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Tag Archives: Duke of Teck

May 26, 1867: Birth of Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom, Empress of India

26 Thursday May 2022

Posted by liamfoley63 in Uncategorized

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Albert Victor of Clarence and Avondale, Duke of Teck, Francis, King George V of the United Kingdom, Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Victoria Mary (“May”) of Teck was born on May 26, 1867 at Kensington Palace, London, in the same room where Queen Victoria, her first cousin once removed, had been born 48 years and 2 days earlier. Queen Victoria came to visit the baby, writing that she was “a very fine one, with pretty little features and a quantity of hair”.

Her father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg by his morganatic wife, Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created Countess von Hohenstein in the Austrian Empire). Her mother was Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of King George III and the third child and younger daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel.

She was baptised in the Chapel Royal of Kensington Palace on July 27, 1867 by Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury. From an early age, she was known to her family, friends and the public by the diminutive name of “May”, after her birth month.

May’s upbringing was “merry but fairly strict”. She was the eldest of four children, and the only daughter, and “learned to exercise her native discretion, firmness, and tact” by resolving her three younger brothers’ petty boyhood squabbles.

They played with their cousins, the children of the Prince of Wales, who were similar in age. She grew up at Kensington Palace and White Lodge, in Richmond Park, which was granted by Queen Victoria on permanent loan.

HRH The Duke of Clarence and Avondale and HSH Princess Victoria Mary of Teck

She was educated at home by her mother and governess (as were her brothers until they were sent to boarding schools). The Duchess of Teck spent an unusually long time with her children for a lady of her time and class, and enlisted May in various charitable endeavours, which included visiting the tenements of the poor.

Although May was a great-grandchild of George III, she was only a minor member of the British royal family. Her father, the Duke of Teck, had no inheritance or wealth and carried the lower royal style of Serene Highness because his parents’ marriage was morganatic.

The Duchess of Teck was granted a parliamentary annuity of £5,000 and received about £4,000 a year from her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, but she donated lavishly to dozens of charities. Prince Francis was deeply in debt and moved his family abroad with a small staff in 1883, in order to economise. They travelled throughout Europe, visiting their various relations. For a time they stayed in Florence, Italy, where May enjoyed visiting the art galleries, churches, and museums. She was fluent in English, German, and French.

At the age of 24, she was betrothed to her second cousin once removed Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra of Denmark (future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), but six weeks after the announcement of the engagement, he died unexpectedly during an influenza pandemic.

The following year, she became engaged to Albert Victor’s only surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husband’s accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall, and Princess of Wales.

As Queen Consort from 1910, Mary supported her husband through the First World War, his ill health, and major political changes arising from the aftermath of the war. After George’s death in 1936, she became queen mother when her eldest son, Edward VIII, ascended the throne.

To her dismay, he abdicated later the same year in order to marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.She supported her second son, Prince Albert, Duke of York, who assumed the throne as King George VI, in the wake of his brothers Abdication. He was King until his death in 1952.He was succeeded by his eldest daughter and Queen Mary’s granddaughter, Elizabeth II.The death of a third child profoundly affected her.

Mary remarked to Princess Marie Louise: “I have lost three sons through death, but I have never been privileged to be there to say a last farewell to them.”

Other than losing her second son George VI in 1952, she lost Prince John (1905 – 1919) her fifth son and youngest of her six children, when he of died at Sandringham in 1919, following a severe seizure, and was buried at nearby St Mary Magdalene Church.

She was also preceded by Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902 – 1942) her fourth son who was killed in a military air-crash on August 25, 1942.

Mary died on March 24, 1953 in her sleep at the age of 85, ten weeks before her granddaughter’s coronation. She had let it be known that should she die, the coronation should not be postponed. Her remains lay in state at Westminster Hall, where large numbers of mourners filed past her coffin.

She is buried beside her husband in the nave of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, (1897 – 1958), was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. He wrote about Queen Mary, that she was “above politics … magnificent, humorous, worldly, in fact nearly sublime, though cold and hard. But what a grand Queen.”

March 24, 1953: Death of Queen Mary. Part I.

24 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, This Day in Royal History

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Duke of Teck, Francis of Teck, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Queen Consort, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria Mary (May) of Teck

Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; May 26, 1867 – March 24, 1953) was queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress consort of India as the wife of King George V.

Princess Victoria Mary (“May”) of Teck was born on May 26, 1867 at Kensington Palace, London, in the same room where Queen Victoria, her first cousin once removed, had been born 48 years earlier. Queen Victoria came to visit the baby, writing that she was “a very fine one, with pretty little features and a quantity of hair”. May would become the first British queen consort born in Britain since Catherine Parr.

CE8FC9A0-AF67-4297-814B-23370D5F2499
Duke and Duchess of Teck with Princess Victoria Mary

Her father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg by his morganatic wife, Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created Countess von Hohenstein in the Austrian Empire). Her mother was Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of King George III through his the seventh son Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel. Therefore technically she was a Princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and raised in the United Kingdom.

May’s upbringing was “merry but fairly strict”. She was the eldest of four children, and the only daughter, and “learned to exercise her native discretion, firmness, and tact” by resolving her three younger brothers’ petty boyhood squabbles. They played with their cousins, the children of the Prince of Wales, who were similar in age. She grew up at Kensington Palace and White Lodge, in Richmond Park, which was granted by Queen Victoria on permanent loan, and was educated at home by her mother and governess, as were her brothers until they were sent to boarding schools.

Although May was a great-grandchild of George III, she was only a minor member of the British royal family. Her father, the Duke of Teck, had no inheritance or wealth and carried the lower royal style of Serene Highness because his parents’ marriage was morganatic. Prince Francis was deeply in debt and moved his family abroad with a small staff in 1883, in order to economise. They travelled throughout Europe, visiting their various relations. For a time they stayed in Florence, Italy, where May enjoyed visiting the art galleries, churches, and museums. Princess Victoria Mary was fluent in English, German, and French.

In 1885, the family returned to London and lived for some time in Chester Square. May was close to her mother, and acted as an unofficial secretary, helping to organise parties and social events. She was also close to her aunt, Princess Augusta of Cambridge, who was the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, via her marriage to Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and wrote to her every week. During the First World War, the Crown Princess of Sweden helped pass letters from May to her aunt, who lived in enemy territory in Germany until her death in 1916.

2C67D27A-128C-463F-8598-C8440A5024AF
HSH Princess Victoria Mary “May” of Teck

In 1886, May was a debutante in her first season, and was introduced at court. Her status as the only unmarried British princess who was not descended from Queen Victoria made her a suitable candidate for the royal family’s most eligible bachelor, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, her second cousin once removed and the second in line to the British throne and eldest son of the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.

On 3 December 1891 Prince Albert Victor proposed marriage to May and she accepted. The choice of May as bride for the Duke owed much to Queen Victoria’s fondness for her, as well as to her strong character and sense of duty. Sadly, Prince Albert Victor died six weeks later, in a recurrence of the worldwide 1889–90 influenza pandemic, before the date was fixed for their wedding.

DF897E77-C818-4DB6-AC0B-6471CAF780AB
HRH Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale

Albert Victor’s brother, Prince George, now second in line to the throne, was created Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney by Queen Victoria on May 24, 1892, became close to May during their shared period of mourning. Queen Victoria still thought of her as a suitable candidate to marry a future king. The public was also anxious that the Duke of York should marry and settle the succession. In May 1893, George proposed, and May accepted.

They married on July 6, 1893 at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London. Throughout their lives, they remained devoted to each other. George was, on his own admission, unable to express his feelings easily in speech, but they often exchanged loving letters and notes of endearment.

The Earl of Athlone: German Ancestry, Part I.

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by liamfoley63 in Royal Genealogy

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British Peerage, Duke of Teck, King George III of Great Britain, King George V of Great Britain, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Princess Alice of Albany, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria, The Earl of Athlone

EarlofathloneIn my series “British or German” I discussed the Teck family and its connection to the British royal family. Today I want to again feature Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone. To be more precise, I want to focus on his German ancestry. He was born in London to the Duke and Duchess of Teck and despite his German Teck origins and the loss of that royal title in 1917, in my eyes he never ceased to be a dignified “British” Prince.

Even though any title he had prior to 1917 came from his German father, a morganatic scion of the House of Württemberg, I consider the Earl of Athlone a British Royal due to his being born in Britain and his many blood connections to both King George III and Queen Victoria and all of his many British Royal cousins via his mother. He certainly was considered a member of the British Royal Family. Despite my view that he was a British “prince” I don’t want to ignore his strong German Noble ancestors.

Before I dive into that topic I will remind my readers of some basic information about him: Major-General Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (born HSH Prince Alexander of Teck; April 14, 1874 – January 16, 1957) and lived to the ripe old age of 82. He was the son of HSH Prince Francis, Duke of Teck and HRH Princess Mary-Adelaide of Cambridge. The Earl was a British military commander and major-general who served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, the country’s fourth, and as Governor General of Canada, the 16th since Canadian Confederation.

Here is a quick summary of his British connections: His mother was HRH Princess Mary-Adelaide of Cambridge, a first cousin to Queen Victoria and both ladies were the royal granddaughters of King George III of Great Britain. Queen Victoria was the daughter of HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (4th son of King George III) and Princess Mary-Adelaide of Cambridge was the daughter of HRH Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge (7th son of King George III). He was the brother of Queen Mary (Princess Mary of Teck), making him a brother-in-law of King George V.

The Earl of Athlone was married to his cousin HRH Princess Alice of Albany, daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, 4th son of Queen Victoria and HRH The Prince Concort (Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). The Earl’s wife was also a first cousin to King George V. Being a brother to Queen Mary and brother-in-law to King George V, the Earl of Athlone was therefore uncle to both King Edward VIII and King George VI, and a great-uncle to the present Queen, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. That’s enough to make your head spin!!

The Earl’s father was HSH Prince Francis, Duke of Teck (August 28, 1837-January 21, 1900). Francis was born Franz Paul Karl Ludwig Alexander on August 28,1837 in Esseg, Slavonia (now Osijek, Croatia). Francis’ mother was Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (1812-1841) and she was married in 1835 to Duke Alexander of Württemberg (1804–1885), the son of Duke Ludwig of Württemberg. Since Duke Alexander and Claudine were not of the same social status the marriage was morganatic, his wife would not carry any of her husband’s titles and their children had no succession rights to the Kingdom of Württemberg. Francis’ mother was created Countess of Hohenstein in her own right by Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria shortly after her marriage. Therefore from his birth until 1863 he known as Count Francis von Hohenstein, a title he derived from his mother.

Recent Posts

  • May 26, 1896: Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
  • May 26, 1867: Birth of Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom, Empress of India
  • May 26, 946: Death of Edmund I, King of the English
  • May 25, 1660: King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland Arrives at Dover
  • May 24, 1819: Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India

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