Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

ABOUT

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (6 August 1844 – 30 July 1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, reigning from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was proclaimed Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster under the laws of the United Kingdom on 24 May 1866. He succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire on 23 August 1893. Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Reign August 22, 1893 July 30, 1900 Predecessor Ernest II Successor Carlos Eduardo Birth August 6, 1844 Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom Death July 30, 1900 (age 55) Rosenau Palace, Rödental, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Germany Buried in August 4, 1900 Friedhof am Glockenberg, Coburg Full name Alfredo Ernesto Alberto Wife Maria Alexandrovna of Russia Offspring Alfred, Hereditary Prince Mary of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Home Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Father Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Mother United Kingdom victory

EARLY YEARS

Alfredo was born on August 6, 1844 at Windsor Castle. His mother was the ruling British monarch, Queen Victoria. His father was Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gota, the youngest son of Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gota. As the monarch's son, he was addressed as "His Royal Highness Prince Alfred" at birth, and was second in line to the throne behind his brother, the Prince of Wales. He was known within the family as Affie. The prince was baptized by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, in the private chapel at Windsor Castle on 6 September 1844. His godparents were his maternal great-uncle, the Duke of Cambridge (depicted by his son, Prince George of Cambridge); his paternal aunt, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gota (represented by his maternal grandmother the Duchess of Kent); and Queen Victoria's half-brother, the Prince of Leningen (represented by the Duke of Wellington), Alfred grew up with a rigorous education program devised by his father and Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar. In addition to having classes six days a week and few vacations, the children learned more practical skills. At Osbourne House, on the Isle of Wight, Prince Albert had the Swiss Cottage built, a miniature house where children learned cooking, domestic and agricultural tasks and carpentry. Alfred began taking classes together with his older brother, Edward, hoping that his calmer temperament and greater ability to concentrate would help improve the future king's performance. However, the experience had the opposite effect and Alfredo began to become more distracted. As Alfredo was considered more intelligent, Alberto decided to separate the brothers so that Eduardo's bad behavior would not affect his younger brother's learning.

EARLY YEARS

From an early age, the prince showed an aptitude for geography and manual and mechanical work, with carpentry being one of his favourite activities. Alfred made toys and model ships, and enjoyed taking apart and reassembling machines and engines. He also had a great interest in the navy, and learned to read when he was young enough to learn the names of ships and sailors for himself. Another interest of his was art, especially music, and he taught himself to play the violin as a surprise to his parents. Alfred's education also took into account his potential title as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Duke at the time, his uncle Ernest, had no children, and Edward was heir to the British throne, so Alfred was likely to inherit the duchy. Ernest wanted him to go to Germany, but Albert did not want his son to grow up in the "quiet and limited environment" of the German court. Nevertheless, Alfred often visited his uncle in Coburg, and Albert taught him the basics of estate management at Balmoral.

INTERESTS

The Duke of Edinburgh was interested in music and was an amateur violinist. He would often play the instrument on his ships and at parties. However, several people noticed that he had little aptitude for it. At a party given by one of his brothers, one of the guests persuaded him to play the violin. Sir Henry Ponsonby wrote: "The violin was out of tune and the noise was abominable." In the 1880s, Alfred became friends with the composer Arthur Sullivan. He took the composer with him on a Baltic cruise in 1881, where he met relatives in Denmark, Russia and Germany. Under the influence of Sullivan and other music lovers, Alfred dedicated himself to the cause of contemporary British music. In December 1881, he, his brother Leopold and his brother-in-law, Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, led a meeting at the Manchester Athenaeum that brought together many leading figures from the world of music. In his inaugural address, Alfred set out his aim of creating a central public institution that would mirror the music conservatories of continental Europe. Thus was born the Royal College of Music, which initially had its headquarters in Kensington and was later transferred to Imperial College London. Alfred also devoted himself to the management of his estate at Eastwell, creating more arable land and increasing the number of cattle. Cattle breeding was one of his passions and he was chairman of the Ashford and Canterbury Livestock Show in 1883. Another of his interests was philately and Alfred was the first honorary president of the Philatelic Society. He attended the society's founding ceremony and opened its first exhibition in 1890, which displayed some of the stamps from his private collection. Shortly before his death, Alfred sold his collection to his nephew, the future George V.

OTHER INTERESTS

Alfred was an avid collector of glass and ceramics. His collection, worth approximately half a million marks, was exhibited by his widow at Veste Colburg, a large fortress near Boburg.

CAREER IN THE NAVY

The Duke of Edinburgh dedicated himself completely to his profession, showing great competence in his duties and an unusual tacit naval capacity. In February 1876, Alfredo was appointed commander of the ship HMS Sultan and was transferred to the Mediterranean fleet whose base It was in Malta. He and his family remained in Malta for several years and their third daughter, Vitória Melita, was born there on 10 November 1876. They went to live at San Anton Palace in Attard and Alfredo and Maria made it the center of Galera's social life with constant parties and balls that had up to 500 guests. This was a happy period for the whole family. Maria enjoyed the informality of life on the island (and being away from her mother-in-law) and her eldest daughter, Maria of Romania, described the time she spent in Malta as "the happiest memory of my existence." Russia declared war on Turkey and the Mediterranean fleet was sent to the Bosphorus to protect British subjects and property in the region. After Russia's victory in 1878, Alfred was at the center of a controversy when he allowed Louis of Battenberg, a relative of his who was serving on HMS Sultan, to visit his brother, Alexander, who was aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. . Louis ended up inviting Alexander aboard the Sultan and the two also visited the ship Temeraire and the headquarters of the Russian forces. Although it was nothing more than a meeting of brothers, the British ambassador in Constantinople was astounded by the fact that such a meeting took place. Russian army officer had been received on a British ship and feared that the episode would harm peace negotiations between Turkey and Russia, where Britain was involved. Information about the visit was kept secret, but Queen Victoria was informed. She was furious with the episode and called her son a traitor. However, an investigation absolved all the actors of misconduct.

CAREER IN THE NAVY

However, Queen Victoria was still furious with her son and wrote to the Prime Minister and the First Lord to the Admiralty to give Alfred more service so that he would not return to England after the end of the war. The suggestion given was that Alfredo accompany his sister, Luísa and her husband to Canada, where he had been appointed governor-general. Thus, they made the trip on HMS Black Prince, which Alfredo was commanding. Alfredo rose through the ranks and was promoted to vice admiral in November 1882. The following month, he became commander of the English Channel squadron. , where he worked mainly on military maneuvers and exercises. In 1886 he was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Squadron, which led to his return to Malta for the next three years. At this time, his nephew, the future King George V, was serving in the Mediterranean fleet and spent a lot of time with Alfred and his family. Jorge became very close to Alfredo's eldest daughter and a marriage between them was even considered. Alfred and Queen Victoria were in favor of the idea, but Alfred's wife did not agree and the union never took place. In October 1887, Alfred was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. In this position, he warned about the poor condition of the Mediterranean fleet's ships and that it was not ready in case of a sudden war. Alfred's work as an admiral was highly praised by several of his captains in the Mediterranean, who highlighted his intellectual abilities that allowed him to deal with documents quickly and know the details of all the ships in his squadron. Percy Scott wrote in his memoirs that “ as Commander-in-Chief, there was, in my humble opinion, no one like the Duke of Edinburgh. He commanded a fleet magnificently and introduced many improvements in signals and maneuvers.” He “paid great attention to artillery.”

CAREER IN THE NAVY

“The most beautiful ship I ever saw was the Alexandra (the ship commanded by the Duke of Edinburgh). I am told that £2,000 was spent by the officers on her decorations.” After his service in the Mediterranean, Alfred and his family left Malta and went to live at the Palais Edinburgh in Coburg. His eldest son had already been living there for some years, having been in the German army. Alfred disliked Coburg very much, finding it boring, and he never spent more than a few weeks at a time there because of his naval service. In August 1890, Alfred took up his post as Commander-in-Chief at Devonport, Plymouth, and moved to Admiralty House there. A few months after his arrival, the tragedy of HMS Serpent occurred. The ship, with 176 men on board, sank off the coast of Spain, with only three survivors. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Rest in Devonport became a place of refuge for the families of the victims, and Alfred, as its chairman, raised funds and contributed to the payment of compensation. Alfred always attached great importance to his official duties. He was most effective as an admiral and devoted himself entirely to the naval and cultural life of Devonport, contributing to various local charities and even playing the violin in the Plymouth Orchestral Society. In May 1893, with his uncle Duke Ernest's health failing in Coburg, Alfred left Devonport and the navy. A large crowd of naval and military officers and civilians attended his farewell from the town.

DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

Upon the death of his uncle, Ernest II, on 22 August 1893, Alfred became the new Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His accession was greeted with surprise and scepticism by the German press, who had expected his eldest son to become Duke, since he had been educated in Germany. As Alfred was a prince and admiral in the British Navy at a time when German nationalist sentiment was running high, public opinion was divided. The newspaper Der Reichsbote wrote: "We openly confess that it is an offence to our national sensibility that an English duke and admiral should be regent of a German state and thus one of the federal princes... we felt that in a glorious age of the newly formed Empire and constitutional governments, a foreigner could not succeed as sovereign of the German people as one inherits a piece of land." However, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Alfred's nephew, was among the first to congratulate his uncle and was present at his swearing-in ceremony on the constitution, which eventually gave him some legitimacy. Alfred had to give up his salary of £15,000 a year from the House of Lords and give up his seat on the Privy Council, but he retained the £10,000 a year income he had been granted when he married in order to keep Clarence House as his London residence. He was still able to retain his post as Admiral of the Fleet in the British Navy. Despite the cool reception from his peers, Although Alfred's subjects and his own affection for Coburg were limited, he devoted himself entirely to his duchy and managed to solve the financial problems he had inherited from his uncle. A few months after becoming Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Alfred became a grandfather when his daughter Maria gave birth to the son who would become King Charles II of Romania. In April 1894, his third daughter, Victoria Melita, married Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, in Coburg.

DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA

The wedding was attended by members of royal families from across Europe, including Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Prince and Princess of Wales, King Ferdinand of Romania and Grand Duke Sergius of Russia. The ceremony was also marked by the engagement of the future Tsar Nicholas II to what was then Princess Alice of Hesse and Rhine. Alfred's fourth daughter, Alexandra, also married Ernesto II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, in Coburg in April 1896.

END OF LIFE

The Duke's only son, Crown Prince Alfred, died in February 1899, shortly after his parents' 25th wedding anniversary celebrations, at which he was not present. The crown prince had health problems throughout his life, but they worsened when he caught a venereal disease, probably syphilis. In 1898, he had been expelled from the army due to his poor health and excessive drinking. Back in Coburg, she was diagnosed with nervous depression. His younger sister, Maria, was shocked when she saw him during their wedding anniversary celebrations: "he hardly recognizes anyone and doesn't know what he's saying." According to one rumor, Alfredo shot himself during an argument with his mother, but survived and was recovering in a room in the palace while the celebrations were over, his parents sent him to Merano to recover, but his parents were unable to recover. His health worsened and the Crown Prince died there two weeks later, on 6 February. Alfred and Maria were inconsolable over their son's death and he blamed his wife for his death. The two split unofficially shortly after and didn't see each other for months. Alfredo, whose health was already quite fragile after spending years smoking and drinking excessively, began to consume even more alcohol after his son's death. In May 1900, on a visit to the Băile Herculane spa, Alfredo began to have serious problems in his throat, and the following month he was diagnosed with throat cancer. The Duke returned to Coburg in July and spent the last weeks of his life there. At a certain point, he was unable to speak and had to be fed through a tube. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died on July 30, 1900, at Schloss Rosenau, his summer home outside Coburg. He died in his sleep, surrounded by his immediate family: his wife, Maria, and his three youngest daughters.

END OF LIFE

He was buried in the ducal family mausoleum in the public cemetery of Glockenberg in Germany. He was succeeded as Duke by his nephew, Prince Karl Edward, son of his younger brother, Prince Leopold, since his next brother and his son had renounced their rights of succession.

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE - First meeting and negotiations

During a visit to his sister, Princess Alice, in August 1868, Alfred met what would become his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. This was the second daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his wife Maria of Hesse and by Rhine. At the time, Maria was 14 and Alfred was 24. Princess Alice was married to Maria's direct cousin and the Grand Duchess was visiting her maternal relatives in Jugenheim. Alfred's trip around the world with the Royal Navy meant that he was away for two years. Maria and Alfred met again in 1871, when Alexander II and his wife were again visiting their relatives in Heiligenberg. Maria, now 17, had accompanied the Tsar, his wife and her two older brothers. Alfred was also visiting with the Prince and Princess of Wales. During that summer, Maria and Alfredo began to feel some attraction for each other and spent their days walking and talking. They had in common their passion for music: Alfredo was an enthusiastic amateur violinist and Maria played the piano. Although they expressed their desire to get married, no engagement was announced and Alfredo returned to England. The couple's parents were opposed to the union. Alexander II did not want to lose his daughter, to whom he was very attached. He said that his daughter was too young for union and suggested that the couple should wait at least a year before making any decision. The Tsar also did not want to have a British son-in-law due to the antipathy that was felt in Russia for the country after the Crimean War. The tsarina thought English customs were peculiar and that the British were a cold and hostile people. She was convinced that her daughter would not be happy in that country. However, in July 1871 negotiations for the marriage began, but were stalled in 1872.

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE - First meeting and negotiations

Queen Victoria was also opposed to the union. There had never been any marriage between the British family and the Romanovs and she predicted that there would be problems due to Mary's Orthodox religion and the fact that she was raised in Russia. The Queen considered Russia to have a "hostile" attitude towards the United Kingdom. Victoria was also suspicious of Russian advances towards India. Thus, the queen was dismayed when she learned that official negotiations had resumed in January 1873. There were rumors in St. Petersburg that Maria Alexandrovna had betrothed herself to Prince Golitsyn, the aide-de-camp to the Tsar, and that her family was eager for her to settle down. Alfred did not believe the rumors and was prepared to fight to marry the woman he loved. So Queen Victoria swallowed her pride and said nothing. Both mothers continued to look for other companions for their children, but Alfredo and Maria refused them all. When the Tsarina was unable to find an acceptable German prince for her daughter, a meeting was arranged with the Tsarina, Maria and Alfred in Sorrento, Italy, in mid-April. The meeting did not go as expected because Maria became ill and Alfred he stayed with her for a short time. That year, there was a dispute between the United Kingdom and Russia over the border in Afghanistan. The Queen's ministers felt that a marriage could help ease the tension between the two countries, if only because the two monarchs were forced to come into contact with each other.

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE - First meeting and negotiations

In June 1873, Tsar Alexander II joined his wife and daughter in Ems and Alfred was invited to meet them in Jugenheim. Alfredo arrived at the beginning of July. On July 11, he proposed to Maria Alexandrovna and she accepted. Alfredo was almost 29 and she was 19. Alfredo sent a telegram to his mother: "Maria and I got engaged this morning. I cannot express my happiness. I hope you will give us your blessing." The queen congratulated her son, but confessed in her diary: "I don't know Mary and I know that there may still be many difficulties, so my opinion and feelings are quite mixed." When the queen broke the news to her eldest daughter, she simply said, "The murder is done." Queen Victoria asked the Tsar to take Mary to Scotland so she could meet her future daughter-in-law. Alexander II refused. The tsarina suggested that the meeting take place in Cologne first. The queen described the situation as "simply impertinent... I, who have been on the throne for almost twenty years longer than the Emperor of Russia and who am the ruling queen, have to respond by rushing to any call from the powerful Russians, as if Victoria also took the unpopular decision of refusing the Tsar's offer to make the Prince of Wales colonel of a Russian regiment and demanding that an Anglican wedding be held in St. Petersburg in addition to the Orthodox ceremony. However, Maria Alexandrovna was looking forward to the wedding: "I am so happy to be his. I feel that my love for him grows every day, and I feel indescribable peace and happiness and infinite impatience to be all his."

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE- Wedding

Alfred was the only son of Queen Victoria who did not marry in Britain. He arrived in Saint Petersburg for the wedding on 4 January 1874 and stayed at the Winter Palace. The remaining British guests arrived on 18 January. The wedding was celebrated with great splendor in the Great Church of the Winter Palace on January 23, 1874. Queen Victoria was unable to be present and was represented at the ceremony by her eldest son, the Prince of Wales accompanied by the Princess of Wales, Mary Feodorovna of Russia. Vitória's eldest daughter and her husband, Frederico, were also present. The wedding had two parts. The Orthodox ceremony was the first and was performed by the metropolitans of Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev in the Imperial Chapel. Grand Dukes Vladimir, Alexius and Sergius and the groom's brother, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn held the golden crowns atop the heads of the bride and groom. Mary wore a shining diadem and a red velvet cloak with an ermine fur hem and myrtle sprigs sent by Queen Victoria. Alfred wore the uniform of the Royal Navy. The Tsar was pale throughout the ceremony and at the end said: "It is for her happiness, but the light of my life has gone out." Following Orthodox tradition, the couple drank wine three times of a chalice and the ceremony ended with the couple holding hands under the priest's stole. Afterwards, the bride and groom and guests went to the Alexander Hall, where Arthur Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, performed the Anglican ceremony. The two ceremonies were followed by a banquet at the palace. Famous opera singer Adelina Patti sang for the guests and the evening ended with a ball in St. George's Hall. Since the wedding took place outside of Great Britain, the English subjects did not show the same enthusiasm as other royal weddings. , but neighborhood parties were held at the same time.

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE- Wedding

To celebrate the occasion, a small English bakery made Maria biscuits, now very popular, named after the Grand Duchess. Queen Victoria wore the Order of Saint Catherine on her dress and gave a toast to the young couple. Members of the English court who traveled to Saint Petersburg were impressed by the grandeur of the celebrations, parties and entertainment that marked the wedding. Major General Sir Howard Elphinstone emphasized that, in one room, a supper was served to five hundred people spread across fifty tables with "palm trees and exotic plants... used on such a scale that the palace had the appearance of a greenhouse... The heat was almost unbearable and several ladies left the dance hall in a state of fainting." Lady Augusta Stanley summed up the wedding in three words: "What a day." Alfred and Maria spent their wedding night at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Alexander II had booked a luxurious bridal suite on the ground floor in the hope that it would persuade the couple to stay in Russia. However, after a short honeymoon, Alfredo and Maria left Russia and went to live in England. Alexander II never gave up hope that they would return one day and the suite was reserved for the couple for two decades. In 1894, she became the fourth of Russia's last Tsar and his wife, Nicholas II and Alexandra, Mary's nephew and Alfred's niece.

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE - Life in England

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh arrived in England on March 7, 1874. The city of Windsor was decorated in their honor with British and Russian flags and Mary was enthusiastically received by a crowd. Queen Victoria was waiting for the couple at South-Western Station and recorded their arrival in her diary: "I hugged dear Mary and gave her several tender kisses. I was quite nervous and trembling with anticipation... Mary is very nice, She has a pleasant face, beautiful skin and beautiful blue eyes... She speaks English very well." Vitória liked her daughter-in-law and praised her a lot in her diaries, having noted that she "is not afraid of Alfredo at all and I hope you are a good influence on him." The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into London on 12 March. Thousands of people took to the streets to follow the new English princess's journey from Paddington Station to Buckingham Palace. Alfred and Maria settled in Clarence House, where the duchess built an Orthodox chapel. In addition to Clarence House, the couple had a country estate, Eastwell Park, near Ashford in Kent, where they used to spend Christmas and part of the winter. The Tsar and his son, Grand Duke Alexius, visited Mary in May 1874 Alfred and Mary's marriage was not a happy one, and the bride was considered very arrogant by London society. She insisted on being elevated to a higher rank than the Princess of Wales (the future Queen Alexandra) because she and her father, the Tsar, considered his family (the Danish royal family) inferior to theirs. Queen Victoria refused to accede to the demand and secured her position behind the Princess of Wales. Therefore, her father sent her the then considerable sum of 100 thousand pounds as a dowry, plus an annual payment of 28 thousand pounds .

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE - Life in England

Furthermore, the duchess never adapted to the English court and did not like her husband's family (with the exception of her younger brothers, Leopoldo and Beatriz). Her relationship with her mother-in-law also deteriorated and Maria spent much of her time traveling and visiting her home country. Alfredo was an absent husband due to his career in the navy. The couple grew apart over the years and didn't have much in common, other than their passion for music and their children. Alfredo was reserved, taciturn, bad-tempered, temperamental and drank a lot. By the mid-1880s, he had become an alcoholic. The Duke was described as "ill-mannered, touchy, obstinate, unscrupulous, frivolous and unfaithful." The duchess didn't like her husband's attitudes, but she didn't give up on her marriage and hid her marital problems from her children to give them a happy environment.

POTENTIAL BRIDES

In 1862, Queen Victoria wrote a letter to her eldest daughter, expressing her desire for Alfred to marry Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She wrote: "I heard that the Emperor of Russia has not yet given up on his intention to ask Alix or Dagmar for his son. I would be very sorry if a decision were made by Dagmar before you saw her because then there would be less chance for Affie." However, Vitória ended up giving up on this idea due to tensions between Germany and Denmark due to the disputed territories of Schleswig-Holstein, mainly because Alfredo was the heir of Coburg. She wrote to her daughter, Victoria: "As far as Dagmar is concerned, I don't want you to keep her for Affie. The Emperor has her." Dagmar ended up marrying Alexander III and became Empress of Russia. Queen Victoria even considered marrying Alfred to Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. She wrote to her daughter Victoria: "It's a shame Sanny's charming daughter is Greek Orthodox, she would be so good." In 1867, Queen Victoria told her eldest daughter: "I thought and hoped to get dear Olga, who is now married to King George."