# Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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. As the wife of Ernst II, she was Princess consort of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She was a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

## Early life

Alexandra was born Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh on 1 September 1878 at Rosenau Castle, Coburg. 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. She was baptised 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.
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 who was the domineering presence in their children's life. 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.
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. 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. All the children studied French, which they hated and rarely spoke.In 1886, Duke Alfred was appointed commander of the Mediterranean Fleet. The family moved to Malta, where they settled in the San Anton Palace. 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".
That year, 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. Maria Alexandrovna hired a German governess for her daughters, who bought the girls simple clothes and taught them the Lutheran faith In Coburg, the education of the young princesses was expanded: they were taught painting and music.On Thursdays and Sundays, Alexandra and her sisters attended the theatre, which they all loved very much.She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her aunt Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom to Prince Henry of Battenberg, and at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1893. 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.

## Marriage

Alexandra's mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, believed in marrying her daughters young, before they began to think for themselves.
In 1893, the dukes' eldest daughter, Marie, married the heir to the Romanian throne, Crown Prince Ferdinand. 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.
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. The House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was mediatized a formerly ruling family who had ceded their sovereign rights to others while (in theory) retaining their equal birth. It was not considered a brilliant match.

### 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.
* Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (18 January 1899 – 8 November 1967); married Wilhelm Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and had issue.
* Princess Alexandra Beatrice Leopoldine of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (2 April 1901 – 26 October 1963)
* 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
### First World War

After the wedding, Alexandra lived in Germany for the rest of her life. In 1900, the Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died. His wife and daughters were by his side during his last days. Alexandra's cousin Prince Karl Eduard, For the next five years, he 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. During the First World War, Alexandra worked as a nurse for the Red Cross. 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. 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.

### Later life and death
#### Second World War

Alexandra lived for the rest of her life in Germany. At the death of her father in 1900, Alexandra's husband was appointed regent of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg during the minority of the new Duke, who was her first cousin. Alexandra's only brother, Alfred, had died in 1899. 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. 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 Queen Elizabeth II. 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 her daughter-in-law, her son, and Irma Alexandra Marie Melita and her descendants as well. Her son, Gottfried, was an army officer during the Second World War. In 1930s she became ill frequently; she died in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1942.

## Archives

Princess Alexandra's personal papers (including family correspondence and photographs) are preserved in the Hohenlohe-Langenburg family archive (Nachlass Fürstin Alexandra, HZAN La 143), which is in the Hohenlohe Central Archive (Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein) in Neuenstein Castle in the town of Neuenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and it is open for researchers.

## Arms

Alexandra's personal coat of arms 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.

## Ancestry

Ancestors of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha :