Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria; 1 September 1878 – 16 April 1942) was the fourth child and third daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. The wife of Ernst II, she was Princess consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was also a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Early life

File:Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a child in 1885.webp File:The Duchess of Edinburgh with her children.JPG

Alexandra was born Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh on 1 September 1878 at Rosenau Castle, Coburg,{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=258}} during a family visit.{{Sfn|Farah|2020|p=112}} Her father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=258}} She was baptized Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria on 2 October 1878 at Edinburgh Palace, Coburg, presumably by her mother's chaplain. Her godparents included her maternal uncle, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.{{Sfn|Grigoryan|2006|p=25}}

During Alexandra's formative years, her father, occupied with his career in the Navy and later as a ruler in Coburg, paid little attention to his family. It was Alexandra's mother{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=19}} who was the domineering presence in their children's life.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}} Alexandra had four siblings: Alfred, Marie, Victoria Melita, and Beatrice (her only younger sibling). Throughout her life, Alexandra was usually overshadowed by her elder sisters; she was considered less beautiful and more subdued than Marie and Victoria Melita.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}}

Nicknamed 'Sandra' by her family, she spent her early years in England, where the family lived at Eastwell Park, which Maria Alexandrovna loved and preferred to the couple's official London residence, Clarence House.{{Sfn|Gauthier|2010|p=9}} The Duke of Edinburgh was rarely at home, constantly serving in the navy. When he came home, he played a lot with the children, inventing new entertainments.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=15}} All the children studied French, which they hated.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=31-32}} In 1886, Duke Alfred was appointed commander of the Mediterranean Fleet.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=259}} The family moved to Malta, where they settled in the San Anton Palace.{{Sfn|Mandache|2011|p=13}} During their first year in Malta, a French governess oversaw the princesses' education, but due to her failing health, she was replaced the following year by a much younger German woman.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=109}} The palace always had rooms reserved for Prince George of Wales, the future King George V, who often visited them and called his cousins "three dear sisters".{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=136}}

File:Princesses Marie, Victoria Melita and Alexandra of Edinburgh.jpg She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her aunt Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom to Prince Henry of Battenberg,NPG: Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg with their bridesmaids and others on their wedding day http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw145863/Prince-and-Princess-Henry-of-Battenberg-with-their-bridesmaids-and-others-on-their-wedding-day?LinkID=mp89748&role=art&rNo=2 and at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1893.{{cite web |title=The Duke and Duchess of York and Bridesmaids |url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw189219/The-Duke-and-Duchess-of-York-and-Bridesmaids?LinkID=mp55463&role=sit&rNo=3 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London}} That year, her great-uncle, The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (brother of her paternal grandfather, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), died without issue. As Prince Albert had passed away, and her uncle, the Prince of Wales, had renounced his claim to the duchy, the ducal throne fell to the Duke of Edinburgh. Following her father's succession, though Alexandra remained a British princess, she took the title of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=258}}

In 1889, the entire family moved to Coburg and settled in Rosenau Castle the family moved as her father was the heir apparent to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=155}} Maria Alexandrovna hired a German governess for her daughters, who bought the girls simple clothes and taught them the Lutheran faith even though they had previously been raised as Anglicans.{{Sfn|Sullivan|1997|p=80-82}} The children resented the governess and rebelled, and some of the new restrictions were eased.{{Sfn|Sullivan|1997|p=87-88}} In Coburg, the princesses' education was broadened: more emphasis was placed on painting and music, which were taught by Anna Messing and Mrs. Helferich respectively.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=169}} On Thursdays and Sundays, Alexandra and her sisters attended the theatre, which they all enjoyed.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=177}} Another activity which the girls enjoyed at Coburg was attending winter parties organised by their mother, during which they would ice-skate and play different games, such as ice hockey.{{Sfn|Maria|1990|p=194}}

Marriage

File:Alexandra Louise Olga Victoria (1878-1942) + Fürst Ernst (II) von Hohenlohe-Langenburg.jpg

Alexandra's mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, arranging her daughters marriages. Maria Alexandrovna personally looked for suitable candidates for her daughter.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}}

In 1893, the dukes' eldest daughter, Marie, married Crown Prince Ferdinand, the heir to the Romanian throne. The following year, Victoria Melita, the second daughter, married her cousin, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse. Maria Alexandrovna herself looked for suitable candidates for her daughters. At the end of 1895, she arranged the engagement of Alexandra to the German aristocrat Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the son and heir of Prince Hermann of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Leopoldine of Baden.{{Sfn|Grigoryan|2006|p=26}}{{Sfn|Grigoryan|2011|p=261}}

Alexandra's grandmother, Queen Victoria, complained that she was too young to marry at 17 and Alexandra's father objected to the status of his future son-in-law, who was lower than Alexandra in rank.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}} The House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was mediatized, a formerly ruling family who had ceded their sovereign rights to others while – in theory – formally retaining their previous rank.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}} It was not considered a brilliant match as Ernst was considered to be lower ranked than Alexandra.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}}

= Issue =

They had five children:

Prince Gottfried, 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (24 March 1897 – 11 May 1960); married Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, the eldest sister of the future Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and had issue.{{Sfn|Ernst|2007|p=261}}Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987), page 181. Hereinafter cited as Queen Victoria's Descendants. {{ISBN|9780806363097}}
Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (18 January 1899 – 8 November 1967); married Wilhelm Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and had issue.{{Sfn|Huberty|Giraud|Magdelaine|1994|p=232}}{{Sfn|Huberty|Giraud|Magdelaine|1994|p=283}}
Princess Alexandra Beatrice Leopoldine of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (2 April 1901 – 26 October 1963){{Citation |title=Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Viktor (Prince, Count Gleichen) |date=2011-10-31 |work=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00088740 |access-date=2024-04-19 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00088740 |url-access=subscription }}
Princess Irma Helene of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (4 July 1902 – 8 March 1986)
Prince Alfred Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (16 April 1911 – 18 April 1911)

Life in Hohenlohe-Langenburg

File:Heinrich von Angeli (1840-1925) - Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1878-1942) - RCIN 404571 - Royal Collection.jpg.]]

File:Duckyandsisters.jpg

After the wedding, Alexandra lived in Germany for the rest of her life. Alexandra's only brother, Alfred, had died in 1899,{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=260}} one year after in 1900, the Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died, his wife and daughters were by his side during his last days.{{Sfn|Grigoryan|2011|p=262}} For the next five years, Alexandra's cousin Prince Karl Eduard, ruled under the regency of Alexandra's husband, the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Upon reaching the age of majority on 19 July 1905, Karl Eduard assumed all constitutional powers of the head of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha state.Rushton, Alan R. (2018). Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg: The German Red Cross and the Plan to Kill "Unfit" Citizens 1933–1945. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. {{ISBN|9781527513402}}. pp. 14–15.

= First World War =

File:1878 Alexandra-03.jpg

During World War I, she worked as a Red Cross nurse. In February 1916, her eldest daughter Marie Melita was married in Coburg to Prince Wilhelm Friedrich, the future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, and Alexandra became a grandmother when the couple's first child Prince Hans was born in May 1917.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=261}} After the November Revolution in Germany in 1918, which overthrew the power of the German dynasties, the Kingdom of Württemberg, which had mediatized the Principality of Hohenlohe since 1806, ceased to exist.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-18 |title=Hohenlohe |url=https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%A1%D0%91%D0%95/%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%8D |language=Russian}} Ernst lost his seat in the Württemberg parliament. From that time on, the couple bore the nominal title of Princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. In 1920, her mother Maria Alexandrovna died in Zurich.{{Sfn|Grigoryan|2011|p=269}}

= Later life and the Second World War =

On her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary in April 1931, her eldest son Gottfried married Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and future sister-in-law to future Queen Elizabeth II.{{Sfn|Zeepvat|1993|p=261}} In the years preceding World War II, Alexandra was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, which she joined on 1 May 1937, together with together with her children. Her son, Gottfried, was an army officer during the Second World War.{{Sfn|Ernst|2007|p=261}}{{Sfn|Petropoulos|2006|p=382}} In 1930s she became ill frequently; she died in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Nazi Germany in 1942.{{Sfn|Petropoulos|2006|p=382,386}}

Arms

Personal coat of arms of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was that of the British monarch, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, all differenced, as a male-line grandchild, with a label argent of five points, the central point bearing a cross gules, the inner pair anchors azure, and the outer pair fleurs-de-lys azure. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by Royal Warrant from George V.{{Cite web |title=See Alexandra coat of arms in (1896) |url=https://aroyalheraldry.weebly.com/blog/update-hrh-princess-alexandra-of-edinburghsaxe-coburg-and-gotha |archive-url=}}

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel

|collapsed=yes |align=center

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|1= 1. Alexandra, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

|2= 2. Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

|3= 3. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

|4= 4. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

|5= 5. Victoria of the United Kingdom

|6= 6. Alexander II of Russia

|7= 7. Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine

|8= 8. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

|9= 9. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

|10= 10. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

|11= 11. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

|12= 12. Nicholas I of Russia

|13= 13. Princess Charlotte of Prussia

|14= 14. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine

|15= 15. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden

|ref={{citation| last1 = Louda| first1 = Jiří|author1-link=Jiří Louda|last2=Maclagan |first2=Michael|author2-link=Michael Maclagan| title = Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe| year = 1999| publisher = Little, Brown| location = London| isbn = 978-1-85605-469-0| page = 34 }}}}

Notes and references

= Notes =

== References ==

{{Cite book |last=Zeepvat |first=Charlotte |title=The other one: Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Royalty Digest Quarterly. |date=1993 |issn=1653-5219}}
{{Cite book |last=Grigoryan |first=Valentina |title=Russian wives of European monarchs. Moscow: Astrel,— P. 261-262, 269. — 381. |date=2011 |publisher=Valentina |isbn=9785271331671}}
{{Cite book |last=Grigoryan |first=Valentina |title=The Romanovs. Biographical Handbook. — Moscow: Astrel |date=2006 |publisher=Valentina |isbn=973502621X}}
{{Cite book |last=Gauthier |first=Guy |title=Missy, Regina României : [рум.]. — Bucharest : Humanitas, 2010. — P. 9. — 344 p. — |date=2010 |isbn=978-9735026219}}
{{Cite book |last=Maria |first=Maria |title=Povestea Vieții Mele : [Romanian]. — Iași, Moldova : Moldova, 1990. — P. 15, 19, 31–32, 136, 155, 169, 177, 194. |date=1990 |publisher=Maria |isbn=973-9032-01-X}}
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{{Cite book |last=Petropoulos |first=Jonathan |title=Petropoulos,. Royals and the Reich, [English].- New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. - P. 382. - 544 |date=2006 |publisher= АСТ|isbn=9785271331671}}
{{Cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Michael |title=John. A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia: [English].- New York: Random House, 1997. - P. 80-82.— 473 |date=1997 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0679424008}}
{{Cite book |last=Ernst |first=Klee |title=Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 |date=2007 |publisher=Klee |isbn=978-3-10-039326-5 |location=Frankfurt am Main}}
{{Cite book |last1=Huberty |title=Dynastic Germany |last2=Giraud |last3=Magdelaine |date=1994 |isbn=978-2-90113-807-5 |location=The Perreux-sur-Marne}}
{{Cite book |last=Farah |first=Micheal |title=Children Of The Empire: The Extraordinary Lives of Queen Victoria's Children and Grandchildren |date=2020 |isbn=9781800468078}}