Prince Leopold

ON

Leopold, Duke of Albany (personal name in English: Leopold George Duncan Albert; London, 7 April 1853 – Cannes, 28 March 1884), was the eighth child and fourth son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow in 1881. Leopold had haemophilia, which led to his death at the age of thirty. Duke of Albany Reign May 24, 1881 March 28, 1884 Predecessor Frederick, Duke of Albany Successor Charles Edward, Duke of Albany Birth April 7, 1853 Buckingham Palace, London, United Kingdom Death March 28, 1884 (age 30) Villa Nevada, Cannes, French Republic Buried in 5 April 1884, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom Full name Leopold George Duncan Albert Wife Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont Offspring Alice of Albany Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Home Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Father Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Mother United Kingdom victory Religion Anglicism

EARLY YEARS AND DIAGNOSIS OF HEMOPHILIA

Leopold was born on April 7, 1853 at Buckingham Palace, London. His mother was Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, then reigning monarch. His father was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During childbirth, the queen opted for the use of chloroform and thus sanctioned the use of anesthesia, then recently developed by the Scottish doctor James Young Simpson. The Queen's physician, Sir James Clark, called John Snow, at the time one of the country's few anesthetists, to the palace to administer chloroform to the Queen. Leopold was baptized in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on 28 June 1853, by John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were: George V of Hanover, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, Princess Maria Adelaide of Cambridge and Ernest I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. His parents named him after his great-uncle, Leopold I of Belgium. When Leopold was born, his grandmother, the Duchess of Kent, saw him and noted that he was "small and delicate", which left her in a state of dismay. of anxiety that I couldn't explain. In fact, Leopold was Queen Victoria's smallest baby at birth, and in his first few weeks of life he had several digestive problems that forced the family to change nannies. This caused his registration to be delayed and the family to pay a fine at the Belgravia District Civil Registry Office. This would become the first of several health problems that Leopoldo would face throughout his life. The prince took longer than usual to learn to speak and he had a slight speech problem. Additionally, he was described as "fidgety" and had several accidents.

EARLY YEARS AND DIAGNOSIS OF HEMOPHILIA

Although it took some time to recover from some of her falls and even being unable to walk for several days, these problems caused Queen Victoria more exasperation than concern. She compared him negatively with his older brother, Artur, and considered that Leopoldo was the "ugliest and least pleasant" member of the family. It was not until April 1858, when Leopoldo was five years old and made a cut on one knee that made him bleeding to the point of having to be carried back to the palace is why his parents considered the hypothesis that the prince could suffer from a more serious illness. At the time, hemophilia was still a relatively unknown disease and there were no known cases of it in the family, which explains why the disease was discovered so late. The diagnosis coincided with the beginning of Leopoldo's more formal education, which proved to be intelligent. and being interested in classes, which made Vitória change her opinion of her son and see in his intellectual abilities a reflection of Prince Albert. Later, the prince also began to suffer from epilepsy attacks.

DEATH OF PRINCE ALBERT

Leopold was in Cannes, in the south of France, when he received the news of his father's death on December 8, 1861. The prince was eight years old at the time and was in that country on the recommendation of doctors, who thought that a warmer climate would be beneficial. favorable for your condition. Leopoldo would end up spending five months in Cannes and was not present at his father's funeral, nor did he witness Queen Victoria's deep mourning in the same way as his brothers. The months he spent in Cannes were quite beneficial for Leopoldo: the fresh air and exercise contributed enough for the prince's good health. While staying in Cannes, Dr. Theodore Günther, Leopoldo's teacher and guardian, took him on trips to explore the surrounding area and he gained a taste for the natural world and science that would stay with him for the rest of his life. When it was time to return to England, Dr. Günther wrote to Vitória asking him to stay longer in Cannes (Günther had read the desperate letters that Vitória had sent to his son and feared that the dark atmosphere in the palace would harm him), but to no avail. Leopold's return to Windsor marked the beginning of a new life. His father's death had a profound impact on the direction the rest of his childhood would take. While he was alive, Prince Albert had encouraged Leopold to spend time and exercise outdoors and had devised a study plan as demanding as he had devised for his brothers. However, Queen Victoria's deep mourning and need for company meant that the children who still lived with her saw their freedom limited. However, due to her illness and long periods of confinement, the queen's plans for Leopoldo's future involved keeping him as close to her as possible and keeping him away from the influence she considered negative from his older brothers.

DEATH OF PRINCE ALBERT

This meant that Leopold spent the rest of his childhood in relative isolation, playing only sporadically with Eton students chosen by the queen. As Leopold grew older, his health problems worsened and the queen increasingly limited his freedom and activities. . When the prince was 10 years old, she had a serious internal hemorrhage that the queen attributed to the fact that he rode a horse too fast, which led her to forbid him from doing so, as well as from participating in games with other children. The queen ended up giving Leopold the role of the sick child, but with a good heart, so celebrated by the most sentimentalists of the Victorian Era and even wrote in a letter to her eldest daughter, Victoria:"The illness of a good child is much less painful than than the sins of our children, like your two older brothers. There we feel that death with purity is preferable to a life full of sin and exile!" However, Leopoldo never conformed to the way his mother treated him and, As he entered adolescence, he began to conflict with Queen Victoria and tried to have a more independent life. Leopold also never liked John Brown, the queen's favorite Scottish servant, or his brother, Archie Brown, who was left in charge of looking after the prince. In letters, Leopoldo spoke of the mistreatment he suffered at the hands of Archie, who "hit spoons in his face for fun".

EDUCATION AND CAREER - UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

When Victoria finally agreed that Leopold would go to Oxford and his new tutor, Robert Hawthorn Collins, had spoken to Dean Henry Liddel to find a suitable house for the prince, he fell while crossing a stream and was forced to remain in bed for several weeks. Leopoldo ended up missing the beginning of the semester and was only able to enroll at Christ Church on November 27, 1872, two weeks before the end of the semester. Leopoldo did not enroll in any specific course and attended classes in several disciplines, including Geology, Chemistry and History of Art. The latter was taught by John Ruskin, who became one of his closest friends at Oxford. Leopold tried to follow the rules imposed by the queen, which, at the beginning of his university life, meant that his circle of friends was mainly composed of older professors at the university, but over time this expanded. Shortly after his arrival at the university, Leopoldo was invited to dinner by Dean Henry Liddell and met his wife and three eldest daughters: Lorina aged 23, Alice aged 20 and Edith aged 18. Alice Liddell was Lewis Carroll's inspiration for the book Alice in Wonderland and Leopoldo became a close friend of hers and her family and, although there is no concrete proof, it is possible that he fell in love and even thought about getting married - whether with her or with her younger sister, Edith. Although a deeper relationship never developed, Leopoldo and Alice remained friends for the rest of their lives and Leopoldo was godfather to Alice's son, who was also named Leopold . Leopold's closeness to the Liddells was proven when Leopold was one of the guests at Lorina Liddell's wedding in 1874 and one of Edith Liddell's pallbearers after her sudden death in 1876.

EDUCATION AND CAREER - UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Despite the rules imposed by Vitória, Leopoldo dedicated himself to socializing with the same fervor that he dedicated to his studies. As well as attending the parties of some of Oxford's most prominent families at the time, the prince joined the Loder's Club and the Chess Club. He also participated in debates, was part of the Cricket Club (despite not playing) and was one of the founding members of the university's Music Club. While attending university, he also befriended writer George Eliot and couple Emilia and Mark Pattison, who inspired the characters of Dorothea Brooke and Mr. Casaubon in the novel Middlemarch. Through Emilia, Leopoldo became interested in the cause of women's suffrage and was with Josephine Butler when she visited Oxford in 1874. The four years that Leopoldo spent at Oxford were some of the happiest of his life and he returned to the university several times to visit friends , charity events and openings, having said on one such occasion in 1883:"The city and University of Oxford always have the priority of my time and services because it was here that I became acquainted, so to speak, with the outside world and It was here that I found the advantages of education which I now want to be available to all." He left university with an honorary doctorate in civil law in 1876. He traveled through Europe in 1880 and toured Canada and the United States with his sister , Princess Louise, whose husband, John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, was Governor General of Canada. Unable to have a military career due to his illness, Leopold became a patron of the arts and literature.

EDUCATION AND CAREER - FREEMASONRY

Prince Leopold was an active Freemason, having been initiated into the Apollo University Lodge, Oxford, while he was resident at Christ Church. He was invited to join the association by his brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who was then Worshipful Master of the Lodge, and was initiated in a joint ceremony with Robert Hawthorne Collins, his friend and tutor, who later became the family accountant. He served as Master of the Lodge from 1876 to 1877, and was later Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire, a post he held until his death.

MARRIAGE

Prince Leopold, tired of his mother's desire to keep him at home, saw marriage as his only hope for independence. Socialite Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, was considered a possible bride. But it was suggested that he consider Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but it is believed that he preferred her sister Edith. Due to illness, he did not have much time to find a wife, and his mother took part in preventing what she saw as inconvenient possibilities. Insisting that children of British sovereigns should marry members of other ruling and Protestant families, Queen Victoria suggested to her son a meeting with Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the daughter of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. On April 27, 1882, Leopold married Helena, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. They had two children, but the marriage lasted two years, with Leopoldo's death at age 30. Children edit Alice de Albany (1883–1981), married to Alexandre de Teck, with descendants; Carlos Eduardo, Duke of Saxe-Coburgo-Gota (1884–1954), married to Vitória Adelaide de Eslésvico-Holsácia-Sonderburgo-Glucksburgo, with descendants. His grandson Rupert, eldest son of Princess Alice of Albany, inherited hemophilia through her, which led to his premature death in a road accident. Leopold is a direct ancestor of the current Swedish royal family. His granddaughter Sibila of Saxe-Coburg-Gota (daughter of his son Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg-Gota) married the Swedish crown prince, Gustav Adolf, Duke of West Bothnia, with whom he had five children, including the current one king of Sweden, Carlos XVI Gustavo (of whom Leopold is great-grandfather).

LAST MOMENTS AND DEATH

In February 1884, on doctor's orders, Prince Leopold went to Cannes in southern France: arthralgia is a common symptom of haemophilia, and the winter weather in England had always been a threat to him. His wife, who was pregnant at the time, remained at home but urged him to go. On 27 March, he slipped and fell on the floor of the Villa Nevada, injuring his knee. He died in the early hours of the following morning, apparently from the effects of the morphine he had been given and the claret he had been served with his dinner. He was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England.