Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (german: Viktoria Adelheid Helene Luise Marie Friederike; 31 December 1885 – 3 October 1970) was Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the consort of Duke Charles Edward from their marriage on 11 October 1905 until his abdication on 14 November 1918. Victoria Adelaide is the maternal grandmother of

Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, D ...

. She was a niece of German Empress

Augusta Victoria , house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , father = Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein , mother = Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Dolzig Palace ...

Early life

Princess Victoria Adelaide was born on 31 December 1885 at Castle Grünholz, Thumby, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia as the eldest daughter of Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife

Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , title = Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein , house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , spouse = , issue = Victoria Adelaide, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Alexandra Victoria, Princess August Wilhelm of P ...

. Her father was the eldest son of

Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (23 October 1814 in Schleswig, Schleswig – 27 November 1885 in Luisenlund, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia, Germany) was the third Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Fried ...

and a nephew of

Christian IX of Denmark Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein- ...

. One month before the birth of Victoria Adelaide, he had succeeded to the headship of the

House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

and the title of

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

upon the death of his father on 27 November 1885.

Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On 11 October 1905, at

Glücksburg Castle Glücksburg Castle (German: Schloss Glücksburg, Danish: ''Lyksborg Slot'') is one of the most significant Renaissance castles in Northern Europe. The castle was the headquarters of the ducal lines of the house of Glücksburg and temporarily serve ...

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, she married

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha '' , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany , mother = Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont , birth_name = Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany , birth_date = , birth_place = Clar ...

. Charles Edward was the only son of

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, (Leopold George Duncan Albert; 7 April 185328 March 1884) was the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow ...

by his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and a grandson of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

. Five years before the marriage, he had succeeded to the duchy of

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present ...

upon the death of his uncle

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from ...

in 1900. Victoria Adelaide was described as the leading part in the marriage and the Duke would initially come to her for advice.H.H. Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (2015). ''I did it my way. Memoirs of HH Prince Andreas of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha''. Eurohistory.com, p. 51, 57. She and Charles Edward had five children.

Later life

In 1918, the Duke was forced to abdicate his ducal throne, following the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, forcing the family to become private citizens. Charles Edward was an early and fervent supporter of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

. Victoria Adelaide initially shared her husband's enthusiasm and patriotism but she came to loathe the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

following the

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

. She defied her husband by supporting the German Evangelical Church Confederation against the antisemitic

German Christians Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from t ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the couple fled to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

(where Schloss Greinburg an der Donau had been a Saxe-Coburg property since 1822, and remains such) following the seizure of their properties in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. She died at Schloss Greinburg (

Grein, Austria Grein is a municipality in the district Perg in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It lies on the Danube River. Population Sights One attraction in Grein is Greinburg Castle, built between 1488 and 1493. The castle was purchased by Ernest I, D ...

) on 3 October 1970 and was buried beside her husband at Schloss Callenberg, Coburg, on 8 October of that year.

Issue

Ancestry

References

, - {{Authority control 1885 births 1970 deaths Wives of British princes Victoria Adelaide Albany Victoria Adelaide Victoria Adelaide