The black Prince Del Terzo Reich that dyrazza dynasty d’Europa

Grandmother was the most powerful woman on earth, the empressEngland victorywho baptized him in 1884 and raised him toprince of the United KingdomDuke of Albany and other noble titles joining those by birth fromDuke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. As Vittoria’s nephew, to the GermanCharles Edwardhe also had the title of royal highness, and furthermore he had seen the light in England, in Esher, on 19 July.

The ruling dynasty, on the other hand, was of German lineage and the connection with its origins was strong and heartfelt. The KaiserGuglielmo II Hohenzollernthe king of EnglandGiorgio Vand Charles Edward were cousins, and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (born Alice Victoria) who had married Nicholas II Romanov was also a cousin. Theroyal familiesthey were closely related but this did not prevent the bloodbath of theGreat Waron opposing fronts. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha made the choice of military over the Imperial German one. He had never set foot in Germany until the age of 15 and had returned to succeed to the ducal throne. As he approached his majority, the King of England Edward VII, his uncle (he was the son of Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha), had also awarded him the highest honour, the Order of the Garter.

The choice of the German front and the attack on England

It’s easy to imagine how the English branch of the German house took it when they discovered in him, born and forged in British places and culture, the sovereignthe nationalistsided with William II with the ranks ofgeneral of the imperial armyand even sponsors a squadron of heavy bombersGothato attack London, which resulted in deaths and injuries. His cousin George V had already deprived him of alltitles and honoursand stricken from the roll of the Order of the Garter when in 1917 he changed the name of his dynasty to the more EnglishWindsoralso renouncing the titles of Duke of Saxony and Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

The dethronement and adhesion to Nazism

The defeat of Germany and the end of the empire brought Charles Edward thedethronementthe nationalization of many of its properties and the need to reinvent the present. England had banned it astraitorthe Weimar Republic had expropriated him, the winds of the Bolshevik revolution had turned his own workers against him who had even dared to threaten him in public. He found a solution inrevolutionary rightand in the paramilitary movements that meandered through the social and political crisis of Germany humiliated by the diktat of Versailles. He thus came into contact with a street agitator in 1922,Adolf Hitlerwho after the failed Munich putsch in 1923, would legally take power in 1933 by winning the elections (celebrated by Charles Edward by hoisting the flag with theswastikaon the flagpole of his castle in Coburg) and establishing the dictatorship. Formal membership toNazi Partydates back to 1933. Of the old German nobility only two princes embraced the cause of the swastika: Charles Edward and his cousin Giosea George William Adolf of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Both will reach the rank ofgeneralthe first in the Wehrmacht (after having served in the SA) and the second in the SS. From 1933, and until the end of the Second World War, the former Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha would play the role ofpresident of the German Red Cross.

Diplomatic attempts and the SA uniform

The attempts to find an agreement between theRich Hitlerianand the nation of the Saxon “cousins”. At the funeral of King George V the former duke attended with theSA uniformhas a meeting with Edward VIII, writes to the Führer about an encouraging attitude towards the regime on the part of the British nobility, weaves adiplomatic networkin the countries he visits, he meets heads of state and government. Blood ties make him close to European queens and aristocrats, with very few exceptions, but the embarrassment of aSaxe-Coburg-Gotha in Nazi uniformit’s hard to hide. Once the Second World War broke out, he had an ambivalent attitude towards the Jews and the civilian victims whom he should protect as president of the Red Cross. Three of his sons are enlisted in theWehrmacht(and one will die), while her daughter Sibylla married Prince Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1932.

The post-war period, the trial and the economic difficulties

The end of the Third Reich marks the end of its parable. It is temporarily placed by the Americans to thehouse arrestin Coburg Castle and in the meantime all his responsibilities and his are emergingcompromises with Nazism. He was aware of many secrets of the regime and very probably also of the euthanasia programT4and extermination. This time the fact that he was a cousin of King George VI did not ensure him preferential treatment for the harsh detention regime to which he was subjected until the trial celebrated in 1946 on charges ofcrimes against humanity. His age and poor health spared him the death penalty. In that same year her daughter Sibylla had a son with her husband, who in theory was third in line to the Swedish throne. It would have been embarrassing to say the least to execute the grandfather of a prospective king.

Swedish heritage and death as an outcast

And in fact, fate has it that in 1947 Gustavus Adolphus lost his life in a plane crash in Copenhagen and that in 1950 Gustavus V of Sweden also died. Gustav VI Adolf ascends the throne and appoints Sibylla’s son as successor. Adenazification courtjust this year he declassified Carlo Edoardo’s position and inflicted only one on himpecuniary penaltybut it is expensive to the point of creating serious economic difficulties for him, also because he no longer has the income he once had and the possessions in Coburg and Saxony, or in Eastern Germany under Soviet control, have been confiscated. He’s doing really badly and themark of infamyprevents him from attending the funeral of his cousin George VI and the coronation of Elizabeth II, with the double veto of the German and English federal governments. He died, consumed by cancer, on March 6, 1954, in the apartment where he lived. On 15 September 1973 the grandson will ascend the throne of Sweden asCarl XVI Gustavcurrent ruler.