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Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Leopold Charles Edward George Albert; in German Carl Eduard, Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha 19 July 1884 - 6 March 1954) was the fourth and last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a duchy in Germany (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 due to his status as Sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, part of the German Empire, during World War I. He was deprived of his British peerages and honours in 1919. In 1918, he was forced to abdicate his ducal throne. He also later joined the German Nazi Party. This caused considerable embarrassment to his only sister, who nevertheless remained loyal to him for the rest of his life, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, her sister-in-law, Queen Mary and their cousin George V. Early life Charles Edward was born at Claremont House near Esher, Surrey. His father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. His mother was the Duchess of Albany (née Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont). As his father died before his birth, Charles Edward succeeded to his titles immediately 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 Edward VII), Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the Marchioness of Lorne, Princess Frederica of Hanover and George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. His uncle, Edward VII made him a Knight of the Garter on 15 July 1902. As a grandson of Queen Victoria, the Duke was a first cousin of King George V of the United Kingdom, Queen Maud of Norway, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, Queen Sophia of Greece and of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (through his mother). The Duke was also a first cousin of the German Emperor William II, but such was the interest Wilhelm showed in his young cousin's upbringing that Carl Eduard was known as the Kaiser's seventh son His mother drummed into him endlessly the importance of "becoming a good man, so you bring no shame on Papa's name". Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha In 1900, the sixteen year-old Duke of Albany inherited the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from his uncle Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, under direct orders from his grandmother Queen Victoria. The Duke of Edinburgh's only son, Prince Alfred ("Young Affie"), died 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 (who also renounced his claims), was attending school at Eton with Prince Charles, and threatened to beat his cousin up if Charles did not accept the duchy. While at school his mother would write to Charles instilling in him a profound sense of duty and obligation. With such strong influences from both his mother and grandmother, the young boy had no choice but to take up the seat of Coburg in order to save that line of royal blood. For the next five years, he reigned under the regency of the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg under the strict guidance of the Kaiser, William II. 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. Marriage William picked out Charles's bride for him, his niece and 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 Ferdinand of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had five children. Through his daughter Sibylla, Charles Edward was the maternal grandfather of Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. World War I World War I caused a conflict of loyalties for Charles, but finally the Duke supported Germany and held a commission as a general in the German Army (although he never held a major command). Consequently, George V 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. The Duke and his children also lost their entitlement to the titles of Prince and Princess of the United Kingdom and the styles Royal Highness and Highness. Private citizen The Russian revolution of 1917 caused Charles much concern and he watched anxiously at the ensuing power struggles between the left and right wing parties in Germany. 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. Charles Edward, who by this time had been branded a traitor and effectively exiled from England, felt doubly betrayed, and as fearful as any royal of the communist threat, he cast about for a new hero and found Hitler.[5] Now a private citizen, the deposed Duke became associated with various right-wing paramilitary and political organizations.[6] 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 Obergruppenführer. He also served as 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 (his English ceremonial robes having been taken away from him), 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. World War II As president of the German Red Cross Charles Edward became embroiled in Hitler's policies for cleansing his adopted homeland of what he considered to be undesirables. A recent British Channel 4 television documentary (Dec 2007) claimed that Charles Edward knew about the euthanasia programme that killed 100,000 disabled people in Germany and must have been aware, at least after Kristallnacht, of the existence of the Final Solution. When World War II ended, the American Military Government in Bavaria, under the command of General George S. Patton,placed the Duke under house arrest because of his Nazi sympathies and later imprisoned him with other Nazi officials. His sister Alice, learning of her brother's incaceration, came to Germany with her husband to plead for his release with his American captors. They declined. In 1946, he was sentenced by a denazification court, heavily fined and almost bankrupted. Most 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 seclusion. He died a penniless convicted criminal in 1954 as the older one of only two surviving male grandchildren of Queen Victoria.
William B.
