Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
 | HRH Prince Alfred |
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Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alfred Ernest Albert) (
6 August,
1844 –
30 July,
1900), was the third
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha between
1893 and
1900. He was also a member of the
British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of
Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was created
Duke of Edinburgh,
Earl of Kent and
Earl of Ulster in the
peerage of the United Kingdom on
24 May 1866. He succeeded his paternal uncle
Ernst as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the
German Empire on
23 August 1893.
Alfred was born at
Windsor Castle. His mother was the reigning British monarch,
Queen Victoria, the only daughter of
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His father was
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second son of
Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a son of the monarch, he was styled
His Royal Highness The Prince Alfred at birth, and was second in the
line of succession behind his elder brother,
Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, he was known to his family as
Alfie.
Alfred was christened by William Howley,
Archbishop of Canterbury at the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle on
6 September 1844. His sponsors were his maternal great-uncle,
the Duke of Cambridge (represented by his son,
Prince George of Cambridge); his paternal aunt, Alexandrine, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (represented by his maternal grandmother, the
Duchess of Kent); and Queen Victoria's half-brother, Prince Carl of Leiningen (represented by
the Duke of Wellington).
In 1856 it was decided that
Prince Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the
Royal Navy. A separate establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with
Lieutenant Sowell, R. E., as
governor. He passed the examination for midshipman in August 1858, and was appointed to the
HMS Euryalus. In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs. On the abdication of King
Otto of Greece, in 1862,
Prince Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but political conventions of long standing rendered it impossible for the British government to accede to their wishes.
Prince Alfred, therefore remained in the navy, and was promoted lieutenant on
24 February 1863, serving under
Count Gleichen on
HMS Racoon, and captain on
23 February 1866, being then appointed to the command of the frigate
HMS Galatea.
In
1868, Alfred survived an assassination attempt while picnicking on the beach in the Sydney suburb of Clontarf while in
New South Wales.
Alfred remained second-in-line to the British throne from his birth until
8 January,
1864. His older brother Edward and his wife
Alexandra of Denmark had their first son
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence on this date. Any legitimate children his older brother had took priority in the succession list. Alfred became third-in-line heir to the throne.
As Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred was further demoted in the order of succession:
*On
3 June,
1865 when the future
George V of the United Kingdom was born, Alfred became fourth in line.
*On
20 February,
1867 when
Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was born, Alfred became fifth in line.
*On
6 July,
1868 when
Princess Victoria Alexandra of the United Kingdom was born, Alfred became sixth in line.
*On
26 November,
1869 when
Maud of Wales was born, Alfred became seventh.
*On
6 April,
1871 when Prince Alexander John of Wales was born, Alfred became eighth in line. However, Alexander died the following day and Alfred resumed being seventh.
*On
January 14,
1892, when
Prince Albert Victor died, he once again became sixth in line to the throne.
In the Queen's Birthday Honours in May
1866, the prince was created
Duke of Edinburgh and Earl of
Ulster and of
Kent, with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament. He took his seat in the
House of Lords on
8 June.
While still in command of the
Galatea, the
Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on
January 24, 1867 for his voyage round the world. On
7 June 1867, he left
Gibraltar and reached the Cape on
24 July and paid a royal visit to
Cape Town on 24 August 1867 after landing at
Simonstown a while earlier. He landed at
Glenelg,
South Australia, on
October 31.
Being the first English prince to visit Australia, the Duke was received with great enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited
Adelaide,
Melbourne,
Sydney,
Brisbane and
Tasmania.
On
March 121868, on his second visit to Sydney whilst picnicking in the beachfront suburb of Clontarf, he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by
Henry James O'Farrell. The Prince was shot in the just to the right of his spine, and was tended for the next two weeks by six
Florence Nightingale trained nurses led by Matron Lucy Osburn who were newly arrived in Australia (February 1868).
On the evening of
23 March 1868, the most influential people of Sydney voted for a memorial building to be erected, "to raise a permanent and substantial monument in testimony of the heartfelt gratitude of the community at the recovery of HRH". This led to a public conscription which paid for the
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's construction.
Prince Alfred soon recovered from his minor injury and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April 1868.
Henry James O'Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on
21 April 1868.
Prince Alfred reached Spithead on
26 June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months. He was also the first member of the Royal Family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on HMS Galatea. The Duke's next voyage was to
India, where he arrived in December 1869. Both there and at
Hong Kong, which he visited on the way, he was the first British prince to set foot in the country. The native rulers of India vied with one another in the magnificence of their entertainments during the Duke's stay of three months.
On
23 January 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh married Her Imperial Highness The
Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the second (and only surviving) daughter of
Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his wife
Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of
Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and
Wilhelmine of Baden, at the
Winter Palace,
St. Petersburg. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into London on
12 March. The marriage, however, was not a happy one, and the bride was thought haughty by London society. She insisted on taking precedence before the Princess of Wales (the future Queen Alexandra) because she and her father the Tsar considered the Princess of Wales' family (the Danish Royal family) as inferior to their own. Queen Victoria refused this demand and granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales. Her father gave her the then staggering sum of £100,000 as a dowry plus an annual allowance of £28,000.
The Duke of Edinburgh devoted himself to his profession, showing complete mastery of his duties and unusual skill in naval tactics. He was stationed in
Malta for several years and his third child,
Victoria Melita, was born there in
1876. He was promoted rear-admiral on
30 December 1878; vice-admiral,
10 November 1882; admiral,
18 October 1887; and received his baton as Admiral of the Fleet,
3 June1893. He commanded the Channel fleet,
1883-
1884; the Mediterranean fleet, 1886-1889; and was commander-in-chief at
Devonport,
Plymouth,
1890-
1893. He always paid the greatest attention to his official duties and was most efficient as an admiral.
On the death of his uncle,
Ernst II, Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on
August 22 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since
the Prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. At first regarded with some coldness as a "foreigner," he gradually gained popularity, and by the time of his death in 1900 he had generally won the good opinion of his subjects. The Duke was exceedingly fond of music and an excellent violinist, and took a prominent part in establishing the
Royal College of Music. He was also a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and his collection, valued at half a million marks, was presented by his widow to the
Veste Coburg, a big fortress near
Coburg. When he became Duke of Saxe-Coburg he surrendered his British allowance of £15,000 a year and his seats in the
House of Lords and the
Privy Council, but retained the £10,000 granted on his marriage in order to maintain
Clarence House as his London residence.
The Duke's only son, the Hereditary Prince Alfred, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and shot himself in January
1899, in the midst of his parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations. He survived, but his embarrassed parents sent him off to
Meran to recover, where he died two weeks later, on
6 February. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg died of
throat cancer on
30 July 1900 at Schloss Rosenau at Coburg. He was buried at the ducal family's cemetery outside Coburg. He was succeeded as the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by his nephew,
Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, the posthumous son of his youngest brother,
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. (Alfred's next brother, the
Duke of Connaught and his son,
Prince Arthur of Connaught, had renounced their succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).
Titles
*
1844-1866:
His Royal Highness The Prince Alfred
*
1866-1893:
His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
*
1893-1900:
His Royal Highness The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Honours
British (all awarded
24 May 1863):
*
Order of the Garter *
Order of the Thistle*
Order of St Patrick*
Order of the Bath*
Order of the Star of India*
Order of St Michael and St George*
Order of the Indian Empire*
Royal Victorian Order*
Privy Council of the United KingdomForeign:
*
Prussia:
Order of the Black Eagle*
Schwarzenberg:
Star of Schwarzenberg*
Spain:
Order of the Golden Fleece*
Italy:
Order of the Most Holy Annunciation*
France:
Legion of Honour*
Austria:
Order of St. Stephen*
Russia:
Order of St. Andrew*
Ottoman Empire:
Ostmanieh of the Ottoman Empire| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|
| Prince Alfred ("Young Affie") | 15 October 1874 | 6 February 1899 | Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893 |
| Princess Marie | 29 October 1875 | 18 July 1938) | married, 10 January 1893, King Ferdinand I of Romania (1865-1927); had issue |
| Princess Victoria Melita ("Ducky") | 25 November 1876 | 2 March 1936 | married (1), 19 April 1894, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue; divorced 21 December 1901(2) 8 October 1905, the Grand Duke Cyril of Russia; had issue |
| Princess Alexandra | 1 September 1878 | 16 April 1942 | married, 20 April 1896, Prince Ernst of Hohenloe-Langenburg; had issue |
| Stillborn son | 13 October 1879 | 13 October 1879 |
| Princess Beatrice | 20 April 1884 | 13 July 1966 | married, 15 July 1909, Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Galliera; had issue |
*
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the main settlement of
Tristan da Cunha was named after Alfred after he visited the remote Islands in
1867 while Duke of Edinburgh.
A biography of duke Alfred
