Charles Edward / Carl Eduard: Britain’s Tragic Prince, Germany’s Despised Duke – Part 2

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a member of the Charles Edward SA-Gruppenführer in 1933. Image from Wikimedia Commons

 Read Part 1 here

When World War I ensued, the duke was torn between United Kingdom and Germany. "Proud of his rank as a Prussian general, he was both loath to take up arms against the country birth," wrote royal historian Marlene Koenig Eilers. He was, in fact, denounced both in Britain and in Germany. Worst, the British Parliament passed the Titles Deprivation Act in 1918 which empowered the Privy Council to investigate "any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or who have adhered to His Majesty's enemies.” In 1919, he was stripped of his British peerages and he and his children lost their British titles as princes and princesses of United Kingdom. His ties with his land of birth were forever severed.

Towards the end of World War I and the subsequent defeat of Germany, Carl Eduard joined other German princes in abdicating their thrones. His properties were also confiscated but after seven years of litigation, the former duke eventually won his cases against the Gotha Republican authorities. A dispatch to the New York Times reports:

"The dispute concerned properties adjudicated before the war to the Duke from which the Government ousted him after the German revolution in 1918, and considered State property. But the Gotha courts thought otherwise, so the Duke is now reaffirmed in possession of valuable properties, including two palaces, the museum at Gotha, the astronomical observatory and seven large tracts of forest lands."

Charles Edward greets British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Nevile Henderson, in 1939. Image from Wikimedia Commons

In the 1920s, he supported Adolf Hitler and he was later offered several positions in the Nazi government. He even agreed to spy for Hilter, which he did when he attended the funeral of King George V. He also served as Hitler’s emissary to Great Britain and in this capacity, he served as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society with the task of improving the Anglo-German relations and to explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. However, the abdication of King Edward VIII dashed his plans. After the Abdication Crisis, Carl Eduard hosted the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor, when they visited Germany in 1937.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was too old to take active service when World War II raged. When wartime dusk settled and after the humiliating defeat of Germany, he was taken by the Americans and interred in Veste. He was released in 1946 but was sentenced by a denazification court. With his estates seized by the Soviets, what remained of his once vast fortune was wiped out by the fines which were heavily imposed on him.

The remaining years of his life were spent in poverty, seclusion and arthritis. He died on March 6, 1954 –a year after watching the coronation of his cousin's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, at a local cinema.  Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, passed away unnoticed, despised and unlamented – a sad and figure.