Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany
| Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany |
| |
For another use, see Leopold of Anhalt-CöthenPrince Leopold, Duke of Albany (Leopold George Duncan Albert) (
7 April 1853 –
28 March 1884), was a member of the
British Royal Family, a son of
Queen Victoria. Leopold was later created the
Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow. He was diagnosed with
haemophilia as a baby, which later killed him as an adult.
Leopold was born on
April 7,
1853 at
Buckingham Palace,
London. His mother was
Queen Victoria, the reigning
British monarch. His father was
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. During labor, Queen Victoria chose to use
chloroform and thus sanctioned the use of
anesthesia recently developed by
James Young Simpson. As a son of the British sovereign, the newborn was styled
His Royal Highness The Prince Leopold at birth. His parents named him Leopold after his great uncle,
King Leopold I of the Belgians.
He was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on
28 June 1853 by
John Bird Sumner,
Archbishop of Canterbury and his godparents were the
King of Hanover,
Princess Augusta of Prussia,
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge and the
Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Leopold inherited the disease of
haemophilia from his mother, Queen Victoria, and spent most of childhood as a semi-invalid.
In
1872, Prince Leopold, entered
Christ Church, Oxford where he studied a variety of subjects. He left the university with an honorary doctorate in civil law (DCL) in
1876. Prince Leopold travelled in Europe and
1880, he toured
Canada and the
United States with his sister,
Princess Louise, whose husband
John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne was the
Governor General of Canada. Incapable of pursuing a military career because of his illness, Prince Leopold instead became a patron of the arts and literature. In 1878, he became president of
Royal Society of Literature and in the following year became vice president of the
Royal Society of Arts. From
1876 until his death, he served as Queen Victoria's private secretary.
Prince Leopold was created
Duke of Albany in
1881.
Prince Leopold, stifled by the desire of his mother,
Queen Victoria, to keep him at home, saw marriage as his only hope of independence. The heiress,
Daisy Maynard, was one of the women he considered as a possible bride, as was
Alice Liddell, the daughter of an Oxford clergyman for whom
Lewis Carroll wrote
Alice in Wonderland.
Due to his haemophilia he had a difficult time finding a wife, and his mother stepped in to prevent what she saw as unsuitable possibilities. Insisting that the children of British monarchs should marry into other reigning Protestant families,
Victoria suggested a meeting with
Princess Helene Frederica, the daughter of George Victor, reigning Prince of
Waldeck-Pyrmont. On
27 April 1882 Leopold and Helen were married at
St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle.
Prince Leopold had
haemophilia and went to Cannes on doctor's orders in February 1884: joint pain is a common symptom of haemophilia and the winter climate in England was always difficult for him. His wife, pregnant at the time, stayed home but urged him to go. On March 27 he slipped and fell in the Yacht Club in
Villa Nevada Cannes, in
France, injuring his knee and he died in the early hours of the next morning, apparently from the effects of the morphine he had been given and the claret that was served with his supper. He was buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor. His posthumous son, Prince Charles, succeeded him as 2nd Duke of Albany upon birth.
Titles
*
1854-1881:
His Royal Highness The Prince Leopold
*
1881-1884:
His Royal Highness The Duke of Albany
Honours
*
Knight of the Garter *
Knight of the Thistle *
Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India*
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George
