Victoria Adelaide

Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (German: Viktoria Adelheid Helene Luise Marie Friederike; 31 December 1885 – 3 October 1970) was Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the consort of Duke Charles Edward from their marriage on 11 October 1905 until his abdication on 14 November 1918.

Victoria Adelaide's marriage to Charles Edward was arranged by German emperor, Wilhelm II. She was chosen for her perceived political loyalty to the Imperial German government and her symbolic significance as a German wife for the British-born duke. She was seen as unpretentious and gained popularity among the people of the Duchy. After his forced abdication in 1918, Charles Edward became an enthusiastic supporter of Nazism. Sources differ on how enthusiastically Victoria Adelaide supported these beliefs.

Early life

Princess Victoria Adelaide was born on 31 December 1885 at Castle Grünholz, Thumby, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia as the eldest daughter of Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Victoria Adelaide's mother was a sister of Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, who became the German Empress by marriage to Wilhelm II. Also, Victoria Adelaide's father was the eldest son of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and a nephew of Christian IX of Denmark. One month before the birth of Victoria Adelaide, Friedrich Ferdinand had succeeded to the headship of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and the title of duke upon the death of his father on 27 November 1885.

A report in the Alcester Chronicle, a British local newspaper, published in 1909, commented that Victoria Adelaide and her sisters had been allowed by their father to learn a women's occupation in case they ever needed to support themselves. According to the report, Victoria Adelaide had gained a qualification from the "Berlin Royal School of Cookery".

Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On 11 October 1905, at Glücksburg Castle, Schleswig, she married Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Charles Edward was the only son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany by his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and a grandson of Queen Victoria. Five years before the marriage, he had succeeded to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon the death of his uncle Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900.

As Charles Edward was considered to have an "ambiguous" attitude towards women, according to historian Karena Urbach, his family decided he needed an arranged marriage at a young age. Victoria Adelaide was chosen by her uncle Wilhelm II, the German Emperor, as the bride of Charles Edward. She was believed to be well-adjusted and loyal to Wilhelm's royal house. She lacked any Non-German or Jewish ancestry which was seen as important as her new husband was British-born. The local newspaper commented that the people of the Duchy "will always prefer to welcome a princess born into their own tribe as mother of the country [Duchess] than a stranger" 

Victoria Adelaide was described, in her grandson's memoirs, as the leading part of the marriage and the Duke would initially come to her for advice. Victoria Adelaide was well-liked and seen as open to ordinary people. She often walked around her husband's territories talking to people and knew many members of the local population. She and her husband had five children born between 1906 and 1918: 

• Prince Johann Leopold (1906—1972), 
• Princess Sibylla (1908—1972), 
• Prince Hubertus (1909—1943),
• Princess Caroline Mathilde (1912—1983), and 
• Prince Friedrich Josias (1918—1998). 

As was the norm among families of their social class at the time, caring for the children was mainly delegated to domestic servants. The family often spoke English at home.

Later life

In 1918, the Duke was forced to abdicate his ducal throne, following the end of World War I, forcing the family to become private citizens. Charles Edward was an early and fervent supporter of Adolf Hitler. At a 1929 local election in Coburg, Victoria Adelaide attended Nazi party campaign events alongside her husband. According to some accounts, she initially shared her husband's enthusiasm and patriotism but came to loathe the Nazi Party following the Nazi seizure of power. She defied her husband by supporting the German Evangelical Church Confederation against the antisemitic German Christians. However, Urbach describes this version of events as a "family myth". She states that Victoria Adelaide's views aligned with her husband's and the former duchess maintained her support for Nazism into the postwar period. In an interview shortly after the war ended she said her husband had been motivated by patriotism and "stumbled on his own idealism". A report in the local newspaper, marking Victoria Adelaide's 80th birthday in 1965, described her warmly commenting that

It will never be forgotten that the Duchess — a niece of the German Empress Augusta Viktoria — was never afraid to go shopping for herself and others at the market with a handle basket, or after 1945 to go shopping by bicycle from Callenberg Castle... [to] Coburg. Because of this self-evident simplicity, the Coburgers count her among their own. They never forget what they owe to their former duchess.