21, 1822, to

Amalie, Queen of Saxony, born Nov. 13, 1801, the daughter of the late King Maximilian I. of Bavaria. Offspring of the union are three children, namely: — 1. Albert, Duke of Saxony and heir-apparent, born April 23, 1828; married June 18, 1853, to Princess Caroline, born Aug. 5, 1833, daughter of Prince Gustav of Vasa. 2. Elisabeth, born Feb. 4, 1830 ; married, in 1850, to Prince Ferdinand of Sardinia, and widow since 1855. 3. Georg, Duke of Saxony, born August 8, 1832; married May 11, 1859, to Infanta Maria, born July 21, 1843, daughter of King Ferdinand of Portugal, of which union there are issue two sons and two daughters, namely, Mathilda, born March 19, 1863; Friedrich August, born May 25, 1865 ; Marie, born May 31, 1867 ; and Johann Georg, born July 11, 1869.

The royal house of Saxony counts among the oldest reigning families in Europe. It gave an emperor to Germany as early as the beginning of the tenth century; but the house subsequently spread into numerous branches, the elder of which, called the Ernestine line, is represented at this moment by the ducal families of Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe- Weimar, while the younger, the Albertine line, lives in the rulers of the kingdom of Saxony.

King Johann I. has a civil list of 863,575 thalers, or 128,000Z. per annum ; which includes a grant to the queen of 30,000 thaler, and the dotations of the princes and princesses, amounting to 235,000 thalers, or 35,250/. The formerly royal domains, consisting chiefly in extensive forests, valued at above 25,000,000 thalers, became, in 1830, the property of the State.

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