Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

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Frederick II
Frederick II, 18th century
Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Reign	2 August 1691 – 23 March 1732
Predecessor	Frederick I
Successor	Frederick III
Regent	Bernhard I and Heinrich
Born	(1676-07-28)28 July 1676 Gotha, Duchy of Saxe-Gotha, Holy Roman Empire
Died	23 March 1732(1732-03-23) (aged 55) Altenburg, Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	Friedenstein Palace
Spouse	Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst ​ ​ (m. 1696)​
Issue among others...	Frederick III Prince William Prince John August Fredericka, Duchess of Saxe-Weisselfels Augusta, Princess of Wales Prince John Adolf
House	Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Father	Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Mother	Magdalena Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels
Religion	Lutheran

Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (28 July 1676 – 23 March 1732), was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

He was born in Gotha, the fifth child and first son of Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena 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; maintaining his court and standing army, which he had taken over from his father and even expanded, devoured a considerable amount of his income. As a solution, Frederick hired out his soldiers to foreign princes, which caused him great difficulties in 1702, when the King Louis XIV of France hired his troops and used them in his war against the Emperor.

Relating to domestic affairs, Frederick essentially continued the policy of his father. He created an orphanage in Altenburg (1715), a workhouse and a lunatic asylum in Kahla (1726), as well as the Magdalenenstift - in honor of his mother and wife (both with the same name) - (1705), an endowment for unmarried noble women. For 100,000 thaler from his private property, he bought the famous numismatic collection of Prince Anton Günther of Schwarzburg Arnstadt, which formed the basis of the current collection of coins (Münzkabinetts) at Schloss Friedenstein.

By accumulation of parts of Saxe-Coburg (dissolved in 1699), Saxe-Eisenberg (dissolved in 1707) and Saxe-Römhild (dissolved in 1710), he succeeded to all, however only at long hereditary disputes under the other Ernestine duchies, which went only to 1735 with an arbitral award of the Emperor finally to end reaching in each case area increases for his country. He died in Altenburg.