On this date in history: February 10, 1840. Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland married her maternal first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Tags

Emperor Alexander II of Russia, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, King Leopold I of the Belgians, Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, The Prince Consort

Victoria once complained to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that her mother’s close proximity promised “torment for many years”, Melbourne sympathized but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a “schocking alternative”. Although a marriage between Victoria and her cousin Prince Albert had been encouraged by the Coburg family, specifically King Leopold I of the Belgians since 1936, Victoria was ambivalent at best toward the arrangement.

The idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, (Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf) who said that he was “the pendant to the pretty cousin”.

Victoria did however, show interest in Albert’s education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into any marriage. Her uncle, King William IV of the United Kingdom, preferred that Victoria marry her paternal first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge. William IV also favored the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange, future King Willem II. Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.

In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), was sent on a tour of Europe by his parents where he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and both were enamored of each other. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In March 1855 Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich became Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Following Albert’s second visit to Queen Victoria in October of 1839, along with his brother Ernst, Victoria continued to praise Him and it was during this visit that genuine romantic feelings began to stir for her. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold I of the Belgians to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.”

Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on October 15, 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. Victoria’s intention to marry Albert was declared formally to the Privy Council on November 23.

The couple were married on February 10, 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, London. Victoria was besotted. She spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalized by an Act of Parliament and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council. This style was only legal in Britain and under the German system of styles and titles Prince Albert remained His Serene Highness. Lord Melbourne advised against the Queen’s strong desire to grant her husband the title of “King Consort”. Parliament even refused to make Prince Albert a peer of the realm—(granting him a title of nobility) partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role.

Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county. In time Albert became an important political adviser as well as the Queen’s companion, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant, influential figure in the first half of her life.

July 25, 1846: Baptism of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom.

Tags

Baptism, Buckingham Palace, Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Private Chapel, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (Helena Augusta Victoria; May 24, 1846 – June 9, 1923) was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

As the daughter of the sovereign, Helena was styled Her Royal Highness The Princess Helena from birth. Helena was baptised on July 25, 1846 at the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. Her godparents were the Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (the husband of Queen’s cousin); Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the Duchess of Orléans (for whom the Queen’s mother the Duchess of Kent stood proxy); and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, the Duchess of Cambridge (the Queen’s aunt).

Helena was educated by private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. Her childhood was spent with her parents, travelling between a variety of royal residences in Britain. The intimate atmosphere of the royal court came to an end on December 14, 1861, when her father died and her mother entered a period of intense mourning.

Princess Helena of the United Kingdom

Afterwards, in the early 1860s, Helena began a flirtation with Prince Albert’s German librarian, Carl Ruland. Although the nature of the relationship is largely unknown, Helena’s romantic letters to Ruland survive. After the Queen found out in 1863, she dismissed Ruland, who returned to his native Germany. Three years later, on July 5, 1866, Helena married the impoverished Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.

The couple remained in Britain, in calling distance of the Queen, who liked to have her daughters nearby. Helena, along with her youngest sister, Princess Beatrice, became the Queen’s unofficial secretary. However, after Queen Victoria’s death on January 22, 1901, Helena saw relatively little of her surviving siblings, including King Edward VII.

Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Helena was the most active member of the royal family, carrying out an extensive programme of royal engagements. She was also an active patron of charities, and was one of the founding members of the British Red Cross. She was founding president of the Royal School of Needlework, and president of the Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association and the Royal British Nurses’ Association.

As president of the latter, she was a strong supporter of nurse registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale. In 1916 she became the first member of her family to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary, but her husband died a year later. Helena outlived him by six years, and died aged 77 at Schomberg House on June 9, 1923.

June 20, 1837: Death of King William IV of the United Kingdom and the accession of his niece as Queen Victoria.

Tags

Accession, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, King Ernst-August of Hanover, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Reform Act 1832, United Kingdom of Great Britain

William IV (William Henry; August 21, 1765 – June 20, 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from June 26, 1830 until his death in 1837. William was the third son of King George III, William succeeded his elder brother King George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover.

William, Duke of Clarence.

William served in the Royal Navy in his youth, spending time in North America and the Caribbean, and was later nicknamed the “Sailor King”. In 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. In 1827, he was appointed as Britain’s first Lord High Admiral since 1709.

In the Drawing Room at Kew Palace on July 11, 1818, William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and Luise-Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. William apparently remained faithful to the young princess

William’s marriage, which lasted almost twenty years until his death, was a happy one. Adelaide took both William and his finances in hand. For their first year of marriage, the couple lived in economical fashion in Germany. William is not known to have had mistresses after his marriage. The couple had two short-lived daughters and Adelaide suffered three miscarriages. Despite this, false rumours that she was pregnant persisted into William’s reign—he dismissed them as “damned stuff”.

William IV, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover

As his two older brothers, King George IV and Frederick, Duke of York, died without leaving legitimate issue, William inherited the throne when he was 64 years old.

His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all of the British Empire, and the British electoral system refashioned by the Reform Act 1832. Although William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, he was the last monarch to appoint a British prime minister contrary to the will of Parliament. He granted his German kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution.

At the time of his death on June 20, 1837, William had no surviving legitimate children, but he was survived by eight of the ten illegitimate children he had by the actress Dorothea Jordan, with whom he cohabited for twenty years.

Since the Salic Law was in effect in the Kingdom of Hanover, William IV was succeeded by his niece Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom, and his brother King Ernst-August in Hanover.

Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent.

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. She adopted the additional title of Empress of India on May 1, 1876. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors and the second longest in British history.

The Victorian Era 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 Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After both the Duke of Kent and George III died in 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, the last being King William IV, died without surviving legitimate issue.

Victoria receives the news of her accession from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Engraving after painting by Henry Tanworth Wells, 1887.

Though a constitutional monarch, privately, Victoria attempted 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 cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Prince Albert was the second son of Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria

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.

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. She died on the Isle of Wight in 1901. 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.

June 5, 1771: Birth of Ernst-August, King of Hanover.

Tags

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Duke of Cumberland, Ernst August of Hanover, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, George III, King Georg V of Hanover, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

Ernst-August, King of Hanover (June 5, 1771 – November 18, 1851) was King of Hanover from June 20, 1837 until his death. As the fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles-Ludwig-Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1708–1752; known as “Prince of Mirow”) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Ernst-August, King of Hanover

Initially Ernst-August seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son. Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which debarred women from the succession, ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714.

Ernst-August was born in London but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces near Tournai against Revolutionary France, he received a disfiguring facial wound.

After leaving the nursery, he lived with his two younger brothers, Prince Adolphus-Frederick (later Duke of Cambridge) and Prince Augustus (later Duke of Sussex), and a tutor in a house on Kew Green, near his parents’ residence at Kew Palace. Though King George III never left England in his life, he sent his younger sons to Germany in their adolescence.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover. (Father)

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Mother)

This was done to limit the influence Ernest-August’s eldest brother George, Prince of Wales, who was leading an extravagant lifestyle, would have over his younger brothers. At the age of fifteen, Prince Ernst-August and his two younger brothers were sent to the University of Göttingen, located in his father’s domain of Hanover. Ernst-August proved a keen student and after being tutored privately for a year, while learning German, he attended lectures at the university.

The King’s eldest son, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV), had one child, Charlotte, who was expected to become the British queen, but she died in 1817, giving Ernest some prospect of succeeding to the British throne as well as the Hanoverian one. However, his older brother Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819.

Marriage.

Ernst-August married Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Friederike Louise Caroline Sophie Charlotte Alexandrine) (3 March 3, 1778 – June 29, 1841). She was a German princess who became, by marriage, Princess of Prussia, Princess of Solms-Braunfels, Duchess of Cumberland in Britain and Queen of Hanover (in Germany) as the consort of Ernst-August, King of Hanover (the fifth son and eighth child of King George III).

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born in the Altes Palais of Hanover as the fifth daughter of Charles II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and his first wife, Frederica, daughter of Prince Georg-Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father assumed the title of Grand Duke of Mecklenburg on June 18, 1815. Duchess Frederica was the niece of her future mother-in-law, Queen Charlotte, through her father.

Charles II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Frederica’s parents were anxious to arrange advantageous marriages for all their daughters, and used family connections to bring this about. Queen Frederika-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, wife of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II, was a first cousin of Frederica’s mother. Frederica’s parents broached with the Prussian royal family the idea of marriage between their children, and the Prussians were not averse. On March 14, 1793, the Princesses of Mecklenburg-Strelitz “coincidentally” met the Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm II at the Prussian Theatre in Frankfurt-am-Main. He was immediately captivated by the grace and charm of both sisters, Frederica and Louise. The pending marriage negotiations received traction, and within weeks, the matter was settled: Frederica’s elder sister Louise would marry Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia) and Frederica would marry his younger brother Prince Ludwig.

Prince Ludwig of Prussia.

Louise and Friedrich-Wilhelm and Frederica and Prince Ludwig of Prussia were all married at the same venue. Unlike her sister, Frederica did not enjoy a happy marriage. Although her husband died from diphtheria in 1796, only three years after the wedding, Ludwig was said to have preferred the company of his mistresses and completely neglected his wife.

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (sister of Frederica)

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia

In 1797, Frederica and her cousin Prince Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of King George III of Great Britain by his wife Queen Charlotte (Frederica’s paternal aunt), became unofficially engaged. The Duke of Cambridge asked the consent of his father to the marriage. The King did not refuse his consent but asked his son to wait until the ongoing war with France was over. The relationship eventually ended, with rumors circulating that either Adolphus had offered to release Frederica from the engagement, or – as Queen Charlotte believed – Frederica had jilted him for another man.

In 1798 Frederica became pregnant. The father was Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels, perhaps the man she jilted the Duke of Cambridge for? The prince recognized his paternity and requested her hand in marriage, a proposal that was quickly granted in order to avoid scandal. On December 10, of that year, the couple was married in Berlin and immediately moved to Ansbach.

In May 1813, during a visit to his uncle Duke Charles in Neustrelitz, Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of King George III of Great Britain, met and fell in love with Frederica.

Some time later Frederica asked the Prussian king for approval for her divorce from Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Solms-Braunfels. All parties agreed, including the Prince of Solms-Braunfels, but Friedrich-Wilhelm’s sudden death on April 13, 1814 precluded the need for a divorce. The prince’s demise was considered by some as a little too convenient, and some suspected that Frederica had poisoned him.

In August, the engagement with Ernst-August was officially announced. After the British Prince Regent gave his consent to the wedding, Frederica and Ernst-August were married on 29 May 29, 1815 at the parish church of Neustrelitz. Some time later, the couple traveled to Great Britain and married again on August 29, 1815 at Carlton House, London.

Ernst-August, King of Hanover.

Queen Charlotte bitterly opposed the marriage, even though her future daughter-in-law was also her niece. She refused to attend the wedding and advised her son to live outside England with his wife. Frederica never obtained the favor of her aunt/mother-in-law, who died unreconciled with her in 1818. During her marriage to Ernest Augustus she gave birth three times, but only a son survived, who would eventually become King Georg V of Hanover.

On April 23, 1799, George III created Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh, and was granted an allowance of £12,000 a year. Though he was made a lieutenant-general, of both British and Hanoverian forces, he remained in England and, with a seat in the House of Lords, entered politics. Ernst-August was an active member of the House of Lords, where he maintained an extremely conservative record. There were persistent allegations (reportedly spread by his political foes) that he had murdered his valet, had fathered a son by his sister Sophia, and intended to take the British throne by murdering Victoria. Following the death of his brother King William IV, Ernst-August became Hanover’s first resident ruler since George I.

Ernst-August had a generally successful fourteen-year reign but excited controversy near its start when he dismissed the Göttingen Seven, including the two Brothers Grimm, from their professorial positions for agitating against his policies. A revolution in 1848 was quickly put down in Hanover. The kingdom joined the German customs union in 1850 despite Ernest’s reluctance. He died the next year and was succeeded by his son Georg.

May 25, 1846: Birth of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Part II.

Tags

Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Christian Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Earl Roberts, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of the United Kingdom, Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, Pretoria, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, South Africa, The Boer Wars, World War I

Part II.

Health

Princess Helena’s health was not always robust, and she became was addicted to the drugs opium and laudanum. However, the Queen did not believe that Helena was really ill, often accusing her of hypochondria encouraged by an indulgent husband. Queen Victoria wrote to her daughter the Crown Princess of Prussia, complaining that Helena was inclined to “coddle herself (and Christian too) and to give way in everything that the great object of her doctors and nurse is to rouse her and make her think less of herself and of her confinement”.

Not all of her health scares were brought on by hypochondria; in 1869, she had to cancel her trip to Balmoral Castle when she became ill at the railway station. In 1870, she was suffering from severe rheumatism and problems with her joints. In July 1871, she suffered from congestion in her lungs, an illness severe enough to appear in the Court Circular, which announced that her illness caused “much anxiety to members of the royal family”. In 1873, she was forced to recuperate in France as a result of illness, and in the 1880s she travelled to Germany to see an oculist.

Nursing

Helena had a firm interest in nursing, and was the founding chair of the Ladies’ Committee of the British Red Cross in 1870, playing an active role in recruiting nurses and organising relief supplies during the Franco-Prussian War. She subsequently became President of the British Nurses’ Association (RBNA) upon its foundation in 1887. In 1891, it received the prefix “Royal”, and received a Royal Charter the following year. She was a strong supporter of nurse registration, an issue that was opposed by both Florence Nightingale and leading public figures.

Needlework

Helena was also active in the promotion of needlework, and became the first president of the newly established School of Art Needlework in 1872; in 1876, it acquired the “royal” prefix, becoming the Royal School of Needlework. In Helena’s words, the objective of the school was: “first, to revive a beautiful art which had been well-nigh lost; and secondly, through its revival, to provide employment for gentlewomen who were without means of a suitable livelihood.”

After Victoria

Edwardian period

In October 1900, while in Pretoria, South Africa, Prince Christian-Victor of Schleswig-Holstein, Helena’s favourite son, came down with malaria, and died of enteric fever, on 29 October 29, aged 33, after receiving Holy Communion in the presence of Lord Roberts and Prince Francis of Teck, the brother of the British queen Mary of Teck, wife of King the future King George V.

The reason Prince Christian-Victor was in Pretoria was because he served as a staff officer in the Second Boer War, being involved in the relief of Ladysmith under General Sir Redvers Buller and later was with Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts.

Prince Christian-Victor of Schleswig-Holstein

Three months after the death of her son, Prince Christian-Victor, her mother, Queen Victoria, died at Osborne House on January 22, 1901. Her brother, the new King, Edward VII, did not have close ties with his surviving sisters, with the exception of Princess Louise. Helena’s nephew, Prince Alexander of Battenberg (later Marquess of Carisbrooke) recorded that Queen Alexandra was jealous of the royal family, and would not invite her sisters-in-law to Sandringham. Moreover, Alexandra never fully reconciled herself to Helena and Christian following their marriage controversy in the 1860s.

Evidentially, the Royal Family was not very close and after the death of her mother and Princess Helena saw relatively little of her surviving siblings, and continued her role as a support to the monarchy and a campaigner for the many charities she represented. She and Christian led a quiet life, but did carry out a few royal engagements. On one such occasion, the elderly couple represented the King at the silver wedding anniversary, in 1906, of Emperor Wilhelm II (Helena’s nephew) and his wife Augusta-Victoria (Christian’s niece).

During the Edwardian period, Helena visited the grave of her son, Prince Christian Victor, She was met by South African Prime Minister Louis Botha, but Jan Smuts refused to meet her, partly because he was bitter that South Africa had lost the war and partly because his son had died in a British concentration camp.

Later years

Her brother King Edward VII died on May 6, 1910, and her nephew became King George V of the United Kingdom. The First World War began four years after his death. Helena devoted her time to nursing, and her daughter, Princess Marie-Louise, recorded in her memoirs that requests for news of German loved ones would often reach Helena and her sisters. It was decided that the letters should be forwarded to Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, (born Princess Margaret of Connaught, niece of Princess Helena) as Sweden was neutral during the war.

King Edward VII

It was during the war that Helena and Christian celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1916, and despite the fact that Britain and Germany were at war, the Emperor Wilhelm II sent a congratulatory telegram to his aunt and uncle through the Crown Princess of Sweden. King George V and Queen Mary were present when the telegram was received, and the King remarked to Helena’s daughter, Marie-Louise, that her former husband, Prince Aribert of Anhalt, did her a service when he turned her out. When Marie-Louise said she would have run away to Britain if she was still married, the King said, “with a twinkle in his eye”, that he would have had to intern her.

The conclusion will be tomorrow!

May 25, 1846: Birth of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Part I.

Tags

Kingdom of Prussia, North German Confederate, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Christian, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Schleswig and Holstein, the First and Second Schleswig Wars.

HRH Princess Helena (Helena Augusta Victoria; May 25, 1846 –June 9, 1923) was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Princess Helena was born at Buckingham Palace, the official royal residence in London of Queen Victoria. With Princess Helena birth on May 25, 1846, it was the day after her mother’s 27th birthday. Her father, Prince Albert, reported to his brother, Ernst II, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, that Helena “came into this world quite blue, but she is quite well now”.

Princess Helena (right) with her brother Prince Alfred. Helena was Alfred’s favourite sister. Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

Prince Albert also said to his brother that the Queen “suffered longer and more than the other times and she will have to remain very quiet to recover. Albert and Victoria chose the names Helena Augusta Victoria. The German nickname for Helena was Helenchen, later shortened to Lenchen, the name by which members of the royal family invariably referred to Helena.

As the daughter of the sovereign, Helena was styled Her Royal Highness The Princess Helena from birth. Helena was baptised on July 25, 1846 at the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. Her godparents were the Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (the husband of Queen’s cousin); Princess Helene, Duchess of Orléans (for whom the Queen’s mother the Duchess of Kent stood proxy); and Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge (the Queen’s aunt).

Helena was a lively and outspoken child, and reacted against brotherly teasing by punching the bully on the nose. Her early talents included drawing. Lady Augusta Stanley, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, commented favourably on the three-year-old Helena’s artwork.

Like her sisters, she could play the piano to a high standard at an early age. Other interests included science and technology, shared by her father Prince Albert, and horseback riding and boating, two of her favourite childhood occupations. However, Helena became a middle daughter following the birth of Princess Louise in 1848, and her abilities were overshadowed by her more artistic sisters.

Death of Prince Albert

Helena’s father, Prince Albert, died on December 14, 1861. The Queen was devastated, and ordered her household, along with her daughters, to move from Windsor to Osborne House, the Queen’s Isle of Wight residence. Helena’s grief was also profound, and she wrote to a friend a month later: “What we have lost nothing can ever replace, and our grief is most, most bitter … I adored Papa, I loved him more than anything on earth, his word was a most sacred law, and he was my help and adviser … These hours were the happiest of my life, and now it is all, all over.”

The Queen relied on her second eldest daughter Princess Alice as an unofficial secretary, but Alice needed an assistant of her own. Though Helena was the next eldest, she was considered unreliable by Victoria because of her inability to go long without bursting into tears. Therefore, Louise was selected to assume the role in her place. Alice was married to Prince Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine in 1862, after which Helena assumed the role—described as the “crutch” of her mother’s old age by one biographer—at her mother’s side. In this role, she carried out minor secretarial tasks, such as writing the Queen’s letters, helping her with political correspondence, and providing her with company.

Marriage Controversy

Princess Helena began an early flirtation with her father’s former librarian, Carl Ruland, following his appointment to the Royal Household on the recommendation of Baron Stockmar in 1859. He was trusted enough to teach German to Helena’s brother, the young Prince of Wales, (future King Edward VII) and was described by the Queen as “useful and able”. When the Queen discovered that Helena had grown romantically attached to a royal servant, he was promptly dismissed back to his native Germany, and he never lost the Queen’s hostility.

Following Ruland’s departure in 1863, the Queen looked for a husband for Helena. However, as a middle child, the prospect of a powerful alliance with a European royal house was low.

Her appearance was also a concern, as by the age of fifteen she was described by her biographer as chunky, dowdy and double-chinned. Furthermore, Victoria insisted that Helena’s future husband had to be prepared to live near the Queen, thus keeping her daughter nearby. Her choice eventually fell on Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg; the match was politically awkward, and caused a severe breach within the royal family.

Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg

Schleswig and Holstein were two territories fought over between Prussia and Denmark during the First and Second Schleswig Wars. In the latter, Prussia and Austria defeated Denmark, but the duchies were claimed by Austria for Prince Christian’s family. However, following the Austro-Prussian War, in which Prussia invaded and occupied the duchies, they became Prussian, but the title Duke of Schleswig-Holstein was still claimed by Prince Christian’s family.

The marriage, therefore, horrified King Christian IX of Denmark’s daughter, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who exclaimed: “The Duchies belong to Papa.” Alexandra found support in her husband, his brother Prince Alfred, and his second sister, Princess Alice, who openly accused her mother of sacrificing Helena’s happiness for the Queen’s convenience.

Princess Helena and Prince Christian

Alice also argued that it would reduce the already low popularity of her sister, the Crown Princess of Prussia, at the court in Berlin. However, and unexpectedly, the Crown Princess, who had been a personal friend of Christian’s family for many years, ardently supported the proposed alliance.

In September 1865, while visiting Coburg, The Princess Helena met Prince Christian for the first time.

Despite the political controversies and their age difference—he was fifteen years her senior—Prince Christian was 35 and Helena was 21 at the time of her marriage-Helena was happy with Christian and was determined to marry him. As a younger son of a non-reigning duke, the absence of any foreign commitments allowed him to remain permanently in Britain—the Queen’s primary concern—and she declared the marriage would go ahead.

Helena and Christian were actually third cousins in descent from Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales. Relations between Helena and Alexandra remained strained, and Alexandra was unprepared to accept Christian (who was also a third cousin to Alexandra in descent from King Frederik V of Denmark) as either a cousin or brother-in-law.

The Queen never forgave the Princess of Wales for accusations of possessiveness, and wrote of the Waleses shortly afterwards: “Bertie is most affectionate and kind but Alix [pet name for Alexandra] is by no means what she ought to be. It will be long, if ever, before she regains my confidence.”

Engagement and wedding

The engagement was declared on December 5, 1865, and despite the Prince of Wales’s initial refusal to attend, Princess Alice intervened, and the wedding was a happy occasion.

The Queen allowed the ceremony to take place at Windsor Castle, albeit in the Private Chapel rather than the grander St George’s Chapel on July 5, 1866. The Queen relieved her black mourning dress with a white mourning cap which draped over her back.

Seven days before the wedding, on 29 June 1866, the Queen granted her future son-in-law the style of Royal Highness by Royal Warrant. This Royal Warrant was only valid in the United King, in the North German Confederation where Prince Christian had the style of Highness.

The main participants filed into the chapel to the sound of Beethoven’s Triumphal March, creating a spectacle only marred by the sudden disappearance of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who had a sudden gout attack. Christian filed into the chapel with his two supporters, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar and Prince Frederic of Schleswig-Holstein, and Helena was given away by her mother, who escorted her up the aisle with the Prince of Wales and eight bridesmaids.

Christian looked older than he was, and one guest commented that Helena looked as if she was marrying an aged uncle. Indeed, when he was first summoned to Britain, he assumed that the widowed Queen was inspecting him as a new husband for herself rather than as a candidate for one of her daughters. The couple spent the first night of their married life at Osborne House, before honeymooning in Paris, Interlaken and Genoa.

Helena and Christian were devoted to each other, and led a quiet life in comparison to Helena’s sisters. Following their marriage, they took up residence at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the traditional residence of the Ranger of Windsor Great Park, the honorary position bestowed on Christian by the Queen. When staying in London, they lived at the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace.

The couple had six children: Christian Victor in 1867, Albert in 1869, and Helena Victoria and Marie Louise in 1870 and 1872 respectively. Their last two sons died early; Harald died eight days after his birth in 1876, and an unnamed son was stillborn in 1877. Princess Louise, Helena’s sister, commissioned the French sculptor Jules Dalou to sculpt a memorial to Helena’s dead infants.

The Christians were granted a parliamentary annuity of £6,000 a year, which the Queen requested in person. In addition, a dowry of £30,000 was settled upon, and the Queen gave the couple £100,000, which yielded an income of about £4,000 a year. As well as that of Ranger of Windsor Park, Christian was given the honorary position of High Steward of Windsor, and was made a Royal Commissioner for the Great Exhibition of 1851. However, he was often an absentee figurehead at the meetings, instead passing his time playing with his dog Corrie, feeding his numerous pigeons, and embarking on hunting excursions.

Helena, as promised, lived close to the Queen, and both she and Beatrice performed duties for her. Beatrice, whom Victoria had groomed for the main role at her side, carried out the more important duties, and Helena took on the more minor matters that Beatrice did not have time to do. In later years, Helena was assisted by her unmarried daughter, Helena Victoria, to whom the Queen dictated her journal in the last months of her life.

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

Tags

King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, King William IV of the United Kingdom, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, Princess Charlotte of Wales, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Royal Marriages Act of 1772, The Duke of Kent, the Duke of York, The Prince Regent

Following the death of Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, only child of the Prince Regent and his wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in November 1817, the royal succession began to look uncertain. Princess Charlotte-Augusta had been the only legitimate grandchild of George III at the time. The Prince Regent was estranged from his wife and had no other legitimate children.

Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales

Next in line after the Prince Regent was Prince Frederick the Duke of York and Albany. Prince Frederick had married his cousin, Princess Frederica-Charlotte of Prussia, the daughter of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia and Elisabeth-Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg at Charlottenburg, Berlin on September 29, 1791 and again on November 23, 1791 at Buckingham Palace. The marriage was not a happy one and the couple soon separated. Frederica retired to Oatlands, where she lived until her death in 1820.

Prince Frederick the Duke of York and Albany

King George III’s surviving daughters were all likely past childbearing age. The unmarried sons of King George III, the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), the Duke of Kent, and the Duke of Cambridge, all rushed to contract lawful marriages and provide an heir to the throne. The fifth son of King George III, the Duke of Cumberland, was already married but had no living children at that time, whilst the marriage of the sixth son, the Duke of Sussex, was void because he had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

However, it was not that simple. For the HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, providing for the succession was not his sole motivator in finding a wife. Even before he disposed of his mistress, the amiable Madame de Saint Laurent, the Duke of Kent had been secretly looking for a legitimate wife for financial reasons rather than dynastic reasons. The Duke of Kent knew that once he contracted a legitimate marriage he would be granted a steady income by Parliament. Princess Charlotte-Augusta was still alive at this time and he promised her, along with her consort, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to furnish continuity for the throne of Hanover.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

The Duke of Kent also realized that in Hanover, where the Salic Law applied to the German kingdom, only male heirs could reign in Hanover, therefore, if Princess Charlotte-Augusta became Queen of the United Kingdom this would separate the personal union of the two countries and a secession of her oldest surviving childless uncles would, one after another, become the King of Hanover. The Duke of Kent envisioned that he would one day be the King of Hanover. For that he would need a Queen and an heir.

The Duke of Kent’s idea of a suitable bride was a wealthy woman with proper Royal Ancestry for an approved royal marriage. Because the Duke of Kent had been helpful to his niece, Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, and her husband Prince Leopold, they were eager to match the Duke with Leopold’s younger sister the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent and Strathearn

The Duke agreed to visit the widowed Princess Victoria in Darmstadt, one of the larger cities close to the borders of Amorbach, after which he dispatched a lengthy letter expressing his affection and proposing marriage, believing she would make an appropriate Queen of Hanover. With the death of Princess Charlotte-Augusta of Wales, who died giving birth to a stillborn son in November 1817, the Duke of Kent realized that the succession to the British throne was now in jeopardy and this expediated his marriage to the Dowager Princess of Leiningen.

In Coburg Germany, on May 29, 1818 at 9:30 in the evening the Dowager Princess of Leiningen (aged 32) was married in the Lutheran right to the Duke of Kent (aged 52) a man she had only met once before. The Duke was arrayed in his English field marshal’s uniform, while the Princess was resplendent in pale silk lace. Afterwards, the new Duchess of Kent wrote in her diary that she had hoped that in her second marriage she would find the happiness that she never found in the first.

Within four days after the wedding the Duke and Duchess of Kent left for England, and at Kew Palace on July 13, 1818 at four in the afternoon, they were married again this time in accordance to the Church of England. However, the ceremony was doubled for there was also two brides for the Prince Regent to give away. Not only was the Duke of Kent marrying Princess Victoria, Prince William, Duke of Clarence and the 25 year old Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (August 13, 1792 – December 2, 1849) [the daughter of Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Luise-Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg] were united as well.

The Duchess of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent

Charles Manners-Sutton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated the ceremony, assisted by William Howley, Bishop of London, himself Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. Since King George III was blind and incapacitated, fragile old Queen Charlotte, mother of both of the Dukes, was the chief celebrant at the wedding banquet.

Because of the Duke of Kent’s financial situation the newlyweds moved back to Germany. By November 18, 1818 the Duke of Kent sent a letter to the Prince Regent’s private secretary, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, indicating that the Duchess of Kent was pregnant and that the child was due in May the following year. The Duke of Kent believed it would be his duty to bring the Duchess back to England early in April so that the Royal birth could take place in England. The Duke also petitioned his brother the Prince Regent to allocate funds sufficient for the move and the care of his growing family.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent’s only child was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. The new Princess of Kent was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on June 24, 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace. She was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina (or Georgiana), Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of Kent’s eldest brother, George, the Prince Regent.

Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent aged 16.

At birth, Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent, was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: George, the Prince Regent (later George IV); Frederick, the Duke of York; William, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV); and Victoria’s father, Edward, the Duke of Kent. The Prince Regent had no surviving children, and the Duke of York had no children; further, both were estranged from their wives, who were both past child-bearing age, so the two eldest brothers were unlikely to have any further legitimate children.

With Princess Alexandrina-Victoria of Kent being fifth in line to the succession to the throne, her ascending the British throne was not assured. She could have been supplanted by a brother born to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, or any children from the union of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. However, the Duke of Clarence’s legitimate daughters died as infants. The first of these was Princess Charlotte of Clarence, who was born and died on March 27, 1819, two months before Victoria was born.

Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria

Following the birth of Princess Alexandrina-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 of the Duke of Kent

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 was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. Alexandrina-Victoria was then third in line to the throne after her uncles the Dukes of York and Clarence.

The Duke Clarence’s second daughter was Princess Elizabeth of Clarence who lived for twelve weeks from December 10, 1820 to 4 March 1821 and, while Elizabeth lived, Alexandrina-Victoria was fourth in line. The Childless Duke of York died in 1827 which paved the way for Alexandrina-Victoria’s own succession after the reigns of her uncles, George IV (1820-1830) and William IV (1830-1837).

Official documents prepared on the first day of her reign described her as Alexandrina-Victoria, but the first name was withdrawn at her own wish and not used again, hence she became Queen Victoria for the entirety of her reign.

April 19-21, 1894: Royal Celebrations in Coburg, Germany.

Tags

Coburg Germany, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Royal Engagement, royal wedding, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Victoria Princess Royal

In April 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia joined his Uncle Sergei and Aunt Elisabeth (born a Princess of Hesse and By Rhine) on a journey to Coburg, Germany, for the wedding of Elisabeth’s and Alix’s brother, Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine to their mutual first cousin Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh

The wedding took place on April 19, 1894, at Schloss Ehrenburg. The match was actively encouraged by their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, who attended the wedding.

Other guests attended the wedding including Emperor Wilhelm II, the Empress Friedrich (Emperor Wilhelm’s mother and Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter), Nicholas’s uncle, the Prince of Wales, (future King Edward VII) and the bride’s parents, Prince Alfred and his wife Maria (daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia) the reigning Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Also at the wedding At the wedding, Ernst-Ludwig’s surviving sister, Princess Alix.

Once in Coburg Nicholas proposed to Alix, but she rejected his proposal, being reluctant to convert to Orthodoxy. But Emperor Wilhelm II later told her she had a duty to marry Nicholas and to convert, as her sister Elisabeth had voluntarily done in 1892.

Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine

Thus Nicholas and Alix became officially engaged on April 20, 1894. Nicholas’s parents Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) initially hesitated to give the engagement their blessing, as Alix had made poor impressions during her visits to Russia. However, they gave their consent only when they saw Emperor Alexander III’s health deteriorating.

On April 21, 1894 this famous picture of Queen Victoria and many royals was taken at Edinburgh Palais in Coburg during the wedding festivities. Despite this being the wedding of Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the excitement of imminent match between Tsarevich Nicholas and Alix of Hesse and By Rhine threw those nuptial celebrations into the shade.

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

Tags

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.

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.

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.

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.

Failed Engagement of Marie of Edinburgh and George of Wales

Tags

Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Arranged Marriage, Carol I of Romania, Duchess of Edinburgh, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Ferdinand of Romania, George of Wales, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Marie of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Victoria Mary (May) of Teck

Marie of Edinburgh (Marie Alexandra Victoria; October 29, 1875 – July 18, 1938) Born into the British royal family, she was titled Princess Marie of Edinburgh at birth. Her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (later the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.

Marie of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia was the fifth child and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She was the younger sister of Alexander III of Russia and the paternal aunt of Russia’s last emperor, Nicholas II.

George of Wales

Marie of Edinburgh grew into a “lovely young woman” with “sparkling blue eyes and silky fair hair”; she was courted by several royal bachelors, including Prince George of Wales, the second son of Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. As a young man destined to serve in the navy, Prince George served for many years under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was stationed in Malta. There, he grew close to and fell in love with his cousin, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. It was Prince George’s desire to marry Princess Marie.

Marie of Edinburgh

Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh all approved of the match but the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh did not. The Princess of Wales disliked the family’s pro-German sentiment. The Danish Royal Family had been strongly anti-German ever since Denmark ‘s war with Prussia in 186?

The Duchess of Edinburgh did not wish for her daughter to remain in England, which she resented. The Duchess of Edinburgh never liked her husbands native land. She felt ill treated there. This dislike of England began when the Duchess, the only daughter of Alexander II of Russia, resented the fact that, as the daughter of an Emperor and wife of a younger son of the British sovereign, she had to yield precedence to George’s mother, the Princess of Wales, whose father, Christian IX, had been a mere minor German prince before being called unexpectedly to the throne of Denmark.

Another reason the Duchess of Edinburgh was against the idea of the marriage between George and Marie was due to the fact that they were first cousins. Although first cousin marriages were acceptable in many European Royal Houses, first cousin unions were not allowed in the Russian Empire because it was against the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, when George officially proposed to her, Marie informed him that the marriage was impossible and that he must remain her “beloved chum”. Queen Victoria would later comment that “Georgie lost Missy by waiting & waiting”.

Ferdinand and Marie as Crown Prince and Princess, 1893

Around this time, King Carol I of Romania was looking for a suitable bride for his son and heir, Crown Prince Ferdinand. As a young kingdom King Carol was looking for a princess with strong connections throughout Europe’s Royal Families in order to secure the succession and assure the continuation of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Possibly motivated by the prospect of removing tensions between Russia and Romania on the subject of control over Bessarabia, the Duchess of Edinburgh suggested that Marie meet Crown Prince Ferdinand.

Marie and Ferdinand first became acquainted during a gala dinner and the pair conversed in German. She found him shy but amiable, and their second meeting went just as well. Once the pair were formally engaged, Queen Victoria wrote to another granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, that “[Ferdinand] is nice & the Parents are charming–but the country is very insecure & the immorality of the Society at Bucharest quite awful. Of course the marriage will be delayed some time as Missy won’t be 17 till the end of October!”

Marie in traditional Romanian dress.

German Empress Victoria, Marie’s aunt, and Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, wrote to her daughter, Crown Princess Sophia of Greece, that “Missy is till now quite delighted, but the poor child is so young, how can she guess what is before her?” In late 1892, King Carol visited London in order to meet the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Victoria, who eventually agreed to the marriage and appointed him a Knight of the Garter. On January 10, 1893, Marie and Ferdinand were married at Sigmaringen Castle in three ceremonies: one civil, one Catholic (Ferdinand’s religion) and one Anglican.

On October 11, 1914, Ferdinand and Marie were acclaimed as King and Queen of Romania in the Chamber of Deputies, one day after Ferdinand’s uncle, Carol I, died without surviving issue.

Though rejected Prince George of Wales still sought the hand of an eligible princess.

Victoria Mary of Teck

In November 1891, George’s elder brother, Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and second in line to the British throne after his father the Prince of Wales, became engaged to his second cousin once removed Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. Known as “May” within the family. Her parents were Prince Francis, Duke of Teck (a member of a morganatic, cadet branch of the House of Württemberg), and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a male-line granddaughter of King George III and a first cousin of Queen Victoria.

On January 14, 1892, six weeks after the formal engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia, leaving George second in line to the throne, and likely to succeed after his father. George had only just recovered from a serious illness himself, after being confined to bed for six weeks with typhoid fever, the disease that was thought to have killed his grandfather Prince Albert. Queen Victoria still regarded Princess May as a suitable match for her grandson, and George and May grew close during their shared period of mourning.

George and Mary on their wedding day

George was created Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney by Queen Victoria on 24 May 1892. A year after Albert Victor’s death, George proposed to May and was 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.

On the death of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, George’s father ascended the throne as King Edward VII. George then inherited the title of Duke of Cornwall, and for much of the rest of that year, he was known as the Duke of Cornwall and York. Later that year, on November 9, 1901, George was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester by his father.

George V, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Emperor of India.

On 6 May 1910, Edward VII died, and became King George V. George had never cared for double names and therefore disliked his wife’s habit of signing official documents and letters as “Victoria Mary” and insisted she drop one of those names. They both thought she should not be called Queen Victoria, and so she became Queen Mary.