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Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria; 1 September 1878 – 16 April 1942) was the fourth child and third daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. As the wife of Ernst II, she was Princess consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princess Alexandra in 1905
Princess consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Tenure9 March 1913 – 16 April 1942
BornPrincess Alexandra of Edinburgh
(1878-09-01)1 September 1878
Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, German Empire
Died16 April 1942(1942-04-16) (aged 63)
Schwäbisch Hall, Free People's State of Württemberg, Nazi Germany
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1896)​
IssueGottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Marie Melita, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein
Princess Alexandra
Princess Irma
Prince Alfred
Names
Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria
HouseSaxe-Coburg and Gotha
FatherAlfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
MotherGrand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

Early life

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Duchess of Edinburgh Maria with her children

Alexandra was born Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh on 1 September 1878 at Rosenau Castle, Coburg.[1] Her father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.[1] She was baptised Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria on 2 October 1878 at Edinburgh Palace, Coburg, presumably by her mother's chaplain. Her godparents included her maternal uncle Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.[2]

During Alexandra's formative years, her father, occupied with his career in the Navy and later as a ruler in Coburg, paid little attention to his family. It was Alexandra's mother[3] who was the domineering presence in their children's life.[4] Alexandra had four siblings: Alfred, Marie, Victoria Melita, and Beatrice (her only younger sibling). Throughout her life, Alexandra was usually overshadowed by her elder sisters; she was considered less beautiful and more subdued than Marie and Victoria Melita.[4]

Nicknamed 'Sandra' by her family, She spent her early years in England, where the family lived at Eastwell Park, which Maria Alexandrovna loved and preferred to the couple's official London residence, Clarence House.[5] The Duke of Edinburgh was rarely at home, constantly serving in the navy. When he came home, he played a lot with the children, inventing new entertainments.[6] All the children studied French, which they hated and rarely spoke.[7]In 1886, Duke Alfred was appointed commander of the Mediterranean Fleet.[1] The family moved to Malta, where they settled in the San Anton Palace.[8] The palace always had rooms reserved for Prince George of Wales, the future King George V, who often visited them and called his cousins "three dear sisters".[9]

 
Princess Alexandra with her three sisters. From left to right, Princess Beatrice, Princess Victoria Melita, Princess Alexandra, and Princess Marie

That year, the entire family moved to Coburg and settled in Rosenau[10] Castle the family moved as her father was the heir apparent to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maria Alexandrovna hired a German governess for her daughters, who bought the girls simple clothes and taught them the Lutheran faith[11] In Coburg, the education of the young princesses was expanded: they were taught painting and music.[12]On Thursdays and Sundays, Alexandra and her sisters attended the theatre, which they all loved very much.[13]She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her aunt Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom to Prince Henry of Battenberg,[14] and at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1893.[15] That year, her great-uncle, The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (brother of her paternal grandfather, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) died without issue. As Prince Albert had passed away, and her uncle the Prince of Wales had renounced his claim to the duchy, the ducal throne fell to the Duke of Edinburgh. Following her father's succession, though Alexandra remained a British princess, she took the title of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.[1]

Marriage

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Princess Alexandra and her husband Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Alexandra's mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, believed in marrying her daughters young, before they began to think for themselves.[4]

In 1893, the dukes' eldest daughter, Marie, married the heir to the Romanian throne, Crown Prince Ferdinand. The following year, Victoria Melita, the second daughter, married her cousin, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse. Maria Alexandrovna herself looked for suitable candidates for her daughters. At the end of 1895, she arranged the engagement of Alexandra to the German aristocrat Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the son and heir of Prince Hermann of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Leopoldine of Baden.[16][17]

Alexandra's grandmother, Queen Victoria, complained that she was too young to marry at 17 and Alexandra's father objected to the status of his future son-in-law, who was lower than Alexandra in rank.[4] The House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was mediatized a formerly ruling family who had ceded their sovereign rights to others while (in theory) retaining their equal birth.[4] It was not considered a brilliant match.[4]

Issue

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They had five children:

Life in Hohenlohe-Langenburg

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First World War

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After the wedding, Alexandra lived in Germany for the rest of her life. In 1900, the Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died. His wife and daughters[23] were by his side during his last days. Alexandra's cousin Prince Karl Eduard, who was then sixteen years old, became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.[citation needed] For the next five years, he ruled under the regency of Alexandra's husband, the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Upon reaching the age of majority on 19 July 1905, Karl Eduard assumed all constitutional powers of the head of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha state. During the First World War, Alexandra worked as a nurse for the Red Cross. After the November Revolution in Germany in 1918, which overthrew the power of the German dynasties, the Kingdom of Württemberg, which had mediatized the Principality of Hohenlohe since 1806, ceased to exist.[24] Ernst lost his seat in the Württemberg parliament. From that time on, the couple bore the nominal title of Princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. In 1920, her mother Maria Alexandrovna died in Zurich.[25]

Later life and death

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Second World War

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Alexandra lived for the rest of her life in Germany. At the death of her father in 1900, Alexandra's husband was appointed regent of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg during the minority of the new Duke, who was her first cousin. Alexandra's only brother, Alfred, had died in 1899.[4] During World War I, she worked as a Red Cross nurse. In February 1916 her eldest daughter Marie Melita was married in Coburg to Prince Wilhelm Friedrich, the future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, and Alexandra became a grandmother when the couple's first child Prince Hans was born in May 1917.[26] On her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary in April 1931, her eldest son Gottfried married Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and future sister in law to future Queen Queen Elizabeth II.[26] In the years preceding World War II, Alexandra was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, which she joined on 1 May 1937, together with daughter in law her son and Irma Alexandra Marie Melita and her descendants as well and her son Gottfried was army officer during the Second World War.[18] [27] In 1930s she become ill frequently she died in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1942.[28]

Archives

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Princess Alexandra's personal papers (including family correspondence and photographs) are preserved in the Hohenlohe-Langenburg family archive (Nachlass Fürstin Alexandra, HZAN La 143),[29] which is in the Hohenlohe Central Archive (Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein) in Neuenstein Castle in the town of Neuenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and it is open for researchers.[30]

Arms

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Princess Alexandra's coat of arms

Alexandra's personal coat of arms was that of the British monarch, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, all differenced, as a male-line grandchild, with a label argent of five points, the central point bearing a cross gules, the inner pair anchors azure, and the outer pair fleurs-de-lys azure. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by Royal Warrant from George V.[31]

Ancestry

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Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d Zeepvat, p. 258
  2. ^ Grigoryan 2006, p. 25.
  3. ^ Maria 1990, p. 19.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Zeepvat, p. 260
  5. ^ Gauthier 2010, p. 9.
  6. ^ Maria 1990, p. 15.
  7. ^ Maria 1990, p. 31-32.
  8. ^ Mandache 2011, p. 13.
  9. ^ Maria 1990, p. 136.
  10. ^ Maria 1990, p. 155.
  11. ^ Sullivan 1997, p. 80-82.
  12. ^ Maria 1990, p. 169.
  13. ^ Maria 1990, p. 177.
  14. ^ NPG: Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg with their bridesmaids and others on their wedding day http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw145863/Prince-and-Princess-Henry-of-Battenberg-with-their-bridesmaids-and-others-on-their-wedding-day?LinkID=mp89748&role=art&rNo=2
  15. ^ "The Duke and Duchess of York and Bridesmaids". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  16. ^ Grigoryan 2006, p. 26.
  17. ^ Grigoryan 2011, p. 261.
  18. ^ a b Ernst 2007, p. 261.
  19. ^ a b c Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987), page 181. Hereinafter cited as Queen Victoria's Descendants. ISBN 9780806363097
  20. ^ Huberty, Giraud & Magdelaine 1994, p. 232.
  21. ^ Huberty, Giraud & Magdelaine 1994, p. 283.
  22. ^ "Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Viktor (Prince, Count Gleichen)", Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Oxford University Press, 31 October 2011, doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00088740, retrieved 19 April 2024
  23. ^ Grigoryan 2011, p. 262.
  24. ^ "Hohenlohe" (in Russian). 18 April 2022.
  25. ^ Grigoryan 2011, p. 269.
  26. ^ a b Zeepvat, p. 261
  27. ^ Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 382.
  28. ^ Petropoulos 2006, p. 382,386.
  29. ^ "Estate of Princess Alexandra (*1878, 1942) (Holdings) - Archive guide to the German Colonial Past".
  30. ^ "Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein". 17 July 2024.
  31. ^ "See Alexandra coat of arms in (1896)".
  32. ^ Louda, Jiří; Maclagan, Michael (1999), Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe, London: Little, Brown, p. 34, ISBN 978-1-85605-469-0

References

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  • Zeepvat, Charlotte. "The other one: Alexandra of Hohenlohe-langeburg", in Royalty History Digest: [English]. — London: Piccadilly Rare Books, 1991. — Pp. 258–261.[volume & issue needed]
  • Grigoryan, Valentina (2011). Russian wives of European monarchs. Moscow: Astrel,— P. 261-262, 269. — 381. Valentina. ISBN 9785271331671.
  • Grigoryan, Valentina (2006). The Romanovs. Biographical Handbook. — Moscow: Astrel. Valentina. ISBN 973502621X.
  • Gauthier, Guy (2010). Missy, Regina României : [рум.]. — Bucharest : Humanitas, 2010. — P. 9. — 344 p. —. ISBN 978-9735026219.
  • Maria, Maria (1990). Povestea Vieții Mele : [Romanian]. — Iași, Moldova : Moldova, 1990. — P. 15, 19, 31–32, 136, 155, 169, 177, 194. Maria. ISBN 973-9032-01-X.
  • Mandache, Diana (2011). . Later Chapters of My Life: The Lost Memoir of Queen Marie of Romania: [English].- Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2011. - P. 13. - 224. Diana. ISBN 978-0750936910.
  • Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). Petropoulos,. Royals and the Reich, [English].- New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. - P. 382. - 544. Jonathan. ISBN 9785271331671.
  • Sullivan, Michael (1997). John. A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia: [English].- New York: Random House, 1997. - P. 80-82.— 473. Random House. ISBN 0679424008.
  • Ernst, Klee (2007). Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt am Main: Klee. ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5.
  • Huberty; Giraud; Magdelaine (1994). Dynastic Germany. The Perreux-sur-Marne. ISBN 978-2-90113-807-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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