Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Leopold Charles Edward George Albert; German: Luitpold Carl Eduard Georg Albrecht; 19 July 1884 – 6 March 1954) was the fourth and last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, two duchies in Germany (from 30 July 1900 to 14 November 1918), and the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1900 until his death in 1954. A male-line grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he was also a Prince of the United Kingdom and held the British title of Duke of Albany.

The Duke was a controversial figure in the United Kingdom due to his status as Sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, part of the German Empire, during World War I. He was deprived of his British peerages, his title of Prince and Royal Highness and his British honours in 1919.^[1] In 1918, he was forced to abdicate his ducal throne. He also later joined the German Nazi Party, and served in a number of positions in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, including as President of the German Red Cross.

He is the maternal grandfather of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. He was also the younger brother of HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.

Early life

Charles Edward was born at Claremont House near Esher, Surrey. His father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. His mother was the Duchess of Albany (née Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont).

As his father died before his birth, Charles Edward succeeded to his titles immediately on his birth and was styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Albany.

After becoming sick, he was privately baptised at Claremont on 4 August 1884, two weeks after his birth and later baptised publicly in Esher Parish Church on 4 December 1884 four months later. His godparents were his paternal grandmother Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales (his paternal uncle), his paternal aunts Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and the Marchioness of Lorne, Princess Frederica of Hanover (his father's second cousin), his maternal uncle Alexis, Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt and his maternal grandfather George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (neither of whom could attend).^[2] His uncle, Edward VII made him a Knight of the Garter on 15 July 1902, just prior to his 18th birthday.

As a grandson of Queen Victoria, the Duke was a first cousin of King George V of the United Kingdom, Queen Maud of Norway, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, Queen Sophia of Greece, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (the last two through his mother). The Duke was also a first cousin of the German Emperor William II, and such was the interest Wilhelm showed in his young cousin's upbringing that Carl Eduard was known as the Emperor's seventh son.^[3] His mother drummed into him endlessly the importance of "becoming a good man, so you bring no shame on Papa's name".^[4]

He also studied in Bonn and was a member of Corps Borussia Bonn to which he was introduced by the Emperor.

Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

In 1900, the sixteen-year-old Duke of Albany inherited the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from his uncle Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alfred's only son, Prince Alfred ("Young Affie"), died in 1899, and the Duke of Connaught, the Queen's third son, renounced his claims to the duchy. Arthur's son, Prince Arthur of Connaught (who also renounced his claims), was attending school at Eton with Prince Charles Edward, and threatened to beat his cousin up if Charles Edward did not accept the duchy. While at school his mother would write to Charles Edward instilling in him a profound sense of duty and obligation. With such strong influences from both his mother and grandmother, the young boy had no choice but to take up the seat of Coburg in order to save that line of Royal blood.

For the next five years, he reigned under the regency of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the husband of Duke Alfred's third daughter Alexandra. The regent acted under the strict guidance of the Emperor, Wilhelm II. Upon coming of age on 19 July 1905, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha assumed full constitutional powers.

Marriage

Wilhelm picked out Charles Edward's bride for him, his niece and on 11 October 1905, at Glücksburg Castle, Holstein, the Duke married Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein (31 December 1885 – 3 October 1970), the daughter of Duke Friedrich Ferdinand of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had five children.

Through his daughter Sibylla, Charles Edward is the maternal grandfather of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

World War I

World War I caused a conflict of loyalties for Charles Edward, but finally the Duke supported Germany and held a commission as a general in the German Army (although he never held a major command). Consequently, George V ordered his name removed from the register of the Knights of the Garter in 1915. In July 1917, in an effort to distance his dynasty from its German origins, George V changed the name of the British Royal House from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor. That year, the British Parliament passed the Titles Deprivation Act which empowered the Privy Council to investigate "any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or who have adhered to His Majesty's enemies." Under the terms of that act, an Order in Council on 28 March 1919 formally removed the Duke's British peerages, the Dukedom of Albany, Earldom of Clarence, and the Barony of Arklow. The Duke and his children also lost their entitlement to the titles of Prince and Princess of the United Kingdom and the styles Royal Highness and Highness.^[5] Nevertheless, he retained the style Highness as a member of a sovereign ducal house in Germany.

Private citizen

The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused Charles much concern and he watched anxiously during the ensuing power struggles between the left- and right-wing parties in Germany. On 18 November 1918, the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha deposed the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Five days later, the Duke signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne. Charles Edward, who by this time had been branded a traitor and effectively exiled from England, felt doubly betrayed, and as fearful as any Royal of the communist threat, he cast about for a new hero and found Adolf Hitler.^[6] Now a private citizen, the deposed Duke became associated with various right-wing paramilitary and political organisations.^[7] In 1932, he took part in the creation of the so-called Harzburg Front, through which German National People's Party became associated with the Nazi Party.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1935 and became a member of the SA (or Brownshirts), rising to the rank of Obergruppenführer. He also served as a member of the Reichstag representing the Nazi Party from 1937 to 1945 and as president of the German Red Cross from 1933 to 1945. During his years the German Red Cross became a part of the Nazi Organisation and no longer affiliated to the neutral International Red Cross. It is very unlikely that Charles Edward was ignorant of the concentration camps and medical experiments on mentally disabled patients known as Action T4 as he first nominated Ernst-Robert Grawitz as head of operations for the German Red Cross 1937-1945 and then replaced him in 1945 with Karl Gebhardt, both of whom were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity after the war.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler sent the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Britain as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society. His mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and to explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. The Duke, who attended the funeral of his cousin King George V in his SA uniform (his English ceremonial robes having been taken away from him), approached the new king, Edward VIII, about the possibility of a pact. Nothing came of these talks. Nonetheless, he continued to send Hitler encouraging reports about the strength of pro-German sentiment among the British aristocracy. After the abdication crisis, he played host to the former king and his wife, by then the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, during their official tour of Germany in 1937.

World War II

Although Carl Edward was too old for active service during World War II, his three sons served in Germany's armed forces. His second son, Hubertus, was killed in action in 1943 on the eastern front in a plane crash.

When World War II ended, the American Military Government in Bavaria, under the command of General George S. Patton, placed the Duke under house arrest because of his Nazi sympathies and later imprisoned him with other Nazi officials. His sister, Princess Alice, learning of her brother's incarceration, came to Germany with her husband to plead for his release with his American captors. Princess Alice and the Earl of Athlone dined with the American generals holding her brother, but they declined to release him.

In 1946 (August 1949, according to his ODNB entry), he was sentenced by a denazification court, heavily fined and almost bankrupted. Since Gotha was part of Thuringia and therefore of the Soviet occupation zone, the Soviet Army confiscated much of the family's property in Gotha, whereas Coburg had become part of Bavaria in 1920, and the family kept property there and in other parts of Germany and abroad.

The former Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha spent the last years of his life in seclusion. In 1953, he travelled to a local cinema to watch the coronation of his cousin's granddaughter, Elizabeth II.^[4] He died in Coburg in his flat in Elsässer Straße on 6 March 1954 as the elder of only two surviving male grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 19 July 1884 – 30 July 1900: His Royal Highness The Duke of Albany
• 30 July 1900 – 28 March 1919: His Royal Highness The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• 28 March 1919 – 6 March 1954: His Highness The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

While Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, his full style was, in German: Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, Herzog zu Sachsen, Prinz von Großbritannien und Irland, Herzog von Albany, Herzog zu Jülich, Kleve, und Berg, zu Engern und Westfalen, Graf von Clarence, Landgraf in Thüringen, Markgraf zu Meissen, gefürsteter Graf zu Henneberg, Graf zu der Mark und Ravensberg, Baron Arklow, Herr von Ravenstein und Tonna, which translates to the English: Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Duke in Saxony; Prince of Great Britain and Ireland; Duke of Albany; Duke of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, of Angria and Westphalia; Earl of Clarence; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of the Mark and Ravensberg; Baron Arklow; Lord of Ravenstein and Tonna

Honours

• KG: Knight of the Garter, 15 July 1902–1915
• GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 27 January 1901

Arms

Charles Edward was never granted arms in the United Kingdom. He did not inherit the arms of his father as royal arms, as differenced version of Arms of Dominion are granted individually, and not inherited. On his accession as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he used the arms of that duchy, both the greater and lesser versions. One variant that he also used was a shield of the arms of Saxony, with a differenced version of the arms of the United Kingdom, with the label borne by his father on his father's arms, (essentially, the arms of his father in reverse). This was similar to the arms borne by his uncle, Alfred, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as can be seen on his stall plate as a Knight of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim.^[9]

In the media

On 2 June 2008, British Channel 4 aired an hour-length documentary concerning Charles Edward called Hitler's Favorite Royal. It featured re-coloured original footage and photos from all stages of Charles Edward's private and public life, his troubled conversion to the National-Socialist regime and other aspects. Various international historians commented on the events and issues revolving around his life, reminding the public of his existence and reviving the public debate once again.^[10] The programme, however, contained a number of inaccuracies, for example describing Charles Edward as Queen Victoria's youngest grandson, which he was not.

Issue

Ancestry

References

Sources

• Harald Sandner, Hitlers Herzog: Carl Eduard von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha: die Biographie. Aachen, 2010.

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Charles_Edward,_Duke_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha] at Wikimedia Commons

Succession