The Grand Duke and his wife are estranged and live separate lives. He has tried "in vain" to change the law he had "enacted several years ago" that would name Elisabeth as regent for their son.
He has "notified both his ministers and the legislature that he will not permit his wife to become regent," and he has designated his kinsman, Duke Friedrich Ferdinand of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, whose wife, Karoline Mathilde, is a younger sister of Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria. One of Friedrich Ferdinand's daughters, Alexandra Viktoria, is married to the Kaiser's son, Prince August Wilhelm, and another daughter, Viktoria Adelheid, is married to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
This choice has yet to be approved by either the government or the legislature, as both remained determined that the Grand Duchess will be the regent. She is the sister of Prince Henrik of the Netherlands and the half-sister of the regent of the Duchy of Brunswick.
But Oldenburg is "virtually garrisoned by Prussian regiments and under the military control of the emperor, " it will be up to Kaiser Wilhelm II to decide whether to accept the wishes of the Grand Duke or the "desire of the people of Oldenburg, of their parliament, and of their government," according to the Marquise de Fontenoy.
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