Beatrice of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha (1884-1966)-Wikipedia

Beatrice of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha , whose full name was Beatrice Leopoldina Vittoria (Eastwell Park, April 20, 1884 – Sanlúcar de Barrameda, 13 July 1966), was a member of the British royal family, grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He married the Spanish royal family, becoming Alfonso’s wife of Bourbone-Orléans, infant of Spain. In the family he was called Bea .

Princess Beatrice was born on April 20, 1884 ad Eastwell Park , to Ashford, in the Kent. His father was Prince Alfredo, Duke of Edinburgh, second male son of Queen Vittoria and Prince Consort Alberto di Saxony-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother, the Duchess Maria of Edinburgh, was born a Grand Duchess of Russia, the only female daughter of the Tsar Alexander II of Russia and Maria Massimiliana of Assia-Darmstadt.

As a male nephew of a British monarch, Beatrice, from birth, had the title of princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the treatment of Real height .

Beatrice spent most of the years of his childhood in Malta, where his father was stationed, in service at the Royal Navy . Upon the death of the father’s uncle, Duke Ernesto II of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha, on August 22, 1893, the vacant duchy was entrusted to Duke Alfredo of Edinburgh, since his older brother, Alberto Edoardo, Prince of Wales, renounced the his successors.

Alfredo and his wife, together with the five children, moved to Coburg to take residence shortly after the succession to the ducal throne.

In 1902 Princess Beatrice lived a love story with the Grand Duke Michail Aleksandrovič Romanov, the younger brother of Tsar Nicola II, who at the time was the presumptive heir to the imperial throne. He began to receive letters from Michail in September 1902 and, although he was a Grand Duke Russo and she, in all respects, a German princess, were written in English and he nicknamed her “Sima”. ^[first] In any case, Beatrice was prevented from getting married to the Grand Duke as the Russian Orthodox Church forbade marriages between first cousins: Beatrice’s mother and Michail’s father, the Tsar Alexander III, were in fact brothers. Although marriages of this genre had already been authorized in the past in the Romanov family (the Grand Dukess Ekaterina Pavlovna, whose hand had been denied to Napoleon, received the permission twice to marry the first cousins; his descendants became the Russian branch of the Duchi of Oldenburg), the devotee and Pio Nicola II, the official leader of the Russian Church, refused to change the rules for his brother. ^[first]

In November 1903, Michail wrote to Beatrice who could not marry her; The situation worsened with a letter that Beatrice received from the older sister Vittoria Melita, alias Ducky, in which it blamed the Grand Duke for having insensibly started the impossible relationship. A few years later, Ducky herself, having divorced the cousin, the Grand Duke Ernesto Luigi d’Assia, was informed that it was remarried with another first cousin, the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovič Romanov, would have been prohibited by the Tsar; She refused to accept the imposition and therefore the couple flew into exile. ^[first] Beatrice, humiliated, was sent to Egypt to recover from the disappointment of love, but continued to hold and wrote letters full of reproaches to Michail until 1905. ^[first]

Subsequently, about a possible wedding of Beatrice with Alfonso XIII of Spain was discussed, but this proved to be an unfounded gossip as, in 1906, he married her cousin, Vittoria Eugenia of Battenberg. It was precisely at their wedding that Princess Beatrice met a cousin of King Alfonso, Prince Alfondo of Orléans and Bourbon, infant of Spain and 5th Duke of Galliera. However, the Spanish government opposed a union of the infant with a British princess who, unlike Vittoria Eugenia, did not want to convert to Catholicism. King Alfonso XIII was therefore forced to make it clear that, if the marriage had taken place, the couple should have lived in exile.

Despite the adversities, Beatrice and Alfonso married Catholic and Lutheran ceremony in Coburg on July 15, 1909; The couple settled in Coburg until 1912, when the two were authorized to return to Spain and Alfonso was restored in his title of infant.

The couple had three males children:

Scandal and exile [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

During his unhappy marriage, Alfonso XIII of Spain had numerous adulterous relationships, some of whom produced illegitimate children. It still remains a gossip without any proof that the assumption that he has had a liaison with Beatrice; Certainly they were great friends, but on the other hand, in the context of the rigid label of the Spanish court, such an intimate relationship would have been very difficult to hide.

The mother queen Maria Cristina (1858-1929) proclaimed herself outraged by the gossip and met with Beatrice in San Sebastián to ask her to leave Spain; She refused and therefore the king had no choice and had to order her to leave in exile.

Beatrice’s family then moved to England, where the couple’s three children were educated at Winchester College. Finally, the Spanish royal family returned to its steps so that it allowed Alfonso and the wife to return to Spain where they settled in a estate in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

The 1930 years were an unhappy period for the family, since the collapse of the Spanish monarchy and the consequent civil war led to the loss of most of their wealth. With the establishment of the second Spanish Republic in 1931, King Alfonso and his family took refuge in Italy; In the years that followed the political situation in the Iberian Peninsula he worsened, since various groups fought with each other for power. Towards the end of the 1930s, conflicts resulted in a civil war; Beatrice and Alfonso therefore lost their hold during the war and the second son was killed by the communists in battle.

Beatrice died in her Sanlúcar de Barrameda estate on 13 July 1966 and her husband survived her another nine years. Their son Ataulfo ​​died, without getting married, in 1974. The only grandchildren of Beatrice were the children of Prince Alvaro. Upon his death, Beatrice was the last surviving daughter of Prince Alfredo and Grand Duchess Marija Aleksandrovna.

Coat of arms of Beatrice of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha (United Kingdom)

Coat of arms of Beatrice of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha (Spain)

Titles [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

• April 20, 1884 – 15 July 1909: His Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh and Saxony-Coburg-Gotha
• July 15, 1909 – 24 December 1930 ^[3] : His Royal Highness Princess alfonso by orleans and borrower
• December 24, 1930 – 14 July 1937 ^[4] : His Royal Highness The Duchess of Galliera
• July 14, 1937 – 13 July 1966: His Royal Highness Princess alfonso by orleans and borrower

Honors [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Coat of arms [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Beatrice’s coat of arms was the real coat of arms of the United Kingdom, with an internal shield for Saxony, all differentiated by means of a five -pointed silver ribbon, the central with a red cross, while the others with blue anchors. In 1917 the central shield was eliminated by real decree of King Giorgio V. ^[6]