Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Encyclopedia
Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Beatrice Leopoldine Victoria; 20 April 1884 – 13 July 1966) was a member of the British Royal Family
, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She later married into the Spanish Royal Family
, and was the wife of Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain. She was called Bea by her family.
, Kent. Her father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was the Duchess of Edinburgh (née Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia), the only daughter of Alexander II of Russia
and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
As a granddaughter of the British monarch in the male line, Beatrice held the title of Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
with the style Her Royal Highness. The young princess was baptised at Eastwell House on 17 May 1884 by Revd William Lloyd (her father's chaplain); among her godparents were her paternal aunt The Princess Beatrice
.
Beatrice spent much of her early years in Malta
, where her father was serving in the Royal Navy
. On the death of Prince Alfred's uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, on 22 August 1893, the duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since HRH Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
, the Duke's elder brother had renounced his right to the succession.
The Duke and Duchess and their five children travelled to Coburg
to take up residence shortly afterwards.
, the younger brother of Tsar
Nicholas II
, and at that time the heir presumptive
to the Imperial Throne. She began receiving letters from him in September 1902 and, although he was a Russian Grand Duke and she, now, a German Princess, they corresponded in English, and he nicknamed her "Sima". However she was prevented from marrying the Grand Duke as the Russian Orthodox Church
forbade the marriage of first cousins. Although such marriages had been allowed previously in the House of Romanov (Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, whose hand was denied to Napoleon I
, was twice allowed to wed first cousins; her descendants became the Russian branch of the Dukes of Oldenburg), the devout Nicholas II, the official head of Russia's church, refused to bend the rules for his brother's sake.
In November 1903, Michael wrote Beatrice that he could not marry her. The situation was aggravated by a letter Beatrice then received from her elder sister Victoria Melita ("Ducky"), in which Michael was blamed for having callously initiated the doomed romance (when, a couple of years later Ducky, having divorced her first cousin Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
, was told that re-marriage to another first cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich Romanov, would likewise be forbidden by the Tsar, she refused to take no for an answer; the couple eloped into exile
).
The humiliated Beatrice was sent to Egypt
to recover from heartbreak
, but pined
and wrote reproachful letters to Michael until 1905.
Beatrice was then rumoured to marry Alfonso XIII of Spain
, but this proved to be a false rumour also as he married her cousin Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg in 1906. It was at their wedding that Beatrice met a cousin of King Alfonso, Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón (12 November 1886 Madrid
, Spain–10 August 1975), Infante of Spain, 5th Duke of Galliera. The Spanish government objected to an infantes proposed match with a British Princess who, unlike Queen Victoria Eugenie, had not agreed to convert to Roman Catholicism: the King was obliged to make clear that, should the wedding take place, the couple would have to live in exile.
Nonetheless, Beatrice and Alfonso married in a Roman Catholic and Lutheran ceremony at Coburg on 15 July 1909. The couple settled in Coburg, until, in 1912, Alfonso and Beatrice were allowed to return to Spain, and his rank of Infante was restored.
In August 1913 Beatrice was received into the Catholic Church.
The couple had three sons:
. The Spanish Royal Family eventually relented, and Beatrice and her family were allowed to return to Spain where they established their home at an estate in Sanlúcar de Barrameda
.
The 1930s were an unhappy time for the family, as the collapse of the Spanish monarchy and the subsequent civil war led to the loss of much of the family's wealth. After the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic
in 1931, King Alfonso and his family fled into exile in Italy. In the years that followed, the political situation in Spain worsened as various groups wrestled for power. By the late-1930s, the conflicts had erupted into all-out civil war
. Beatrice and Alfonso lost their estate during the war, and the couple's middle son, Alfonso, was killed fighting the Republicans.
on 13 July 1966. Her husband survived her by nine years. Their son Ataulfo died, unmarried, in 1974. Their only grandchildren are the children of Prince Alvaro. At her death, she was the last surviving child of Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.
. This did not affect her Saxon arms.
Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She later married into the Spanish Royal Family
Spanish Royal Family
The Royal Family of the Kingdom of Spain consists of the current king, Juan Carlos, his spouse, Queen Sofia of Spain and their direct descendants. The Spanish royal family belongs to the House of Borbón...
, and was the wife of Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain. She was called Bea by her family.
Early life
Princess Beatrice was born on 20 April 1884 at Eastwell ParkEastwell Park
Eastwell Park was an English stately home in the civil parish of Eastwell, adjoining Ashford in Kent, that for a time served as a royal residence...
, Kent. Her father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was the Duchess of Edinburgh (née Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia), the only daughter of Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
As a granddaughter of the British monarch in the male line, Beatrice held the title of Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
British princess
This is a list of British princesses from the accession of King George I in 1714. This article deals with both princesses of the blood royal and women who become princesses upon marriage....
with the style Her Royal Highness. The young princess was baptised at Eastwell House on 17 May 1884 by Revd William Lloyd (her father's chaplain); among her godparents were her paternal aunt The Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
The Princess Beatrice was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Juan Carlos, King of Spain, is her great-grandson...
.
Beatrice spent much of her early years in Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, where her father was serving in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. On the death of Prince Alfred's uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the second sovereign duke of the German duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, reigning from 1844 to his death...
, on 22 August 1893, the duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since HRH Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, the Duke's elder brother had renounced his right to the succession.
The Duke and Duchess and their five children travelled to Coburg
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha served as the collective name of two duchies, Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha, in Germany. They were located in what today are the states of Bavaria and Thuringia, respectively, and the two were in personal union between 1826 and 1918...
to take up residence shortly afterwards.
Marriage prospects
In 1902, Princess Beatrice had a romance with Russian Grand Duke MichaelGrand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia was the youngest son of Emperor Alexander III of Russia.At the time of his birth, his paternal grandfather was still the reigning Emperor of All the Russias. Michael was fourth-in-line to the throne following his father and elder brothers Nicholas and...
, the younger brother of Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
, and at that time the heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
to the Imperial Throne. She began receiving letters from him in September 1902 and, although he was a Russian Grand Duke and she, now, a German Princess, they corresponded in English, and he nicknamed her "Sima". However she was prevented from marrying the Grand Duke as the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
forbade the marriage of first cousins. Although such marriages had been allowed previously in the House of Romanov (Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, whose hand was denied to Napoleon I
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, was twice allowed to wed first cousins; her descendants became the Russian branch of the Dukes of Oldenburg), the devout Nicholas II, the official head of Russia's church, refused to bend the rules for his brother's sake.
In November 1903, Michael wrote Beatrice that he could not marry her. The situation was aggravated by a letter Beatrice then received from her elder sister Victoria Melita ("Ducky"), in which Michael was blamed for having callously initiated the doomed romance (when, a couple of years later Ducky, having divorced her first cousin Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis Charles Albert William , was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918...
, was told that re-marriage to another first cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich Romanov, would likewise be forbidden by the Tsar, she refused to take no for an answer; the couple eloped into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
).
The humiliated Beatrice was sent to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to recover from heartbreak
Broken heart
A broken heart is a common metaphor used to describe the intense emotional pain or suffering one feels after losing a loved one, whether through death, divorce, breakup, physical separation or romantic rejection....
, but pined
Grieve
The Grieve was a Peruvian automobile that was built in 1908 by Juan Alberto Grieve, a Peruvian engineer with extensive knowledge in combustion engines. The vehicle became the first automobile designed and built in South America. A pioneer in the automobile industry, Grieve decided to build a car...
and wrote reproachful letters to Michael until 1905.
Beatrice was then rumoured to marry Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
, but this proved to be a false rumour also as he married her cousin Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg in 1906. It was at their wedding that Beatrice met a cousin of King Alfonso, Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón (12 November 1886 Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain–10 August 1975), Infante of Spain, 5th Duke of Galliera. The Spanish government objected to an infantes proposed match with a British Princess who, unlike Queen Victoria Eugenie, had not agreed to convert to Roman Catholicism: the King was obliged to make clear that, should the wedding take place, the couple would have to live in exile.
Nonetheless, Beatrice and Alfonso married in a Roman Catholic and Lutheran ceremony at Coburg on 15 July 1909. The couple settled in Coburg, until, in 1912, Alfonso and Beatrice were allowed to return to Spain, and his rank of Infante was restored.
In August 1913 Beatrice was received into the Catholic Church.
Scandal and Exile
During King Alfonso XIII's unhappy marriage, he had numerous affairs and dalliances, some of which produced illegitimate children. There is some evidence that the king tried to seduce Beatrice, but she refused to give in. Therefore, the king expelled her and her husband from Spain, under the pretext of sending Infante Alfonso to a mission in Switzerland. At the same time, the king's circle of friends, who despised both Ena and Beatrice, started to spread malicious rumours saying that Beatrice had been expelled because of her bad behaviour, which was not true.The couple had three sons:
- Alvaro Antonio Fernando Carlos Felipe (20 April 1910 CoburgCoburgCoburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...
, Germany–22 August 1997) - Alfonso Maria Cristino Justo (28 May 1912 MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain–18 November 1936 Spain); Killed in action during the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939... - Ataulfo Alejandro Isabelo Carlos (20 October 1913 MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain–4 October 1974 MalagaMálagaMálaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
, Spain)
Civil War
The family moved to England, where the three sons were educated at Winchester CollegeWinchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
. The Spanish Royal Family eventually relented, and Beatrice and her family were allowed to return to Spain where they established their home at an estate in Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposite the Doñana National Park, 52 km from the provincial capital Cádiz and...
.
The 1930s were an unhappy time for the family, as the collapse of the Spanish monarchy and the subsequent civil war led to the loss of much of the family's wealth. After the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
in 1931, King Alfonso and his family fled into exile in Italy. In the years that followed, the political situation in Spain worsened as various groups wrestled for power. By the late-1930s, the conflicts had erupted into all-out civil war
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. Beatrice and Alfonso lost their estate during the war, and the couple's middle son, Alfonso, was killed fighting the Republicans.
Later life
Beatrice died at her estate of El Botánico in Sanlúcar de BarramedaSanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposite the Doñana National Park, 52 km from the provincial capital Cádiz and...
on 13 July 1966. Her husband survived her by nine years. Their son Ataulfo died, unmarried, in 1974. Their only grandchildren are the children of Prince Alvaro. At her death, she was the last surviving child of Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.
Titles and styles
- 20 April 1884 – 22 August 1893: Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh, Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duchess of Saxony.
- 22 August 1893 – 15 July 1909: Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- 15 July 1909–24 December 1930: Her Royal Highness Princess Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón
- 24 December 1930–14 July 1937: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Galliera
- 14 July 1937 – 13 July 1966: Her Royal Highness Princess Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón
British arms
Beatrice's arms in Britain were the royal arms, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, differenced with a label argent of five points, the central bearing a cross gules, the four others anchors azure. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant from George VGeorge V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. This did not affect her Saxon arms.
Honours
Member Second Class of the Royal Order of Victoria and AlbertRoyal Order of Victoria and Albert
The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert was a British Royal Family Order instituted in on 10 February 1862 by Queen Victoria, and enlarged on 10 October 1864; 15 November 1865; and 15 March 1880. No awards were made after the death of Queen Victoria....
Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa
Order of Queen Maria Luisa
The Royal Order of Queen María Luisa is an Order created by Charles IV of Spain by royal decree in April 21 1792 at the request of his wife Queen Maria Luisa, to have a way to reward noble women who distinguished themselves for their services and talents, so it was established as a distinction...