John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg
John Casimir of Saxe-Coburg (Gotha, 12 June 1564 – Coburg, 16 July 1633) was the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. He was the descendant of the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin. Under his rule, the residence town of Coburg prospered with many Renaissance buildings being erected that still remain today. Youth John Casimir was born at Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha on 12 June 1564 as the middle of three sons of Duke John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony and his wife Countess Palatine Elisabeth of Simmern-Sponheim. Because of the Holy Roman Empire's sanctions (Reichsexekution) against Gotha, his father lost on 15 April 1567 his dominions and freedom. Then John Casimir lived with his brothers, Frederick Henry (who died in 1572 at the age of 11) and John Ernest and their mother, first in Eisenach, then at the court of his Uncle John William, the guardian of the children, in Weimar, and finally in Eisenberg, Thuringia. In 1570 the Diet of Speyer restored to the brothers the rights and privileges of their father. Two years later, in the summer of 1572, their mother moved to Austria to join her husband in captivity. A few months later, on 6 November 1572, her