Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Alfred was born on 6 August 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert, the second son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Nicknamed Affie, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, the Prince of Wales.

Alfred was baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, at the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle on 6 September 1844. His godparents were his mother's first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge (represented by his father, the Duke of Cambridge); his paternal aunt, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (represented by his maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Kent); and Queen Victoria's half-brother, the Prince of Leiningen (represented by the Duke of Wellington, Conservative Leader in the Lords).[1]

Alfred remained second in line to the British throne from his birth until 8 January 1864, when his older brother Edward and his wife Alexandra of Denmark had their first child, Prince Albert Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and, as Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred was further demoted in the order of succession.

Alfred in 1856

In 1856, when he reached age 12, it was decided that Prince Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy. A separate establishment was assigned to him, with Lieutenant J.C. Cowell, RE, as governor. He passed a special entrance examination in July 1858, and was appointed as a naval cadet in HMS Euryalus at the age of 14.[2][3]

In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape Colony, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs.[4] He took part in a hunt at Hartebeeste-Hoek, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of game animals.[5]

On the abdication of King Otto of Greece, in 1862, Prince Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but the British government blocked plans for him to ascend the Greek throne, largely because of the Queen's opposition to the idea. She and her late husband had made plans for him to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg.

Prince Alfred remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 February 1863, serving under Count Gleichen on the corvette HMS Racoon.[6] He was promoted to captain on 23 February 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate HMS Galatea in January 1867.[6] Lord Charles Beresford described him as having "a great natural ability for handling a fleet" and noted that he "would have made a first-class fighting admiral."[7]

Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred Ernest Albert, Sydney, ca. 1868, by Montagu Scott

In the Queen's Birthday Honours on 24 May 1866, the Prince was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent[8] with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament.[4] He took his seat in the House of Lords on 8 June.

While still in command of the Galatea, the Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on 24 January 1867 for his voyage around the world. On 7 June 1867, he left Gibraltar, reached the Cape of Good Hope on 24 July, on 5 August 1867 the island of Tristan da Cunha, and paid a royal visit to Cape Town on 24 August 1867 after landing at Simon's Town a while earlier. He landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on 31 October 1867.[4]

Being the first member of the royal family to visit Australia, he was received with great enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania.[4] Several institutions, including Prince Alfred College, The Alfred Hospital, and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital were named in his honour.

On 12 March 1868, on his second visit to Sydney, he was invited by Sir William Manning, President of the Sydney Sailors' Home, to picnic at the beachfront suburb of Clontarf to raise funds for the home. At the function, he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by Henry James O'Farrell. The shot, fired at point-blank range, ricocheted off one of the metal clips on Alfred's trouser braces, narrowly missing his spine.[9] He was tended to for the next two weeks by six nurses, trained by Florence Nightingale and led by Matron Lucy Osburn, who had just arrived in Australia in February 1868.[10]

In the violent struggle during which Alfred was shot, William Vial had managed to wrest the gun away from O'Farrell until bystanders assisted. Vial, a master of a Masonic Lodge, had helped to organise the picnic in honour of the Duke's visit and was presented with a gold watch[11] for securing Alfred's life. Another bystander, George Thorne, was wounded in the foot by O'Farrell's second shot.[12] O'Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on 21 April 1868.

The arrival of HMS Galatea carrying Alfred. Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, 1869.

On the evening of 23 March 1868, the most influential people of Sydney voted for a memorial building to be erected, "to raise a permanent and substantial monument in testimony of the heartfelt gratitude of the community at the recovery of HRH". This led to a public subscription which paid for the construction of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Alfred soon recovered from his injury and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April 1868. He reached Spithead on 26 June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months.

He visited Hawaii in 1869 and spent time with the royal family there, where he was presented with leis upon his arrival. He was also the first member of the royal family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on HMS Galatea, where he spent a month living in Pakuranga.[13] He also became the first European prince to visit Japan and on 4 September 1869, he was received at an audience by the teenaged Emperor Meiji in Tokyo.

The Duke's next voyage was to India, where he arrived in December 1869, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which he visited the following year. In both countries and at Hong Kong, which he visited on the way, he was the first British prince to set foot in the country. The native rulers of India vied with one another in the magnificence of their entertainments during the stay of three months.[4] In Ceylon a reception was given for him, by the request of the British, by Charles Henry de Soysa, the richest man in Ceylon, at his private residence which was consequently renamed, by permission, Alfred House. Alfred reportedly ate off gold plates with gold cutlery inlaid with jewels.[14][15][16]

In 1862, Queen Victoria wrote to Victoria, Princess Royal that she wanted Alfred to marry Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She wrote: "I hear that the Emperor of Russia has not given up his intention of asking for Alix or Dagmar for his son. I should be very sorry if any thing were decided for Dagmar before you had seen her, as it would be one chance less for Affie."[17] However, she decided against the match because of Germany's anger towards Denmark over the disputed territories of Schleswig-Holstein, especially since Alfred was the heir to Coburg. She wrote to Victoria, Princess Royal "Respecting Dagmar, I do not wish her to be kept for Affie. Let the Emperor have her." Dagmar later married Alexander III and became the Empress of Russia.

Queen Victoria considered Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia as a potential wife for Alfred. She wrote to Victoria, Princess Royal, "It is a great pity that Sanny's charming daughter is a Greek [Orthodox]– she would do so well".[18] In 1867, Queen Victoria told Victoria, Princess Royal that "I had thought and hoped at one time for dear little Olga, who is now to marry King George".[19]

During a visit to his sister Princess Alice, in August 1868 he met Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, then fourteen years old.[20][21][22][23] Princess Alice was married to Maria Alexandrovna's first cousin.[22] The Grand Duchess was visiting her maternal relatives, the Princes of Battenberg, at Jugenheim.

On 23 January 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh married the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the second (and only surviving) daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg. To commemorate the occasion, the English bakery Peek Freans made the now internationally popular Marie biscuit, with the Duchess' name imprinted on its top.[24]

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into London on 12 March. The marriage, however, was not a happy one, and the bride was thought haughty by London Society.[25] She was surprised to discover that she had to yield precedence to the Princess of Wales and all of Queen Victoria's daughters and demanded that she take precedence before the Princess of Wales (the future Queen Alexandra) because she considered the Princess of Wales's family (the Danish royal family) to be inferior to her own. Queen Victoria refused this demand, yet granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales. Her father gave her the then-staggering sum of £100,000 as a dowry, plus an annual allowance of £32,000.[26]

Alfred was stationed in Malta for several years and his third child, Victoria Melita, was born there in 1876. Alfred's last command prior to promotion to flag rank would be as captain of HMS Black Prince in 1878, when he represented the crown during the installation of John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, as Governor General of Canada. Alfred was subsequently promoted rear-admiral upon his return to London and relief on 30 December 1878, becoming admiral superintendent of naval reserves, raising his flag aboard the corvette HMS Penelope in November 1879.[27] Promoted to vice-admiral on 10 November 1882, he was given command of the Channel Squadron, with his flag aboard the armoured ship HMS Minotaur, in December 1883.[27] He became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, with his flag aboard the armoured ship HMS Alexandra, in March 1886, and having been promoted to admiral on 18 October 1887,[28] he went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in August 1890.[27] He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 3 June 1893.[27]

Percy Scott wrote in his memoirs that "as a Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Edinburgh had, in my humble opinion, no equal. He handled a fleet magnificently, and introduced many improvement in signals and manoeuvring." He "took a great interest in gunnery."[29] "The prettiest ship I have ever seen was the [Duke of Edinburgh's flagship] HMS Alexandra. I was informed that £2,000 had been spent by the officers on her decoration."[30]

Alfred was very fond of music and took a prominent part in establishing the Royal College of Music, created in 1882.[4] He was a keen violinist, but had little skill. At a dinner party given by one of his brothers, he was persuaded to play. Sir Henry Ponsonby wrote: 'Fiddle out of tune and noise abominable.'[31]

Clarence House, St James's, in 1874, the Duke's London residence

On the death of his uncle, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on 22 August 1893, the duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh since his elder brother Edward, then Prince of Wales, had renounced his right to the succession before he married. Alfred thereupon surrendered his British allowance of £15,000 a year and his seats in the House of Lords and the Privy Council, but he retained the £10,000 granted on his marriage to maintain Clarence House as his London residence.[32] At first regarded with some coldness in the Duchy as a "foreigner", he gradually gained popularity. By the time of his death in 1900, he had generally won the good opinion of his subjects.[4]

Alfred and Maria's only son, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and apparently shot himself in January 1899, in the midst of his parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations at the Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha. He survived, and his embarrassed mother sent him off to Meran to recover. However, he died there two weeks later, on 6 February. His father was devastated.[33]^: 11

Alfred died of throat cancer on 30 July 1900 in a lodge adjacent to Schloss Rosenau, the ducal summer residence just north of Coburg. He was buried at the ducal family's mausoleum in the Friedhof am Glockenberg in Coburg.[34]^: 47 As his younger brother, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and nephew Prince Arthur, had renounced their succession rights to the ducal throne, Alfred was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (1884–1954), the posthumous son of his youngest brother, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.[35]

He was survived by his mother, Victoria, who had already outlived two of her children, Alice and Leopold. She died six months later. Victoria dedicated a memorial in the form of a Celtic cross to Alfred in the grounds of Balmoral Castle which was erected shortly before her death.[36]

Alfred was a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and after his death his widow gave his collection, valued at half a million marks, to the Veste Coburg, the enormous fortress on a hill top above Coburg.[4]

Alfred's letters to his third daughter, Alexandra, (as well as her sisters) are preserved in the Hohenlohe Central Archive (Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein) in Neuenstein Castle in the town of Neuenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[81] [82]

• Heathcote, Tony (2002). The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 – 1995. Pen & Sword Ltd. ISBN 0-85052-835-6.
• McKinlay, Brian The First Royal Tour, 1867–1868, (London: Robert Hale & Company, c1970, 1971) 200p. ISBN 0-7091-1910-0
• Reed, Charles Royal Tourists, Colonial Subjects, and the Making of a British World, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016)
• Sandner, H., Das Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, (Coburg: Neue Presse, 2001).
• Van der Kiste, John, & Jordaan, Bee Dearest Affie, (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1984)
• Van der Kiste, John Alfred, (Stroud: Fonthill Media, 2013)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

• "Assassination attempt on Prince Alfred 1868". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2015. [CC-By-SA]
• Harley, Simon. "Alfred Ernest Albert, Third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha". The Dreadnought Project. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
• Portraits of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the National Portrait Gallery, London