Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (29 April 1763 in Hildburghausen â 29 September 1834 in Altenburg), was duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1780âÂÂ1826) and duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1826âÂÂ1834).
He was the youngest child, but only son, of Ernst Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, by his third wife, Princess Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar.
The prince was initially educated by the city clergyman Johann Ulrich Röder, who sent him to the Gotha court in 1778 for further training under the privy councillors von Lichtenstein and Johann Karl von der Becke. In 1779, Frederick went to Vienna and was introduced to the court there by his great-grand uncle, Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Frederick succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1780, when he was seventeen years old; because of this, his great-grand uncle, Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, assumed the regency on his behalf. His great-grand-uncle had a significant influence on him, and through his mediation, he married Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Prince Joseph died on 4 January 1787, after which Frederick assumed full authority. One of his first official acts was the establishment of a customs union between himself, George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, as agreed at the Rodach Conference. This union enabled free trade between the two states. This was followed by reforms in guilds, welfare, and the police, road construction, and medicine. He improved the school system and, in 1795, founded a teachers' college in Hildburghausen under Ludwig Nonne, followed by the Gymnasium illustre and an industrial school for the poor in 1812.
After Prussia and Austria declared war on France in 1791, Frederick provided a contingent of troops that occupied the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. Until 1806 he was subject to the restrictions of the imperial debit commission, which had placed the duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen under official administration, because of his predecessors' dissolute financial policy.
In 1806, Frederick joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and in 1815, the German Confederation. In 1818, he, in collaboration with Karl Ernst Schmid, gave the duchy a new constitution. The improved financial situation enabled the purchase of the Eishausen manor.
Frederick was considered popular and intelligent. During his reign, along with his wife, Charlotte, cultural life in the small town reached its zenith. So many poets and artists spent their time there that Hildburghausen was nicknamed "Klein-Weimar" (Little Weimar). When the last duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died without issue in 1825, the other branches of the house decided on a rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies, and as agreed in the Preliminary Treaty of Liebenstein on 11 August 1826, Frederick left the Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen on 17 November 1826. The Duchy fell to Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and from then on he ruled the re-established Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg as Frederick I, with the exception of the district of Camburg.
When Frederick moved to Altenburg on 23 November 1826, the resident was in less than perfect condition. He often stayed at Hummelshain Castle while Altenburg Castle underwent restoration.
On 14 September 1830, following street fighting in the ducal capital, Frederick granted the duchy its first constitution from the town hall of Altenburg. The constitution officially came into force on 23 April 1831. Throughout his reign, the Duke expanded the country's infrastructure, abolished the hunting levy, and improved the administration. He joined the German Customs and Trade Union in 1833.
Frederick died on 29 September 1834 at the Hummelshain Hunting Lodge in Hummelshain at the age of 71. He was succeeded by his son Joseph.
In Hildburghausen on 3 September 1785, Frederick married Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was a niece of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who was the wife of King George III. Two of her sisters later became the queens of Prussia and Hanover, respectively. They had twelve children: