| Alfred | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |||||
 Photograph, 1890s | |||||
| Born | Prince Alfred of Edinburgh (1874-10-15)15 October 1874 Buckingham Palace,London,United Kingdom | ||||
| Died | 6 February 1899(1899-02-06) (aged 24) Sanatorium Martinsbrunn,Meran,Austria-Hungary | ||||
| Burial | |||||
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| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
| Father | Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
| Mother | Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia | ||||
Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alfred Alexander William Ernest Albert; 15 October 1874 – 6 February 1899), was the son andheir apparent ofAlfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died aged 24 under circumstances still not entirely clear. He was a first cousin ofKaiser Wilhelm II of Germany,King George V of the United Kingdom andTsar Nicholas II of Russia.
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Alfred of Edinburgh was born on 15 October 1874 atBuckingham Palace,London. His father wasPrince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second eldest son ofQueen Victoria andPrince Albert. His mother,Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, was a daughter ofEmperor Alexander II of Russia andPrincess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
Archibald Campbell Tait,Archbishop of Canterbury, baptised the prince in the Lower Bow Room of Buckingham Palace on 23 November 1874. His godparents were the Queen, the Emperor of Russia (whose sonTsesarevichAlexander stood proxy for him), theGerman Emperor (for whom Alfred's paternal unclePrince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn stood proxy), theGerman Crown Princess (Alfred's paternal aunt, for whom her sisterPrincess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein stood proxy), theDuke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his paternal grand-uncle, for whomPrince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein stood proxy), and thePrince of Wales (his paternal uncle).[citation needed]
In 1893, his granduncle,Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the elder brother of his paternal grandfather, died without legitimate heirs. Being ineligible underSaxe-Coburg-Gotha house law to succeed to the duchy due to his status as the heir apparent to an existing throne,[1] thePrince of Wales had previously renounced his claim to the ducal throne. Thus, the succession devolved to Alfred's father, who was at that time theDuke of Edinburgh. Alfred thus became theHereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Alfred had lived atClarence House in the early years of his life with his parents and sisters; after his father's accession to the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he moved toSchloss Rosenau, nearCoburg.
On 23 January 1899 Maria Alexandrovna and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at Schloss Friedenstein, the Duke's official residence inGotha.[2][3] Absent from the festivities was their only son, who was gravely ill.[2]
The exact circumstances of Alfred's death are not known, and varying accounts have been published. His sister Marie's memoirs simply say his health "broke down", and other writers have said that he had "consumption".[4]: 62 The Times published an account stating he had died of a tumour,[4]: 62 while theComplete Peerage gives the generally accepted account that he "shot himself".[5]
Various authors have speculated on reasons why he might have killed himself. One author, Frank Bush, claimed to have been a descendant of a secret marriage between Alfred and Mabel Fitzgerald, granddaughter ofthe 4th Duke of Leinster, and claimed that friction between Alfred and his family over the "secret marriage" was the cause of the suicide.[4]: 176, fn. 2 [a] Despite the lack of documentary evidence, and the lack of contemporary reference, other authors have repeated Bush's assertion that Alfred and Mabel married, includingJohn van der Kiste and Bee Jordaan inDearest Affie, and the assertion is repeated as fact in the official family history (Das Haus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha).[1]
According to rumours, Alfred shot himself with arevolver while the rest of the family was gathered for the anniversary celebration. He survived and was looked after atSchloss Friedenstein inGotha (Thuringia) for three days before being sent to the Martinsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch nearMeran in theCounty of Tyrol (Austria-Hungary, now Italy). Alfred died there at 4:15 pm on 6 February 1899, aged 24 years.[1] He was buried in the ducal mausoleum of theFriedhof am Glockenberg,Coburg,Bavaria (southern Germany).[6]: 47
After his death, Alfred's uncle theDuke of Connaught and his sonPrince Arthur of Connaught renounced their succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in July 1899. As a result, his first cousinPrince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, becameheir presumptive.[7]
He received the following orders and decorations:[10]
United Kingdom:
Hesse and by Rhine: Grand Cross of theLudwig Order,19 April 1894[12]
Ernestine duchies:
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach:Grand Cross of the White Falcon,1894[14]
Kingdom of Romania:Grand Cross of the Crown of Romania,10 January 1893
Russian Empire:
Belgium: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Leopold (military),22 July 1898[15]As a male-line grandson of the British Sovereign, young Alfred bore the royal arms, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, all differenced by a label argent of five points, the odd bearing crosses gules and even anchors azure.[16]
| Ancestors of Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha[17] |
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