Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A difficult situation for the Duke of Coburg

September 4, 1922

According to the New York Times, "a delicate situation has been created by the death of the Duchess of Albany," aunt of King George V.  Her only son, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, "bore arms against England" during the recent war, and is "liable for prosecution for high treason" if he travels to England for his mother's funeral.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg was born Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, who was Queen Victoria's youngest son.  He became heir to the Coburg duchy after the death of his first cousin, Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the renouncement of their succession rights by the Duke of Connaught and his only son, Prince Arthur. 

Prince Charles Edward succeeded his uncle, Prince Alfred, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900.   He was stripped of his British HRH and his British peerages, including Duke of Albany, in 1917.

The Duke, however, has been advised that if he does come to England, "no action will be taken against him.   It is stated here in London that the Duke had "appealed to the Kaiser," to let him leave Germany and "live in Switzerland until the war was over."

But the Kaiser, who is the Duke's first cousin, "gave him his choice of arrest or joining his German regiment." 

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha's wife, Victoria Adelheid, is the niece of the late Kaiserin Auguste,Viktoria.   His sister, Princess Alice, is married to the Earl of Athlone, younger brother of Queen Mary.

The Duchess of Albany was visiting her son in Hinterriss in the Tyrol, Austria, when she suffered a heart attack and died on September 1.

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