Saxe-Gessaphe

Saxe-Gessaphe is the name of a family descended in the female line from former kings of Saxony, a member of which has been recognized by the pretender to that throne as eventual heir to the deposed dynasty's rights. The claim is contested by an agnatic descendant of the former royal house, and both claims are clouded by conflicting interpretations of the dynastic laws which governed the succession to the throne of Saxony, and by familial dispute.

Dynastic background

The family descends from Princess Anna of Saxony, (born 13 December 1929, and her late husband Roberto Afif, (1916 - 1978), who was born and died in Mexico City. Anna is a sister of Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen, the childless current head of the ex-royal House of Saxony and, as such, titular King of Saxony. Of the five children of the late Prince Friedrich Christian, (1893 - 1968), son and heir of Saxony's last king, Friedrich August III, who was obliged to abdicate in 1918 coincident with Germany's surrender in World War I, Anna is the only one who has living, legitimate children.

Succession to Saxony's throne was semi-Salic: only if all male dynasts were to become extinct, would the nearest female dynast, or her descendants, have inherited the throne. Both male and female dynasts, however, had to marry "equally" (to a member of a reigning, formerly reigning, or noble family of at least reichsgrafliche rank) in order to transmit dynastic rights to their own descendants. Thus the eligibility of the Saxe-Gessaphe line for the royal Saxon legacy would depend on the dynasticity of their mother's marriage.

Lebanese heritage

Afif belonged paternally to an ancient princely Maronite Catholic family in what is now Lebanon. Afif, emir in Keserwan and grandson of a Lebanese emir, Mansur 'Asaf bin Hassan (1522-1580), is said to be the ancestor of the Christianised dynasty of the sheikhs of Bkassine, from which Roberto descends.

According to the royal genealogical book series, L'Allemagne dynastique, Princess Anna maintains that her husband's family descend from Suleiman, who was granted the province of Keserwan, north of Beirut, in 1306 by the Mamluks. According to her, Roberto's father, Alexander Afif (1883-1971), a lifelong resident of Beirut, was a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and was Prince of "Assaph (Afif)" or Gessaphe in Lebanon. Roberto emigrated to Mexico, obtained a law degree, and made his living as a businessman. His sister, Alexandra Afif, born in Beirut in 1919), morganatically married Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern (b. 1922 (nephew of Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony) in Rome in 1951.

Designated heir

Prince Johannes of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary (1969-1987), of the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin, was killed in a mountain climbing accident while still a youth, leaving his maternal uncle, Margrave Maria Emanuel, without a dynastic heir in the next generation of Wettins. However the eldest son of his sister Anna, Alexander Afif (b. Munich 12 February 1954), had married Princess Gisela of Bavaria (b. 10 September 1964) in 1987. In May 1997 the Margrave, who has upheld the dynasty's marital standards despite its deposition and exile, recognized Alexander Afif as his heir. By formally adopting him two years later, the Margrave conferred upon Alexander the legal surname of "Prinz von Sachsen" (Prince of Saxony). Thus was created the family of Saxe-Gessaphe, a cognatic offshoot of the royal House of Wettin: With the approval of Maria Emanuel, Alexander, his sons and brothers are also known as Princes of Saxe-Gessaphe.

In the spring of 1997 it was announced that the remaining male dynasts of the royal House (presumably Princes Albert, Dedo, Gero (1925 - 2003) had met and consented to the designation of Alexander as dynastic heir in the event that none of them leave sons by dynastically valid marriages.

Dispute

However the Margrave's brother, Prince Albert, has recently stated that he does not accept that decision as binding. He prefers that Rüdiger Prinz von Sachsen, the son of his first cousin the late Prince Timo of Saxony (1923 - 1982) (and Rüdiger's three sons) succeed to the royal Saxon claim. Since Rüdiger's mother was a commoner, that would require retroactive "de-morganatization" of the late Timo's marriage, an act the remaining agnates of the royal House have yet to agree upon (although in some circumstances, German princely law allowed a consensus of dynasts - or the last surviving male dynast - to "dynasticize" the issue of a morganatic marriage through unilateral action. Albert was the youngest dynastic male remaining in the family as of .Thus, its fate may depend upon who will be the last surviving male dynast, Maria Emanuel or his brother, Albert.

However, Saxony's constitution and house law explicitly required that descendants of the royal house had to be born of "equal marriage" in order to succeed to the throne. Moreover, German princely law was considered subordinate in applicability to enacted law. Under such circumstances, if Alexander's father and Rüdiger's mother would not have qualified as "equal in birth" for purposes of the succession, neither of them might be deemed eligible to become the next pretender to the Saxon royal throne. If, however, the Afif heritage is deemed to have been "princely", Alexander, at least, may qualify as a dynast without resort to an act of "de-morganatization".

The line of succession within the Saxony-Gessaphe line would be:

1. Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe (b. 1954)
2. Prince Georg Philipp of Saxe-Gessaphe (b. 1988), hereditary prince
3. Prince Moritz of Saxe-Gessaphe (b. 1989)
4. Prince Paul of Saxe-Gessaphe (b. 1993)

The three last are Alexander's sons with Gisela. They also have a daughter, Princess Maria Teresita.

The name Saxe-Gessaphe is used also by Alexander's brothers (younger sons of Princess Anna) and nieces (although none of them has yet been officially adopted into the family):

• Friedrich Wilhelm Memo Prinz von Sachsen-Gessaphe (b. 1955), a Jesuit priest
• Karl August Prinz von Sachsen-Gessaphe (b. 1958), Professor at the FernUniversität at Hagen, Dr. iur. habil.;

and his two daughters:

• Maria Antonia (b. 1994)
• Maria Fernanda Desirée (b. 1999)

In the case of Princess Anna's marriage with Roberto Afif not proving dynastically acceptable, the next cognatic heir born of dynastic marriage (and thus potentially a rival to Alexander) might be found in Frederick William, Prince of Hohenzollern (b. 1924), as the son of Princess Margaret of Saxony (1900-1962), the eldest aunt of Maria Emanuel.

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