Germany – German States – Electorate of Saxony Frederick Augustus III – King of Saxony: 15 October 1904 – 13 November 1918 1904 E Silver 2 Mark 27mm (11.11 grams) 0.900 Silver (0.3215 oz. ASW) Reference: KM# 1257, J# 129 GEORG KOENIG VON SACHSEN E, George facing right. DEUTSCHES REICH * ZWEI MARK *, Crowned imperial eagle.
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George (German: Georg; 8 August 1832 – 15 October 1904) was a king of Saxony and member of the House of Wettin.
George was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He was the second son of King John of Saxony (1801–1873) and his wife, Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria (1801–1877), daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (1756–1825).
On 11 May 1859 at Belém Palace, Lisbon, George married the younger sister of King Pedro V of Portugal: Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal, eldest surviving daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and her consort, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry. Maria Anna died young and George stayed unmarried for the rest of his long life.
George served under his brother Albert’s command during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and in the Franco-German War. In the re-organisation of the army which accompanied the march towards Paris, his brother the Crown Prince gained a separate command over the 4th army (Army of the Meuse) consisting of the Saxon XII corps, the Prussian Guard corps, and the IV (Prussian Saxony) corps and George succeeded him in command of the XII corps.
Prince George was a Generalfeldmarschall before his ascension. It gradually became clear that George’s elder brother, Albert I (1828–1902), and his wife, Queen Carola (1833–1907). would not have any children, thereby making George the heir presumptive to the throne. He succeeded Albert I as King of Saxony on 19 June 1902, albeit for just a brief two-year reign. He died in Pillnitz and was succeeded by his eldest son, Frederick Augustus III (1865–1932), who was deposed in 1918.
King George was a controversial figure. He divorced by royal decree his eldest son from his daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Luise. Luise’s flight from Dresden was due to her father-in-law’s threatening to have her interned in Sonnestein Mental Asylum for life.
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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