Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Edward's parents (1882)

Prince Charles Edward was born at Claremont House near Esher, Surrey. His father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His mother was Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the fourth daughter of George Victor of Waldeck and Pyrmont and of his first wife Princess Helena of Nassau.[2] Prince Leopold had suffered from hemophilia but a boy cannot inherit the condition from his father so Charles Edward was healthy.[3] As Leopold had died before Charles Edward's birth,[4] Prince Charles Edward succeeded to his titles at birth and was styled His Royal Highness the Duke of Albany.[1] After falling ill, the young royal duke was baptised privately at Claremont on 4 August 1884. He was publicly baptised in Esher Parish Church on 4 December 1884.[5]

Charles Edward was educated as a Prince of the United Kingdom for his first 15 years.[2] As a grandson of Queen Victoria, the Duke was a first cousin of George V and of several European royal figures: Queen Maud of Norway, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Queen Sophia of the Hellenes, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (the last two through his mother). Such was the interest Wilhelm II showed in his young cousin's upbringing that Charles Edward was known among the Imperial Court as "the Emperor's seventh son".[6] His mother frequently reminded him of the importance of "becoming a good man, so you bring no shame on Papa's name".[7]

Charles Edward (front centre) with his sister, mother and members of his maternal extended family (1895)

His education began under the tutelage of Miss Potts at Claremont; he then went to two prep schools, firstly at Sandroyd School,[8] which was then located in Surrey,[9] and then at Park Hill School in Lyndhurst[3] where according to his sister he was "under the care of Mr W. F. Rawnsley, which was a very happy period of Charlie's life."[8] After the school in Lyndhurst, he went to Eton, where he was in Arthur Benson's House.[8] He was happy at Eton and looked back nostalgically at his time at that school throughout his life.[3]

The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused Charles much concern, and he watched anxiously during the ensuing power struggles between the left- and right-wing parties in Germany. On the morning of 9 November 1918, during the German Revolution, the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha declared him deposed. On 11 November, his abdication was demanded in Coburg. Only on 14 November, later than most other ruling princes, did he formally announce that he had "ceased to rule" in both Gotha and Coburg. He did not explicitly renounce his throne,[2] but no longer had a right to rule.[15][16] The following year, he also lost his British titles, though some personal sympathy remained for him among the political establishment in the United Kingdom, due to the way German nationality had been forced on him as a teenager.[3]

Charles Edward in 1930

In 1919, his properties and collections in Coburg were transferred to the Coburger Landesstiftung, a foundation that still exists today. A similar solution for Gotha took longer, and only after legal struggles with the Free State of Thuringia was it set up in 1928–34. The Gotha foundation was expropriated by the Soviet authorities after 1945.[2] After 1919, the family retained Schloss Callenberg, some other properties (including those in Austria), and a right to live at Veste Coburg. It also received substantial financial compensation for lost possessions. Some additional real estate in Thuringia was restored to the ducal family in 1925.[10]

Effectively exiled from the UK, and fearful of the communist threat, Charles Edward started looking for a new political home. He also worked towards the restoration of the monarchy, thus supporting the nationalistic-conservative and völkisch right.[17][2] Now a private citizen,[18] Charles Edward became associated with various right-wing paramilitary and political organisations.[2] These organisations were associated with violent repression, anti-government activities and politically motivated murders. He supported Hermann Ehrhardt, both morally and financially, after the Freikorps' commander's participation in the failed Kapp Putsch. It was rumoured that Charles Edward wanted to return to political power as "King of Thuringia".[10]

Charles Edward (furthest left) at his daughter's wedding (1932)

Charles Edward met Adolf Hitler for the first time on 14 October 1922, at the Nazis' second Deutscher Tag held at Coburg. In 1923, he joined the Bund Wiking as Oberbereichsleiter in Thuringia. When the Wiking joined Der Stahlhelm, Charles Edward became a member of the Stahlhelm's national board.[2][10]

In 1932, Charles Edward's daughter Sibylla married Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, the eldest son of the Crown Prince of Sweden and second-in-line to the Swedish throne. The marriage meant that Sibylla would, in the normal course, become Queen of Sweden. The engagement was announced on 16 June 1932 and the wedding was celebrated on 19 October 1932.[19] That same year, Charles Edward took part in the creation of the Harzburg Front, through which the German National People's Party became associated with the Nazi Party. He also publicly called on voters to support Hitler in the presidential election of 1932.[20]

Charles Edward in 1933, as SA-Gruppenführer

Charles Edward speaking at a meeting of the German Red Cross (1936)

Charles Edward formally joined the Nazi Party in March 1933, and that same year, became a member of the SA (Brownshirts), rising to the rank of Obergruppenführer by 1936.[20] From 1936 to 1945, he served as a member of the Reichstag, representing the Nazi Party, and was president of the German Red Cross from December 1933 to 1945. By the time he took over the position, the German Red Cross had already been placed under the Nazis' control.[2][10] Under Charles Edward's leadership, the German Red Cross reduced its interest in improving the welfare of the civilian population in order to focus on military matters and introduced various displays of allegiance towards the regime. His deputy Ernst Robert Grawitz was involved in human experimentation in the concentration camps.[10]

In 1934, Charles Edward visited Japan, where he attended a conference on the protection of civilians during war, and delivered Hitler's birthday greeting to Emperor Hirohito.[10] By 1936, he had agreed to be a spy for Hitler while attending the funeral of his first cousin George V at Sandringham,[21] but he was unreliable, according to a historian, "telling them what they wanted to hear".[22] Records indicate that Charles Edward received a monthly payment from the Führer of 4,000 Reichsmark (worth about £16,000 in 2015).[23] Hitler sent Charles Edward to Britain as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society. His mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. He attended George V's funeral as Hitler's representative,[24] in an SA uniform, complete with metal helmet,[25] his British uniforms having been taken away when he was stripped of his British titles.[26]

Charles Edward (left) meeting the British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Nevile Henderson, in 1939. He had been at Eton with Henderson and this photograph may have been taken at a meeting of the Anglo-German Fellowship that Henderson addressed in May 1937, shortly after his appointment as British Ambassador.[27]

The Prince sent Hitler encouraging reports about the strength of pro-German sentiment among the British aristocracy and about the possibility of a Britain-Germany pact.[28] Hitler also used him to encourage the pro-Nazi sentiments of the Duke of Windsor and his wife.[29] "Carl Edward's British network was very useful for Hitler," according to the German historian Karina Urbach.[23] However, other academics have argued that Charles Edward's advocacy had little success, and that he failed to understand the degree to which the people he had grown up around now saw him as a foreigner.[3]

Charles Edward visiting a hospital in German-occupied Prague (1942)

Urbach also said she found evidence of Charles Edward donating generously to the Nazi party for years, financing political murders and being aware of the death camps in Buchenwald.[30] In 1945, the Führer ordered that he not be allowed to be captured because of the great deal of inside information that he possessed.[23] According to The Guardian, he was aware of the death camps' work, and the programme that killed more than 100,000 disabled people in Germany, Austria, and other German-occupied territories from 1940 onwards.[12]

In 1940, Charles Edward travelled via Moscow and Japan to the US, where he met President Roosevelt at the White House. In 1943, at Hitler's behest, Charles Edward asked the International Red Cross to investigate the Katyn massacre.[10] Although Charles Edward was too old for active service during World War II, his three sons served in the Wehrmacht.[15] His second son, Hubertus, was killed in action in 1943 in a plane crash on the Eastern Front near Mosty.[31]

When World War II ended, the American Military Government in Bavaria, under the command of General George S. Patton, placed Charles Edward under house arrest at his family's vast Veste Coburg, because of his Nazi sympathies.[32]

Charles Edward was later imprisoned with other Nazi officials. His sister, Princess Alice, learning of his incarceration, came to Germany with her husband, the Earl of Athlone (then Governor General of Canada), to plead with his American captors for his release. They dined with the American generals holding her brother, who declined to release him.[33]

Charles Edward was imprisoned until 1946, and was originally charged with crimes against humanity. Although exonerated of complicity in war crimes, he was judged to have been "an important Nazi". In 1950 (or August 1949, according to his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry), and after several appeals, Charles Edward was found by a denazification court to be a Mitläufer and Minderbelasteter (roughly translated as: follower and follower of lesser guilt).[10][3]

Charles Edward also lost significant property as a result of his participation in World War II. Gotha was part of Thuringia, and therefore situated in the Soviet occupation zone. The Soviet Army confiscated much of the family's property in Gotha.[34] However, Coburg had become part of Bavaria in 1920,[35]^: 17 and was occupied by American forces. As such the family was able to retain property in what would become West Germany.[34]

In April 1946, his daughter Sibylla gave birth to a son,[36] the future Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who became, upon birth, third in the line of succession to the Swedish throne. In January 1947, Sybilla's husband died in a plane crash,[37] and in October 1950, Gustaf V of Sweden died, at which point Charles Edward's grandson became the Crown Prince of Sweden, who later became King Carl Gustaf.[38]

Burial site near Schloss Callenberg

Charles Edward spent the last years of his life in seclusion, forced into poverty by the fines he had been required to pay by the denazification tribunal,[39] and the seizure of much of his property by the Soviets.[28][40] In 1953, he viewed the coronation of his cousin's granddaughter, Elizabeth II, in a local cinema.[7]

Charles Edward died of cancer in his flat in Elsässer Straße, Coburg, on 6 March 1954, at the age of 69,[40] a "penniless criminal", according to one report.[12] He was the penultimate ruling prince of the German Empire to die; only Ernst II of Saxe-Altenburg outlived him – see List of German monarchs in 1918. He is buried at the Waldfriedhof Cemetery (Waldfriedhof Beiersdorf) near Schloss Callenberg, in Beiersdorf near Coburg.[3]

The Duke and Duchess of Coburg-Gotha with their four eldest children in 1918

Wilhelm II chose Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein, the niece of his wife, Empress Augusta Victoria, as the bride of Charles Edward, who was her first cousin. She was the eldest daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, and Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. They married on 11 October 1905, at Glücksburg Castle, Schleswig-Holstein, and had five children,[2] including Sibylla, the mother of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

The family mainly spoke English at home, though the children learnt to speak German fluently. Hubertus, Charles Edward's second son, was the favourite child.[41] The children lived in fear of their father, who ran his family "like a military unit".[42] Charles Edward's younger daughter, Princess Caroline Mathilde, claimed that her father had sexually abused her. The allegation was backed by one of her brothers.[43]

In December 2007, Britain's Channel 4 aired an hour-length documentary about Charles Edward called Hitler's Favourite Royal,[12] including re-coloured original footage and photos from all stages of his private and public life, his troubled conversion to the National Socialist regime, and other aspects.[60] Various international historians commented on the events and issues revolving around his life, reminding the public of his existence and reviving public debate.[61] A review in The Guardian described the film as a "A solid documentary on a feeble man and a wretched family."[12] Another review in The Telegraph suggested the documentary had been overly sympathetic to Charles Edward stating that the "story emerged as a tale of pure tragedy. Which it undoubtedly was, in parts." but that he was depicted "As if the trauma of being elevated to a dukedom and losing it had somehow robbed him of his ability to tell right from wrong."[62]

Karina Urbach's 2015 book Go Betweens for Hitler discusses how various aristocrats including Charles Edward acted as informal diplomats for Nazi Germany.[63] A review in The Times commented on Charles Edward that "For many years thereafter [the German Revolution], Carl Eduard was regarded as a mere footnote in history; a harmless, potty old aristocrat, washed up by the seismic upheavals of the early 20th century. However, that benign interpretation has been recently revised. We now know that Carl Eduard was a member of the Nazi party, a sponsor of paramilitary terrorism and — as Karina Urbach’s excellent book demonstrates — an important “go-between” for Hitler."[64]

• Büschel, Hubertus (2016). Hitlers adliger Diplomat. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt. ISBN 978-3100022615.
• Sandner, Harald (2010). Hitlers Herzog: Carl Eduard von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha: die Biographie. Aachen.

Media related to Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at Wikimedia Commons

• Newspaper clippings about Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW