page_title: Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
section_title: Family tragedies
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia / Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha / Family tragedies
caption_attribution_description: English: representatives of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha present at the coronation of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia. They are arranged in a group with plants behind. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (1853-1920) is sitting at the centre of the group wearing a cloak with a long train which is gathered in front of her. Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) is sitting beside her to the left and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876-1936) is standing beside her to the right. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg &amp; Gotha (1844-1900) is standing to the left of Princess Victoria
context_page_description: Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia was the fifth child and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife, Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She was the younger sister of Alexander III of Russia and the paternal aunt of Russia's last emperor, Nicholas II.
  In 1874 Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna married Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; she was the only Romanov to marry into the British royal family. The couple had five children: a son, Alfred, and four daughters: Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra, and Beatrice. For the first years of her marriage, Maria Alexandrovna lived in England. She neither adapted to the British court nor overcame her dislike for her adopted country. She accompanied her husband on his postings as an Admiral of the Royal Navy at Malta and Devonport. The Duchess of Edinburgh travelled extensively through Europe. She visited her family in Russia frequently and stayed for long periods in England and Germany attending social and family events.
context_section_description: On 23 January 1899 Maria Alexandrovna and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at Schloss Friedestein, the Duke's official residence in Gotha. Absent from the festivities was their only son, who was gravely ill. Young Alfred was a junior officer in Potsdam, where his chief hobbies were gambling, drinking and womanizing. He had contracted syphilis in 1892, and by 1898, his health deteriorated rapidly. He died at the age of twenty-four on 6 February 1899 in Meran, after reportedly shooting himself at Gotha during his parents' wedding anniversary celebrations. The Duke was heartbroken at young Alfred's death. This tragedy drove the parents farther apart as Alfred blamed his wife, who had been responsible for young Alfred's education. In her grief, the Duchess sank to her knees sobbing uncontrollably during her son's funeral. With the death of Young Alfred, the heir to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was Alfred's nephew Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, who came to Germany to be educated there. The succession to the Duchy was complicated by the news that Alfred himself had cancer of the throat, too advanced for any treatment. By May 1900, he was unable to swallow and could only be fed by a tube. The Duchess and their youngest daughter, Beatrice, who were in England visiting Queen Victoria, returned on 17 July, unaware of the seriousness of the Duke's condition. On 30 July 1900, he died in his sleep at Schloss Rosenau in Coburg.  Maria Alexandrovna was at his bedside with their daughters Victoria Melita, Alexandra, and Beatrice. Maria became Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The duchy went to Alfred's nephew Charles Edward, then sixteen years old. During his minority the regency fell on Maria's son-in-law, Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, for nearly five years.
caption: The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with their three eldest children, and two sons-in-law, during the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in Moscow, 1896.
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