Today's protagonist is Charles Edward, the grandson of Queen Victoria, who, in addition to being a QV grandson, has several labels on him: posthumous son, last Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Iron Nazi, rough father, grandfather of the King of Sweden.
A cursory look at feeding chickens, he and his father do have relatives other than worth mentioning, Charles Edward's transformation from British to German can actually reflect the current politics at that time to a certain extent, let's pick some points to talk about.
In terms of pedigree, Charles Edward Pole, the title and the following "Germany" and "England" are relative concepts for the perception of the individual and others. The old rules of politics are omitted as much as possible.
The story begins with Leopold, who is the 8th child and youngest son of Victoria and Albert, and his name pays homage to his uncle + uncle + great matchmaker, Leopold I of Belgium.
From a genetic point of view, Leopold was also unlucky. Fortunately, he had a good brain, and was considered by the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson and the philosopher James Martinau to be very creative and promising. He later studied art, literature and chess, and also became Victoria's unofficial secretary.
The misfortune is obvious: he can't be a big soldier when he wins the bid for hemophilia, and he must be careful and careful every day to avoid any bumps. Victoria also wanted her youngest son to stay at home for the rest of his life, but this just suffocated Leopold, and he tried his best to get rid of his mother's control through marriage, but as a hemophilia, it was not easy to say.
There have been scandals with women Leopold has liked include: Edith Liddell (daughter of the vice-chancellor of Oxford), Frederica of Hanover, Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel, Caroline Mathilde of Denmark, Stephanie of Belgium, Victoria of Baden, Mary Bahrain, daughter of Lord Ashburton, etc.
For one reason or another, none of the above girls came to fruition, and in the end Leopold's wife was arranged by Victoria: Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont (sister of Queen Emma of the Netherlands).
Although it was Lalang, it was generally believed that Leopold and Helen were happily married. But from God's point of view, Leopold's crispy skin shouldn't get married at all, it's really harmful = =
One day, less than 2 years of marriage, Helen gave birth to her eldest daughter, Alice, and was still pregnant with her second child. Ordinary people may be fine, but for a hemophilia patient, he died the next day, the cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage, and he was only 30 years old.
Helen became a widow at the age of 23, Alice probably had no impression of her father, and her widow Charles Edward never even saw her father.
Of course, the above has little to do with Charles Edward, the first 15 years of his life are probably his happiest days, living in the UK with his sister and mother, except for his father, he probably lacks nothing, and no one expects anything from him as a nobody. By adolescence he had entered Eton, and Helen had only hoped that he would go to Oxford.
But the gears of fate have begun to turn slowly.
In early 1899, Alfred Jr., the only son of Charles Edward's second uncle, Alfred Jr., shot himself in an affair and died two weeks later. This means that Alfred's Saxe-Coburg and Gotha wallets, which have only been picked up for a few years, will fly out again, but who will pick them up becomes a question.
In order, it should be the third uncle, Arthur, Duke of Connaught, and then his son Arthur Jr. (this name is really enough), but Arthur did not want his son to receive a German education to be a German, and the next was Charles Edward.
In the eyes of the German side, Charles Edward's mother is German, and she has no father, she is in adolescence, and it is not difficult to turn halfway to become a German, which is simply wonderful.
After the agreement was reached, Charles Edward's family moved to Germany, and in order to make him a real German, his eldest cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II, even developed an educational program specifically for him.
This was undoubtedly a split for a teenager who was only fifteen or sixteen, and the following year Alfred died, Charles Edward cried at the funeral, and the outside world thought it was more from the fear of the future.
A few years later, under the leadership of Wei Er, Charles Edward was rapidly Germanized, and was considered an absolute loyal to the Kaiser, except for the English accent and the Scottish terrier he raised, he was basically a very qualified German duke. The most notable manifestation of this was the severance of relations with British and Belgian relatives during World War I, and his staunch support for the German Empire, so he was also denounced as a traitor by the British, and his cousin Joe Wu later stripped him of his title and the Order of the Garter.
However, after the First World War, the German monarchy was still collectively finished, and Charles Edward was one of the late declarators of the Duchy to stop ruling in the big and small principalities. And to this extent, he was still not very popular, and some local people considered him British, calling him "Mr. Albany".
According to your stomach, after the First World War, Charles Edward was mainly committed to restoring the monarchy and preserving the ancestral property, the former was a white jump, and the latter was okay, and part of the property was transferred to the ** society and retained to this day.
Later, the Führer was born, and Charles Edward quickly became a powerful ally of him, waving all kinds of flags for the Führer.
The process is skipped, and in the end everyone knows that if it weren't for the fact that he was the grandfather of the future King of Sweden, he would have been directly attacked after World War II.
His eldest daughter is the bitter and bitter deep Sibyla, who "benefited" from this Nazi father, and she was also dissed by the Swedes for half her life.
His life was saved, but most of his fortune was lost in World War II, and Charles Edward had to spend the last few years of his life in seclusion, and finally died of cancer in 1954 at the age of 69. At that time, the Times commented on the obituary that he was the Führer, and in the end, he was probably finally confirmed to be a German.
In fact, looking back on Charles Edward's life, especially after the age of 15, it is not surprising that he will become a violent father in the eyes of his children, and even the accusation of treating his youngest daughter can be traced: it is said that the eldest cousin Wei Er bullied him in various ways, and maybe even what he was.
In the end, it can only be said that hateful people may really have pity, and if his cousin had not committed suicide, Charles Edward's trajectory would probably be completely different. But the torrent of the times does not carry all the pots, and the main responsibility for his own life is still on Charles Edward himself.