In the redistribution of land among the Ernestine duchies that followed the death of Frederick IV, the last duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, on 11 February 1825, the late duke's nephew-in-law, Duke Ernst III of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, received Gotha, while he ceded Saalfeld to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. On 12 November 1826 he thus became Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha remained in personal union until 1852, when a political union was effected.
This article is a list of those men who were heir-apparent or heir-presumptive to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1826 until the abolition of the monarchy on 14 November 1918.