Young Coburg duke to reach majority

July 17, 1905

The young Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is about to reach his majority, which will mean the end of the Regency headed by the Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Today's Chicago Daily Tribune includes a few tattles and titillation offered by the Marquise de Fontenoy. When he reaches his majority, the Marquise notes that Charles Edward (known as Carl Eduard) will "be able to offer a home to his mother, who until now, through the ill-nature of her sister-in-law, the widowed duchess of Edinburgh and of Coburg, has been deprived of a suitable abode in the dominions of her only son, and has been compelled to rely for the last few years upon the hospitality and goodwill of other relatives."

It has been noticed, at least by this columnist, that Grand Duchess Marie "has been virtually boycotted by the courts" of Edward VII, the Kaiser, the Czar, and "even the gentle and gracious Queen Alexandra," who ignored her sister-in-law "in the most marked manner," last spring, when she visited the south of France. Grand Duchess Marie was living in Nice at the time.

The Grand Duchess's attitude toward her husband's heir "has been a source of universal indignation and has been by no means the least of the quite numerous scandals in which the Coburg family has become involved in recent years."

Marie's only son, the Hereditary Prince Alfred, took his own life in an Austrian sanatorium, "after becoming involved in all sorts of scandals in Berlin. Marie, "a woman of the most violent temper, resented bitterly the lack of demonstrations of grief on the part of her relatives in England and at Berlin over his decease -- a decease which under the circumstances they could not regard as otherwise untimely." The following year, in August 1900, Duke Alfred succumbed to throat cancer, and he was succeeded by his young nephew, the Duke of Albany, as his brother, the Duke of Connaught, and his son, Prince Arthur of Connaught, had ceded their rights to the Duke of Albany.

The young Duke was uprooted Eton and sent to Germany for his education.

The Marquise notes the young heir should have been granted a "handsome allowance, but also provided with a household and suitable residence" as the heir apparent, but Marie "would not hear of such a thing." She considered her nephew to be an "interloper, who had usurped the place of her dead son." According to the Marquise, Marie "also arranged that her dying husband should make no provision for his heir." She even made sure that the young prince, who was accompanied by his widowed mother and sister, Alice, was "ignored by everyone," when they visited the duchy.

Before Alfred's death, Marie "caused him to decree that the majority of the heir apparent" be attained when he turned 21, and not when Carl Eduard turned eighteen. She also wanted the regency to "be vested in her favorite son-in-law, Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe."

The Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg has "governed well" during Carl Eduard's minority, "but he has participated with his mother-in-law, Duchess Marie, in her abominable treatment of the young duke."

At the official services for the late Duke Alfred, Duke Carl Eduard, "was obliged as sovereign to officiate as chief mourner." But he and his mother, the Duchess of Albany, "were subjected to such public slights and gross affronts" by Prince Ernst and Marie "that the Kaiser and King Edward "were aroused in equally public displays of anger." Both sovereigns also learned that "the shabby treatment" of the young duke and his mother continued throughout his minority.

It is "scarcely to believed" that the Regent "was not only influenced by his mother-in-law to withhold any allowance from the civil list" for the young sovereign but had also declared that there were no palaces available for Carl

Eduard to live in. It seems that everything possible was done to keep Carl Eduard and his mother out of his duchy.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and King Edward VII "took up the matter in conjunction with the King of Württemberg," who is a relative of the Duchess of Albany. The three sovereigns agreed to provide an allowance for the young duke, and the Kaiser "assumed the personal guardianship of the lad and the discretion of his education." The young Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was raised with the Kaiser's sons, especially with his second son, Prince Eitel Friedrich. Wilhelm II also placed his "beautiful villa at Ingenheim," at the young duke and his mother's disposal. He also provided a staff of aide-de-camp and gentlemen in waiting for Duke Carl Eduard. It appears that the Kaiser "has been in every sense of the word father, and a kind and indulgent father, too, to the young duke."

Carl Eduard is also said to be a favorite of Empress Auguste Viktoria.

The Regency ends tomorrow. Carl Eduard "has neither forgotten nor forgiven the treatment to which he and his mother have been subjected." He will have nothing to do with his aunt, Grand Duchess Marie. The duke also plans to make his residence in Gotha, and it is in Gotha, where he will bring his bride, Princess Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein, who is said to be the empress' favorite niece.

The Duchess of Albany will occupy "one of the most beautiful palaces" just outside Gotha, and she will also have at her disposal a country residence. She will give up her English, home, Claremont, near Esher, to King Edward VII.)

[This is incorrect. Queen Victoria purchased Claremont for her son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, when he married Princess Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont in 1884. The Duchess of Albany died in 1922, and the house should have been inherited by Carl Eduard, but the house was sold to Sir William Conroy, director of the Cunard Line.)

The Duchess of Albany will, however, retain her $30,000 annual civil list allocation. But this is not enough for the duchess to maintain a "full-fledged royal household," so she will receive a further allowance from her son.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg will be "transformed from a princely dependent upon the charity of royal relatives into a rich and independent sovereign."

Prince Ernst and his family will return to their home in Langenburg, and it is also expected that Duchess Marie and her two daughters, Victoria Melita, who is divorced from the Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine, and Beatrice, will move out of the duchy. The people of Coburg, the Marquise surmises, "will turn their eyes from her to the new sun that has risen over Coburg."

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