Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Happy 71st Birthday to His Highness Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony! Prince Andreas is the current Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which include the Royal Family Belgium, the former Royal House of Bulgaria, and the British Royal Family, before they changed their name to Windsor, dropped all their German titles, and severed their ties with their German relations following World War I.

The Prince was born Andreas Michael Friedrich Hans Armin Siegfried Hubertus on March 21, 1943, the son of  Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the former Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth. Prince Friedrich was the son of and heir of Charles Edward, the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Albany in the British Peerage. Charles Edward was the only son (born posthumously) of Prince Leopold, youngest son of Queen Victoria. Thus, Andrea is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

In 1946, his parents divorced. In 1949, together with his mother and stepfather Richard Whitten, he moved to New Orleans. He returned to Germany in 1965 and rendered military service from 1966 until 1968 before working as a timber merchant from 1969 until 1971.

He married Carin Dabelstein (b. Hamburg, 16 July 1946), daughter of Adolf Wilhelm Martin Dabelstein, Fabrikant, Kaufmann, and wife Irma Maria Margarete Callsen in 1971. While the marriage was unequal, the groom's father granted permission to the permission, and so the couple's three children, Stephanie (born 1972), Hubertus, Hereditary Prince and Heir Apparent to the family headship (born 1975) and Alexander (born 1977) have been allowed to use the family's courtesy titles and styles.