Redirected from Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The duke still devoted himself to his profession, showing complete mastery of his duties and unusual skill in naval tactics. He was promoted rear-admiral on the December 30, 1878; vice-admiral, November 10 1882; admiral, October 18, 1887; and received his baton as admiral of the Fleet, June 3, 1893. He commanded the Channel fleet, 1883-1884; the Mediterranean fleet, 1886-1889; and was commander-in-chief at Davenport, 1890-1893. He always paid the greatest attention to his official duties and was most efficient as an admiral.
On the death of his uncle, Ernest II, duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on August 22, 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the duke of Edinburgh, for the prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. At first regarded with some coldness as a " foreigner," he gradually gained popularity, and by the time of his death, on July 31, 1900, he had generally won the good opinion of his subjects. The duke was exceedingly fond of music and an excellent violinist, and took a prominent part in establishing the Royal College of Music. He was also a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and his collection, valued at half a million marks, was presented by his widow to the "Veste Coburg", near Coburg[?]. When he became duke of Saxe-Coburg he surrendered his English allowance of £15,000 a year, but the £10,000 granted in addition by parliament on his marriage he retained in order to keep up Clarence House[?].
The duke's only son, the Hereditary Prince Alfred, a dissolute character, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and shot himself on January 23, 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 February 6. This proved the last straw in the duke and duchess's troubled marriage, and Alfred drank himself to death over the course of the next year, dying on July 30, 1900. He was succeeded as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by his nephew, the Duke of Albany[?], son of Victoria and Albert's youngest son, Alfred's next brother the Duke of Connaught and his son having disclaimed the succession to the Duchy.
Besides young Alfred, the Duke and Duchess had four daughters. The eldest daughter, Princess Marie[?], married the future King Ferdinand of Romania, and became one of the most important supporters of Romanian intervention on the side of the allies during the World War I. The second daughter, Princess Victoria Melita[?], called "Ducky" by the family, married her first cousin Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse and the Rhine[?]. The match proved an unhappy one, and the couple divorced, with Victoria Melita remarrying another first cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia[?]. From them descends Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna[?], the principal claimant to the Russian imperial throne. The third daughter, Princess Alexandra Louisa Olga Victoria, married the hereditary prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who became regent of the duchy of Coburg during the minority of the deceased duke's nephew, the young duke of Albany, to whom the succession fell. The youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, married a Spanish infante, later the Duke of Galliera[?]
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