Saxon War of Succession (2012-2015)

The Saxon War of Succession was a dispute and armed conflict fought between two branches of the House of Wettin over who would succeed Maria Emmanuel I as King of Saxony.

The last undisputed male member of the family was Prince Albert of Saxony, who assumed the headship of the royal house and the title King of Saxony upon the death of his brother the Margrave Maria Emanuel in July 2012. This was challenged, however, by his nephew Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe who also claimed the headship based on a 1997 agreement, and who is said to have reached an agreement with Albert just prior to the funeral of Maria Emanuel which recognised Alexander as the dynasty's heir.[2] With the death of Albert in October 2012 the dispute continued with Prince Rüdiger of Saxony, the only agnatic great grandson of the last King of Saxony, claiming the headship.

The conflict over the headship stems from the fact that the last undisputed head of the house Maria Emanuel, King of Saxony, and the other princes of his generation either had no children or, in the case of Prince Timo, had children (including Prince Rüdiger of Saxony) who were not recognised by Margrave Maria Emanuel as dynastic members of the Royal House of Saxony. The first designated dynastic heir of Maria Emanuel was his and Albert's nephew Prince Johannes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, only son of their youngest sister Princess Mathilde of Saxony by her marriage to Prince Johannes Heinrich of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, dynast of a ducal branch of the House of Wettin senior patrilineally to the royal branch.

In 2014 the Deutscher Adelsrechtsausschuss (basically a deciding body of the associations of the German nobility with regard to questions of historical nobility law) issued an expert opinion that the Albertine line of the House of Wettin became extinct with the death of Maria Emanuel, King of Saxony in 2012. None of the remaining family members, who bear the legal surname "Prinz von Sachsen Herzog zu Sachsen", are allowed to use the style His/Her Royal Highness. Because there is no longer a head of the royal house, no family member has the right to use the title King of Saxony.

In a joint statement of 23 June 2015, the heads of the three remaining branches of the senior Ernestine line of the House of Wettin, Michael, Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Konrad, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, declared that, according to the historical princely and house laws of the House of Wettin, Alexander Prinz von Sachsen (formerly Alexander Prinz von Saxe-Gessaphe, aka Alexander Afif Prince of Gessaphe aka Alexander Afif), bearing the name Prinz von Sachsen by adoption, is not a noble and bears a non-noble name, is not a member of the House of Wettin, nor did he succeed the King of Saxony.