Family/Spouse: Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Ernest. Ernest was born about 1874. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alfred married Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna on 23 Jan 1874 in Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia. Marie (daughter of Tsar of Russia Alexander Nicholoevich Romanov, II and Mariya Maximiliane Wilhelmine of Russia) was born on 17 Oct 1853 in Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia; died on 25 Oct 1920 in Zürich, Switzerland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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Albert, called the Prince Consort, was the husband of Queen Victoria of Britain. The son of t he Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he was born on Aug.26, 1819, near Coburg, Bavaria. He married t he young Victoria in 1840. As her closest advisor, Albert exercised a restraining influence o n theimpulsive queen, especially in political matters. Among the political leaders of the per iod, Albert worked well with Sir Robert Peel but quarreled frequently with Viscount Palmersto n. In the Trent Affair of 1861 the prince actually moderated the hostility of Palmerston's go vernment toward the United States.

Albert was a patron of the arts and sciences and one of the organizers ofthe Great Exhibitio n of 1851. His zeal for public moralism in many waysset the tone of mid-Victorian England. Al bert's death on Dec. 14, 1861, partly the result of overwork, deeply affected Victoria, who w ent intoseclusion for several years.

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Yet a more promising throne loomed in the near distance. King William IV of Great Britain an d his wife, Queen Adelheid Luise, were unable to procreate any children who survived infancy . Their quickly arranged marriage during the Hannoverian wife search in the late 1810s faile d to continue the dynasty. By the time William IV inherited the throne from his brother Kin g George IV in 1830, little Princess Victoria of Kent was the established heiress to the grea test throne of Europe. And when the King of Great Britain died childless in 1837, his eightee n year old niece ascended the throne as Queen Victoria. By the end of Victorias second yea r as monarch, she still remained single. London became the most delightful and promising dest ination for many young continental princes. Victoria, desperately lonely in her London palace , wanted to find a suitable consort who could keep her company and provide the country with t he next generation of princes. Leopold had waited two decades for this opportunity and quickl y stepped in with his valuable counsel and matrimonial expertise. Among his several nephews , there was one in particular which Leopold had in mind as Victorias future husband, Princ e Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Duke Ernst I and Duchess Louise had a very unhappy marriage. T he heiress of Gotha had arrived at Coburg in 1817 to find a husband who was not much interest ed in her. Duke Ernst paid more attention to the aggrandizement of his little duchy than to t he youthful girl he had married. Within two years of their wedding the couple had two princes , Ernst and Albert. Once having fulfilled her main role to secure the succession, Ernst pai d very little attention to Luise. In her loneliness, the young duchess sought companionship a mong the courtiers of her husbands little court. By the mid-1820s the marriage had collapse d, the ducal couple divorced and Luise fallen in love with a young German aristocrat. Left i n Coburg were the two little princes who never again saw much of their mother. Prince Ernst o f Saxe-Coburg-Gotha would succeed his father on the ducal throne; Prince Albert needed to fin d a future. Leopold I and Queen Louise-Marie were tremendously fond of the two princes. Erns t and Albert spent long periods at their uncles court in Brussels. While Ernst developed int o a licentious young man, Albert remained unspoiled, studious and conscientious of his futur e possibilities. In 1839 the brothers traveled to London to pay their respects to their roya l cousin. Although initially apprehensive about Albert as a husband, Victoria quickly surrend ered to his mild manner and good looks. There engagement was announced with great delight i n 1839. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Queen Victoria of Great Britain were married i n London on 24 January 1840. No longer were the Coburgs considered a small, forgotten princel y house from the depths of the Thuringian woods. In one decade, the Coburgs had attained th e thrones of three European countries.

Albert married Queen of England Victoria Hanover on 10 Feb 1840 in London, England, Great Britain. Victoria (daughter of Duke of Kent Edward Augustus Hanover and Victoria Mary Louisa) was born on 24 May 1819 in Kensington, London, England; was christened on 24 Jun 1819 in Kensington Palace, Kensington, Middlesex, England; died on 22 Jan 1901 in Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England; was buried in Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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Victoria, queen of Great Britain and Ireland (r. 1837-1901), the longest-reigning monarch i n English history, established the monarchy as a respected and popular institution while it w as irrevocably losing its place as an integral part of the British governing system.

Born in Kensington Palace, London, on May 24, 1819, Victoria was the only child of Edward, du ke of Kent and son of George III, and Princess Victoria, daughter of the duke of Saxe-Coburg . Emerging from a lonely, secluded childhood to take the throne on the death of her uncle, Wi lliam IV, Victoria displayed a personality marked by strong prejudices and awillful stubbornn ess. She was strongly attached to the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne; after he resigned i n 1839, Sir Robert Peel, his would-be successor, suggested that she dismiss the Whig ladies o f her court. Victoria, however, refused. In part because of this "bed chamber crisis," Melbou rne resumed office for two more years.

Victoria and her court were greatly transformed by her marriage to her first cousin, Prince A lbert of Saxe-Coburg, in 1840. Although her name now designates a supposedly prudish age, i t was Albert who made a point of straitlaced behavior, and introduced a strict decorum in cou rt. He also gave a more conservative tinge to Victoria's politics, leading her to become clos e to Peel. The couple had nine children. Victoria populated most of the thrones of Europe wit h her descendants. Among her grandchildren were Emperor William II of Germany and Alexandra , consort of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Albert taught Victoria the need for hard work if she was to make her views felt in the cabine t, and during the prince's lifetime Victoria did, by insistently interjecting her opinions, f orce the ministers to take them into account. Opposing the policy of Lord Palmerston of encou raging democratic government on the Continent, for example, she was partly responsible for hi s departure as foreign secretary in 1851. She also helped form cabinets. Her political import ance was based, however, upon the temporarily factionalized state of Commons between 1846 an d 1868, when royal intervention was needed to help glue together majoritycoalitions.

Always prone to self-pity, Victoria fully indulged her grief at Albert's death in 1861. She r emained in mourning until her own death, making few public appearances and spending most of e ach year on the Isle of Wight and in the Scottish Highlands, where her closest companion wa s a dour Scottish servant, John Brown. Her popularity declined as a result, and republican se ntiment appeared during the late 1860s.

Victoria, however, regained the people's admiration when she resumed her determined efforts t o steer public affairs. She won particular esteem for defending the popular imperialist polic ies of the Conservative ministries of Benjamin Disraeli, who flattered her relentlessly and m ade her empress of India in 1876. Conversely, she flayed William E. Gladstone, the Liberal pr ime minister, whom she intensely disliked, for ostensibly weakening the empire. Although Vict oria also attacked Gladstone for encouraging democratic trends, the celebrations of her golde n and diamond jubilees in 1887 and 1897 demonstrated her great popularity.

In Victoria's later career, her attempts to influence government decisions ceased to carry si gnificant weight. The Reform Act of 1867, by doubling the electorate, strengthened party orga nization and eliminated the need for a mediator--the monarch--among factions in Commons.

Victoria died on Jan. 22, 1901. She was succeeded by her son, Edward VII.Her letters have bee n published in three series (1907; 1926-28; 1930-32).

Birth:
Kensington Palace

Notes:

Married:
Chapel Royal, St. James Palace

Alexander married Mariya Maximiliane Wilhelmine of Russia in 1840 in Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Mariya (daughter of Grand Duke of Hesse Ludwig, II and Princess of Baden Wilhelmine Luise) was born on 27 Jul 1824 in Darmstadt, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt; was christened on 26 Aug 1824 in Darmstadt, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt; died on 22 May 1880 in Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia; was buried on 28 May 1880 in St. Peter's & Paul's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ernest married Louise of Saxe-Coburg- AltenburgGotha, Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, Thuringia. Louise (daughter of Augustus Of Saxe-Gotha and Countess Augusta Carolina Reuss-Ebersdorf) was born in 1800 in Thuringia; died in 1831 in Paris, ÃŽle-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Christened:
St. James Palace

Buried:
Kent Mausoleum

Edward married Victoria Mary Louisa on 11 Jul 1818 in Kew, Surrey, England, Great Britian. Victoria (daughter of Duke of Saxe-Coburg Francis Frederick and Countess Augusta Carolina Reuss-Ebersdorf) was born on 17 Aug 1786 in Coburg, Bayern, Germany; died on 16 Mar 1861 in Windsor, Berkshire, England; was buried on 25 Mar 1861 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Frogmore House

Notes:

Married:
Kew Palace

Nikolaj married Princess, Czarine of Russia Charlotte Aleksandra Friederike in 1817. Charlotte (daughter of King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm, III and Queen of Prussia Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie) was born on 1 Jul 1798 in Charlottenburg, Brandenburg, Prussia; died on 20 Oct 1860 in Pushkin, St. Petersburg, Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]