The Life of Friedrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

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Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke Ernest III of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke Frederick IV of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, Ernestine Duchies, House of Wettin, Louise of Saxe-Gotha--Altenburg, Saxon Duchies

Friedrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (November 28, 1774 – February 11, 1825), was the last duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

He was the third but second surviving son of Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Princess Charlotte Amalie of Saxe-Meiningen, the eldest child and daughter of Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his second wife, Landgravine Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Philippsthal.

Princess Charlotte Amalie of Saxe-Meiningen was an elder sister of Charles Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

Friedrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Friedrich IV’s father, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was the third but second surviving son of Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen, daughter of Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Dorothea Marie of Saxe-Gotha.

After the death of his older brother Prince August without sons (1822), Friedrich (the only surviving male of the house) inherited the duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg upon his father’s death in

Duke Friedrich IV fought – after military training – in the Napoleonic campaigns and was heavily wounded. As a consequence of these injuries, he was constantly ill until his death.

Because of his illness, he traveled for a long time seeking a cure. During these stays outside of his duchy, he left the government in hands of his secret advisor Bernhard August von Lindenau.

He only reigned three years and died unmarried; with him, the line of Dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg ended. After his death without an heir it resulted in the necessity to rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies.

Rearrangement of the Ernestine Duchies

One of the heirs of the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was Duke Ernst III of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Although the late Friedrich IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was the uncle of Ernest’s first wife, Louise, his claim to the Duchy stemmed from Duke Ernst III being a member of the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty (and not as Louise’s husband).

Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Duke Ernst’s first wife Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was the only daughter of August, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his first wife Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the daughter of Friedrich Franz I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg…whom Princess Louise was named after.

On July 31, 1817 in Gotha, 16-year-old Louise married her 33-year-old kinsman Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, after he failed to win the hand of a Russian grand duchess. Louise was considered “young, clever, and beautiful”.

They had two children: Ernst, who inherited his father’s lands and titles, and Albert, who was later the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

However, Duke Ernst III was, at the time of the death of Friedrich IV in the process of divorcing Princess Louise and the other branches of the Wettin family used this as a leverage to drive a better bargain for themselves by insisting that he should not inherit the Duchy of Gotha.

Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

They reached a compromise on November 12, 1826: Ernst received Gotha, but had to cede Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen. He subsequently became “Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha”.

Although he had given a constitution to Coburg in 1821, he did not interfere in the system of government in Gotha. In reality Coburg and Gotha were not politically united duchies but were ruled in personal union by the Duke.

Altenburg was thereafter ruled by the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who became the Duke of Altenburg, and the Duchy of Hildburghausen was transferred to Saxe-Meiningen along with Saalfeld as previously mentioned.

Royal Dukedom: Addendum Part II

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1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles Edward of Albany, Duke of Albany, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Ernst August of Hanover, James Scott, King James II-VII of England, Royal Dukedom, Scotland and Ireland, Titles Deprivation Act of 1917

Here are some extinct Royal Dukedoms that could be used once again. Strathearn has never been used as a singular Dukedom as it is often coupled with another Dukedom.

Duke of Albemarle
Duke of Clarence
Duke of Avondale
Duke of Connaught
Duke of Strathearn
Duke of Hereford
Duke of Kendal
Duke of Kintyre
Duke of Ross
Duke of Monmouth
Duke of Windsor

Connaught was an Irish Peerage now part of the Republic of Ireland so is not available for recreation.

The title Duke of Windsor is so associated with Edward VIII I have a difficult time thinking it will ever be recreated.

Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale
Duke of Albany

There are two Dukedoms (three if Teviotdale is considered a separate Dukedom) have been suspended.

Prince Ernst August, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale

In 1799 the double dukedom of Cumberland and Teviotdale, in the Peerage of Great Britain, was bestowed on Ernest Augustus (later King of Hanover), fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom. In 1837 Ernest became king of Hanover, and on his death in 1851 the title descended with the kingdom to his son King Georg V, and on Georg’s death in 1878 to his grandson Prince Ernst August, Crown Prince of Hanover.

In 1866 Hanover was annexed by Prussia, but King Georg Vdied without renouncing his rights. His son Ernst August while maintaining his claim to the kingdom of Hanover, was generally known by his title of Duke of Cumberland in Britain.

The title was suspended for Ernst August’s pro-German activities during World War I under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, as it was for his son. Under the Act, the lineal male heirs of the 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale have the right to petition the British Crown for the restoration of his peerages. To date, none has done so.

The present heir is Prince Ernst August of Hanover (born February 26, 1954), great grandson of the 3rd Duke and current head of the House of Hanover. He is the senior male-line descendant of George III of the United Kingdom.

The title of “Albany” alone was granted for the fifth time, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, in 1881 to Prince Leopold, the fourth son of Queen Victoria. Prince Leopold’s son, Prince Charles Edward (who had succeeded as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900), was deprived of the peerage in 1917 for bearing arms against the United Kingdom in World War I.

Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Albany

His grandson, Ernst Leopold (1935–1996), only son of Charles Edward’s eldest son Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1906–1972), sometimes used the title “Duke of Albany”, although the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 stipulates that any successor of a suspended peer shall be restored to the peerage only by direction of the sovereign, the successor’s petition for restoration having been submitted for and obtained a satisfactory review of the appropriate Privy Council committee.

Because of it’s negative association with James Scott, 1st Dukedom of Monmouth I don’t believe this Dukedom will be recreated.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, (April 9, 1649 – July 15, 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with his mistress Lucy Walter.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

The Duke of Monmouth served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and commanded English troops taking part in the Third Anglo-Dutch War before commanding the Anglo-Dutch brigade fighting in the Franco-Dutch War.

The Duke of Monmouth believed his father, King Charles II and his mother Lucy Walter were legally married making him the lawful King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

He led the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, an attempt to depose his uncle King James II-VII. After one of his officers declared Monmouth the legitimate king in the town of Taunton in Somerset, Monmouth attempted to capitalise on his Protestantism and his position as the son of Charles II, in opposition to James, who had become a Roman Catholic. The rebellion failed, and Monmouth was beheaded for treason on July 15, 1685 despite asking his uncle the King to spare his life.

April 7, 1853: Birth of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

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Charles Edward of Albany, Duke of Albany, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmount, Hemophilia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Georg Victor of Waldeck and Pyrmount, Prince Leopold of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Wilhelm II of Germany

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, (Leopold George Duncan Albert; April 7, 1853 – March 28, 1884) Leopold was later created

Leopold was born at Buckingham Palace, London, the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During labour, Queen Victoria chose to use chloroform and thereby encouraged the use of anesthesia in childbirth, recently developed by Professor James Young Simpson. The chloroform was administered by John Snow.

As a son of the British sovereign, the newborn was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Leopold at birth. His parents named him Leopold after their common uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium.

Leopold inherited the disease haemophilia from his mother, Queen Victoria, and was a delicate child. There was speculation during his life that Leopold also suffered mildly from epilepsy, like his grand-nephew Prince John, son of George V and Mary of Teck.

In 1872, Prince Leopold entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied a variety of subjects and became president of the Oxford University Chess Club. On coming of age in 1874, he was made a privy councillor and granted an annuity of £15,000. He left the university in 1876 with an honorary doctorate in civil law (DCL), and then travelled in Europe. In 1880, he toured Canada and the United States with his sister, Princess Louise, whose husband John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, was Governor General of Canada. Leopold was a prominent patron of chess, and the London 1883 chess tournament was held under his patronage.

On May 24, 1881, his mother Queen Victoria created Leopold Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow.

Prince Leopold, stifled by the desire of Queen Victoria to keep him at home, saw marriage as his only hope of independence. Due to his haemophilia, he had difficulty finding a wife. He was acquainted with Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and was godfather of Alice’s second son, who was named after him.

It has been suggested that he considered marrying her, during the four years he spent at Christ Church, but the evidence for this is sparse. Others suggest that he preferred her sister Edith (for whom he later served as pall-bearer on 30 June 1876).

Princess Frederica of Hanover

Leopold also considered his second cousin Princess Frederica of Hanover as a bride; they instead became lifelong friends and confidantes. Other royal and aristocratic women he pursued included heiress Daisy Maynard, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse-Cassel,

Another potential royal bride that was considered was Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein. Caroline Mathilde’s elder sister, Augusta Viktoria was German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of Leopold’s nephew, Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein

Princess Stéphanie of Belgium and Princess Victoria of Baden were also considered. Leopold was very fond of Mary Baring, daughter of Lord Ashburton, but though she was equally fond of him, at 19, she felt she was too young to marry.

After rejection from these women, Victoria stepped in to bar what she saw as unsuitable possibilities. Insisting that the children of British monarchs should marry into other reigning Protestant families, Victoria suggested a meeting with Princess Helen Frederica, the daughter of Georg Victor, reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, one of whose daughters had already married King Willem III of the Netherlands.

On April 27, 1882, Leopold and Helen were married at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and his income was raised by parliament to £25,000. They enjoyed a happy, albeit brief marriage. In 1883, Leopold became a father when his wife gave birth to a daughter, Alice. However, he did not live to see the birth of his son, Charles Edward.

The Duke and Duchess of Albany. Prince Leopold and Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmount

Illness and death

Prince Leopold had haemophilia diagnosed in childhood, and in early years had various physicians in permanent attendance, including Arnold Royle and John Wickham Legg.

In February 1884, Leopold went to Cannes on doctor’s orders: joint pain is a common symptom of haemophilia and the winter climate in the United Kingdom was always difficult for him. His wife, pregnant at the time, stayed at home but urged him to go.

On March 27, at his Cannes residence, the ‘Villa Nevada’, he slipped and fell, injuring his knee and hitting his head. He died in the early hours of the next morning, apparently from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor. The court observed official mourning from March 30, 1884 to May 11, 1884.

Having died six years after his older sister Alice, Leopold was the second, but the youngest of Queen Victoria’s children to die, being only 30 years old at the time of his death.

His mother outlived him by seventeen years, by which time she had also outlived a third child, Alfred. Leopold’s passing was lamented by the Scottish “poet and tragedian” William McGonagall in the poem “The Death of Prince Leopold”. Queen Victoria wrote in her journal:

Another awful blow has fallen upon me & all of us today. My beloved Leopold, that bright, clever son, who had so many times recovered from such fearful illness, & from various small accidents, has been taken from us! To lose another dear child, far from me, & one who was so gifted, & such a help to me, is too dreadful!

The haemophilia gene is carried on the X chromosome, and is normally passed through female descent, as in the past few haemophiliac men survived to beget children. Any daughter of a haemophiliac is a carrier of the gene. Leopold’s daughter Alice inherited the haemophilia gene, and passed it to her elder son Rupert.

Leopold’s posthumous son, Prince Charles Edward, succeeded him as 2nd Duke of Albany upon birth four months later. Charles Edward succeeded his uncle Alfred as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900. Through Charles Edward, Leopold is the great-grandfather of Carl XVI Gustaf, the current King of Sweden.

February 17, 1861: Birth of Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Duchess of Albany

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Charles Edward of Albany, Duke of Albany, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Georg Victor of Waldeck and Pyrmount, Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmount, King George II of Great Britain, Leopold of the United Kingdom, Willem III of the Netherlands

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont (later Duchess of Albany; February 17, 1861 – September 1, 1922) was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of Georg Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his first wife, Princess Helena of Nassau.

Princess Helena of Nassau was the ninth child of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1792–1839), by his second wife Princess Pauline of Württemberg (1810–1856), daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg. She was the half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (then Hereditary Prince of Nassau). She was related to the Dutch Royal Family and also, distantly, to the British Royal Family through her father and mother, as both were descendants of King George II of Great Britain.

Helen was born in Arolsen, capital of Waldeck principality, in Germany. She was the sister of Friedrich, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont; another sister Marie, was the first wife of Wilhelm II of Württemberg; and another sister was Emma, Queen consort of Willem III of the Netherlands (and mother of Queen Wilhelmina).

Along with Emma and a third sister, Pauline, Helen was considered as a second wife for their distant cousin Willem III of the Netherlands. She later met with another distant cousin Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria, at the suggestion of his mother. The two became engaged in November 1881.

On April 27, 1882, Leopold and Helen married in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. After their wedding, Leopold and Helen resided at Claremont House. The couple had a brief, but happy marriage, ending in the hemophiliac Leopold’s death from a fall in Cannes, France, in March 1884. At the time of Leopold’s death, Helen was pregnant with their second child.

The couple had two children:

Princess Alice of Albany (1883–1981), later Countess of Athlone
Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (1884–1954), later reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Helen was also involved in several hospital charities and with those dedicated to ending human trafficking. During World War I, she organised much of her charity work along with that of her sister-in-law Princess Beatrice and husband’s niece Princess Marie-Louise to avoid the not-uncommon problem of conflicting (and sometimes misguided) royal war-work projects.

Later life

After Leopold’s death, Helen and her two children, Alice and Charles Edward, continued to reside at Claremont House.

After the death of her nephew, the Prince Arthur of Edinburgh, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899, Helen’s sixteen-year-old son was selected as the new heir to the German duchy, and was parted from his mother and sister in order to take up residence there. When the First World War broke out 14 years later, Charles Edward found himself fighting in the German Army. As a result, he was stripped of his British titles by an act of Parliament in 1917.

By contrast, her daughter Alice remained in England and by marriage to Prince Alexander of Teck in 1904 became a sister-in-law of Queen Mary, consort of King George V.

Helen died on September 1, 1922 of a heart attack in Hinterriss in Tyrol, Austria, while visiting her beloved son, Charles Edward. Through her son, she is the great-grandmother of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

April 16, 1942: Death of Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg by marriage.

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Alexandra of Edinburgh, Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg, Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Ernst II, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria; September 1, 1878 – April 16, 1942).

Princess Alexandra was born on September 1, 1878 at Rosenau Castle, Coburg. Her father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom as well as of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Nicknamed ‘Sandra’ by her family, Alexandra spent her childhood first in England and between 1886 and 1889 in Malta, where her father was serving with the British Royal Navy. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, Germany since her father, Alfred, was the heir apparent to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In 1893, her great-uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (brother of her paternal grandfather, Prince Albert) died without issue. Since Albert was dead, and her uncle, The Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII) had renounced his claim to the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the vacant duchy fell to Alexandra’s father, the Duke of Edinburgh. Thus, Princess Alexandra was both a British princess and a Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter The Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg.

She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893. Throughout her life, Alexandra was usually overshadowed by her two eldest sisters, Marie and Victoria Melita. Alexandra, was considered by some individuals as being less beautiful and more subdued than her sisters, was plain, placid and not as brilliant. This author personally disagrees with that assessment.

Princess Alexandra with her three sisters. From left to right, Princess Beatrice, Princess Victoria Melita, Princess Alexandra, and Queen Marie of Romania.

During Alexandra’s formative years, her father, occupied with his career in the Navy and later as a ruler in Coburg, paid little attention to his family. It was Alexandra’s mother who was the domineering presence in their children’s life. The duchess believed in marrying her daughters young, before they began to think for themselves.

At the end of 1895, she arranged Alexandra’s engagement to Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (September 16, 1863 – December 11, 1950). Alexandra’s grandmother, Queen Victoria, complained that she was too young. Alexandra’s father objected to the status of his future son-in-law. The House of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg was mediatized – a formerly ruling family who had ceded their sovereign rights to others while (in theory) retaining their equal birth.

It was not considered a brilliant match, but they were also related. Ernst was a grandson of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Queen Victoria’s half-sister. The wedding took place on April 20, 1896 in Coburg, Germany. Together, they had five children.

Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Alexandra lived for the rest of her life in Germany. At the death of her father in 1900, Alexandra’s husband was appointed regent of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg during the minority of the new Duke, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany who was her first cousin. Alexandra’s only brother, Alfred, had died in 1899. During World War I, she worked as a Red Cross nurse. In February 1916 her eldest daughter was married at Coburg to Prince Friedrich of Gluckburg and she became a grandmother when the couple’s first child, Prince Hans of Glucksburg was born in May 1917. On her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary in April 1931, her son Gottfried married Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, the eldest child and daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. She was the first great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria, and the eldest sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

In the years preceding World War II, Alexandra was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, which she joined on May 1, 1937, together with several of her children. She died in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany in 1942.

200th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom: Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

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Duchess of Kent, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Kingdom of the Belgians, Leopold I, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

On Friday, May 24, is the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. To honor this occasion I’ll feature some biographical info on her father Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Today I feature Queen Victoria’s mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and tomorrow I’ll feature Queen Victoria’s Birth itself.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Her Serene Highness Princess Marie Louise Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was born in Coburg on August 17, 1786 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz-Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf. Her eldest brother was Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and her younger brother, Leopold, future king of the Belgians, married, in 1816, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate daughter of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and heiress presumptive to the British throne.

First marriage

On December 21, 1803 at Coburg, a 17 year old Princess Victoria married (as his second wife) the 40 year old, Emich-Charles, Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814), whose first wife, Henrietta of Reuss-Ebersdorf, had been her aunt. Emich Carl was born at Dürckheim, the fourth child and only son of Carl-Friedrich, Count of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hartenburg by his wife Countess Christiane of Solms-Rödelheim and Assenheim (1736–1803). On July 3, 1779, his father was made a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and Emich Carl became Hereditary Prince of Leiningen. On January 9, 1807, Emich-Charles succeeded his father as second Prince of Leiningen.

Emich-Charles, Prince of Leiningen

The couple had two children, Prince Carl-Friedrich born on September 12, 1804, and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, born on December 7, 1807. Through her first marriage, she is a direct matrilineal ancestor to various members of royalty in Europe, including Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Felipe VI of Spain, and Constantine II of Greece.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Regency

Emich-Carl died at Amorbach on July 4, 1814, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Carl-Friedrich. After the death of her spouse, Victoria, served as regent of the Principality of Leiningen during the minority of their son, Carl-Friedrich.

Carl-Friedrich, Prince of Leiningen

Princess Feodora of Leiningen

Royal Grief: Part III

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Death, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, grief, King Edward VII of Great Britain, Nellie Clifden, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, United Kingdom

With the death of Prince Alfred, reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on July 30, 1900, his older brother, Prince Albert-Edward, The Prince of Wales, slipped into a depression over the death of his brother. Six months later would come an even larger and more life changing loss. On January 22, 1901 the Prince of Wales’ mother, Queen Victoria, passed away after a reign of 63 years  making him King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

I could find no recording of the grief he must have felt at the time. Was he conflicted? The new king, aged 59, had waited his entire life for this moment. On the one hand it was his mother that died. On the other hand he now could assume the role for which he was born into, which he had been waiting all of his life. I am sure the moment was bitter sweet.

Their relationship, mother and sun, was not easy. Queen Victoria had an almost worshipful view of her Husband, Prince Albert, and had hoped and expected that her son and heir would be a carbon copy of esteemed husband. She was very disappointed in him. In 1861, shortly before his death, Prince Albert confronted his son, the Prince of Wales, after his affair became public.

The Prince of Wales attended manoeuvres in Ireland, during which he conducted a three-day affair with actress, Nellie Clifden. Prince Albert, clealrly ill, was angered and disgusted with his sons behavior and visited Albert-Edward at Cambridge to reprimand him. Two weeks after the visit Albert died on December 14, 1861. Queen Victoria was inconsolable, wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life and blamed her son, Albert-Edward for his father’s death.  She wrote to her eldest daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, “I never can, or shall, look at him without a shudder.”

Though relations did improve between mother and son, she was was very relieved when the Prince of Wales recovered from a bout of typhoid (which took the life of Prince Albert) in 1871, but she often refused to give her son proper work as heir to the throne feeling that he was not up to the task.

Upon succeeding to the throne Prince Albert-Edward chose to reign under the name Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward the name his mother had desired him to use^. declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone”.

Part IV tomorrow! I promise!!

 

Royal Grief…Part I

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British Royalty, Conspiracy Theories, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Edward VII, Emperor of Russia, grief, Hereditary Prince Alfred, History, Queen Victoria

 

With my interest in royalty I often peruse genealogy charts and biographies to look at the history and events in people’s lives to see if I can capture an accurate picture of who these people were and the times in which they lived. That is what I do when I wear the hat of an historian. I also have a background in psychology and despite having these high and lofty titles they are still human and can and do suffer all the ills associated with the human condition and that includes grief.

When I examine genealogy charts and notice that there are deaths that come close after one another I realize that certain royal family members may be caught up in grief. Often their biographies may detail their grief, as the case with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, however, there are times when nothing is mentioned. This past July I noticed that King Edward VII of the United Kingdom went through many losses in one year. I envision that it may have been a very difficult time for him.

In 1892 he lost his eldest son and heir, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (1864-1892) to pneumonia. It has been reported that Prince Albert Victor’s mother, Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales (at that time) never fully recovered from her son’s death and kept the room in which he died as a shrine. This was typical of those in the Victorian era that made grief seem like an Olympic sport. I suspect that the future King Edward VII also never recovered from the death of his son…what parent ever truly recovers from such a tragedy?

However, it is the year 1899 that we turn to in examining the difficult year for Edward VII. On February 6, 1899 came the death of his nephew, HRH Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (October 15-February 9, 1899), the only son and  heir of HRH Prince Alfred, reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh and brother of King Edward VII. The Hereditary Prince’s mother was, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia the fifth child and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

The Hereditary Prince was aged 24 and his death was under circumstances still not entirely clear.Was it due to health reasons such as consumption or was it suicide? He is alleged to have secretly married Lady Mabel Fitzgerald, granddaughter of the 4th Duke of Leinster, and it has been claimed that this caused friction between young Prince Alfred and his parents and was the cause of his suicide. One report is that Alfred shot himself with a revolver while the rest of the family was gathered for the anniversary celebration of his parents marriage, January 23rd 1899. Prince Alfred survived the initial self-inflicted gun shot and was taken to Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha for three days before being sent to the Martinnsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch in the South Tyrol (Austria, now part of Italy). Alfred died there at 4:15 pm on February 9, 1899.

Technically this part of the story belongs more to the grief of the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha than to Edward VII himself, after all, it wasn’t his son that died. I only relay this story here because it was the start of a string of deaths in the British Royal Family that would run from 1899 until August of 1901 that would have had an emotional impact on the future Edward VII.

In keeping my desire to have these posts be not too length and therefore easily digestible, I will stop here and post the next entry next Friday.