SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA Albert (Francis) Augustus Charles Prince Of

1819 - 1861  (42 years)

• Name	SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA Albert (Francis) Augustus Charles Prince Of
  Birth	26 Aug 1819	Schloss Rosenau, Near Coburg, Germany
  Gender	Male
  Death	14 Dec 1861	Windsor, Berkshire, England, Great Britain
  Burial	Frogmore, Windsor, England, Great Britain
  Notes	Albert, called the Prince Consort, was the husband of Queen Victoria of Britain. The son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he was born on Aug.26, 1819, near Coburg, Bavaria. He married the young Victoria in 1840. As her closest advisor, Albert exercised a restraining influence on theimpulsive queen, especially in political matters. Among the political leaders of the period, Albert worked well with Sir Robert Peel but quarreled frequently with Viscount Palmerston. In the Trent Affair of 1861 the prince actually moderated the hostility of Palmerston's government toward the United States. Albert was a patron of the arts and sciences and one of the organizers ofthe Great Exhibition of 1851. His zeal for public moralism in many waysset the tone of mid-Victorian England. Albert's death on Dec. 14, 1861, partly the result of overwork, deeply affected Victoria, who went intoseclusion for several years. ==================================================================== Yet a more promising throne loomed in the near distance. King William IV of Great Britain and 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 1810’s failed to continue the dynasty. By the time William IV inherited the throne from his brother King George IV in 1830, little Princess Victoria of Kent was the established heiress to the greatest throne of Europe. And when the King of Great Britain died childless in 1837, his eighteen year old niece ascended the throne as Queen Victoria. By the end of Victoria’s second year as monarch, she still remained single. London became the most delightful and promising destination 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 the next generation of princes. Leopold had waited two decades for this opportunity and quickly stepped in with his valuable counsel and matrimonial expertise. Among his several nephews, there was one in particular which Leopold had in mind as Victoria’s future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Duke Ernst I and Duchess Louise had a very unhappy marriage. The heiress of Gotha had arrived at Coburg in 1817 to find a husband who was not much interested in her. Duke Ernst paid more attention to the aggrandizement of his little duchy than to the 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 paid very little attention to Luise. In her loneliness, the young duchess sought companionship among the courtiers of her husband’s little court. By the mid-1820’s the marriage had collapsed, the ducal couple divorced and Luise fallen in love with a young German aristocrat. Left in Coburg were the two little princes who never again saw much of their mother. Prince Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha would succeed his father on the ducal throne; Prince Albert needed to find a future. Leopold I and Queen Louise-Marie were tremendously fond of the two princes. Ernst and Albert spent long periods at their uncle’s court in Brussels. While Ernst developed into a licentious young man, Albert remained unspoiled, studious and conscientious of his future possibilities. In 1839 the brothers traveled to London to pay their respects to their royal cousin. Although initially apprehensive about Albert as a husband, Victoria quickly surrendered to his mild manner and good looks. There engagement was announced with great delight in 1839. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Queen Victoria of Great Britain were married in London on 24 January 1840. No longer were the Coburgs considered a small, forgotten princely house from the depths of the Thuringian woods. In one decade, the Coburgs had attained the thrones of three European countries.
  Person ID	I2034	Royal Family of Europe
  Last Modified	26 Aug 2003

  
  

  Father	OF SAXE-COBURG Ernest I,   b. 1784, Saxe-Coburg, Germany d. 29 Jan 1844 (Age 60 years)
  Mother	OF SAXE-GOTHA Louise,   b. 1800, Thuringia d. 1831, Paris, , France (Age 31 years)
  Marriage	31 Jul (div) 1817	Gotha, , Germany
  Family ID	F39	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Queen HANOVER Victoria of England,   b. 24 May 1819, London, England d. 22 Jan 1901, Osborne House, Isle Of Wight, England, Great Britain (Age 81 years)
  Marriage	10 Feb 1840	London, , England, Great Britain
  Children	+ 1. OF SAXE-COBURG Victoria Adelaide Mary,   b. 21 Nov 1840, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 5 Aug 1901, Friedrichshof, Near, Kronberg, Taunus (Age 60 years) + 2. King WINDSOR Albert Edward VII "Bertie",   b. 9 Nov 1841, Buckingham Palac, Palace, London, England d. 6 May 1910, Buckingham Palac, Palace, London, England (Age 68 years) + 3. SAXE-COBURG Alice Maud Mary Princess of,   b. 25 Apr 1843, Buckingham Palace, London, Middlesex, England d. 14 Dec 1878, Darmstadt, Germany (Age 35 years) + 4. OF SAXE-COBURG Alfred Ernest Albert,   b. 6 Aug 1844, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, Great Britain d. 30 Jul 1900, Schloss Rosenau, Near Coburg (Age 55 years) + 5. OF SAXE-COBURG Helena Augusta Victoria,   b. 25 May 1846, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 9 Jun 1923, Schomberg House, Pall Mall, London, England (Age 77 years)   6. OF SAXE-COBURG Louise Caroline Alberta,   b. 18 Mar 1848, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 3 Dec 1939, Kensington, London, England, Great Britain (Age 91 years) + 7. OF SAXE-COBURG Arthur William Patrick,   b. 1 May 1850, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 16 Jan 1942, Bagshot Park, Surrey (Age 91 years) + 8. OF SAXE-COBURG Leopold George Duncan,   b. 7 Apr 1853, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 28 Mar 1884, Cannes, France (Age 30 years) + 9. OF SAXE-COBURG Beatrice Mary Victoria,   b. 14 Apr 1857, Buckingham, London, England, Great Britain d. 26 Oct 1944, Bantridge Park, Balcombe, Sussex, England (Age 87 years)
  Family ID	F5	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

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  Albert (francis) Augustus Charles Prince of Saxe