Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Ludwig Gaston Klemens Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga; 15 September 1870 – 23 January 1942), known in Brazil as Dom Luís Gastão, was a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, and the last surviving grandchild of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.

Prince Ludwig Gaston
BornPrinz Ludwig Gaston von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, Herzog von Sachsen
(1870-09-15)15 September 1870
Ebenthal, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary
Died23 January 1942(1942-01-23) (aged 71)
Innsbruck, Nazi Germany
Burial
St. Augustin, Coburg
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1900; died 1906)​
    Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1907)​
    IssuePrince Antonius of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
    Princess Maria Immaculata of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
    Princess Josefine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
    Names
    Ludwig Gaston Klemens Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga
    HouseSaxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry
    FatherPrince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
    MotherPrincess Leopoldina of Brazil
    ReligionRoman Catholicism

    Biography

    Early life

    Ludwig Gaston was born at Schloss Ebenthal (Niederösterreich) in Ebenthal, Lower Austria in Austria-Hungary, the youngest son of Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Leopoldina of Brazil, the second daughter of Dom Pedro II.[1][2] His siblings were Princes Peter August, August Leopold and Joseph Ferdinand. Shortly after their mother's death in 1871, Ludwig and his brothers moved to Brazil, where they lived with their maternal grandfather until a military coup d'état in 1889 abolished the monarchy, forcing the imperial family into exile.

    Military and later life
    Ludwig with his wife Mathilde and their son Anton.

    Ludwig Gaston went to Wiener Neustadt to study at the Theresian Military Academy, where he successfully graduated in 1892. After that, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant of the Fourth Tiroler Jäger-Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army in Lienz. On 1 May 1896, Ludwig obtained the rank of First Lieutenant; on 29 March 1900, he was given command of the First Tiroler Jäger-Regiment in Innsbruck, and on 1 May 1903, he further advanced to the rank of Captain.[3] He left the army on 8 February 1907.

    In Munich, on 1 May 1900, the prince married firstly Princess Mathilde, daughter of King Ludwig III of Bavaria. Their wedding was hosted by her grandfather, Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria.[4] They had two children:

    • Antonius Maria Ludwig Klemens Eugen Karl Heinrich August Luitpold Leopold Franz Wolfgang Peter Gaston Alexander Alfons Ignatius Aloysius Stanislaus (Innsbruck, 17 June 1901 – Haar, 1 September 1970), married on 14 May 1938 to Luise Mayrhofer, without issue.
    • Maria Immaculata Leopoldine Franziska Theresia Ildefonsa Adelgunde Klementine Hildegard Anna Josepha Elisabeth Sancta-Angelica Nicoletta (Innsbruck, 10 September 1904 – Varese, Italy, 18 March 1940), unmarried and without issue.

    After the death of his first wife in 1906, he married for a second time Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, daughter of Karl Johann Nepomuk Ferdinand, Prince von und zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg and Josephine, Markgräfin von Pallavicini, (1873 – 1948) at Bischofteinitz on November 30, 1907. They had one daughter:

    • Josefine Maria Anna Leopoldine Amalie Klementine Ludovica Theresia Gabriela Gonzaga (Schloß Vogelsang, 20 September 1911 – Stockdorf, 27 November 1997), married on 12 May 1937 to Richard, Freiherr von Baratta-Dragono (1901 – 1998), with issue; divorced in 1945.

    Death

    Prince Ludwig Gaston died on 23 January 1942 in Innsbruck, and was buried in the St. Augustine's Church in Coburg.[5]

    Titles, styles and honours
    Styles of
    Prince Ludwig Gaston
    Reference styleHis Highness
    Spoken styleYour Highness

    Titles and styles
    • 15 September 1870 – 23 January 1942: His Highness Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony[6]

    Honours

    Ancestry

    Bibliography
    • Defrance, Olivier. La Médicis des Cobourg, Clémentine d’Orléans, Bruxelles, Racine, 2007 (ISBN 2873864869)
    • Bragança, Dom Carlos Tasso de Saxe-Coburgo e. A Princesa Leopoldina, in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, vol. 243, 1959 (ISSN 0101-4366)
    • Bragança, Dom Carlos Tasso de Saxe-Coburgo e. Palácio Leopoldina, in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, vol. 438, 2008 (ISSN 0101-4366)

    References
    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prince Ludwig Gaston of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
    1. Defrance, 232
    2. Bragança (1959), 74-75
    3. Edmund Glaise von Horstenau; Peter Broucek (1980). Ein General im Zwielicht: K.u.K. Generalstabsoffizier und Historiker. Böhlau Verlag Wien. p. 142. ISBN 978-3-205-08740-3.
    4. Die Woche (in German), no. 20. 19 May 1900. pp. 848, 850.
    5. "Coburg - St. Augustinkirche". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
    6. Bragança (1959), 87, 90
    7. Bragança (2008), 166
    8. "Herzoglich Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden und Sachsen Meiningensche Ehrenzeichen", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen (in German), Meiningen: Brückner & Renner, 1912, p. 23, retrieved 3 December 2019
    9. "Königliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreichs Bayern (in German), Munich, 1908, p. 9, retrieved 3 December 2019{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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