Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred was sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893 until his death in 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire.
Early life
Alfred was born at 7:50 am on 6 August 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert, the second son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Nicknamed Affie, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.Alfred was baptised on 6 September by William Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle. His godparents were his mother's first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge ; his paternal aunt, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ; and his maternal uncle, the Prince of Leiningen.
Alfred remained second in line to the British throne from his birth until January 1864, when his older brother Albert Edward and sister-in-law Alexandra had their first child, Prince Albert Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and, as Albert Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred was further demoted in the order of succession.
Entering the Royal Navy
In 1856, when he reached age 12, it was decided that Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy. A separate establishment was assigned to him, with Lieutenant J.C. Cowell, RE, as governor. He passed a special entrance examination in July 1858, and was appointed as a naval cadet in at the age of 14.In July 1860, while on this ship, Alfred paid an official visit to the Cape Colony, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs. He took part in a hunt at Hartebeeste-Hoek, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of game animals.
Following the expulsion of King Otto of Greece in 1862, Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but the British government blocked plans for him to ascend the Greek throne, largely because of the Queen's opposition to the idea. She and her late husband had made plans for him to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg.
Alfred remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 February 1863, serving under his half-cousin Count Gleichen on the corvette. Gleichen's son recalled his father as saying that "the Prince, although shaping well as a sailor, was of a somewhat wayward disposition at that period, and his high spirits more than once led him into minor troubles with the authorities." He was promoted to captain on 23 February 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate in January 1867. Lord Charles Beresford described him as having "a great natural ability for handling a fleet" and noted that he "would have made a first-class fighting admiral."
Duke of Edinburgh
In the Queen's Birthday Honours on 24 May 1866, Alfred was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament in the . 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 24 January 1867 for his voyage around the world. On 7 June 1867, he left Gibraltar, reached the Cape of Good Hope on 24 July, on 5 August 1867 the island of Tristan da Cunha, and paid a royal visit to Cape Town on 24 August 1867 after landing at Simon's Town a while earlier. He landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on 31 October 1867.
Being the first member of the royal family to visit Australia, Alfred was received with great enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania. Several institutions, including Prince Alfred College, The Alfred Hospital, and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were named in his honour.
On 12 March 1868, on his second visit to Sydney, Alfred was invited by Sir William Manning, President of the Sydney Sailors' Home, to picnic at the beachfront suburb of Clontarf to raise funds for the home. At the function, he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by Henry James O'Farrell. The shot, fired at point-blank range, ricocheted off one of the metal clips on Alfred's trouser braces, narrowly missing his spine. He was tended to for the next two weeks by six nurses, trained by Florence Nightingale and led by Matron Lucy Osburn, who had just arrived in Australia in February 1868.
In the violent struggle during which Alfred was shot, William Vial had managed to wrest the gun away from O'Farrell until bystanders assisted. Vial, a master of a Masonic Lodge, had helped to organise the picnic in honour of the Duke's visit and was presented with a gold watch for securing Alfred's life. Another bystander, George Thorne, was wounded in the foot by O'Farrell's second shot. O'Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on 21 April 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 subscription which paid for the construction of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Alfred soon recovered from his injury and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April 1868. He reached Spithead on 26 June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months.
Alfred visited Hawaii in 1869 and spent time with the royal family there, where he was presented with leis upon his arrival. He was also the first member of the royal family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on, where he spent a month living in Pakuranga. He also became the first European prince to visit Japan and on 4 September 1869, he was received at an audience by the teenaged Emperor Meiji in Tokyo.
The Duke's next voyage was to India, where he arrived in December 1869, and Ceylon, which he visited the following year. In both countries and at Hong Kong, which he visited on the way, he was the first British prince to set foot in the country. In Ceylon a reception was given for him, by the request of the British, by Charles Henry de Soysa, the richest man in Ceylon, at his private residence which was consequently renamed, by permission, Alfred House. Alfred reportedly ate off gold plates with gold cutlery inlaid with jewels.
Potential matches
In 1862, Queen Victoria wrote to Victoria, Princess Royal, that she wanted Alfred to marry Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She wrote: "I hear that the Emperor of Russia has not given up his intention of asking for Alix or Dagmar for his son. I should be very sorry if any thing were decided for Dagmar before you had seen her, as it would be one chance less for Affie." However, she decided against the match because of Germany's anger towards Denmark over the disputed territories of Schleswig-Holstein, especially since Alfred was the heir to Coburg. She wrote to Princess Victoria: "Respecting Dagmar, I do not wish her to be kept for Affie. Let the Emperor have her."Dagmar was initially engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas; however, he died on 22 April 1865 in the presence of his parents, brothers, and Dagmar. His last wish was that Dagmar would marry his younger brother, the future Alexander III. Alexander and Dagmar did marry; therefore, she became Empress of Russia.
The Queen considered Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia as a potential wife for Alfred. She wrote to Princess Victoria, "It is a great pity that Sanny's charming daughter is a Greek – she would do so well". In 1867, Queen Victoria told Victoria, Princess Royal that "I had thought and hoped at one time for dear little Olga, who is now to marry King George".
Marriage
During a visit to his sister Alice in August 1868, Alfred met Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, then fourteen years old. Princess Alice was married to Maria Alexandrovna's first cousin. The Grand Duchess was visiting her maternal relatives, the Princes of Battenberg, at Jugenheim.On 23 January 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh married Maria Alexandrovna, the second daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg. To commemorate the occasion, the English bakery Peek Freans made the now internationally popular Marie biscuit, with the Duchess' name imprinted on its top.
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 was surprised to discover that she had to yield precedence to the Princess of Wales and all of Queen Victoria's daughters and demanded that she take precedence before the Princess of Wales because she considered the Princess of Wales's family to be inferior to her own. Queen Victoria refused this demand, yet granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales.
Financial settlement
Affie had been granted an annuity of £15,000 from the British Civil list in 1866, which was increased by £10,000 to £25,000 when he married. Under the terms of the marriage treaty signed between the United Kingdom and Russian Empire, Maria would receive an annuity of £6,000 from the British Civil List if she outlived Alfred. Maria's father, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, also provided his daughter with a generous financial settlement, which included:- 1,000,000 roubles, as fixed by the fundamental laws of the Russian Empire for the daughters of emperors. The capital was to remain deposited in Russia with the Department of Appanages, paying an income of 5% ;
- An additional 75,000 roubles per annum, as a mark of the Emperor's "particular affection, which is not to be considered a precedent for the future";
- A special marriage portion of 1,000,000 roubles, with the capital also remaining in Russia, paying an income of 5% annually ; and
- Maria was also to retain control of her private capital of 600,000 roubles.
The marriage treaty also specified that Maria was at liberty to make any contribution to the couple's household expenses as she pleased, but that the debts and obligations of their household would not be common to them both. If Maria predeceased Alfred leaving children, her marriage portion and private fortune would be appropriated for their benefit. If she predeceased him without children, Alfred would receive a lump sum of 250,000 roubles from the 'ordinary' marriage settlement, and would enjoy from the remaining portion of the ordinary settlement during his lifetime, after which it would revert to the Emperor of Russia. The "special" marriage portion would revert to the Emperor immediately if there were no children.