Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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Template:House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Charles Edward George Albert Leopold) (19 July 1884 – 28 March 1954) was the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 30 July 1900 to 14 November 1918. A male-line grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he was also a Prince of the United Kingdom and held the title of Duke of Albany.

The Duke was a controversial figure in the United Kingdom. He was deprived of his British peerages and honours because of his support for Germany in World War I. In 1918 he was forced to abdicate his ducal throne and later joined the Nazi Party.

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Early life

Carl Eduard was born at Claremont House near Esher, Surrey. His father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His mother was The Duchess of Albany (nèe Princess Helena of Waldeck).

As Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany died before his birth, Carl Eduard succeeded to his father's titles 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 Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the Marchioness of Lorne, Princess Frederika of Hanover and George Victor, Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont. His uncle, King Edward VII made him a Knight of the Garter on 15 July 1902.

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Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

In 1900, the fourteen year-old Duke of Albany inherited from his uncle Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Queen Victoria's second son, the German duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Duke of Edinburgh's only son, Prince Alfred ("Young Affie"), committed suicide 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, was attending school at Eton with Prince Charles, and threatened to beat his cousin up if Charles did not accept the dukedom. For the next five years, he reigned under the regency of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Upon coming of age on 19 July 1905, the Duke of Albany assumed full constitutional powers as Duke Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a grandson of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a first cousin of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, the Prince of Wales (the future King George V), the Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Queen Maud of Norway, and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain.

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Marriage

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 the Duke Friedrich Ferdinard of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had five children:

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World War I

During World War I, Duke Carl Eduard supported Germany and held a commission as a general in the German Army (although he never held a major command). Consequently, King George V of Britain 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 Germanic origins, George V changed the name of 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. He also lost his title of Prince of the United Kingdom and the style His Royal Highness1

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Private Citizen

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. Now a private citizen, the deposed Duke became associated with various right-wing paramilitary and political organizations.2 In 1932, he took part in the creation of the so-called Harzburg Front, through which the Deutschnationale Partei (lit: "German-national party") Conservative Party became associated with the Nazi Party. He joined the Nazi Party and became a member of the SA (or Brownshirts), rising to the rank of Obergruppenfuhrer. He also served a member of the Reichstag from 1937 to 1945 and as president of the German Red Cross from 1933 to 1945. He formally joined the Nazi Party in 1935.

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 George V in his SA uniform, 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 British king and his wife, by then the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, during their official tour of Germany in 1938.

When World War II ended, the American Military Government in Bavaria, under the command of General George S. Patton, placed the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha under house arrest because of his Nazi sympathies. In 1946, he was sentenced by a denazification court and heavily fined. Many of his properties in Saxony, and Coburg were seized by the Soviet army.

The former Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha spent the last years of his life in poverty and seclusion. He died in 1954.

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Styles and titles

Before the removal of his British honours, Albany was styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Albany, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.

Footnotes

1 As a male-line grandson of the British Sovereign, Prince Carl Eduard was a Prince of the United Kingdom with the qualification of Royal Highness, in accordance with Queen Victoria's Letters Patent of 30 January 1864 and of 27 May 1898. The suspension of his peerages under the Title Deprivation Act, did not affect the Duke's place in the line of succession to the British throne. Under settled practice dating to 1714, Duke Carl Eduard's children, as legitimate male-line great grandchildren of the British Sovereign, were Princes and Princesses of the United Kingdom with the qualification of Highness. However, their right to use these British titles and styles ceased with George V's Letters Patent of 30 November 1917.

2 The hereditary and legal privileges of the various German royal, princely, ducal, and noble families ended in August 1919 when the constitution of the Weimar Republic went into effect. However, the Weimar Republic did not ban the use of titles and the designations of nobility, as did Austria. Instead, the Reichstag passed legislation that made the former royal and noble titles part of these families' surname. Legally, the former reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha became Carl Eduard Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha.

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End boxca:Carles Eduard del Regne Unit de:Carl Eduard (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) nl:Karel Eduard van Saksen-Coburg en Gotha no:Carl Eduard av Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha sv:Karl Edvard av Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha

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