Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha


Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, known in Brazil as Dom Luís Augusto, was a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry and an Admiral in the Imperial Brazilian Navy.

Early life

He was born at the Château d'Eu in France, the second son of Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Clémentine of Orléans. His father was a first cousin of Victoria of the United Kingdom and her consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Through his mother he was a grandson of Louis-Philippe I, the last reigning king of France.

Marriage and family

Ludwig August and his double first cousin, the French Prince Gaston, comte d'Eu were imported to Brazil in order to marry the two daughters of the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil: Isabel, the elder, and Leopoldina, the younger. The original plan was for August to marry Isabel and Gaston to Leopoldina, but the girls decided otherwise and the Emperor, having himself experienced the unhappinesses of an arranged dynastic marriage, agreed to their wishes.
Ludwig August and Leopoldina married in Rio de Janeiro on 15 December 1864, two months after the wedding of Isabel and Gaston. They had four sons:
  1. Peter August Ludwig Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga ; successor of his father in 1907. Peter died unmarried and was succeeded by his nephew Rainer.
  2. August Leopold Philipp Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga.
  3. Joseph Ferdinand Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga.
  4. Ludwig Gaston Klemens Maria Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga ; married Princess Mathilde of Bavaria. After the death of his first wife, he married Countess Anna von und zu :File:Jičín_zámek_erb_Trauttmansdorffů.jpg|Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.
His wife died young, aged 23, in 1871. He died on 14 September 1907 in Karlsbad, Germany, aged 62.

Honours