August 13, 1792: Birth of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover. Part I.

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Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Charlotte of Wales, Clarence House, Duke of Clarence, Georg of Saxe-Meiningen, George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, George IV of the United Kingdom and Hanover, The Prince Regent, William IV of the United Kingdom and Hanover

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline; August 13, 1792 – December 2, 1849) was Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover from June 26, 1830 to June 20, 1837 as the wife of King William IV. Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her.

Adelaide was born on August 13, 1792 at Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany, the eldest child of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Her mother was Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was a daughter of Prince Christian Albrecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife Princess Caroline of Stolberg-Gedern (1732–1796).

Adelaide was baptised at the castle chapel on 19 August 19 and was titled Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Duchess in Saxony with the style Serene Highness. Her godparents numbered twenty-one, including her mother….Eleonre of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Here is a partial list of her prestigious godparents.

1. The Holy Roman Empress (Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (1772 – 1807) was the first Empress of Austria and last Holy Roman Empress as the spouse of Franz II. She was born a Princess of Naples as the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria).

2. The Queen of Naples and Sicily (Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (1752 – 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. She was the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Franz I).

3. The Crown Princess of Saxony (Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1767 – 1827) was born an Archduchess of Austria and a Princess of Tuscany. She was later Queen of Saxony as the second wife and consort of King Anton of Saxony.

Archduchess Maria Theresa was born in Florence, Italy, the eldest child of Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Tuscany (later Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II) and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. As such, she was also the eldest grandchild of Carlos III of Spain. Like all the eldest daughters of the children of her paternal grandparents, she was named after her grandmother, the Habsburg ruler Empress Maria Theresa).

4. Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, aunt of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, (was born Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen (1751 — 1827). She was the eldest child and daughter of Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his second wife, Landgravine Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Philippsthal. Charlotte was an elder sister of Charles Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

Duchess consort of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg through her marriage to Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg).

5. Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saafeld (Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1724 – 1802) was the tenth of 17 children of Ferdinand Albrecht II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his wife Antoinette Amelia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Sophie Antoinette, married Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Among her notable great-grandchildren were Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Ferdinand II of Portugal, Empress Carlota of Mexico and Leopold II of Belgium).

6. Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, (Princess and Landgravine Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt (1757 – 1830) she was the daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Caroline of Zweibrücken. She married Duke (later Grand-Duke) Charles August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

7. The Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, (Charles Ludwig, 3rd Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1762 – 1825) was the first child of Prince Christian Albrecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife, Princess Caroline of Stolberg-Gedern. He married Countess Amalie Henriette of Solms-Baruth (1768–1847), daughter of Count John Christian II of Solms-Baruth.

8. Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld. (Landgrave Adolph of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1743 in Ypres – 1803) was a son of the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1692-1761) from his marriage with Charlotte Wilhelmine of Anhalt).

Saxe-Meiningen was a small state, covering about 423 square miles (1,100 km2). It was the most liberal German state and, unlike its neighbours, permitted a free press and criticism of the ruler. At the time, no statute existed which barred a female ruling over the small duchy and it was not until the birth of her brother, Bernhard, in 1800, that the law of primogeniture was introduced.

Marriage

By the end of 1811, King George III of the United Kingdom was incapacitated and, although he was still king in name, his heir-apparent and eldest son, Prince George, was Prince Regent. On November 6, 1817 the Prince Regent’s only child, Princess Charlotte of Wales died in childbirth. Princess Charlotte was second in line to the throne: had she outlived her father and grandfather, she would have become queen.

With her death, King George III was left with twelve children and no legitimate grandchildren. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, who was 49 years old, thus there was little likelihood that he would have any further legitimate children.

To secure the line of succession, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, and the other sons of George III sought quick marriages with the intent of producing offspring who could inherit the throne. William already had ten children by the popular actress Dorothea Jordan, but, being illegitimate, they were barred from the succession.

Considerable allowances were likely to be voted by Parliament to any royal duke who married, and this acted as a further incentive for William to marry. Adelaide was a princess from an unimportant German state.

However, William had a limited choice of available princesses, and, after deals with other candidates fell through, a marriage to Adelaide was arranged. The allowance proposed was slashed by Parliament, and the outraged Duke considered calling off the marriage.

However, Adelaide seemed the ideal candidate: amiable, home-loving, and willing to accept William’s illegitimate children as part of the family. The arrangement was settled and William wrote to his eldest son, “She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife.”

Adelaide’s dowry was set at 20,000 florins, with additional three separate annuities being promised by her future husband, the English regent, and the state of Saxe-Meiningen.

Adelaide married William in a double wedding with William’s brother, Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and his bride Victoria, Dowager Princess of Leiningen (a Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saafeld), on July 11, 1818, at Kew Palace in Surrey, England.

Adelaide and William had only met for the first time a week earlier on July 4 at Grillon’s Hotel in Bond Street. Neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William aged 53 was 27 years senior to Adelaide who was 26.

Despite these unromantic circumstances, the couple settled amicably in Hanover (where the cost of living was much lower than in England), and by all accounts were devoted to each other throughout their marriage.

Adelaide improved William’s behaviour; he drank less, swore less, and became more tactful. Observers thought them parsimonious, and their lifestyle simple, even boring. William eventually accepted the reduced increase in his allowance voted by Parliament.

On the Continent, Adelaide became pregnant, but in her seventh month of pregnancy, she caught pleurisy and gave birth prematurely on March 27, 1819 at the Fürstenhof Palace in Hanover. Her daughter, Charlotte Augusta Louise, lived only a few hours.

Another pregnancy in the same year caused William to move the household to England so his future heir would be born on British soil; however, Adelaide miscarried at Calais or Dunkirk during the journey on September 5, 1819.

Back in London, they moved into Clarence House, but preferred to stay at Bushy House near Hampton Court, where William had already lived with Dorothea Jordan.

Adelaide became pregnant again, and a second daughter, Elizabeth Georgiana Adelaide, was born on December 10, 1820 at St James’s Palace. Elizabeth seemed strong but died less than three months old on March 4, 1821 of “inflammation in the Bowels”. Ultimately, William and Adelaide had no surviving children. Twin boys were stillborn on 8 April 1822 at Bushy Park and a possible brief pregnancy may have occurred within the same year.

December 10, 1865: Death of King Leopold I of the Belgians

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Charlotte of Wales, Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, George IV of the United Kingdom, King Louis Philippe of the French, Kingdom of Greece, Leopold I of Belgium, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Louise of Orléans, National Congress, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Regent, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

From the Emperor’s Desk: December 9 was the death of Duke Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and today, December 10, is the anniversary of the death of his youngest son, King Leopold I of the Belgians.

Leopold I (December 16, 1790 – December 10, 1865) was the first King of the Belgians, reigning from July 21, 1831 until his death in 1865.

Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on December 16, 1790. He was the youngest son of Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf.

In 1825 the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg became extinct when its last duke, Friedrich IV, died without male heirs. Quarrels arose between the three remaining Ernestine lines of Saxon dukes about the succession. As a result of an arbitration issued by King Friedrich August I of Saxony in 1826, the Ernestine duchies were rearranged and Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was again split:

Saxe-Gotha passed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, which had to cede Saxe-Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen. The territories constituted the newly created Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Saxe-Altenburg was also given to the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who in turn passed his own domain to Saxe-Meiningen and assumed the title of a Duke of Saxe-Altenburg.

As the youngest son of Duke Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars.

First Marriage

Leopold received British citizenship in March 1816. On May 2, 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of the Regent George (later King George IV) and his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and therefore second in line to the British throne.

The Prince Regent had hoped Charlotte would marry Willem, Prince of Orange, (future King Willem II of the Netherlands) but she favoured Leopold. Although the Regent was displeased, he found Leopold to be charming and possessing every quality to make his daughter happy, and so approved their marriage.

On November 5, 1817, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son. She herself died the next day following complications. Leopold was said to have been heartbroken by her death.

Had Charlotte survived, she would have become Queen of the United Kingdom on the death of her father and Leopold presumably would have assumed the role of Prince Consort, la position later taken by his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Despite Charlotte’s death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on April 6, 1818.

From 1828 to 1829, Leopold had an affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte. Caroline was a cousin of his advisor Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar. She came to England with her mother and took up residence at Longwood House, a few miles from Claremont House.

But, by mid-1829, the liaison was over, and the actress and her mother returned to Berlin. Many years later, in memoirs published after her death, she declared that she and Leopold had engaged in a morganatic marriage and that he had bestowed upon her the title of Countess Montgomery. Leopold have broken this marriage when the possibility arose that he could become King of Greece. The son of Baron Stockmar denied that these events ever happened, and indeed no records have been found of a civil or religious marriage with the actress

After the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830), Leopold was offered the throne of Greece under the 1830 London Protocol that created an independent Greek state, but turned it down, believing it to be too precarious.

In 1862 when the Greek throne was once again vacant, the throne was offered to Leopold’s great-nephew, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of his nice and nephew, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Alfred refused the throne.

In November of 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the separation of the Southern Provinces from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic and bourgeois, officially French-speaking and neutral, independent Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress.

Fears of “mob rule” associated with republicanism after the French Revolution of 1789, as well as the example of the recent, liberal July Revolution in France, led the Congress to decide that Belgium would be a popular, constitutional monarchy.

Search for a Monarch

The choice of candidates for the position was one of the most controversial issues faced by the revolutionaries. The Congress refused to consider any candidate from the Dutch ruling house of Orange-Nassau. Some Orangists had hoped to offer the position to King Willem I or his son, Willem, Prince of Orange, which would bring Belgium into personal union with the Netherlands like Luxembourg. The Great Powers also worried that a candidate from another state could risk destabilizing the international balance of power and lobbied for a neutral candidate.

Eventually the Congress was able to draw up a shortlist. The three viable possibilities were felt to be Eugène de Beauharnais, a French nobleman and stepson of Napoleon; Auguste of Leuchtenberg, son of Eugene; and Louis of Orléans, Duke of Nemours who was the son of the French King Louis-Philippe.

All the candidates were French and the choice between them was principally between choosing the Bonapartism of Beauharnais or Leuchtenberg and supporting the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe.

Louis-Philippe realized that the choice of either of the Bonapartists could be first stage of a coup against him, but that his son would also be unacceptable to other European powers suspicious of French intentions. Nemours refused the offer. With no definitive choice in sight, Catholics and Liberals united to elect Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier, a minor Belgian nobleman, as regent to buy more time for a definitive decision in February 1831.

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had been proposed at an early stage, but had been dropped because of French opposition. The problems caused by the French candidates and the increased international pressure for a solution led to his reconsideration. On April 22, he was finally approached by a Belgian delegation at Marlborough House to officially offer him the throne. Leopold, however, was reluctant to accept.

After a ceremony of resignation by the regent, Leopold, dressed in the uniform of a Belgian lieutenant-general, swore loyalty to the constitution and became King of the Belgians on July 21, 1831, an event commemorated annually as Belgian National Day.

Second Marriage

On August 9, 1832 Prince Leopold married Louise of Orléans (April 3, 1812 – October 11, 1850). Born in Palermo, Sicily, Louise was the eldest daughter of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and of his wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. As a child, she had a religious and bourgeoisie education thanks to the part played by her mother and her aunt, Princess Adélaïde of Orléans, to whom she was very close. She was given a strict religious upbringing by her aunt. She also learned to speak English, German and Italian.

As a member of the reigning House of Orléans she was entitled to the rank of a Princess of the Blood Royal. She rarely participated in public representation, but acted as the political adviser of her spouse. Her large correspondence is a valuable historical source of the period and has been published. They had four children.

Reign and Death

Leopold’s reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a Protestant, Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation, playing an important role in encouraging the creation of Belgium’s first railway in 1835 and subsequent industrialisation. As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to slightly expand the monarch’s powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium.

Leopold died in Laeken near Brussels on December 10, 1865, a week short of his 75th birthday. His funeral was held on December 16, on what would have been his 75th birthday. He is interred in the Royal Crypt at the Church of Notre-Dame de Laeken, next to Louise-Marie.
Leopold was succeeded by his son, Leopold II, aged 30, who would rule until 1909.

On this Date in History: April 6, 1889. Death of Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, Duchess of Cambridge.

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Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, Charlotte of Wales, Duchess of Cambridge, George III, George III of Great Britain, Kate Middleton, Kingdom of Hanover, Prince William, Prince William of Wales, Royal Marriages Act of 1772, United Kingdom, Viceroy

Today is the 130th anniversary of the death of the Duchess of Cambridge, (born Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel), on April 6, 1889.

Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel

Augusta was the Last holder of the title Duchess of Cambridge prior to the current Duchess of Cambridge. Augusta is the Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother of the current Duke of Cambridge.

Princess Augusta Wilhelmine Luise of Hesse-Cassel (July 25, 1797 – April 6, 1889) was the wife of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of Mary of Teck, wife of George V of the United Kingdom.

HRH The Dowager Duchess of Cambridge

Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, third daughter of Landgrave Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel and his wife, Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen, was born at Rumpenheim, Offenbach am Main, Hesse. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of George II of Great Britain, her grandfather having married George II’s daughter Mary. Her father’s older brother was the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. In 1803, her uncle’s title was raised to Imperial Elector of Hesse—whereby the entire Cassel branch of the Hesse dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy.

Marriage

Prince Adolphus Frederick, The Duke of Cambridge

On May 7, 1818 in Cassel, and then, again, on June 1, 1818 at Buckingham Palace, Princess Augusta married her second cousin, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, when she was 20 and he 44. Their marriage was a result of the “rush to the alter” for the unmarried sons of George III after the death in childbirth of their niece Princess Charlotte of Wales the previous year. The death of Princess Charlotte meant there was no legitimate heir to the throne of the United Kingdom in the third generation.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children: George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904); Augusta of Cambridge (1822-1916)(who married Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenberg-Strelitz); Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (1833-1897) (who married Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the parents of Princess Mary of Teck wife of George V of the United Kingdom).

At this time in the history of the British Monarchy the King of the United Kingdom was also the King of Hanover, a state within the German Confederation of the Rhine. The union of these two crowns was a personal union and not a political union. Shortly after their marriage in 1818 the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge moved to Hanover where her husband served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers, George IV (1820-1830) and William IV (1830-1837). The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, in 1837 when Prince Ernest-Augustus, Duke of Cumberland became King of Hanover (1837-1851).

Since Hanover was ruled by the Salic Law which barred women from inheriting the throne, Victoria (1837-1901) inherited the British throne and her uncle Prince Ernest-Augustus, Duke of Cumberland inherited the Hanoverian crown. With the King of Hanover now living in Hanover there was no longer a need for a Viceroy and therefore the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Britain where they lived at Cambridge Cottage, Kew, and later at St. James’s Palace.

Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover

The Duke of Cambridge died on July 8, 1850 at Cambridge House, Piccadilly, London, at the age of 76 and was buried at St Anne’s Church, Kew. His remains were later removed to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. His only son, Prince George, succeeded to his peerages. The 2nd Duke of Cambridge married privately and in contravention of the 1772 Royal Marriages Act at St. John’s Church, Clerkenwell, London, on January 8, 1847 to Sarah Fairbrother (1816 – January 12, 1890), the daughter of John Fairbrother, a servant in Westminster. As the marriage was contrary to the Royal Marriages Act, the Duke’s wife was not titled Duchess of Cambridge or accorded the style Her Royal Highness, nor was their son born after the marriage eligible to succeed to the Duke’s titles. This was why Augusta was the last Duchess of Cambridge until Kate Middleton married the current Duke of Cambridge, Prince William of Wales in 2011.

Death

The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying on April 6, 1889, at the age of ninety-one. Queen Victoria wrote of her aunt’s death: “Very sad, though not for her. But she is the last of her generation, & I have no longer anyone above me.”