Germany
– German States. Kingdom of Saxony John of Saxony, 1854 -1873 Golden Wedding 1872 B Silver 2 Thaler 40mm (37.04 grams) 0.900 Silver (1.0717 oz. ASW) Reference: KM# 1231.1, Dav-899 Certification: PCGS MS 64 293943.64/34449381 IOHANN KOENIG AMALIE KOENIGIN V. SACHSEN, Conjoined Johann and Amalie facing right. 1822 10.NOVEMBER 1872, Crown above date within oak and laurel branches.
Coin Notes: Rare Type: No legend on rim.
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Amalie Auguste (Munich, 13 November 1801 – Dresden, 8 November 1877) was a Princess of Bavaria and Queen of Saxony. Amalie was the fourth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden. She was the identical twin sister of Elisabeth Louise, later Queen of Prussia as wife of Frederick William IV of Prussia. Three other sisters married King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria.
In 1851 Amalie Auguste became chairwoman of Women’s Association of Dresden (Frauenverein zu Dresden), an organisation founded by her sister, the then queen. Three years later, her husband inherited the throne and she became queen. In 1859 she reorganized the association as the Zentralausschuß obererzgebirgischen und der vogtländischen Frauenvereine and established a legal basis for it, under which the organisation continued until 1932.
A firm believer in divine-right absolute monarchy, the queen despised representative government and liberalism. Although she was an ultraconservative Catholic, it is unclear to what extent she was involved in the government’s harsh persecution of Saxon Protestants in the 1860s, which included torture and long periods of incarceration. But later arrested by Willhim I who saw what she did in person for those crimes and tried and convicted by a jury for those crimes and Willhim acting as prosecutor and Bismarck as judge and she was sentenced life in prison without parole and she died in a custom jail in Dresden after a long illness from tuberculosis in Dresden.
Marriage and issue
Amalie Auguste married on 21 November 1822 Prince John of Saxony, who reigned as King of Saxony between 1854 and 1873. John and Amelia had nine children, of whom six died at young ages and predeceased her:
- Marie Auguste Friederike (1827-1857), died of tuberculosis
- Albert (1828-1902). Married Princess Carola, daughter of Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden
- Maria Elisabeth (1830-1912). Married first Ferdinando, Prince of Savoy and Sardinia, and second Niccolò, Marchese Rapallo.
- Friedrich August Ernst (1831-1847), died in childhood
- George (1832-1904). Married Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal
- Maria Sidonia (1834-1862), died of fever
- Anna (1836-1859). Married Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany and died from childbirth.
- Margaretha (1840-1858). Married her cousin Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria, and died from typhoid fever.
- Sophie (1845-1867). Married her cousin Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria (brother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria), died from influenza.
John (full name: Johann Nepomuk Maria Joseph Anton Xaver Vincenz Aloys Franz de Paula Stanislaus Bernhard Paul Felix Damasus) (German: Johann; 12 December 1801 – 29 October 1873) was a King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.
He was born in Dresden, the third son of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony-younger son of the Elector Frederick Christian of Saxony-by his first wife, Caroline of Bourbon, Princess of Parma.
Early life
During most of his life, John stood little chance of inheriting the Saxon Crown: he was preceded by his father and two older brothers, Frederick Augustus and Clement. However, in 1822 Clement died unmarried in Italy, and John was now only preceded in the line of succession by his older brother Frederick Augustus.
When his uncle Anton succeeded his older brother as king (1827), John became the third in line to the throne, and after his father Maximilian renounced his succession rights in 1830, John became in the second in line. John’s older brother became King Frederick Augustus II in 1836; now he was the first in line of succession to the throne. The King, married twice, was childless. John remained as heir presumptive during all the reign of his brother.
King of Saxony
John became King of Saxony after the death of his brother Frederick Augustus II on 9 August 1854.
The Judiciary Organization of 1855, the extension of the railroad network, the introduction of the freedom of trade are attributed mainly to his suggestion and promotion. Under his government, came the acceptance of the French Commercial Treaty (1862) and the acknowledgment of a contract with Italy. He exerted himself under influence of his minister Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust for the Great Germany Solution (de: Großdeutsche Lösung) of the imperial arrangement (under inclusion of Austria). In 1866 Saxony fought on the Austrian side in the Austro-Prussian War. Finally, after the defeat of the Battle of Königgrätz, Saxony joined the North German Confederation and in 1871 the German Empire under the hegemony of the Kingdom of Prussia. The King died two years later, aged seventy-one.
Beyond his political work, Johann was busy with literature. Under the pseudonym Philalethes he translated to German the Dante’s Divine Comedy; some parts of this work were placed in the Schloss Weesenstein. The Dresden district of Johannstadt was named after him.
Saxony (German: Sachsen, Upper Sorbian: Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony, Upper Sorbian: Swobodny stat Sakska), is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland (Lower Silesian and Lubusz Voivodeships) and the Czech Republic (Karlovy Vary, Liberec, and Ústí nad Labem Regions). Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig.
Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany’s sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and the sixth most populous, with 4 million people.
The history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic.
The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds roughly to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and the Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.
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