Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Who was Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg?

Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

He was the fifth child and first son of Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalene Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels.

After the death of his father, in 1691, Frederick II assumed the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

Because he was still under age, a guardianship and co-regency was formed between his uncles, the dukes Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen and Heinrich of Saxe-Römhild. In 1693, after he returned from a journey to Holland and England, he wrote to the emperor for a license of adult age and took independent control of the government of his duchy. Frederick was a splendor-loving baroque ruler; his yard attitude and the standing army, whom he had taken over from his father and even expanded, devoured some of his income. As a solution, Frederick rented his soldiers to foreign princes, which brought him a great difficulty in 1702, when the King Louis XIV of France rented his troops and used them in his war against the Emperor.

Relating to domestic affairs, Frederick essentially continued the policy of his father.