Marriage
During Alexandra's formative years, her father, occupied with his career in the Navy and later as a ruler in Coburg, paid little attention to his family. It was Alexandra's mother who was the domineering presence in their children's life. The duchess believed in marrying her daughters young, before they began to think for themselves. At the end of 1895, she arranged Alexandra's engagement to Prince Ernst, of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (13 September 1863 – 11 December 1950). Alexandra's grandmother, Queen Victoria, complained that she was too young. Alexandra's father objected to the status of his future son-in-law. The House of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg was mediatized - a formerly ruling family who had ceded their sovereign rights to others while (in theory) retaining their equal birth. It was not considered a brilliant match, but they were also related. Ernst was a grandson of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Queen Victoria's half-sister. The wedding took place on 20 April 1896 in Coburg, Germany. Together, they had five children:
- Prince Gottfried, 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (24 May 1897 – 11 May 1960); married Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark had issue
- Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (18 January 1899 – 8 November 1967)
- Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (2 April 1901 – 26 October 1963)
- Princess Irma of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (4 July 1902 – 8 March 1986)
- Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (16 April 1911 – 18 April 1911)
Read more about this topic: Princess Alexandra Of Saxe-Coburg And Gotha
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“With my desire to write he seemed in full sympathy, and in urging our early marriage he argued that my first necessity was leisure in which to develop and to master my craft. It appeared to me that with such a man as teacher and guide I could not fail, and it was in a queer mixture of young love and vaulting ambition that I became a wife.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)