where Saxe had taken up an excellent position. At first the British and Hanoverians carried everything before them, and the battle appeared to be decided; but in the end, through the gross misconduct of the Dutch, and the intrepid and masterly arrangements of Saxe, though he was so much wasted with sickness he had to be carried in a litter, the allies were compelled to retreat. Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde, Dendermond, Ostend, Brussels, Antwerp, Mons, Charleroi, and Nassau, were in turn invested by the victorious general, and were all in succession taken between the 23rd of May, 1745, and the 19th of September, 1746. In the following campaign Marshal Saxe defeated the allies, after a fierce struggle, at Lauffeld (2nd July, 1747), and captured the strong fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom; and in 1748 he reduced Maestricht. The allies now agreed to accept favourable terms of peace, which they had very unwisely rejected in the previous year, and the war was concluded by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Marshal Saxe was loaded with honours by the French king, but he survived only about two years to enjoy the rewards of his valour and skill. He died of a fever on the 30th of November, 1750, at the age of fifty-four. He was the author of a work on military affairs, entitled "Mes Rêveries," which was published in 1757 in 5 vols., 4to. This famous general was a man of large stature and remarkable personal strength.—J. T.
SAXE-COBURG, House of: is descended from Duke Ernest the Pious, great-grandson of John Frederick the Magnanimous, who in 1547 was deprived by the Emperor Charles V. of his electoral territory and dignity, but received as a compensation several estates, among which was the present duchy of Gotha.—Ernest, his son, who succeeded to Gotha and the main part of the territory, was "to all appearance," says Carlyle, "an excellent, prudent, and really pious governor. He had been a soldier in his youth, was a patron of learning among other good things, and set Seckendorf on compiling the History of the Reformation." Ernest died in 1675, leaving seven sons, who at first lived together at Gotha, and governed conjointly for five years, but at length made a partition of the country. Frederick, the eldest, obtained Gotha; but his line became extinct in 1824. The other six brothers founded the houses of Coburg, Meinungen, Römheld, Eisenberg, Hildburghausen, and Saalfeld, most of which soon died out. The youngest son—
John Ernest, born in 1658, got Saalfeld for his portion, and became the founder of the present Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch. On the extinction of the first Coburg line in 1678, a lawsuit arose between the Meinungen and Saalfeld branches respecting the succession, which lasted for fifty-seven years, and was at length terminated in 1735 by a final decree of the Imperial Aulic council in favour of Saalfeld. John Ernest had died in the meantime; but his son—
Francis Josias, second duke, born in 1697, obtained possession of the town of Coburg—where he took up his residence—and of nearly all the territory, and assumed the title of duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. A younger brother of Francis was the well-known Austrian general who commanded the army sent to invade France at the commencement of the French revolution.
Ernest Frederick, third duke, was born in 1724, and died in 1800. His son—
Francis Frederick Anton, fourth duke, was born in 1750, and died in 1806, leaving three sons and three daughters. His youngest son, Leopold, was the husband of the Princess Charlotte, and is now king of the Belgians; and his youngest daughter was duchess of Kent, and mother of Queen Victoria. His eldest son—
Ernest Anton Charles, fifth duke, was born in 1784, and died in 1844. The duchy of Saxe-Gotha fell to him in 1824, on the extinction of the original line; he in consequence assumed the title of duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld-Gotha, and took up his residence at Gotha. He was distinguished by his devotion to arts and science, a liberal study of politics and history, dignified but courteous and kindly manners, and a warm desire to promote the general welfare of his subjects. He left two sons, the younger of whom, Prince Albert, became the husband of Queen Victoria.—(See Albert.) The elder—
* Ernest II., is the reigning duke. His character closely resembles that of his father and brother; he is highly accomplished in music, as well as in science and literature. He has had the good sense to develope in his duchy the system of constitutional government, of which his father implanted the germs many years before. In consequence of his judicious reforms, the revolutionary storm which passed over Europe in 1848 produced no commotion in his dominions. The father of the present king of Portugal is a cousin of Duke Ernest. Another of his cousins is married to a daughter, and a third to a son of Louis Philippe of France; while one of his uncles is king of Belgium, and his aunt was the mother, and his brother the husband of the queen of England. Napoleon on one occasion remarked, with reference to the singular good fortune which has befallen this family in matrimonial alliances, "If a crown at any time falls into the street, one of my Coburg cousins is sure to pick it up."—J. T.
SAXE-WEIMAR, Bernhard, Duke of, an eminent military commander, was the youngest of the eight sons of Duke John III., and was born at Weimar in 1600. Sent to Jena to study, he found no pleasure in academic pursuits, and migrated in search of a more stirring occupation to the court of his cousin, Duke John Casimir at Coburg. With the commencement of the Thirty Years' war, he took the protestant side, and fought under his brother Wilhelm. He then passed some time in the service of Holland and Denmark. In 1631, when Gustavus Adolphus appeared in Germany, Bernhard was among the first of the German princes to join the heroic Swede. Gustavus recognized his merits, bestowed on him the command of three regiments of cavalry, and promised him Franconia as a dukedom. At Lützen, 6th November, 1632, Duke Bernhard commanded the Swedish left wing; when Gustavus fell he took the command-in-chief, and though severely wounded completed the victory. Oxenstiern bestowed on him the command of one of the two sections into which the Swedish army was divided; and having pacified the discontented officers and soldiers, he succeeded in capturing Ratisbon, 6th November, 1633. Against the advice of his colleague Horn, who wished him to wait for reinforcements, he risked the battle of Nordlingen, 27th August, 1634, one of the bloodiest contests of the Thirty Years' war, and was defeated. He had to retreat at last to the left bank of the Rhine. He now concluded a treaty with France, receiving a subsidy and the promise of Alsace. On the 3rd of March, 1638, he gained the great battle of Rheinfelden, and on the following 7th of December, the strong fortress of Breisach capitulated to him, Bernhard signing the capitulation in his own name, to the displeasure of France, with which, indeed, his relations were never of a satisfactory kind. Richelieu cancelled the subsidy, and offered Bernhard the hand of his niece. The duke of Weimar thought, however, of marrying the landgravine of Hesse, and was fostering a high ambition to become an independent power in Germany, when he died suddenly at Neuburg on the Rhine, 8th July, 1639. His death was said to have been caused by a pestilential fever, but he himself suspected that his physician had been bribed by France to poison him.—F. E.
SAXE-WEIMAR, Karl August, Prince, afterwards Duke and Grand-duke of, was born in 1757, and educated by his wise and good mother, the Duchess Amalie, under such tutors as Wieland. At fourteen he was declared a very promising youth by Frederick the Great. Passing through Frankfort, he sent for Göthe, then a young man known only as the author of Götz von Berlichingen and of Werther; and on assuming the reins of government in 1775, he invited the young genius to his court. Under Karl August, Weimar was the fostering residence of Göthe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland, and the university of Jena attained its highest reputation. In 1806 he joined Prussia against Napoleon, and narrowly escaped deprivation after the battle of Jena. At the battle of Leipsic, he commanded the 3d corps d'armée of the coalition. The congress of Vienna made him a grand-duke, and gave him an extension of territory; he had previously been made a duke when forced to enter the confederation of the Rhine. After the peace of 1815 he did much for the political, social, and material improvement of his little territory, and died in 1828.—F. E.
SAXI. See Sassi.
SAXIUS, Christopher (Christoph Gottlob Sach), author of the "Onomasticon Literarium," born in 1714 at Eppendorff in Saxony, was educated at the schools of Chemnitz and Misnia, and in 1735 entered the university of Leipsic, where he studied philosophy under Wolff. Appointed in 1752 professor of history, antiquities, and rhetoric, he devoted his long life to the duties of his chair and the composition of a great number of works on subjects of philology and criticism. The publication of his great work, the "Onomasticon," a series of biographical and critical notices respecting eminent writers of
