Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On the death of his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on 22 August 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since his elder brother the Prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. Upon her husband's ascension to the Ducal throne, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna became Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in addition to being Duchess of Edinburgh. She thoroughly enjoyed being in Coburg, having yearned to leave England. As the consort of a sovereign German duke, she technically outranked her sisters-in-law at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The couple's only son, Hereditary Prince Alfred, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and shot himself in January 1899, in the midst of his parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations. He survived, but his embarrassed parents sent him off to Meran to recover, where he died two weeks later, on 6 February. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died of throat cancer on 30 July 1900 at The Rosenau in Coburg. The ducal throne passed to his nephew, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany. The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha continued to reside in Coburg.