Duke Alexander of Württemberg (20 December 1804 – 28 October 1881) was a member of the dynasty which ruled the German

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...

. To marry a daughter of the French king he agreed that their children would be raised in their mother's faith, thereby becoming ancestor of the Roman Catholic branch of his family.

Biography

He was the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and

Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Princess Antoinette Ernestine Amalie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (28 August 1779 – 14 March 1824) was a German princess of the House of Wettin. By marriage, she was a Duchess of Württemberg. Through her eldest surviving son, she is the ancestress ...

. He was a first cousin 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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

and of her husband,

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

. As a young man, Alexander was considered a possible marriage candidate for Victoria. In June 1833 he and his brother Ernest visited

Kensington Palace Kensington Palace is a royal residence situated within Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has served as a residence for the British royal family since the 17th century and is currently the ...

. Victoria wrote in her journal, "Alexander is very handsome and Ernest has a very kind expression. They are both extremely amiable."

Marriage

On 17 October 1837 he married Princess Marie of Orléans (1813–1839), daughter of

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

King of the French The precise style of French sovereigns varied over the years. Currently, there is no French sovereign; three distinct traditions (the Legitimist, the Orleanist, and the Bonapartist) exist, each claiming different forms of title. The three style ...

. They had one child: *

Duke Philipp of Württemberg Philipp, Duke of Württemberg (30 July 1838 – 11 October 1917) was a German prince, head of the Roman Catholic cadet branch of the dynasty which ruled the Kingdom of Württemberg. Biography He was the son of Duke Alexander and of Princes ...

(30 July 1838—11 October 1917) he married Archduchess Marie Thérèse of Teschen on 18 January 1865. They had five children. Alexander of Württemberg belonged to the fifth branch (called the "ducal branch") of the

House of Württemberg The House of Württemberg is an uradel, ancient German nobility, German dynasty and former royal family of the Kingdom of Württemberg. History County The House probably originated in the vicinity of the Salian dynasty. Around 1080 the ancestors ...

, descended from the seventh son of Frederick Eugene, ruler of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

from 1795 to 1797. On the extinction of Württemberg"s direct line of kings in 1921, the ducal branch became the senior

dynastic A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. Historians ...

line of the

deposed Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch.
ORB: The Online Reference for Medie ...

royal family. The House of Württemberg's two

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

branches - the

Dukes of Teck Duke of Teck () is a title which was created twice in Germanic lands. It was first borne from 1187 to 1439 by the head of a cadet line of the German ducal House of Zähringen, known as the "first House of Teck". The seat of this territory was Cas ...

(extinct in the male line in 1981) and the

Dukes of Urach The title of Duke of Urach (German: ''Herzog von Urach'') was created in the Kingdom of Württemberg on 28 March 1867 for Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Ferdinand, Count of Württemberg, with the style of Serene Highness. The first Duke of Urach wa ...

- were senior by

primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...

to the ducal branch, but were ineligible to inherit the throne. Duke Alexander is the direct

male line Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

ancestor of

Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg Wilhelm Herzog von Württemberg (born ''Wilhelm Friedrich Carl Philipp Albert Nikolaus Erich Maria''; 13 August 1994) is the head of the House of Württemberg and a German businessman. He is Chair of the Hofkammer des Hauses Württemberg, the co ...

, the current claimant to the

kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...

Honours

Ernestine duchies The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose numb ...

: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, ''December 1833'' * : Grand Cordon of the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

, ''23 December 1841'' * : Knight of St. Hubert, ''1851''

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander Of Wurttemberg, Duke 1804 births 1881 deaths Nobility from Riga People from Riga county Dukes of Württemberg (titular) Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Members of the Württembergian Chamber of Lords People of the July Monarchy