Category Archives: Former Monarchies

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

The first husband of Princess Maria of Greece who was the daughter of King George I of Greece, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia was executed by the Bolsheviks along with his brother Nicholas and two other Russian Grand Dukes. George was born on August 23, 1863, in Bielyi-Kliutsch, in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire, now in the country of Georgia. He was the third of the six sons and the fourth of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna, born Princess Cecilie of Baden. George’s paternal grandparents were Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia and his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. His maternal grandparents were Grand Duke Leopold of Baden and Princess Sofia of Sweden, daughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.

George had five brothers and one sister:

Grand Duke George; Credit – Wikipedia

George grew up in present-day Georgia where his father was the Governor-General of the Russian provinces of Transcaucasia. Educated by private tutors, George had a Spartan upbringing that included sleeping on army cots and taking cold baths.

While George did have a military career and served as a General in the Russian Army, he was a passionate coin collector. His collections of Russian coins and medals included practically every coin ever used in the Russian Empire and he wrote ten books on coins. One of them, Catalogue of Imperial Russian Coins 1725–1891, was reprinted in the United States in 1976 and is still an important reference for coin collectors. In 1895, George was appointed the curator of the Alexander III Museum, today the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. His knowledge of coins was invaluable in increasing the museum’s coin collection. In 1909, George donated his collection to the museum.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Princess Maria of Greece, circa1900; Credit – Royal Collection Trust RCIN 2927293

On April 30, 1900, in Corfu, Greece, George married Princess Maria of Greece, the daughter of his first cousin Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia and her husband King George I of Greece, born Prince Vilhelm of Denmark. The couple had two daughters. George’s daughter Princess Xenia married millionaire William Leeds and lived in an estate on Long Island in New York State for years. For a few months in 1927, Xenia took in a woman claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, later found to be Anna Anderson, an impostor.

George, Maria, and their two daughters; Credit – Wikipedia

George and Maria’s marriage was never really happy. Maria was not in love with her husband despite his apparent devotion to her. She had never wanted to leave Greece and soon found excuses to leave Russia and her husband. She spent more time in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, often using her daughters’ health as the reason for her travels. Maria and her two daughters were in England when World War I broke out and chose not to return to Russia. They never saw George again.

In March 1918, all the male members of the Romanov family were ordered to register at Cheka (Soviet secret police) headquarters and then were sent into exile in internal areas of Russia. George was sent to Vologda, a town north of Moscow, with his brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and their first cousin Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich. They could move freely around town and visit each other.

George’s brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich; Credit – Wikipedia

George’s brother Nicholas, known in the family as Bimbo, was the eldest child in the family.  Although he had a career in the Russian army, his passion, even in childhood, was Russian history. In 1905, Nicholas left the military and pursued his interest in history full-time. Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia granted him unlimited access to the Romanov Family Archives and Library. Grand Duke Nicholas was the author of many historical books about Alexander I, Emperor of All Russia and the Napoleonic Wars. He was chairman of the Russian Historical Society and headed the Russian Geographical Society and the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Art and Antiquities. In 1915, Moscow University awarded Nicholas an honorary doctorate in Russian history.

However, an incident on June 13, 1918, during the execution of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, changed the way the remaining Romanovs were treated. It appeared to his executioners that Michael had been trying to escape after the gun that was intended for him misfired. The incident was used to justify the necessity of keeping all exiled Romanovs under a strict regime of imprisonment.

On July 1, 1918, George, his brother Nicholas, and their cousin Dmitri were arrested in Vologda where they had been exiled. They were sent back to St. Petersburg to the Shpalernaia Prison where they would remain for most of their incarceration. On August 13, 1918, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, the youngest of the eight children of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia and the uncle of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, was arrested and joined the three other Grand Dukes at Shpalernaia Prison in St. Petersburg. The four Grand Dukes were all first cousins as their fathers were all sons of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Each Grand Duke was held in a cell, only seven feet by three feet. Each day, they were all allowed to gather in the courtyard for exercise and the Grand Dukes could exchange a few words.

Grand Duke George somehow managed to smuggle letters to his wife Maria in England. The last letter was dated November 27, 1918. Maria unsuccessfully tried to buy freedom of her husband and the other three Grand Dukes for fifty thousand pounds through the Danish ambassador in St. Petersburg. Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, a niece of Nicholas and George, tried unsuccessfully to obtain the release of the four Grand Dukes, also through the Danish ambassador’s intervention. On December 6, 1918, Grand Duke Paul’s health, which was already bad, declined sharply, and he was transferred to a prison hospital.

The writer Maxim Gorky had been a supporter of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks but after seeing the terror of the new regime, he changed his mind. Princess Paley, Grand Duke Paul’s wife, asked Gorky to intercede on behalf of the four Grand Dukes. In January 1919, Gorky went to Lenin to plead the case of the four Grand Dukes. Gorky pleaded the merits of each Grand Duke. When Gorky came to Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, he said, “Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich is a historian.” Lenin replied, “The Revolution does not need historians.” Gorky did not give up and eventually, Lenin promised to release the four Grand Dukes. Gorky, with the release document signed by Lenin, rushed to the station in Moscow to catch the train to St. Petersburg. When he reached St. Petersburg, Gorky saw the headline in the newspaper, “Four Grand Dukes Shot” and he nearly fainted.

Unlike the execution of Nicholas II and his family and the execution of Elizabeth Feodorovna and the five other Romanovs, there are no written eyewitness accounts of the execution of the four Grand Dukes. What is known is based on versions of second-hand information.

Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg; The Peter and Paul Cathedral with its golden spire can be seen in the middle; Photo Credit – By Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51488758

On January 27, 1919, Grand Duke Paul was transferred from the prison hospital to another prison. He was kept there until 10 pm when he was driven to the Peter and Paul Fortress, originally built by Peter the Great to protect his new city of St. Petersburg and the site of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial place of the Romanovs. At 11:30 pm on January 27, 1919, Grand Dukes Dmitri, Nicholas, and George were awakened in their cells at Shpalernaya Prison and were driven to the Peter and Paul Fortress. When Dmitri, Nicholas, and George arrived at the Fortress, they were roughly pushed from the truck into the Trubetskoy Bastion where prisoners arrested by the Bolsheviks were held. The Grand Dukes were told to remove their shirts and coats, despite the frigid January temperature.

The Trubetskoy Bastion in the late 1920s; Photo Credit – Автор: Анонимный автор – http://encspb.ru/object/2804023013, Общественное достояние, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26266039

Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich, Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and Grand Duke George Mikhailovich were escorted toward a ditch in the courtyard. As they passed the Peter and Paul Cathedral where their ancestors were buried, they each made the sign of the cross. Guards appeared carrying Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich on a stretcher. The three Grand Dukes were lined up before the ditch, in which there were already bodies. Nicholas Mikhailovich, who was carrying his cat, handed it to a soldier, asking him to look after it. Grand Duke Paul was shot on his stretcher. Grand Dukes Nicholas, George, and Dmitri were all killed by the same blast, causing them to fall into the ditch.  The four Grand Dukes were the last of the eighteen Romanovs killed as a result of the Russian Revolution.

Most likely, the ditch is the burial place of the four Grand Dukes. In 2004, in the Grand Ducal Burial Mausoleum adjoining the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a commemorative plaque was placed with the names of four Grand Dukes shot nearby in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 2009, during the construction of a road to a parking lot at the Peter and Paul Fortress, nine unmarked mass graves were discovered and a total of 112 remains were unearthed.  Perhaps eventually the remains of the four Grand Dukes will be identified.

In 1981, Grand Duke Paul, Grand Duke Dmitri, and Grand Duke George were canonized as New-Martyrs of Russia by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Grand Duke Nicholas was the only Romanov who had been executed by the Bolsheviks not to be canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Angelfire.com. (2018). ROYAL RUSSIA NEWS. THE ROMANOV DYNASTY & THEIR LEGACY, MONARCHY, HISTORY OF IMPERIAL & HOLY RUSSIA. [online] Available at: http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog/1450058/excavations-for-grand-dukes-remains-to-resume-at-peter-and-paul-fortress/.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (1863–1919). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_George_Mikhailovich_of_Russia_(1863%E2%80%931919).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019). January 28, 1919 – Execution of Four Russian Grand Dukes. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/execution-of-four-grand-dukes/.
  • https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-maria-of-greece/
  • Perry, J. and Pleshakov, K. (2008). The flight of the Romanovs. New York: Basic Books.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2018). Расстрел великих князей в Петропавловской крепости. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB_%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%BA%D0%BD%D1%8F%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%B2_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8.

First Cousins of Queen Sofia of Spain and King Constantine II of Greece

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Queen Sofia of Spain (born 1938)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

Queen Sofia, the wife King Juan Carlos I of Spain, was Queen Consort of Spain from her husband’s accession in 1975 until his abdication in 2014 in favor of their son, King Felipe VI. Born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark on November 2, 1938, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece, She married the future King Juan Carlos of Spain, a descendant of Queen Victoria via her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice, and had two daughters and one son.

 

King Constantine II of Greece (1940 – 2023)

King Constantine II of Greece was the King of Greece (styled King of the Hellenes) from 1964 until the monarchy was abolished in 1973. He was born on June 2, 1940, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece. In 1964, Constantine married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark, and a descendant of Queen Victoria via her son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Constantine and Anne-Marie had five children.

Sofia was the eldest of the three children and Constantine was the second of the three children and the only son of King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, both descendants of Queen Victoria’s eldest child Victoria, Princess Royal who married Friedrich III, German Emperor. Sofia and Constantine’s paternal grandparents were King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophie of Prussia. Their maternal grandparents were Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor. Queen Sofia of Spain and King Constantine II of Greece have fifteen first cousins. They share their first cousins with their sister Princess Irene of Greece.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Sofia of Spain, born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark and King Constante II of Greece: Children of King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophie of Prussia

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Sofia of Spain, born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark and King Constante II of Greece: Children of Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of King Alexander of Greece and Aspasia Manos

Princess Alexandra of Greece, Queen of Yugoslavia (1921 – 1993)

Princess Alexandra of Greece was the only child of King Alexander of Greece and his commoner wife Aspasia Manos, the daughter of Petros Manos, who had served as Master of the Horse to Alexander’s father King Constantine I. Aspasia would not be recognized as Queen. King Alexander died after contracting septicemia from a monkey bite. Aspasia was four months pregnant at the time, and gave birth to their daughter, Alexandra, in March 1921. Princess Alexandra married King Peter II of Yugoslavia and they had one son Crown Prince Alexander. After World War II, the Yugoslav monarchy was abolished and Alexandra and Peter separated.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Helen of Greece and King Carol of Romania

King Michael of Romania (1921 – 2017)

King Michael of Romania, also known as Mihai, was King of Romania twice, from 1927 – 1930, and then from 1940 – 1947, when the monarchy was abolished. Michael married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, the daughter of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Margaret of Denmark. The couple had five daughters. Michael worked as a commercial pilot and also worked for an aircraft equipment company. It would be 43 years before he set foot on Romanian soil again. Eventually, the Romanian government restored Michael’s citizenship and returned several properties to the royal family. When Michael died in 2017, he was the second oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was older by four months.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Irene of Greece and Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta

Prince Amadeo, Duke of Aosta (1943 – 2021)

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta was a claimant to the head of the House of Savoy, the former royal family of Italy. Amedeo married Princess Claude of Orléans, the daughter of Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris, the Orléanist claimant to the French throne. The couple had two daughters and one son before divorcing. Amedeo married again to Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto but the couple had no children.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Katherine of Greece, The Lady Katherine Brandram and Major Richard Brandram

Paul Brandram’s christening: Lady Katherine Brandram and her husband with their son, held by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Paul Brandram (1948 – 2020)

Paul Brandram grew up in England. He married Jennifer Steele and they had two daughters and one son before divorcing after eighteen years of marriage. He made a second marriage to Katherine Moreton.

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of Ernst August IV, Prince of Hanover, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick and Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

Princess Marie of Hanover, Countess of Hochberg (born 1952)

Princess Marie of Hanover married Count Michael of Hochberg and had two sons.

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Ernst August V at the wedding of his son Christian, 2018; Credit – www.zimbio.com

Prince Ernst August V of Hanover (born 1954)

Ernst August V is among the senior male-line descendants of King George III of the United Kingdom. This line is directly descended from King George III’s son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who became King of Hanover due to the Salic Law which forbade female succession following the death of his brother King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria. Ernst August V is the Head of the House of Hanover and pretender to the thrones of the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick.

Ernst August first married Chantal Hochuli, the daughter of Johann Gustav Hochuli, a Swiss millionaire from his family’s chocolate company and architect. The couple had two sons and divorced. He then married Princess Caroline of Monaco and had one daughter. While initially very happy, the couple, still legally married, now leads separate lives.

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Embed from Getty Images 
Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover, held by his mother after his christening. Also in the photo is his father and his elder brother Prince Ernst August

Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover (1955 – 1988)

Prince Ludwig Rudolph married Countess Isabelle von Thurn und Valsassina-Como-Vercelli and the couple had one son. Ludwig died by suicide shortly after discovering the body of his wife, who had died from a drug overdose.

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Princess Olga of Hanover (born 1958), unmarried

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Embed from Getty Images
Princess Alexandra with her husband

Princess Alexandra of Hanover, Princess of Leiningen (born 1959)

Princess Alexandra of Hanover married another descendant of Queen Victoria, Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.  The couple had two sons and one daughter.

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Prince Heinrich of Hanover (born 1961)

Prince Heinrich of Hanover is a historian and publisher. He writes under the name Heinrich von Hannover. He married Thyra von Westernhagen whose family is from the landed nobility of Thuringia, Germany and who studied forestry at university. The couple had two sons and one daughter.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover and Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)

Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover (1947 – 1981)

Welf married Wibke van Gunsteren and they had one daughter. Welf and his wife became disciples of the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh also known as Osho.  They took the names Vimalkirti (“Spotless Splendor”) and Wibke Prem Turiya (“Spiritual love”) and moved with their daughter to Poona, India to live in Osho’s ashram.  In 1979, the couple divorced but continued to live together in India.  Welf died at a clinic in Poona, India from a cerebral hemorrhage after collapsing during a morning karate practice session.  After Welf’s death, his daughter was brought to England by her grandparents so she could have a normal education.

Welf Ernst and his siblings Georg and Friederike are also first cousins of the children of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

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Prince Georg of Hanover (born 1949)

Prince Georg of Hanover married Victoria Anne Bee, daughter of Robert Bee and Eleonore Gräfin Fugger von Babenhausen. The couple had two daughters.

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Princess Friederike of Hanover, Mrs. Jerry Cyr (born 1954)

Princess Friederike of Hanover is a godchild of her aunt by marriage, Queen Elizabeth II. She attended Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada and remained in Canada. Friederike married Jerry William Cyr, son of Gordon Paul Cyr and Emma Grandbois in Vancouver, Canada. The couple had one daughter and one son.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Christian Oscar of Hanover and Mireille Dutry

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

The Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1954 until he died in 1998, Friedrich Josias was born at Callenberg Castle, now in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany on November 29, 1918. His birth occurred just three weeks after the Workers’ and Soldiers Council of Gotha, deposed his father as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne but he remained Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Christened Friedrich Josias Carl Eduard Ernst Kyrill Harald, he was the youngest of the five children and the youngest of the three sons of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

Friedrich Josias’ father was the posthumous son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Therefore, Friedrich Josias was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.  His mother was the daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. His maternal grandfather was the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a nephew of King Christian IX of Denmark. His maternal grandmother was a granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria from her mother’s first marriage.

Left to right: Prince Hubertus, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Princess Caroline Mathilde, Prince Johann Leopold, Prince Friedrich Josias on the lap of the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Sibylla

Friedrich Josias had four elder siblings:

Friedrich Josias was educated at home by tutors. He then attended the Casimirianum Coburg in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany from 1929 to 1934. He then attended the Schnepfenthal Salzmann School, a boarding school in Gotha, Germany, founded in 1784, graduating in 1938.

In 1938, Friedrich Josias joined the German Army and participated in the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. In 1941, he participated in the German occupation of Poland and France and fought in campaigns in Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.

In 1932, Friedrich Josias’ elder brother Johann Leopold made an unequal marriage against the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha House Act of March 1, 1855, and had to renounce succession rights for himself and any children from the marriage. His brother Hubertus was designated the heir to his father as Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. However, after Hubertus was killed in action in an airplane crash during World War II in 1943, Friedrich Josias became the heir to Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

In 1944, Friedrich Josias became an adjutant to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who was in charge of the German campaign in North Africa. Later in 1944, he was transferred to the staff of General Hermann von Hanneken, the supreme commander of the German forces in Denmark. In May 1945, Friedrich Josias was captured by British forces in Denmark and remained in captivity until he was released that autumn when he returned to Coburg.

Friedrich Josias married his first cousin Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth on January 25, 1942.  The couple divorced on September 19, 1946.

Friedrich Josias and Viktoria-Luise had one son who succeeded his father as the Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha:

On February 14, 1948, Friedrich Josias made a second marriage to Denyse Henriette de Muralt in San Francisco, California. The couple divorced in 1964 and had three children:

  • Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1949 – 2016), married Gion Schäfer, had two daughters
  • Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1951), married Friedrich-Ernst of Saxe-Meiningen, had one son and one daughter
  • Adrian of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1955 – 2011), married (1) Lea Rinderknecht, had two sons (2) Gertrud Krieg

Friedrich Josias and his third wife Katrin

Friedrich Josias married one last time, on October 30, 1964, in Hamburg, Germany to Katrin Bremme. The couple had no children. His third wife Katrin survived him by twenty-three years, dying in 2011.

In 1946, Friedrich Josias went to Stockholm, Sweden. He stayed for a while with his elder sister Sibylla who was married to Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten, the second in line to the Swedish throne after his father, the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. Prince Gustaf Adolf, the father of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, would have himself become King of Sweden had he not died tragically in an airplane crash in 1947. In Sweden, Friedrich Josias worked for Johnson Line AB, a Swedish shipping company.

In 1948, Friedrich Josias accepted a position with W.R. Grace and Company, another shipping company, in San Francisco, California, and later in Santos, Brazil, and Hamburg, Germany. As per his father’s wish, he ended his employment with W.R. Grace and Company to work for the Foundation of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Foundation for Art and Science. When his father died in 1954, Friedrich Josias became Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

From 1958 – 1964, Friedrich Josias again worked for the Swedish shipping company Johnson Line AB, this time in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Upon his return to Germany, he first lived in Hamburg. Beginning in 1967, he spent his time in Coburg, now in Bavaria, Germany, and Grein, Austria. During the last years of his life, Friedrich Josias was in ill health and his son Andreas took over many of his duties. He died on January 23, 1998, in a hospital in Amstetten, Austria at the age of 79 and was buried in the family cemetery in the forest of Schloss Callenberg in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany.

The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family cemetery in the forest of Callenberg Castle; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Friedrich Josias Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Josias_Prinz_von_Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Friedrich Josias, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Josias,_Prince_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].
  • Thepeerage.com. (2019). Person Page. [online] Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/p10859.htm#i108581 [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].

Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Credit – https://www.stadtgeschichte-coburg.de

Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, known as Calma, was born on June 22, 1912, at Callenberg Castle in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, now in Bavaria, Germany. She was the younger of the two daughters and the fourth of the five children of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Calma’s father was the posthumous son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Therefore, Calma was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.  Her mother was the daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. Her father was the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a nephew of King Christian IX of Denmark.  Calma’s mother was a granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria from their mother’s first marriage.

Calma had four siblings:

The Christening of Caroline Mathilde; Credit – Wikipedia

Calma was christened Caroline Mathilde Helene Ludwiga Augusta Beatrice on July 25, 1912, at Callenberg Castle.

Her godparents were:

Wedding of Princess Caroline Mathilde and Count Friedrich Wolfgang Otto of Castell-Rüdenhausen at Schloss Greinburg; Credit – By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R14380 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5368325

Calma married Count Friedrich Wolfgang of Castell-Rüdenhausen, son of Hugo Friedrich of Castell-Rüdenhausen and Clementine of Solms-Sonnenwalde, on December 14, 1931, at Greinburg Castle on the Danube in Austria. The marriage was not a happy one. Eventually, Calma left Friedrich, amid much controversy and scandal, and they were officially divorced on May 2, 1938. In 1940, during World War II, Friedrich was killed in action while flying over England.

Calma and Friedrich had three children:

  • Count Bertram Friedrich of Castell-Rüdenhausen (born 1932), married Felicita von Auersperg, had two children
  • Count Conradin Friedrich of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1933 – 2011), married Marta Catharina Lonegren, had two children
  • Countess Viktoria Adelheid of Castell-Rüdenhausen (born 1935), married Sir John Miles Huntington-Whiteley, 4th Baronet, had three children

On June 22, 1938, in Berlin, Germany, Calma married Captain Max Schnirring, a famous pilot whose aviation career began during World War I. He had been friends with the famous “ Red Baron” Manfred von Richthofen. Max was one of the first pilots for Deutsche Luft Hansa, a precursor to today’s Lufthansa. He also worked as a training supervisor for Focke-Wulf and as a test pilot for Arado. He had crashed four times during his test flights without serious injury. However, during a test flight on July 6, 1944, he crashed in a field near Parow, a village a few miles north of Stralsund in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Max died the next day, at the age of 49, in a hospital in Stralsund, Germany.

Calma and Max had three children:

  • Calma Barbara Schnirring (born 1938), married (1) Richard Darrell Berger, had six children (2) James Cook, adopted a daughter
  • Dagmar Schnirring (born 1940), married (1) Heinrich Walz, had two children, divorced in 1989 (2) married Eberhard Schäl, no children
  • Peter Michael Schnirring (1943 – 1966), unmarried

Calma married a third time on December 23, 1946, to Karl Otto Andree. The couple had no children and divorced on October 10, 1949.

After the end of World War II, Calma’s father Charles Edward was placed under house arrest at his residence the Veste Coburg because of his Nazi sympathies. In 1949, a denazification appeals court classified Charles Edward as a Nazi Follower, Category IV. He was heavily fined and almost bankrupted. Calma had a difficult time adjusting to her family’s circumstances and became estranged from some of her children. To make ends meet, she became a shoemaker. She had numerous relationships with different men and one relationship caused her to spend some time in prison.

Calma became involved with an engineer and factory owner named Alexander Glascow who had left his wife and five children for her. Glascow was accused of having sex with two underage girls who worked at his factory. One of the girls, just 15-years-old, became pregnant. Calma did not want to lose Glascow and became involved in the situation. She arranged for one of her sons to be named the father and further arranged for the pregnant girl to have an abortion, which was illegal. Unfortunately, the girl died during the abortion. Calma and Glascow were charged with committing a “continuing crime of acquiescence to a serious abortion crime”. On December 21, 1956, both Calma and Glascow were convicted and both spent about six months in prison.

Calma died on September 5, 1983, at the age of 71 in Erlangen, Germany. She was buried in the family cemetery in the forest of Schloss Callenberg.

The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family cemetery in the forest of Callenberg Castle; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Australia, K., profile, V. and Australia, K. (n.d.). H.H. Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1912 – 1983). [online] Royalchristenings.blogspot.gr. Available at: http://royalchristenings.blogspot.gr/2014/08/hh-princess-caroline-mathilde-of-saxe.html [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Caroline_Mathilde_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
  • Es.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Carolina Matilde de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha. [online] Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Matilde_de_Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
  • Parow-info.de. (n.d.). Flugkapitän Max Otto Schnirring. [online] Available at: https://www.parow-info.de/c/Schnirring.html [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].
  • Stegemann, W. (2013). Caroline Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha saß 1956 im Dorstener Amtsgerichtsgefängnis | DORSTEN-transparent.de. [online] Dorsten-transparent.de. Available at: http://www.dorsten-transparent.de/2013/01/caroline-prinzessin-von-sachsen-coburg-und-gotha-sas-1956-im-dorstener-amtsgerichtsgefangnis/ [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].

Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born on August 24, 1909, at Reinhardsbrunn Castle, now in Friedrichroda, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, near Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Christened with the names Dietmar Hubertus Friedrich Wilhelm Philip, he was the third of the five children and the second of the three sons of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Hubertus’ father was the posthumous son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Therefore, Hubertus was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.  His mother was the daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. Her father was the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a nephew of King Christian IX of Denmark. Her mother was a granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria from her mother’s first marriage.

Hubertus and his family in 1918: (left to right) Hubertus, his mother Viktoria Adelheid, his sister Sibylla, his sister Karoline Mathilde, his father Charles Edward, and his brother Johann Leopold. His youngest brother was not yet born; Credit – Wikipedia

Hubertus had four siblings:

Hubertus and his sister Sibylla; Credit – Wikipedia

Hubertus was first educated by tutors at home, and then attended the Casimirianum Coburg in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany. On November 9, 1918, the Workers’ and Soldiers Council of Gotha, deposed Hubertus’ father as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Five days later, Charles Edward signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne but remained Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1932, Hubertus’ elder brother Johann Leopold made an unequal marriage against the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha House Act of March 1, 1855 and renounced succession rights for himself and any children from the marriage. As the next son, Hubertus was designated the heir to his father as Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Hubertus became a member of the Nazi Party on October 1, 1939. He saw action with the German Army on the Eastern Front during World War II. He served as a first lieutenant on the High Command of the Army and was deployed as a Luftwaffe pilot serving as a squadron leader. Hubertus was killed in action in an airplane crash at the age of 34 on November 26, 1943, in Velyki Mosty, in present-day Ukraine. His funeral took place on November 30, 1943, at the German Luftwaffe base in Lötzen in East Prussia, now Giżycko, Poland. Hubertus was buried in the family cemetery in the forest of Callenberg Castle in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany.

The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family cemetery in the forest of Callenberg Castle; Credit – Wikipedia

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Hubertus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertus_von_Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha [Accessed 22 Jan. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1909–1943). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hubertus_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha_(1909%E2%80%931943) [Accessed 22 Jan. 2019].
  • Petropoulos, Jonathan. (2009) Royals and the Reich. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Credit – Wikipedia

Johann Leopold was the eldest of the five children and the eldest of the three sons of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. He was born on August 2, 1906, at Callenberg Castle now in Coburg, Bavaria, Germany. On September 19, 1906, Johann Leopold was christened Johann Leopold Wilhelm Albrecht Ferdinand Viktor with his father’s first cousin Wilhelm II, German Emperor and his wife Empress Augusta Victoria serving as godparents. Because he was the firstborn son, Johann Leopold was the heir to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and was styled Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife with their son Johann Leopold: Credit – Wikipedia

Johann Leopold had four younger siblings:

Johann Leopold and his sister Sybilla in the park of Castle Reinhardsbrunn: Credit – Wikipedia

Johann Leopold’s mother was the daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. Her father was the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a nephew of King Christian IX of Denmark. Her mother was a granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria from her mother’s first marriage.

Johann Leopold’s parents in 1905; Credit – Wikipedia

Charles Edward, Johann Leopold’s father, was the posthumous son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Therefore, Johann Leopold was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. At the time of Johann Leopold’s birth, his father also held the British title Duke of Albany. However, due to his participation in World War I with the German Imperial Army, Charles Edward lost his British title via the 1917 Titles Deprivation Act. Charles Edward and his children also lost their titles of Prince and Princess of the United Kingdom and the styles Royal Highness and Highness. According to the Titles Deprivation Act, the male heirs of those deprived of their titles have the right to ask the British Crown to reinstate their titles. Johann Leopold remained heir to the title Duke of Albany and was eligible to apply for its reinstatement, though he did not do so and neither have any heirs since then.

At 11 AM on November 11, 1918 – “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” – a ceasefire ending World War I went into effect. On November 9, 1918, the Workers’ and Soldiers Council of Gotha, deposed Charles Edward as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Five days later, he signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne.

In 1926, Johann Leopold completed his studies at the Ritterakademie in Brandenburg. He then studied economics, art history, and constitutional law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn, now the University of Bonn. During this period, Johann Leopold had many conflicts with his father. The conflicts came to a head when Johann Leopold wanted to marry against the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha House Law of March 1, 1855, which stated that members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha could make only equal marriages with members of princely or royal houses. His intended bride was Feodora Freiin von der Horst, from a noble family – Freiin means Baroness – but not from a princely or royal house. If Johann Leopold and Feodora married, Johann Leopold would have to renounce his succession rights for himself and any children from the marriage. The couple married civilly on March 9, 1932, in Niedersedlitz near Dresden, Germany, and religiously on March 14, 1932, at a church in Dresden. Johann Leopold was allowed to keep his title of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Johann Leopold and Feodora had three children:

  • Princess Marianne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1933), married Michael Nielsen, had two daughters
  • Prince Ernst Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1935 – 1996), married (1) Ingeborg Henig, divorced 1963, had one son (2) Gertraude Monika Pfeiffer, divorced 1985, had two daughters and three sons (3) Sabine Biller, with whom he died by suicide, no children
  • Prince Peter of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1939), married Roswitha Henriette Breuer; had two sons

On April 1, 1932, Johann Leopold joined the Nazi Party but his loyalty to the party was repeatedly questioned. During World War II, he served as a sergeant in an anti-aircraft regiment but was released in 1943 because of political unreliability. After World War II, proceedings against him in a denazification appeals court were discontinued on February 20, 1947.

In 1948, Johann Leopold made headlines when he was sentenced to two years in prison by a criminal court in Amberg, Bavaria, Germany on charges of indecency with children. After this, he broke off all connections with his family. He did not attend the funeral of his father in Coburg in 1954.

On February 27, 1962, his marriage to Feodora ended in divorce. Johann Leopold married again on May 3, 1963, to a divorced commoner Maria Theresia Reindl. The two lived in Karlstein near Maria’s hometown of Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria, Germany. On May 4, 1972, Johann Leopold died at the age of 65 from cancer in Grein, Austria. He was buried in his second wife’s family grave at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Zeno in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany. His second wife Maria survived him by 24 years, dying in 1996 at the age of 88.

Ill-fortune also followed Johann Leopold’s elder son Ernst Leopold. In 1986, Ernst Leopold married for a third time to Sabine Biller, a journalist. The couple began to have money problems as they were living beyond their means. On June 27, 1996, in the parking lot of a chalet restaurant in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria, Germany, the bodies of Ernst Leopold and Sabine were found in their car, dead from gunshot wounds from hunting rifles. Apparently, they had simultaneously shot themselves.

The Church of St. Zeno where Johann Leopold is buried; Credit – Von Wolfgang Sauber – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11612030

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • “Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 May 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Leopold,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha.
  • “Johann Leopold Von Sachsen-Coburg Und Gotha.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2019, de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Leopold_von_Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha.
  • Karacs, Decca Aitkenhead/Imre. “Royal Couple Could Not Afford Lavish Life.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 23 Oct. 2011, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/royal-couple-could-not-afford-lavish-life-1339488.html.

Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Württemberg

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Württemberg; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the sister of Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians and an aunt to both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the second of the nine children and the second of the five daughters of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and second wife Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf. Antoinette Ernestine Amalie was born in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany on August 28, 1779.

In 1794, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great sent Count Andrei Budberg, a Russian diplomat, off to the courts of Europe to search for a potential bride for her grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia. Konstantin was the second son of the future Paul I, Emperor of All Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. While traveling, Budberg became ill and stopped in Coburg where he was treated by Baron von Stockmar, the Coburg court’s physician. Stockmar learned of Budberg’s mission and suggested the daughters of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Antoinette in a painting sent to Russia for her possible groom Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich; Credit – Wikipedia

Once the prospect of a Coburg bride was approved by Catherine the Great, Antoinette and her elder sister Sophie and her next younger sister Juliane, accompanied by their mother, traveled to Saint Petersburg in August 1795. Her elder sister Sophie had all the prerequisites to be selected. She was the eldest and her mother wrote in the diary of the St. Petersburg trip that Empress Catherine liked Sophie the best. After several weeks, Konstantin chose her younger sister, 14-year-old Juliane, and the two became engaged. However, the marriage did not last long. By 1801, Juliane and Konstantin were living apart and eventually, their marriage was annulled.

Antoinette married Duke Alexander of Württemberg in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld on November 17, 1798. Alexander was the eleventh of the twelve children and seventh of eight sons of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg and Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, a niece of Friedrich II (the Great), King of Prussia. Among Alexander’s siblings were his eldest brother Friedrich who would become the first King of Württemberg, his eldest sister Sophie Dorothea (Empress Maria Feodorovna) who was the second wife of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia and his sister Elisabeth who was the first of the four wives of the future Franz I, Emperor of Austria. Sadly, Elisabeth died at the age of 22 in childbirth.

Alexander of Württemberg; Credit – Wikipedia

Antoinette and Alexander had one daughter and four sons:

Alexander and Antoinette are the ancestors of the fifth branch of the House of Württemberg. When the eldest branch died out upon the death of King Wilhelm II of Württemberg in 1921, the ducal line became the new dynasty of the House of Württemberg.

Alexander began his military service in the Württemberg army in 1791 and then transferred to the Austrian army, serving in the campaign against France in 1796-1799. In 1799, on the recommendation of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, a Russian military leader and a national hero, Alexander joined the Russian army. Antoinette and Alexander settled in Russia where he had a military and diplomatic career. Two of his sons, Alexander and Ernst, were generals in the Russian army.

Alexander’s sister Empress Maria Feodorova of Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander was the brother of Empress Maria Feodorova (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg), the wife of Emperor Paul I, and the maternal uncle of two future Emperors of All Russia, Alexander I and Nicholas I. A year after their arrival in Russia, Emperor Paul was assassinated and his son Alexander became Emperor. Antoinette took an active part in the life of the Russian Imperial Family. She was very friendly with Alexander I’s wife Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna, born Louise of Baden.

In the marital conflict between her sister Juliane, now Grand Duchess Anna Fedorovna, and her husband Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, Antoinette sided with Konstantin, calling her sister “the shame of the family.” In 1817, Antoinette and her daughter Maria were among those who met Princess Charlotte of Prussia, the bride of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, the future Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia.

Antoinette in later life; Credit – Wikipedia

Antoinette and her family traveled to Austria and Germany between 1819 – 1821 where they visited family and friends. When they returned to Russia, they settled in a magnificent palace in the Yusupov Garden in St. Petersburg.

Antoinette died from erysipelas at the age of 44 on March 14, 1824, in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was buried in Gotha, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, now in the German state of Thuringia, at Castle Friedenstein (link in German) in the Prince’s Crypt at the castle church next to her two sons who had died in childhood. Alexander survived his wife by nine years, dying on July 4, 1833, aged 62, at the Gotha residence of his son-in-law Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was buried next to his wife Antoinette and their two sons who had died in childhood.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Antoinette von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoinette_von_Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Alexander Friedrich Karl von Württemberg. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedrich_Karl_von_W%C3%BCrttemberg [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Antoinette_of_Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Duke Alexander of Württemberg (1771–1833). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Alexander_of_W%C3%BCrttemberg_(1771%E2%80%931833) [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2019). Антуанетта Саксен-Кобург-Заальфельдская. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BD%D1%82%D1%83%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD-%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3-%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%84%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B4%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].

Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Countess of Mensdorff-Pouilly

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Countess of Mensdorff-Pouilly; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the sister of Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians and an aunt to both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Given the names Sophie Friederike Karoline Luise, she was born on August 19, 1778, in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany. She was the eldest of the nine children and the eldest of the five daughters of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and second wife Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf.

Sophie had eight younger siblings:

Princess Sophia of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, circa 1795; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1794, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great sent Count Andrei Budberg, a Russian diplomat, off to the courts of Europe to search for a potential bride for her grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia. Konstantin was the second son of the future Paul I, Emperor of All Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, and younger brother of the future Alexander I, Emperor of All Russia. While traveling, Budberg became ill and stopped in Coburg where he was treated by Baron von Stockmar, the Coburg court’s physician. Stockmar learned of the Budberg’s mission and suggested the daughters of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Once the prospect of a Coburg bride was approved by Catherine the Great, Sophie and her next two sisters Antoinette and Juliane, accompanied by their mother, traveled to Saint Petersburg in August 1795. Sophie had all the prerequisites to be selected. She was the eldest and her mother wrote in the diary of the St. Petersburg trip that Empress Catherine liked Sophie the best. After several weeks, Konstantin chose 14-year-old Juliane, and the two became engaged. However, the marriage did not last long. By 1801, Juliane and Konstantin were living apart and eventually, their marriage was annulled.

Sophie’s sister Antoinette; Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie was very close to her sister Antoinette who was just a year younger. They both attended balls at the Schloss Fantaisie in Eckersdorf, Bavaria, a meeting place for French emigrants who had escaped from the French Revolution and the later reign of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. It was there that she met her future husband Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly.  After meeting Emmanuel, Sophie wrote in her diary, “In Fantaisie, the happiness of my life began.”

Emmanuel’s father Albert-Louis, Baron de Pouilly et de Chaffour, Comte de Roussy and his wife Marie Antoinette escaped France during the French Revolution. Their sons Albert and Emmanuel took the name Mensdorff from a small town in the commune of Betzdorf in Luxembourg. In 1793, Emmanuel and his brother Albert joined the Austrian army and fought against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. In 1799, Albert was killed in battle at the age of 24 and Emmanuel received a severe injury to his right hand that caused the hand to remain disabled for the rest of his life.

Sophie and Emmanuel were married in Coburg on February 23, 1804. The couple had six sons who were the first cousins of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert:

  • Hugo von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1806 – 1847), unmarried
  • Alphons von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1810 – 1894), married (1) Countess Therese von Dietrichstein-Proskau-Leslie, had two daughters (2) Countess Maria Therese von Lamberg, had one son
  • Alfred von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1812 – 1814), died in early childhood
  • Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1813 – 1871), married Countess Alexandrina von Dietrichstein-Nicholsburg, had two sons and one daughter, was Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire
  • Leopold von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1815 – 1821), died in childhood
  • Arthur von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1817 – 1904), married (1) Magdalene Kremzow, no children (2) Bianca von Wickenburg, no children

Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly; Credit – Wikipedia

Despite his hand injury, Emmanuel remained in the Austrian army and Sophie became a military wife. She was a loyal and loving wife to her husband and accepted Emmanuel’s decision to remain in the army. While Emmanuel was off soldiering for “his master and emperor”, Sophie and her children lived at the Hereditary Prince’s Palace in Coburg and also at the  Mensdorff-Castell which today is a part of Castle Falkenegg (link in German), also in Coburg.

Several times Sophie lived with Emmanuel while he was stationed with the Austrian army.  The first time Sophie lived in Prague, then in Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, from 1820-1824, were happy times. Sophia dined out, visited salons, and had many friends. From 1824 to 1834 Sophie and Emmanuel lived in Mainz (now in Germany), perhaps the happiest time of her life. In Mainz, Emmanuel was the commander of the Fortress of Mainz, part of a chain of strategic fortresses that protected the German Confederation, and also served as Vice Governor of Mainz. While living in Mainz, Sophie had to be more of a leader in society circles, hosting salons, and being fashionable and elegant. During her time in Mainz, Sophie published a romantic collection of fairy tales entitled Märchen und Erzählungen (Fairy Tales and Stories).

Sophie, Countess of Mensdorff-Pouilly in 1834: Credit – Wikipedia

When Sophie and Emmanuel moved back to Prague in 1835, Sophie was quite unhappy living in a place “where people above all want to know if she is a person of stature.” Sophie died in Tuschimitz, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) on July 9, 1835, aged 56. In 1838, after Sophie’s death, Emmanuel purchased the nearby Schloss Preitenstein which remained the property of the Mensdorff-Pouilly family until 1945. He had Sophie buried in the park of Schloss Preitenstein. In 1840, Emmanuel became Vice-President of the Hofkriegsrat (Imperial War Council), the central military administrative authority of the Habsburg Monarchy, the predecessor of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of War. He remained in the Austrian army until he retired in 1848 with the rank of Lieutenant Field Marshall. Emmanuel survived Sophie by 14 years, dying in Vienna, Austria on June 28, 1852, at the age of 75.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_von_Mensdorff-Pouilly [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Sophie von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_von_Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_von_Mensdorff-Pouilly [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Sophie_of_Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
  • Mehl, S. (2018). Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/juliane-of-saxe-coburg-saalfeld-grand-duchess-anna-feodorovna-of-russia2/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].
  • Slabakova, R. (n.d.). Sophie, Gräfin Mensdorff-Pouilly, geborene Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/8613608/Sophie_Gr%C3%A4fin_Mensdorff-Pouilly_geborene_Prinzessin_von_Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].

Sophie Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: In 1675, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died. Initially, his seven sons collectively governed the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, as set out in their father’s will. In 1680, the seven brothers concluded a treaty of separation, with each brother getting a portion of the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha Altenburg and becoming a Duke. One of the seven new duchies was the Duchy of Saxe-Saalfeld and Johann Ernst, one of the seven sons of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg became the first Duke of Saxe-Saalfeld.  When two of his brothers died without male heirs, Johann Ernst took possession of Coburg (in 1699) and Römhild (in 1714). In 1699, Johann Ernst’s title changed to Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

In 1825, 145 years after the initial split, another line became extinct and there was another split between three surviving duchies. Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld became Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. For more information on the switch, see Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Index.

On November 9, 1918, after the German Empire lost World War I, the Workers’ and Soldiers Council of Gotha, deposed the last Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Charles Edward, a grandson of Queen Victoria.  Five days later, he signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne. The territory that encompassed the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is now in the German states of Bavaria and Thuringia.

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Sophie Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; Credit – Wikipedia

The wife of Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and the great-grandmother of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, Sophie Antonia was born on January 24, 1724, in Wolfenbüttel, in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, now in Lower Saxony, Germany. She was the ninth of the fifteen children and the fourth of the seven daughters of Ferdinand Albrecht II, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his first cousin once removed Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Her father became Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg shortly before his death.

  
Sophie Antonia’s parents; Credit – www.the peerage.com

Sophie Antonia had fifteen siblings:

Sophie Antonia had connections to several royal families. She was the paternal aunt of Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia, first cousin of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and first cousin of Peter II, Emperor of All Russia.

Schloss Salzdahlum with its baroque gardens in 1721; Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie Antonia spent her childhood with her family at a Versailles-like palace, Schloss Salzdahlum (link in German).  Because she was related to many royal families, Sophie Antonia was considered as a bride for several princes. However, she was not considered attractive, causing many marriage negotiations to fail. Through the contacts of her eldest brother Karl, she found a marriage possibility with Ernst Friedrich of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who was the same age as her. Ernst Friedrich, the eldest son of Franz Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, had little success with women because he was mocked for his looks. He was delighted with Sophie Antonia and they became engaged early in 1749. On April 23, 1749, the two were married in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in the German state of Bavaria. The marriage was considered happy and the couple had seven children but only three survived childhood:

Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1764, Ernst Friedrich succeeded his father, who had left considerable debt, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and he moved the official residence to Coburg. Because the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was heavily in debt, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II appointed a debit commission to prevent the bankruptcy of the duchy. The work of the debt commission lasted over thirty years, and during that period, Ernst Friedrich was given a strict annual allowance.

Ernst Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld died on September 8, 1800, in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld at the age of 76. He was buried in the ducal crypt at the Morizkirche (or Stadtkirche St. Moriz) in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, now in Bavaria, Germany. Sophie Antonia survived him by almost two years, dying in Coburg on May 17, 1802, at the age of 78. She was buried with her husband.

The Morizkirche where Sophia Antonia and her husband are buried; Credit – Von Störfix, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14800843

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld/Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Ernst Friedrich (Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld). [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Friedrich_(Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld) [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].
  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Sophie von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_von_Braunschweig-Wolfenb%C3%BCttel [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Frederick,_Duke_of_Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Princess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Sophie_Antoinette_of_Brunswick-Wolfenb%C3%BCttel [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Prince Joachim of Prussia

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Prince Joachim of Prussia; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Joachim Franz Humbert of Prussia was the sixth son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia and Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He was born in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia,  German Empire, now in Brandenburg, Germany  on December 17, 1890, and had six siblings:

Like his elder brothers, Prince Joachim was educated at Plön Castle and began his formal military training in 1911 as a member of the 1st Foot Guards in the Prussian Army. He served during the beginning of World War I and was injured in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in September 1914.

Marie-Auguste of Anhalt. source: Wikipedia

Two years later, on March 11, 1916, Joachim married Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt, the daughter of Eduard, Duke of Anhalt and Princess Luise Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg. The couple had one son:

After World War I and the fall of the German Empire, Joachim and Marie-Auguste divorced.  Years later, due to her financial struggles, Marie-Auguste adopted numerous people, in exchange for the claim to her royal titles.  One of these people was Hans Robert Lichtenberg, who took the name Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, probably best known as the husband of the famed Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The Antique Temple in Sanssouci Park. photo: By Paul Odörfer – Originally uploaded to the German Wikipedia by Stonx., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=642219

Prince Joachim struggled to accept his status as a commoner and became greatly depressed. On the evening of July 18, 1920, he shot himself with a revolver at Villa Leignitz in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. He was found by his elder brother August Wilhelm and taken to the Saint Joseph Hospital in Potsdam, where he died the following day. Another brother, Eitel Friedrich, described it as “a fit of excessive dementia”. Prince Joachim was first interred in the Friedenskirche in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany before being moved to the nearby Temple of Antiquities in 1931.

Below are some suicide prevention resources.

In the United States, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. Anyone in the United States can text or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to reach trained counselors who can help them cope with a mental health emergency. National Institute of Mental Health: Suicide Prevention is also a United States resource.

Other countries also have similar resources. Please check the resources below.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.