Thursday, January 7, 2010

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh

Here is my new article on Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

3 comments:

Hels said...

I either didn't know that Prince Alfred became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg in 1893, or I had forgotten. Had he lived longer, he would have been ruling this small German kingdom at a time when relationships between Britain and Germany disintegrated into war. Of course it is hypothetical, but I wonder what he would have done. I wonder what the Germans would have done.

Viola said...

I wonder too. There was a programme on the ABC recently about a grandson of Queen Victoria who became a Nazi at the end of his life. I hope that Prince Alfred would have had more courage if he'd lived, considering his liberal upbringing.

Christina said...

The next Duke of Coburg who gave way to Hitler and entertained the Nazis was in such an unfortunate position, though, wasn't he? The son of Prince Leopold, he never wanted to be Duke of Coburg but was beaten into it by his cousin, the future Duke of Connaught, when the boys were at school together. His mother also thought that it was the best thing for him and he was taken away from his school, friends and family and raised in a German regiment where he was bullied for being English!

Poor, poor fellow! When war broke out, he was stripped of his British honours and lost contact with his sister (Alice of Athlone) and had no option but to fight for Germany. The complete humiliation of Germany after Versailles must have left his poor man feeling a need to cling to some kind of stability. I'm not surprised he chose to entertain the Nazis (probably unaware of their horrendous agenda.

Eek! Who'd be a royal in those days!!!

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