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ORIGINS: WETTINS OF SAXONY The Wettin family first came to prominence with their creation as Margrave s of Meissen in 1089 . The family advanced over the course of the Middle Ages , being created Landgraves of Thuringia in 1263 , and dukes of Saxony in 1423 with the dignity of Elector s of the Holy Roman Empire . The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 when the sons of Frederick II, Elector Of Saxony concluded that 20 years of joint rule had not been satisfactory. The elder son Ernest, Elector Of Saxony received the power of the Electorship and established his seat at Wittenberg , and his younger brother Albert, Duke Of Saxony ruled his lands from Dresden . Saxony was thus divided into ''Electoral'' Saxony (mainly coextensive with Thuringia ), ruled by the Ernestine Wettins, and ''Ducal'' Saxony (mainly coextensive with the modern Saxony ), ruled by the Albertine Wettins. ERNESTINE AND ALBERTINE WETTINS The inheritance patterns of the two branches differed markedly. Albertine Wettins maintained most of the territorial integrity of Saxony, preserving it as a significant power in the region. The Ernestine Wettins, on the other hand, repeatedly subdivided their territory, creating an intricate patchwork of small Duchies And Counties in Thuringia. The junior Albertine branch ruled as Kings Of Poland ( 1697 - 1763 ) and Saxony ( 1806 - 1918 ), and headed the French -backed Duchy Of Warsaw ( 1807 - 1814 ) after Russia n invasion had thwarted its assumption of a hereditary Polish kingship under the Polish Constitution of 1791 . THE HOUSE OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA ''Main article: Saxe-Coburg And Gotha '' The senior Ernestine branch lost the electorship to the Albertine in 1547 , but retained its holdings in Thuringia, dividing the area into a number of smaller states. One of the resulting Ernestine houses, that of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , went on to contribute Kings Of Belgium (from 1831 ) and Bulgaria ( 1908 - 1946 ), as well as furnishing consorts to queens of Portugal and the United Kingdom ( Prince Albert , husband of Queen Victoria ). As such, the British throne became a possession of the Wettin family. The actual name Wettin, a German medievalism, was never used in Britain. Although the British Royal Family's Royal House name was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the descendants of Victoria and Albert had their personal surname changed to '' Windsor '' by an Order-in-Council of King George V in 1917. As a result of Queen Elizabeth II 's marriage to Prince Philip Of Greece , the throne will pass to his House, although they will probably continue using the name Windsor as a house name and Mountbatten-Windsor as a personal surname, as prescribed by Queen Elizabeth's 1960 Order-in-Council. Mountbatten is an Anglicisation of ''Battenberg'', the title of Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice Of Battenberg . SEE ALSO
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