January 22 and 23: Death of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn & Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

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Duke of Kent and Strathearn, King George III of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Edward, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victorian Era

The Emperor’s Desk: I took a couple of days off so I’m a bit late with this. I find it interesting that Prince Edward and his daughter Queen Victoria died a day apart, albeit 81 years separate that one day.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, KG, KP, GCB, GCH, PC (Edward Augustus; 2 November 1767 – 23 January 1820) was the fourth son and fifth child of King George III of the United Kingdom and Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His only legitimate child became Queen Victoria.

Prince Edward was created Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin on April 23, 1799 and, a few weeks later, appointed a General and commander-in-chief of British forces in the Maritime Provinces of North America. On March 23, 1802 he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar and nominally retained that post until his death. The Duke was appointed Field-Marshal of the Forces on September 3, 1805.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

Marriage

Following the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales in November 1817, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III at the time, the royal succession began to look uncertain. The Prince Regent (later King George IV) and his younger brother Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, though married, were estranged from their wives and had no surviving legitimate children.

The king’s surviving daughters were all childless and past likely childbearing age. The King’s unmarried sons, William, Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), Edward, Duke of Kent, and Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, all rushed to contract lawful marriages and provide an heir to the throne.

The King’s fifth son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was already married but had no living children at that time, whilst the marriage of the sixth son, Augustus, Duke of Sussex, was void because he had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
For his part the Duke of Kent, aged 50, was already considering marriage, and he became engaged to Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who had been the sister-in-law of his now-deceased niece Princess Charlotte. They were married on May 29, 1818 at Schloss Ehrenburg, Coburg, in a Lutheran rite, and again on July 11, 1818 at Kew Palace, Kew, Surrey.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

Princess Victoria was the daughter of Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and the sister of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, husband of the recently deceased Princess Charlotte. She was a widow: her first husband was Emich Charles, 2nd Prince of Leiningen, with whom she had had two children: a son, Charles, 3rd Prince of Leiningen, and a daughter, Princess Feodora of Leiningen.

Issue
They had one child, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, who became Queen Victoria on June 20, 1837. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent was 51 years old at the time of her birth. The Duke took great pride in his daughter, telling his friends to look at her well, for she would be Queen of the United Kingdom.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent

Following the birth of Princess Victoria in May 1819, the Duke and Duchess, concerned to manage the Duke’s great debts, sought to find a place where they could live inexpensively. After the coast of Devon was recommended to them they leased from a General Baynes, intending to remain incognito, Woolbrook Cottage on the seaside by Sidmouth.

Death

The Duke of Kent died of pneumonia on January 23, 1820 at Woolbrook Cottage, Sidmouth, and was interred in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. He died six days before his father, George III, and less than a year after his daughter’s birth.

He predeceased his father and his three elder brothers but, as none of his elder brothers had any surviving legitimate children, his daughter Victoria succeeded to the throne on the death of her uncle King William IV in 1837, and ruled until 1901.

In 1829 the Duke’s former aide-de-camp purchased the unoccupied Castle Hill Lodge from the Duchess in an attempt to reduce her debts; the debts were finally discharged after Victoria took the throne and paid them over time from her income.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era.

It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Victoria, a constitutional monarch, attempted privately to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe” and spreading haemophilia in European royalty.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, British republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered.

Her Golden and Diamond jubilees were times of public celebration. Victoria died aged 81 on January 22, 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

January 20, 1936: Death of King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India.

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Emperor of India, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Lord Dawson of Penn, Prince Edward, Princess Elizabeth of York, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Mary, Sandringham, the prince of Wales

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6, 1910 until his death in 1936.

King George V’s relationship with his eldest son and heir, Edward, deteriorated in the later years. George was disappointed in Edward’s failure to settle down in life and appalled by his many affairs with married women. In contrast, he was fond of his second son, Prince Albert (later George VI), and doted on his eldest granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth; he nicknamed her “Lilibet”, and she affectionately called him “Grandpa England”.

In 1935, George said of his son Edward: “After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months”, and of Albert and Elizabeth: “I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne.”

The First World War took a toll on George’s health: he was seriously injured on October 28, 1915 when thrown by his horse at a troop review in France, and his heavy smoking exacerbated recurring breathing problems.

He suffered from chronic bronchitis. In 1925, on the instruction of his doctors, he was reluctantly sent on a recuperative private cruise in the Mediterranean; it was his third trip abroad since the war, and his last. In November 1928, he fell seriously ill with septicaemia, and for the next two years his son Edward took over many of his duties.

King George V and Queen Mary with Princess Elizabeth

In 1929, the suggestion of a further rest abroad was rejected by the King “in rather strong language”. Instead, he retired for three months to Craigweil House, Aldwick, in the seaside resort of Bognor, Sussex. As a result of his stay, the town acquired the suffix Regis – Latin for “of the King”.

A myth later grew that his last words, upon being told that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, were “Bugger Bognor!”

George never fully recovered. In his final year, he was occasionally administered oxygen. The death of his favourite sister, Victoria, in December 1935 depressed him deeply.

On the evening of January 15, 1936, the King took to his bedroom at Sandringham House complaining of a cold; he remained in the room until his death. He became gradually weaker, drifting in and out of consciousness. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin later said:

… each time he became conscious it was some kind inquiry or kind observation of someone, some words of gratitude for kindness shown. But he did say to his secretary when he sent for him: “How is the Empire?” An unusual phrase in that form, and the secretary said: “All is well, sir, with the Empire”, and the King gave him a smile and relapsed once more into unconsciousness.

By January 20, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.” Dawson’s private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King’s last words, a mumbled “God damn you!”, were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night. Dawson, who supported the “gentle growth of euthanasia”, admitted in the diary that he ended the King’s life:

At about 11 o’clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene.

Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr.3/4 [grains] and shortly afterwards cocaine gr.1 [grains] into the distended jugular vein … In about 1/4 an hour – breathing quieter – appearance more placid – physical struggle gone.

Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King’s dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King’s death at 11:55 pm could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than “less appropriate … evening journals”.

Neither Queen Mary, who was intensely religious and might not have sanctioned euthanasia, nor the Prince of Wales was consulted. The royal family did not want the King to endure pain and suffering and did not want his life prolonged artificially but neither did they approve Dawson’s actions. British Pathé announced the King’s death the following day, in which he was described as “for each one of us, more than a King, a father of a great family”.

On his death in January 1936, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII. Edward abdicated in December of that year and was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who took the regnal name George VI.

Royal Dukedom: Addendum Part I

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Cambridge, Cornwall, Gloucester, Kent, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Letters Patent, Prince Edward, Prince Richard, Rothesay, Royal Dukedom, Royal Titles, Sussex, the prince of Wales, York

This is an addendum of my previous post on Dukes within the British Monarchy. In this instance the future of Royal Dukedoms.

The current Royal Dukedoms that are extant are:

Cambridge

Cornwall

Rothesay*

York

Sussex

Gloucester

Kent

* The Dukedoms of Cambridge, Cornwall and Rothesay are currently held by HRH the Prince of Wales.

The current Duke of York lacks a make heir so when he passes away the title will revert back to the crown. The most likely scenario is that a future King William V of the United Kingdom will grant the title Duke of York to his second son Prince Louis of Wales.

The Dukedom of Sussex is currently held by Prince Harry. His heir is his son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. Archie does not use his father’s courtesy title Earl of Dumbarton and whether or not Archie is a Prince with the style HRH is up for debate. If Archie is not an HRH and Prince the Dukedom of Sussex would cease to be a royal one on him succeeding to that title.

The Dukedoms of Gloucester and Kent are held by Prince Richard and Prince Edward respectively.

HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (August 26, 1944) is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as well as the youngest of the nine grandchildren of King George V and Queen Mary (notice I didn’t call her Queen Consort?).

The Duke is currently 30th in line of succession to the British throne, and the highest person on the list who is not a descendant of George VI, who was his uncle. At the time of his birth, he was 5th in line to the throne, behind his first cousins Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret, his father, and his elder brother Prince William of Gloucester.

Richard ended his architectural career in 1972, after the death of his elder brother Prince William, who crashed his plane in a flying competition. Richard became heir apparent to his father’s dukedom and had to take on additional family obligations and royal duties on behalf of the Queen. He became the second Duke of Gloucester (in the fifth creation of that title) upon the death of his father on June 10, 1974.

The heir to the Dukedom of Gloucester is Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster (born October 24, 1974) the only son of Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester.

Since the Earl of Ulster is a great grandson of the monarch, in this case King George V of the United Kingdom, and therefore under the terms of Letters Patent of 1917 as a male line great-grand son of the sovereign he does not carry a royal title.

Therefore, when he inherits the Dukedom of Gloucester it will cease to be a royal dukedom and instead will be an “ordinary” Dukedom and he will be styled His Grace the Duke of Gloucester as opposed to his Royal Highness.

The Earl of Ulster married Claire Alexandra Booth (born December 29, 1977), a physician, on June 22, 2002 at the Queen’s Chapel, St. James’s Palace.

Lord and Lady Ulster have two children:

Xan Richard Anders Windsor, (born March 12, 2007).
Lady Cosima Windsor (born May 20, 2010)

Xan Windsor, as a future Duke of Gloucester himself, carries the courtesy title of Lord Culloden.

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HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (October 9, 1935) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Edward were first cousins through their fathers, King George VI, and Prince George, Duke of Kent.

Edward’s mother Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark was also a first cousin of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, making him both a second cousin and first cousin once removed to King Charles III.

Prince Edward has held the title of Duke of Kent for more than 80 years, since the age of six, after the death of his father in a plane crash in 1942.

At York Minster on June 8, 1961 the Duke of Kent married Katharine Worsley, the only daughter of Sir William Arthington Worsley, 4th Baronet by his wife Joyce Morgan Brunner.

The heir to the Dukedom of Kent is the Duke of Kent’s son George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews (June 26, 1962) He is styled Earl of St Andrews, one of his father’s subsidiary titles, which he uses by courtesy as heir apparent to the Dukedom of Kent.

On January 9, 1988, George Windsor married Sylvana Tomaselli, a Canadian-born academic and a member of the Tomaselli family, at Leith Registrar Office near Edinburgh. The couple have three children:

The eldest son of the Earl of St. Andrews is Edward Edmund Windsor, Lord Downpatrick (December 2, 1988) As second-in-line to the Dukedom of Kent, he uses one of his grandfather’s subsidiary titles, Baron Downpatrick, by courtesy.

Therefore, when he inherits the Dukedom of Kent it will cease to be a royal dukedom and instead it will be an “ordinary” Dukedom and he will be styled His Grace the Duke of Kent as opposed to his Royal Highness.

May 24, 1819: Birth of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India

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Duke of Kent, Empress of India, George III of the United Kingdom, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death. On May 1, 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III and Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf.

After both her father the Duke of Kent and his father, King George III, died within a week of one another in January 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father’s three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue (King George IV died 1830, Frederick, Duke of York died 1827, King William IV died 1837).

The United Kingdom was an established constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

In February of 1840 Queen Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe” and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances.

As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

In July 1900, Victoria’s second son Alfred (“Affie”) died. “Oh, God! My poor darling Affie gone too”, she wrote in her journal. “It is a horrible year, nothing but sadness & horrors of one kind & another.”

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood, Victoria spent the Christmas of 1900 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Rheumatism in her legs had rendered her lame, and her eyesight was clouded by cataracts.

Through early January, she felt “weak and unwell”, and by mid-January she was “drowsy … dazed, [and] confused.” She died on Tuesday January 22, 1901, at half past six in the evening, at the age of 81. Her son and successor, King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, German Emperor Wilhelm II, were at her deathbed. Her favourite pet Pomeranian, Turi, was laid upon her deathbed as a last request.

On January 25, King Edward VII, Wilhelm II and her third son, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, helped lift her body into the coffin. Her funeral was held on Saturday 2 February 2, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and after two days of lying-in-state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.

With a reign of 63 years, seven months and two days, Victoria was the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world history until her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on September 9, 2015. She was the last monarch of Britain from the House of Hanover. Her son and successor Edward VII belonged to her husband’s House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominio. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for 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.” The numeral VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had “been excluded from Scotland by battle”.

April 18, 1917: Birth of Princess Frederica of Hanover, Queen of the Hellenes. Part I.

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Brunswick-Lüneburg, Ernst August of Brunswick, Frederica of Hanover, George II of the Hellenes, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Paul I of the Hellenes, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, Queen of the Hellenes, Sofia of Spain, Titles Deprivation Act 1917, Victoria Louise of Prussia

Frederica of Hanover (18, April 1917 – February 6, 1981) was Queen consort of the Hellenes from 1947 until 1964 as the wife of King Paul, thereafter Queen mother during the reign of her son, King Constantine II.

Born Her Royal Highness Friederica, Princess of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, and Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg on April 18, 1917 in Blankenburg am Harz, in the German Duchy of Brunswick, she was the only daughter and third child of Ernst August, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, herself the only daughter of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Her Royal Highness Friederica, Princess of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, and Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Both her father and maternal grandfather abdicated their thrones in November 1918 following Germany’s defeat in World War I, and her paternal grandfather, Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, was stripped of his British Royal Dukedom the following year, for having sided with Germany in World War I.

Her paternal grandfather, Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland was the most senior male-line descendant of George I, II, and III, the Duke of Cumberland of Great Britain and was the last Hanoverian Prince to hold a British royal title and the Order of the Garter.

Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale

In 1914 the title of a Prince of Great Britain and Ireland was additionally granted to the members of the house by King George V. These peerages and titles however were suspended under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917.

However, the title Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland had been entered into the family’s German passports, together with the German titles, in 1914. After the German Revolution of 1918–19, with the abolishment of nobility’s privileges, titles officially became parts of the last name. So, curiously, the British prince’s title is still part of the family’s last name in their German passports, while it is no longer mentioned in their British documents.

On 29 August 1931, Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick, as head of the House of Hanover, declared the formal resumption, for himself and his dynastic descendants, of use of his former British princely title as a secondary title of pretense, which style, “Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland”, his grandson, the current head of the house, also called Ernst August, continues to claim.

Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick: Father

In 1934, Adolf Hitler, in his ambition to link the British and German royal houses, asked for Frederica’s parents to arrange for the marriage of their seventeen-year-old daughter to Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales.

In her memoirs, Frederica’s mother described that she and her husband were “shattered” and such a possibility “had never entered our minds”. Victoria Louise herself had once been considered as a potential bride for the very same person prior to her marriage. Moreover, the age difference was too great (the Prince of Wales was twenty-three years Frederica’s senior), and her parents were unwilling to “put any such pressure” on their daughter.

Victoria Louise of Prussia: Mother

To her family, she was known as Freddie.

Marriage

Prince Paul of Greece proposed to her during the summer of 1936, while he was in Berlin attending the 1936 Summer Olympics. Paul was a son of King Constantine I and Frederica’s great aunt Sophia of Prussia, sister of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Accordingly, they were maternal first cousins once removed. They were also paternal second cousins as great-grandchildren of Christian IX of Denmark. Their engagement was announced officially on September 28, 1937, and Britain’s King George VI gave his consent pursuant to the Royal Marriages Act 1772 on December 26, 1937.

HM Queen Frederica of the Hellenes

They married in Athens on January 9, 1938. Frederica became Hereditary Princess of the Hellenes, her husband being heir presumptive to his childless elder brother, King George II.

During the early part of their marriage, they resided at a villa in Psychiko in the suburbs of Athens. Ten months after their marriage, their first child, the future Queen Sofia of Spain, was born on November 2, 1938. On June 2, 1940, Frederica gave birth to the future King Constantine II.

War and Exile

At the peak of World War II, in April 1941, the Greek Royal Family was evacuated to Crete in a Sunderland flying boat. Shortly afterwards, the German forces attacked Crete. Frederica and her family were evacuated again, setting up a government-in-exile office in London.

In exile, King George II and the rest of the Greek Royal Family settled in South Africa. Here Frederica’s last child, Princess Irene, was born on May 11, 1942. The South African leader, General Jan Smuts, served as her godfather. The family eventually settled in Egypt in February 1944.

After the war, the 1946 Greek referendum restored King George II to the throne. The Hereditary Prince and Princess returned to their villa in Psychiko.

March 16, 1861: Death of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent. Part I.

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Duchess of Kent, Duke of Kent, King George IV of the United Kingdom, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Prince Edward, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld., Sir John Conroy

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (August 17, 1786 – March 16, 1861), later Princess of Leiningen and subsequently Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, was a German princess and the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. As the widow of Charles, Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814), from 1814 she served as regent of the Principality during the minority of her son from her first marriage, Carl, until her second wedding in 1818 to Prince Edward, fourth son of King George III of the United Kingdom.

Early life

Victoria was born in Coburg in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and was named Marie Louise Victoire. She was the fourth daughter and seventh child of Franz Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf.

One of her brothers was Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and another brother, Leopold, future king of the Belgians, married, in 1816, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate daughter of the future King George IV, and heiress presumptive to the British throne.

Marriages

First marriage

On December 21, 1803 at Coburg, a young Victoria married (as his second wife) Charles, Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814), whose first wife, Countess Henrietta of Reuss-Ebersdorf, had been her aunt. The couple had two children, Prince Charles, 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 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Felipe VI of Spain, and King Constantine II of Greece.

Regency

After the death of her first spouse, she served as regent of the Principality of Leiningen during the minority of their son, Carl.

Second marriage

The death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, the wife of Victoria’s brother Leopold, in 1817, prompted a succession crisis. With Parliament offering them a financial incentive, three of Charlotte’s uncles, sons of George III, were prepared to marry.

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

One of them, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820) proposed to Victoria and she accepted. The couple were married on May 29, 1818 at Amorbach and on July 11, 1818 at Kew, a joint ceremony at which Edward’s brother, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.

Shortly after their marriage, the Kents moved to Germany, where the cost of living would be cheaper. Soon after, Victoria became pregnant, and the Duke and Duchess, determined to have their child born in England, raced back.

Arriving at Dover on April 23, 1819, they moved into Kensington Palace, where Victoria gave birth to a daughter on May 24, 1819, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, later Queen Victoria. An efficient organiser, Sir John Conroy, ensured the Kents’ speedy return to England in time for the birth of their first child.

Widowhood

The Duke of Kent died suddenly of pneumonia in January 1820, six days before his father, King George III. His widow the Duchess had little cause to remain in the United Kingdom, since she did not speak the language and had a palace at home in Coburg where she could live cheaply on the revenues of her first husband.

However, the British succession at this time was far from assured – of the three brothers older than Edward, the new king, George IV, and Prince Frederick, Duke of York were both estranged from their wives, who were in any case past childbearing age.

The third brother, the Duke of Clarence, had yet to produce any surviving children with his wife. The Duchess of Kent decided that she would do better by gambling on her daughter’s accession than by living quietly in Coburg and, having inherited her second husband’s debts, sought support from the British government.

After the death of Edward and his father, the young Princess Victoria was still only third in line for the throne, and Parliament was not inclined to support yet more impoverished royalty.

The provision made for the Duchess of Kent was mean: she resided in a suite of rooms in the dilapidated Kensington Palace, along with several other impoverished members of the royal family, and received little financial support from the Civil List, since Parliament had vivid memories of the late Duke’s extravagance.

In practice, a main source of support for her was her brother, Leopold. The latter had a huge income of fifty thousand pounds per annum for life, representing an annuity allotted to him by the British Parliament on his marriage to Princess Charlotte, which had made him seem likely to become in due course the consort of the monarch. Even after Charlotte’s death, Leopold’s annuity was not revoked by Parliament.

In 1830, with George IV dead and the new King William IV (formerly the Duke of Clarence) being over 60 without any surviving legitimate issue, and whose nearly 40-year-old wife was considered to be at the end of childbearing age, the young princess’s status as heir presumptive and the Duchess’s prospective place as regent led to major increases in British state income for the Kents.

The Duchess of Kent and Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent

Parliament agreed an annuity for the Duchess and her daughter in August 1831. A contributing factor was Leopold’s designation as King of the Belgians, upon which he surrendered his British income.

Royal feud

Together in a hostile environment, John Conroy’s relationship with the Duchess was very close, with him serving as her comptroller and private secretary for the next nineteen years, as well as holding the unofficial roles of public relations officer, counsellor, confidant and political agent.

While it is not clear which of the two was more responsible for devising the Kensington System, it was created to govern young Victoria’s upbringing. The intention was for the Duchess to be appointed regent upon Victoria’s (assumed youthful) ascension and for Conroy to be created Victoria’s private secretary and given a peerage.

The Duchess and Conroy continued to be unpopular with the royal family and, in 1829, the Duke of Cumberland spread rumours that they were lovers in an attempt to discredit them. The Duke of Clarence referred to Conroy as “King John”, while the Duchess of Clarence wrote to the Duchess of Kent to advise that she was increasingly isolating herself from the royal family and that she must not grant Conroy too much power.

The Duchess of Kent was extremely protective, and raised Victoria largely isolated from other children under the so-called “Kensington System”. The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable (including most of her father’s family), and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them.

The Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of King William’s illegitimate children, and perhaps prompted the emergence of Victorian morality by insisting that her daughter avoid any appearance of sexual impropriety. Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash.

Perhaps because of Conroy’s influence, the relationship between the Duchess’s household and King William IV soon soured, with the Duchess regarding the King as an oversexed oaf.

As far as she dared, the Duchess denied the King access to his niece. She prevented her daughter from attending William’s coronation out of a disagreement of precedence, a decision attributed by the Duke of Wellington to Conroy.

In 1831, the year of William’s coronation, Conroy and the Duchess embarked on a series of royal tours with Victoria to expose her to the people and solidify their status as potential regents. Their efforts were ultimately successful and, in November 1831, it was declared that the Duchess would be sole regent in the event of Victoria’s young queenship.

The Duchess further offended the King by taking rooms in Kensington Palace that the King had reserved for himself, and she snubbed his illegitimate children, the FitzClarences, before and during his reign.

Both the King William IV and Queen Adelaide were fond of their niece, but their attempts to forge a close relationship with the girl were frustrated by the conflict with the Duchess of Kent.

The King, angered at what he took to be disrespect from the Duchess to his wife, took the opportunity at what proved to be his final birthday banquet in August 1836 to settle the score. Speaking to those assembled at the banquet, who included the Duchess and Princess Victoria, William expressed his hope that he would survive until Princess Victoria was 18 so that the Duchess of Kent would never be regent.

January 23, 1820: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Part I.

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Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, (November 2, 1767 – January 23, 1820) was the fourth son and fifth child of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.His only legitimate child became Queen Victoria.

As a son of the British monarch, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Edward from birth, and was fourth in the line of succession to the throne. He was named after his paternal uncle, Prince Edward, the Duke of York and Albany (1739 – 1767), who had died several weeks earlier September 17, 1767, and was buried at Westminster Abbey the day before Edward’s birth.

The Prince began his military training in the Holy Roman Empire in 1785. King George III intended to send him to the University of Göttingen, but decided against it upon the advice of the Duke of York. Instead, Edward went to Lüneburg and later Hanover, accompanied by his tutor, Baron Wangenheim.

On May 30, 1786, he was appointed a brevet colonel in the British Army. From 1788 to 1789, he completed his education in Geneva Switzerland. On August 5, 1789, aged 22, he became a mason in the L’Union, the most important Genevan masonic lodge in the 19th century.

In 1789, he was appointed colonel of the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers). In 1790, he returned home without leave and, in disgrace, was sent off to Gibraltar as an ordinary officer. He was joined from Marseilles by Madame de Saint-Laurent.

After suffering a fall from his horse in late 1798, he was allowed to return to England. On April 24, 1799, Prince Edward was created Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin, received the thanks of parliament and an income of £12,000 (£1.21 million in 2020).

In May that same year, the Duke was promoted to the rank of general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America. He took leave of his parents July 22, 1799 and sailed to Halifax. Just over twelve months later he left Halifax and arrived in England on August 31, 1800 where it was confidently expected his next appointment would be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Edward was the first member of the royal family to live in North America for more than a short visit (1791–1800) and, in 1794, the first prince to enter the United States (travelling to Boston on foot from Lower Canada) after independence.

On March 23, 1802, he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar. The Duke took up his post on May 24, 1802 with express orders from the government to restore discipline among the drunken troops. The Duke’s harsh discipline precipitated a mutiny by soldiers in his own and the 25th Regiment on Christmas Eve 1802.

His brother Frederick, the Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, recalled him in May 1803 after receiving reports of the mutiny, but despite this direct order he refused to return to England until his successor arrived. He was refused permission to return to Gibraltar for an inquiry and, although allowed to continue to hold the governorship of Gibraltar until his death, he was forbidden to return.

As a consolation for the end of his active military career at age 35, he was promoted to the rank of field marshal and appointed Ranger of Hampton Court Park on September 5, 1805. This office provided him with a residence now known as The Pavilion. (His sailor brother, William, with children to provide for, had been made Ranger of Bushy Park in 1797.) The Duke continued to serve as honorary colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot (the Royal Scots) until his death.

Though it was a tendency shared to some extent with his brothers, the Duke’s excesses as a military disciplinarian may have been due less to natural disposition and more to what he had learned from his tutor Baron Wangenheim. Certainly Wangenheim, by keeping his allowance very small, accustomed Edward to borrowing at an early age. The Duke applied the same military discipline to his own duties that he demanded of others.

Though it seems inconsistent with his unpopularity among the army’s rank and file, his friendliness toward others and popularity with servants has been emphasized. He also introduced the first regimental school.

The Duke of Wellington considered him a first-class speaker. He took a continuing interest in the social experiments of Robert Owen, voted for Catholic emancipation, and supported literary, Bible, and abolitionist societies.

July 23, 1536: Death of Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset.

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Duke of Richmond and Somers, Henry FitzRoy, Henry VIII of England, House of Tudor, King of Ireland, Lady Mary Howard, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Prince Edward, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Mary, Royal Bastard

Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, (June 15, 1519 – July 23, 1536), was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, and the only child born out of wedlock whom Henry VIII acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Queen Mary I, as well as the older half-brother of Queen Elizabeth I and King Edward VI. Through his mother, he was the elder half-brother of the 4th Baroness Tailboys of Kyme and of the 2nd and 3rd Barons Tailboys of Kyme. He was named FitzRoy, which means “son of the king”.

Birth

Henry FitzRoy was born in June 1519. His mother was Elizabeth Blount, Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting, and his father was Henry VIII. FitzRoy was conceived when Queen Catherine was approaching her last confinement with another of Henry’s children, a stillborn daughter born in November 1518. To avoid scandal, Blount was taken from Henry’s court to the Augustinian priory of St Lawrence at Blackmore near Ingatestone, in Essex.

FitzRoy’s birthdate is often given as June 15, 1519, but the exact date is not known. His birth may have been earlier than predicted. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was out of London from June 9 to 18 when he reappeared back at court in Windsor. The following day he was expected at Hampton Court, but he did not reappear at a council meeting at Westminster until June 29. The policy of discretion worked, as the baby boy’s arrival caused no great stir, and diplomatic dispatches record nothing of Henry VIII’s illegitimate son.

Acknowledgement

The infant boy was given the surname FitzRoy to make sure that all knew he was son of the King. Henry VIII perhaps felt that his lack of a male heir was a slur upon his manhood since he openly acknowledged the boy. At one point he proudly exhibited his newborn son to the court.

Nursery

The boy’s upbringing until the moment when he entered Bridewell Palace in June 1525 (six years following his birth) remains shrouded in confusion. Although the boy was illegitimate, this did not mean that young Henry lived remotely from and had no contact with his father. On the contrary, it has been suggested by his biographer, Beverly Murphy, that a letter from a royal nurse implies that FitzRoy had also been part of the royal nursery, and he was often at court after 1530.

In the sixteenth century royal and noble households were in a state of constant movement and transition, so it is unlikely that FitzRoy grew up in any one house. He was probably transferred from household to household around London like his royal siblings: Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. In 1519 the only surviving legitimate child of the King was the three-year-old Princess Mary. In that year her household was reorganised, suggesting that Henry made some provisions for his only son. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury replaced Lady Margaret Bryan as lady Mistress of Mary’s household.

Elevation

By 1525, the Tudor dynasty had been on the throne for 40 years. However, cracks were beginning to appear. By the sixteenth year of Henry’s reign, 34-year-old Henry still lacked a male heir with his 40-year-old wife Catherine of Aragon. Their only surviving child and heiress was Princess Mary, who at the time was a girl of nine. Henry, though, had another child, an illegitimate one, a sturdy six-year-old son.

Although Henry may have had other illegitimate children, Henry FitzRoy was the only one the King acknowledged. Henry VIII was also the only surviving son of Henry VII. Henry had no surviving younger brother nor any close male relations from his father’s family who could be called up to share the burden of government in the King’s name. As Henry and Catherine’s marriage remained without a son, the king’s only living son became more attractive for onlookers to observe. The King’s chief minister at the time was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and since Henry FitzRoy’s birth he had taken an interest in his monarch’s only son. In a letter dated June 1525 the Cardinal refers to the King’s son: “Your entirely beloved sonne, the Lord Henry FitzRoy”.

In 1525, FitzRoy was given his own residence in London, which he was granted by his father: Durham House on the Strand. Since his birth FitzRoy had remained in the background, although the boy had been brought up in remarkable style and comfort, almost as if he were a prince of the blood and not an acknowledged royal bastard.

Such discretion over his son may not have been to the King’s taste, and he may have felt his manhood and virility should be publicly demonstrated. He fully made up for his son’s quiet birth and equally quiet christening when on June 18, 1525 the six-year-old boy was brought to Bridewell Palace on the western edge of the city of London where honours were showered upon him. That morning of the 18th, the six-year-old Lord Henry FitzRoy travelled by barge from Wolsey’s mansion of Durham Place, near Charing Cross, down the River Thames. He came in the company of a host of knights, squires, and other gentlemen. At 9am his barge pulled up at the Watergate and his party made their way through the palace to the king’s lodgings on the south side of the second floor. The rooms were richly decorated, with various members of court and the nobility coming to see FitzRoy’s elevation.

Among them were numerous bishops, as well as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and the King’s brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. During the first ceremony, when he was created Earl of Nottingham, FitzRoy was attended by Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, who carried the sword of state, along with John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, and William FitzAlan, 18th Earl of Arundel. Six-year old Henry knelt before his father as Sir Thomas More read out the patents of nobility.

It was the first time since the 12th century that an illegitimate son had been raised to the peerage, when Henry II, King of England had created his son William, Earl of Salisbury. To be a duke was a significant honour. It was the highest rank of the peerage, and the title, originally devised by Edward III, King of England for his son Edward, Prince of Wales as the Duke of Cornwall, retained its royal aura.

The former Henry FitzRoy was subsequently referred to in all formal correspondence as the “right high and noble Prince Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset”. As if to compound this sense of royal dignity and endow the child with as much respectability as possible, Henry VIII had granted his son the unprecedented honour of a double dukedom.

While he is mostly known as Richmond, some pains were taken to see that he bore both titles in equal weight. The bulk of Richmond’s new lands came from Margaret Beaufort’s estate. These were lands which were the rightful inheritance of King Henry VII when he was Earl of Richmond and the lands which had belonged to John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the father of Margaret Beaufort. The use of the Duchy of Somerset must have struck a chord among the courtiers, as it was well known that the Beauforts’ eldest child was John Somerset, a royal bastard who had been legitimised following his parents’ adultery and then marriage.

A part of the Beaufort connection to the Somerset duchy, the title of Duke of Richmond was important as the earldom of Richmond had been held by his grandfather King Henry VII and by his great-grandfather Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. The earldom of Nottingham had been held by Richmond’s great uncle Prince Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the second son of Edward IV. Seeing Henry’s obvious pride and affection for his son, many of those who witnessed Richmond’s elevation must have wondered if this was what the King had in mind.

It was a proud day for Henry, and for his former mistress Elizabeth; however, the ceremony did nothing to spare the Queen’s feelings. She knew she had failed to give England a prince and was anxious about her own daughter’s prospects. In a private letter the Venetian ambassador wrote: “It seems that the Queen resents the earldom and dukedom conferred on the King’s natural son and remains dissatisfied. At the instigation it is said of her three Spanish ladies her chief counsellors, so that the King has dismissed them from court, a strong measure but the Queen was obliged to submit and have patience”.

Crown Offices

In that same year (1525), Richmond, as he came to be known, was granted several other appointments, including Lord High Admiral, Lord President of the Council of the North, and Warden of the Marches towards Scotland and Governor of Carlisle, the effect of which was to place the government of the north of England in his hands. He held the offices in name only, the power was actually in the hands of a council dominated by Thomas Magnus, Archdeacon of the East Riding.

From now on, the Duke was raised like a Prince at Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. His father had a particular fondness for him and took great interest in his upbringing. Sir Thomas Tempest was comptroller of his household. In February 1527, Thomas Magnus told the young Duke that James V of Scotland had asked for hunting dogs. FitzRoy sent the Scottish king 20 hunting hounds and a huntsman.

Kingdom of Ireland

On June 22, 1529 Richmond was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and there was a plan to crown him king of that country, though the King’s counsellors feared that making a separate Kingdom of Ireland whose ruler was not that of England would create another threat similar to the Kingdom of Scotland. After Richmond’s death, the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 established a personal union between the English and Irish crowns, providing that whoever was King of England was to be King of Ireland as well. King Henry VIII of England was proclaimed its first holder.

Marriage

When Henry VIII began the process of having his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, it was suggested that FitzRoy marry his own half-sister Mary in order to strengthen FitzRoy’s claim to the throne. Anxious to prevent the annulment and Henry’s possible break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope was even prepared to grant a special dispensation for their marriage.

At age 14, on November 28, 1533 the Duke instead married Lady Mary Howard, the only daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was on excellent terms with his brother-in-law, the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The marriage was never consummated.

Possible heir to the throne

At the time of Richmond’s death, an Act was going through Parliament which disinherited Henry’s daughter Elizabeth as his heir and permitted the King to designate his successor, whether legitimate or not. There is no evidence that Henry intended to proclaim Richmond his heir, but the Act would have permitted him to do so if he wished. The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote to Emperor Charles V on July 8, 1536 that Henry VIII had made a statute allowing him to nominate a successor, but thought the Duke of Richmond would not succeed to the throne by it, as he was consumptive and now diagnosed incurable.

Death

The Duke’s promising career came to an abrupt end in July 1536. According to the chronicler Charles Wriothesley, Richmond became sickly some time before he died, although Richmond’s biographer Beverley A. Murphy cites his documented public appearances and activities in April and May of that year, without exciting comment on his health, as evidence to the contrary.

He was reported ill with “consumption” (usually identified as tuberculosis, but possibly another serious lung complaint) in early July, and died at St. James’s Palace on July 23, 1536. Henry Fitzroy was 17 years old.

Richmond’s father-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, gave orders that the body be wrapped in lead then taken in a closed cart for secret interment. However, his servants put the body in a straw-filled wagon. The only mourners were two attendants who followed at a distance. The Duke’s ornate tomb is in Framlingham Church, Suffolk, which contains various Howard family monuments. One of the houses at the local high school is named after him.

His father outlived him by just over a decade, and was succeeded by his legitimate son, Edward VI, born shortly after FitzRoy’s death. Most historians maintain that Edward, like Henry FitzRoy, died of tuberculosis. It is said that Henry FitzRoy might have been made king had Henry VIII died without an in-wedlock son:

The History of the Title of Duke of Edinburgh.

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Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Earl of Wessex, Frederik Louis, King George II, King George III, Peerage, Peerage of Great Britain, Prince Alfred, Prince Charles, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Queen Victoria

Duke of Edinburgh: Dukedom in the Peerage of Great Britain and the United Kingdom

The Dukedom of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, is a substantive title that has been created three times for members of the British royal family since 1726. A substantive title is a title of nobility or royalty acquired either by individual grant By the sovereign or inheritance. It is to be distinguished from a title shared among cadets, borne as a courtesy title by a peer’s relatives, or acquired through marriage.

The title of Duke of Edinburgh has been created three times and has been borne by five princes of the Royal Family. The current holder of the title, Duke of Edinburgh, is His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales who inherited the title on the death of his father Prince Philip on April 9th 2021.

The title was first created in the Peerage of Great Britain on 26 July 26, 1726 by King George I of Great Britain who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick Louis, the eldest son of the future King George II and his wife Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (from the collateral branch of the Prussian royal House of Hohenzollern)

At the time King George I created Prince Frederick Louis Duke of Edinburgh, Frederick Louis’s parents were the Prince and Princess of Wales. King George I died the very next year and Frederick Louis’s parents became King George II and Queen Caroline and Prince Frederick Louis was created Prince of Wales.

The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon, Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall, Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent, and Marquess of the Isle of Ely. These titles were also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The marquessate was apparently erroneously gazetted as Marquess of the Isle of Wight although Marquess of the Isle of Ely was the intended title. In later editions of the London Gazette the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely.

Upon Frederick Louis’s death in 1751 the title Duke of Edinburgh and it’s subsidiary titles of the dukedom were inherited by his son Prince George. When Prince George became King George III in 1760, the titles “merged into the Crown”, and ceased to exist.

1866 Creation

Queen Victoria re-created the title, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on May 24, 1866 (her 47th birthday) for her second son Prince Alfred. Creating him Duke of Edinburgh was a departure from the long held tradition of creating the title Duke of York for the second son of the Monarch.

The subsidiary titles of the creation of this dukedom were Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. When Alfred became the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893, he retained his British titles. His only son Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, committed suicide in 1899, so the Dukedom of Edinburgh and subsidiary titles became extinct upon the elder Alfred’s death in 1900.

1947 Creation

The title was created for a third time on November 19, 1947 by King George VI, who bestowed it on his son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, when he married his eldest daughter and heir, The Princess Elizabeth. Philip was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, being a male-line grandson of King George I of the Hellenes and male-line great-grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark).

Subsequently, Princess Elizabeth was styled “HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh” until her accession to the throne in 1952. The subsidiary titles of this creation of the dukedom are Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London.

Like the dukedom, these subsidiary titles are also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Earlier that year, Philip had renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles along with his rights to the Greek throne. In 1957, Philip became a Prince of the United Kingdom in his own right.

Upon Philip’s death on April 9, 2021, his eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles. The current heir apparent to the dukedom is Charles’ eldest son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

When Prince Charles succeeds to the throne as king this third creation of the title Duke of Edinburgh will merge with the crown and cease to exist. The plan, set forth in 1999, is to create the title for a fourth time for Prince Charles’s youngest brother, Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex.

Happy 94th Birthday to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

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Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, King George V of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Mary of Teck, Philip of Greece and Denmark, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, Prince Edward, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born April 21, 1926) is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the other Commonwealth realms.

Elizabeth was born in London, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and she was educated privately at home. Her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937. Philip is the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, itself a branch of the House of Oldenburg, he was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark, and he was from birth in the line of succession to both thrones; the 1953 Succession Act removed his family branch’s succession rights in Denmark.

Elizabeth and Philip are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth—though only 13 years old—said she fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters. She was 21 when their engagement was officially announced on July 9, 1947.

The day before the wedding, King George VI bestowed the style of Royal Highness on Philip and, on the morning of the wedding, 20 November 1947, he was made the Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London.[39] Consequently, being already a Knight of the Garter, between 19 and 20 November 1947 he bore the unusual style His Royal Highness Sir Philip Mountbatten, and is so described in the Letters Patent of 20 November 1947.

Philip and Elizabeth were married in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, recorded and broadcast by BBC radio to 200 million people around the world.

Elizabeth and Philip had four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon.

She has reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation, and the decolonisation of Africa. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence, and as realms, including South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (renamed Sri Lanka), became republics.

Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and visits to or from five popes. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee. She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. She is the longest-serving female head of state in world history, and the world’s oldest living monarch, longest-reigning current monarch, and oldest and longest-serving current head of state.

Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the royal family, in particular after the breakdown of her children’s marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales. However, in the United Kingdom, support for the monarchy has been and remains consistently high, as does her personal popularity.