Three years later Duke Francis died a ruined man.

The Napoleonic harrow passed over Saxe-Coburg.

The duchy was seized by the French, and the ducal family were reduced to beggary, almost to starvation.

At the same time the little principality of Amorbach was devastated by the French, Russian, and Austrian armies, marching and counter-marching across it.

For years there was hardly a cow in the country, nor enough grass to feed a flock of geese.