Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore
The Royal Burial Ground is a cemetery used by the British Royal Family. Consecrated on the 23rd October 1928, it surrounds the Royal Mausoleum, built in 1862 to house the tomb of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the burial ground lies on the Frogmore Estate, part of Windsor Home Park, in the English county of Berkshire. Many members of the Royal Family except for sovereigns and their consorts, have been interred on the Royal Burial Ground, among them Queen Victoria's children and one sovereign: Edward VIII, 1894–1972. In the adjacent Frogmore Gardens stands the mausoleum of Queen Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; some members of the British Royal family were reburied at this cemetery in 1928, having been interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Prince Francis of Teck, brother of Queen Mary. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 5 November 1910 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught, wife of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.
Cremated on the evening of 18 March 1917 at Golders Green Crematorium as first member of the Royal Family to be cremated, ashes put in an oak coffin for funeral at St George's Chapel on 19 March 1917 placed in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, husband of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 1 November 1917 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Lord Leopold Mountbatten, grandson of Queen Victoria through his mother Princess Henry of Battenberg. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 1 May 1922 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 15 June 1923 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1928 Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, a former Prince of Teck and brother of Queen Mary and husband of Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge.
Funeral at St George's Chapel on 29 October 1927 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. His coffin is in the same grave as that of his wife. 1928 Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon, son of Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 19 April 1928 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1929 Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, wife of the 1st Marquess of Cambridge. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 30 March 1929 interred in the Royal Burial Ground, her coffin is in the same grave as that of her husband. 1935 Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, daughter of King Edward VII. Interred in the Royal Burial Ground on 9 December 1935. 1938 Prince Arthur of Connaught, son of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 16 September 1938 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1940 Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the 9th Duke of Argyll. Cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, ashes put in an oak coffin for funeral at St George's Chapel on 12 December 1939 placed in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel.
1942 Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 23 January 1942 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1948 Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, daughter of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 17 March 1948 interred in the Royal Burial Ground. 1956 Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, daughter of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Helena of the United Kingdom and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 14 December 1956 interred in the Royal Burial Ground. 1957 the Earl of Athlone, brother of Queen Mary and husband of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. A former Prince of Teck, former Governor-General of South Africa and a former Governor General of Canada. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 19 January 1957 interred in the Royal Burial Ground, his coffin is in the same grave as that of his wife. 1968 Prince George, Duke of Kent, son of King George V, husband of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
Funeral at St George's Chapel on 29 August 1942 interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel. 1968 Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, wife of Prince George, Duke of Kent. Interred in the Royal Burial Ground on 30 August 1968. 1972 Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, eldest son of King George V and King Edward VIII. Funeral at St George's Chapel on 5 June 1972 interred in the Royal Burial Ground. 1972 Prince William of Gloucester, son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Interred in the Royal Burial Ground on 2 September 1972. 1972 Sir Alexander Ramsay
Edward VII
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe, he was heir apparent to the British throne and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. He was heir presumptive to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until before his marriage he renounced his right to the duchy, which devolved to his younger brother Alfred. During the long reign of his mother, he was excluded from political power, came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite, he travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties, represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, but despite public approval his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother; as king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War.
He reinstituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor; the Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism. He died in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis, resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was born at 10:48 in the morning on 9 November 1841 in Buckingham Palace, he was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was christened Albert Edward at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 25 January 1842.
He was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was known as Bertie to the royal family throughout his life; as the eldest son of the British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth. As a son of Prince Albert, he held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony, he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 8 December 1841, Earl of Dublin on 10 September 1849 or 17 January 1850, a Knight of the Garter on 9 November 1858, a Knight of the Thistle on 24 May 1867. In 1863, he renounced his succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother, Prince Alfred. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were determined that their eldest son should have an education that would prepare him to be a model constitutional monarch. At age seven, Edward embarked on a rigorous educational programme devised by Prince Albert, supervised by several tutors.
Unlike his elder sister Victoria, Edward did not excel in his studies. He to no avail. Although Edward was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent and of sweet manner. After the completion of his secondary-level studies, his tutor was replaced by a personal governor, Robert Bruce. After an educational trip to Rome, undertaken in the first few months of 1859, he spent the summer of that year studying at the University of Edinburgh under, among others, the chemist Lyon Playfair. In October, he matriculated as an undergraduate at Oxford. Now released from the educational strictures imposed by his parents, he enjoyed studying for the first time and performed satisfactorily in examinations. In 1861, he transferred to Trinity College, where he was tutored in history by Charles Kingsley, Regius Professor of Modern History. Kingsley's efforts brought forth the best academic performances of Edward's life, Edward looked forward to his lectures.
In 1860, Edward undertook the first tour of North America by a Prince of Wales. His genial good humour and confident bonhomie made the tour a great success, he inaugurated the Victoria Bridge, across the St Lawrence River, laid the cornerstone of Parliament Hill, Ottawa. He watched Charles Blondin traverse Niagara Falls by highwire, stayed for three days with President James Buchanan at the White House. Buchanan accompanied the Prince to Mount Vernon, to pay his respects at the tomb of George Washington. Vast crowds greeted him everywhere, he met Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Prayers for the royal family were said in Trinity Church, New York, for the first time since 1776; the four-month tour throughout Canada and the United States boosted Edward's confidence and self-esteem, had many diplomatic benefits for Great Britain. Edward had hoped to pursue a career in the British Army, but his mother vetoed an active military career, he had been gazetted colonel on 9 November 1858—to his disappointment, as he had wanted to earn his commission by examination.
In September 1861, Edward was sent to Germany to watch military manoeuvres, but in order to engineer a meeting between him and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the eldest daughter of Prince Christian of Denmark and his wife Louise. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had decided that Edward and Alexandra should marry, they met at Speyer on 24 September under the auspices of his elder sister, who ha
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so. In 1910 he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of St John and held this position until 1939. Arthur was educated by private tutors before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich at the age of 16. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the British Army, where he served for some 40 years, seeing service in various parts of the British Empire. During this time he was created a royal duke, becoming the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, as well as the Earl of Sussex. In 1911, he was appointed as Governor General of Canada, he occupied this post until he was succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire in 1916. He acted as the King's, thus the Canadian Commander-in-Chief's, representative through the first years of the First World War. After the end of his viceregal tenure, Arthur returned to the United Kingdom and there, as well as in India, performed various royal duties, while again taking up military duties.
Though he retired from public life in 1928, he continued to make his presence known in the army well into the Second World War, before his death in 1942. He was Queen Victoria's last surviving son. Arthur was born at Buckingham Palace on 1 May 1850, the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; the prince was baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Bird Sumner, on 22 June in the palace's private chapel. His godparents were Prince William of Prussia; as with his older brothers, Arthur received his early education from private tutors. It was reported, it was at an early age that Arthur developed an interest in the army, in 1866 he followed through on his military ambitions by enrolling at the Royal Military College at Woolwich, from where he graduated two years and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 18 June 1868. The Prince transferred to the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 2 November 1868 and, on 2 August 1869, to the Rifle Brigade, his father's own regiment, after which he conducted a long and distinguished career as an army officer, including service in South Africa, Canada in 1869, Egypt in 1882, in India from 1886 to 1890.
In Canada, Arthur, as an officer with the Montreal detachment of the Rifle Brigade, undertook a year's training and engaged in defending the Dominion from the Fenian Raids. Following his arrival at Halifax, Arthur toured the country for eight weeks and made a visit in January 1870 to Washington, D. C. where he met with President Ulysses S. Grant. During his service in Canada he was entertained by Canadian society, it was not, all social and state functions for Arthur. Arthur made an impression on many in Canada, he was given on 1 October 1869 the title Chief of the Six Nations by the Iroquois of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario and the name Kavakoudge, enabling him to sit in the tribe's councils and vote on matters of tribe governance. As he became the 51st chief on the council, his appointment broke the centuries-old tradition that there should only be 50 chiefs of the Six Nations. Of the Prince, Lady Lisgar, wife of Governor General of Canada the Lord Lisgar, noted in a letter to Victoria that Canadians seemed hopeful Prince Arthur would one day return as governor general.
Arthur was promoted to the honorary rank of colonel on 14 June 1871, substantive lieutenant-colonel in 1876, colonel on 29 May 1880 and, on 1 April 13 years was made a general. He gained military experience as Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army from December 1886 to March 1890, he went on to be General Officer Commanding Southern District, at Portsmouth, from September 1890 to 1893. The Prince had hoped to succeed his first cousin once-removed, the elderly Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, as Commander-in-chief of the British Army, upon the latter's forced retirement in 1895, but this desire was denied to Arthur, instead he was given, between 1893 and 1898, command of the Aldershot District Command. In August 1899 the 6th Battalion, Rifles of the Canadian Non-Permanent Active Militia, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, asked Prince Arthur to give his name to the regiment and act as its honorary colonel; the regiment had been converted to the infantry role from the 2nd Battalion, 5th British Columbia Regiment of Canadian Artillery.
With the Prince's agreement the unit was renamed 6th Regiment, Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles on 1 May 1900. He was subsequently appointed colonel-in-chief of the regiment k
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the consort of William I, German Emperor. Augusta was the second daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. While her father was an intellectually limited person, whose preferred reading up to the end of his life was fairy tales, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spoke of Augusta's mother Marie as "one of the best and most significant women of her time." Augusta received a comprehensive education, including drawing lessons from the court painter, Luise Seidler, as well as music lessons from the court bandmaster, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Augusta was only fifteen years old when, in 1826, she first met her future husband, Prince Wilhelm, more than fourteen years older than her. William thought the young Augusta had an "excellent personality," yet was less attractive than her older sister Marie, whom William's younger brother, had married.
Above all, it was William's father. At this time, William was in love with the Polish Princess Elisa Radziwill; the Crown Prince at the time was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm. He and his wife Elisabeth Ludovika had no children. Although it was not anticipated that they would remain childless, the court did expect that William, as heir presumptive to the throne, should make a dynastic marriage and produce further heirs. King Frederick William III was indulgent of the relationship between his son William and Elisa, but the Prussian court had discovered that her ancestors had purchased their princely title from Emperor Maximilian I, she was not deemed noble enough to marry a potential King of Prussia. Crown Princess Elisabeth Ludovika, who as a Bavarian princess was considered to be of correct rank, counted both Bogusław Radziwiłł and Janusz Radziwiłł among her ancestors, albeit through female descent, it was suggested by some courtiers that if Eliza Radziwill was adopted by a family of adequate rank a marriage with Prince William was possible.
In 1824, the Prussians turned to the childless Alexander I of Russia to adopt Elisa, but the Russian Tsar declined. The second adoption plan by Elisa's uncle, Prince Augustus of Prussia failed because the responsible committee considered that adoption does not change "the blood." Another factor was the Mecklenburg relations of the deceased Queen Louise's influence in the German and Russian courts. Thus, in June 1826, William's father felt forced to demand the renunciation of a potential marriage to Elisa. Thus, William spent the next few months looking for a more suitable bride, but did not relinquish his emotional ties to Elisa. William asked for Augusta's hand in marriage on 29 August. Augusta agreed and on 25 October 1828, they were engaged. Historian Karin Feuerstein-Prasser has pointed out on the basis of evaluations of the correspondence between both fiancées, what different expectations William had of both marriages: He wrote to his sister Charlotte, the wife of Nicholas I of Russia, with reference to Elisa Radziwill: "One can love only once in life, really" and confessed with regard to Augusta, that "the Princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold."
Augusta liked her future husband and hoped for a happy marriage, in the end, it was an inwardly happy marriage despite outward appearances. On 11 June 1829, William married his fiancée in the chapel of Schloss Charlottenburg; the first weeks of marriage were harmonious. In a letter which William wrote on 22 January 1831 to his sister Charlotte, he has mixed feelings of his wife's "lack of femininity". Prince Friedrich, was born that year on 18 October 1831, three years after their marriage and Louise, was born on 3 December 1838, seven years later. Augusta was interested in politics. Like so many other liberally-minded people of the time, she was hopeful regarding the accession of Frederick William IV, her brother-in-law, regarded as a modern and open king. However, he refused to grant a constitution to Prussia and led a far more conservative government than was expected from his liberal ideals during his years as the crown prince. A "united Landtag" was created by the King in reaction to the crop failures and hunger revolts of 1847, but was dissolved a few months later.
Prince William was held responsible for the bloodshed of the March revolution in 1848, in Berlin and on the advice of the King, William fled to London, Augusta and their two children withdrew to Potsdam. In liberal circles, an idea was discussed as to whether or not to force the King to abdicate, the Crown Prince renounce his rights to the throne, instead have Augusta take up a regency for their son; because the letters and diaries of that time were destroyed by Augusta, it is not clear whether she considered this option. After, in May 1848, 800 members of the German National Assembly met in the Frankfurter Paulskirche to discuss German unification and Prince William returned from London the following month. A year in 1849, he was appointed Governor-General of the Rhine Province and in the spring of 1
Order of the Thistle
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order; the Order consists of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights and Ladies, as well as certain "extra" knights. The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order; the Order's primary emblem is the national flower of Scotland. The motto is Nemo me impune lacessit; the same motto appears on the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom for use in Scotland and some pound coins, is the motto of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, Scots Guards, The Black Watch of Canada and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. The patron saint of the Order is St Andrew. Most British orders of chivalry cover the whole United Kingdom, but the three most exalted ones each pertain to one constituent country only; the Order of the Thistle, which pertains to Scotland, is the second-most senior in precedence. Its equivalent in England, The Most Noble Order of the Garter, is the oldest documented order of chivalry in the United Kingdom, dating to the middle fourteenth century.
In 1783 an Irish equivalent, The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick, was founded, but has now fallen dormant. The claim that James VII was reviving an earlier Order is not supported by the evidence; the 1687 warrant states that during the 786 battle of Athelstaneford with Æthelstan of East Anglia, the cross of St Andrew appeared in the sky to Achaius, King of Scots. This seems unlikely. An alternative version is that the Order was founded in 809 to commemorate an alliance between Achaius and Emperor Charlemagne, yet another is Robert the Bruce instituted the order after his victory at Bannockburn in 1314. Most historians consider the earliest credible claim to be the founding of the Order by James III, during the fifteenth century, he adopted the thistle as the royal badge, issued coins depicting thistles and conferred membership of the "Order of the Burr or Thissil" on Francis I of France. However, there is no conclusive evidence for this. Writing around 1578, John Lesley refers to the three foreign orders of chivalry carved on the gate of Linlithgow Palace, with James V's ornaments of St Andrew, proper to this nation.
Some Scottish order of chivalry may have existed during the sixteenth century founded by James V and called the Order of St. Andrew, but lapsed by the end of that century. James VII issued letters patent "reviving and restoring the Order of the Thistle to its full glory and magnificency" on 29 May 1687, his intention was to reward Scottish Catholics for their loyalty but the initiative came from John, 1st Earl and 1st Jacobite Duke of Melfort Secretary of State for Scotland. Only eight members out of a possible twelve were appointed. After James was deposed by the 1688 Glorious Revolution and no further appointments were made until his younger daughter Anne did so in 1703, it remains in existence and is used to recognise Scots'who have held public office or contributed to national life.' James, Earl of Perth. When James VII revived the Order, the statutes stated that the Order would continue the ancient number of Knights, described in the preceding warrant as "the Sovereign and twelve Knights-Brethren in allusion to the Blessed Saviour and his Twelve Apostles".
In 1827, George IV augmented the Order to sixteen members. Women were excluded from the Order. From time to time, individuals may be admitted to the Order by special statutes; such members do not count towards the sixteen-member limit. Members of the British Royal Family are admitted through this procedure. King Olav V of Norway, the first foreigner to be admitted to the Order, was admitted
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war, he was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, the Third Battle of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive, the Hundred Days Offensive. Although he had gained a favourable reputation during the immediate post-war years, with his funeral becoming a day of national mourning, Haig has, since the 1960s, become an object of criticism for his leadership during the First World War, he was nicknamed "Butcher Haig" for the two million British casualties endured under his command. The Canadian War Museum comments, "His epic but costly offensives at the Somme and Passchendaele have become nearly synonymous with the carnage and futility of First World War battles." Conversely, he led the BEF during the final Hundred Days Offensive when it crossed the Canal du Nord and broke through the Hindenburg line, capturing 195,000 German prisoners.
This campaign, in combination with the Kiel mutiny, the Wilhelmshaven mutiny, the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918, civil unrest across Germany, led to the armistice of 11 November 1918. It is considered by some historians to be one of the greatest victories achieved by a British-led army. Major-General Sir John Davidson, one of Haig's biographers, praised Haig's leadership, since the 1980s many historians have argued that the public hatred in which Haig's name had come to be held failed to recognise the adoption of new tactics and technologies by forces under his command, the important role played by British forces in the allied victory of 1918, that high casualties were a consequence of the tactical and strategic realities of the time. Haig was born in a house on Edinburgh, his father John Richard Haig—an irascible alcoholic—was middle class, though as head of the family's successful Haig & Haig whisky distillery, he had an income of £10,000 per year, an enormous amount at the time.
His mother, was from a gentry family fallen into straitened circumstances. Rachel's cousin, Violet Veitch, was mother of the playwright and performer Noël Coward. Haig's education began in 1869 as a boarder at Mr Bateson's School in St Andrews. In 1869, he switched to Edinburgh Collegiate School, in 1871 to Orwell House, a preparatory school in Warwickshire, he attended Clifton College, a public school. Both of Haig's parents died by the time. After a tour of the United States with his brother, Haig studied Political Economy, Ancient History and French Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford, 1880–1883, he devoted much of his time to socialising – he was a member of the Bullingdon Club – and equestrian sports. He was one of the best young horsemen at Oxford and found his way into the University polo team. Whilst an undergraduate he was initiated as a Freemason in Elgin’s Lodge at Leven No. 91 at Leven, taking the first and second degrees of Freemasonry. In 1920 the Earl of Eglinton encouraged Haig to complete his Masonic progression, he returned to his lodge to take the third degree, subsequently serving as Worshipful Master of the lodge from 1925 to 1926.
He became an officer of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Although he passed his final exam at Oxford, he was not eligible for a degree as he had missed a term's residence due to sickness, if he had stayed for longer he would have been above the age limit to begin officer training at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, which he entered in January 1884; because he had been to university, Haig was older than most of his class at Sandhurst. He was Senior Under-Officer, was awarded the Anson Sword, passed out first in the order of merit, he was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 7th Hussars on 7 February 1885. Early in his military career, Haig played polo for England on a tour of the United States, he would remain a polo enthusiast all his life, serving as Chairman of the Hurlingham Polo Committee from its reorganization in May 1914 until 1922. He would be President of the Army Polo Committee and founder of the Indian Polo Association. Haig saw overseas service in India, where he was appointed the regiment's adjutant in 1888.
He was something of a disciplinarian, but impressed his superiors by his administrative skill and analysis of recent training exercises. He was promoted to captain on 23 January 1891. Haig left India in November 1892 to prepare for the entrance exam for the Staff College, which he sat in June 1893. Although he was placed in the top 28 candidates he was not awarded a place as he had narrowly failed the compulsory mathematics paper, he concealed this failure for the rest of his life and recommended dropping the mathematics paper as a requirement. The Adjutant-General Sir Redvers Buller refused to award Haig one of the four nominated places, citing his colour blindness, despite Haig having his eyesight rechecked by a German oculist and despite Haig's glowing testimonials from various senior officers, some of them lobbied by Haig and his sister, it has been postulated that Buller was looking for a rationale in order to give a place to an infantry officer. Haig returned to India
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a German dynasty that ruled the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, one of the Ernestine duchies. It is a cadet branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. Founded by Ernest Anton, the sixth duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, it has been the royal house of several European monarchies. Agnatic branches reign in Belgium through the descendants of Leopold I and in the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms through the descendants of Prince Albert. Due to anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I, George V changed the name of his branch from "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "Windsor" in 1917; the same happened in 1920 in Belgium, where the name was changed to "de Belgique" or "van België" or "von Belgien", meaning "of Belgium". The first duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was Ernest I, who reigned from 1826 until his death in 1844, he had been Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from 1806 until the duchy was reorganized in 1826. Ernest's younger brother became King of the Belgians in 1831, his descendants continue to serve as Belgian heads of state.
Léopold's only daughter, Princess Charlotte of Belgium, was the consort of Maximilian I of Mexico, she was known as Empress Carlota of Mexico in the 1860s. Ernest I's second son, Prince Albert, married Queen Victoria in 1840, thus is the progenitor of the United Kingdom's current royal family, called Windsor since 1917. In 1826, a cadet branch of the house inherited the Hungarian princely estate of the Koháry family, converted to Roman Catholicism, its members managed to marry a queen-regnant of Portugal, an imperial princess of Brazil, an archduchess of Austria, a French royal princess, a royal princess of Belgium and a royal princess of Saxony. A scion of this branch named Ferdinand, became ruling Prince, Tsar, of Bulgaria, his descendants continued to reign there until 1946; the current head of the House of Bulgaria, the former Tsar Simeon II, deposed and exiled after World War II, goes by the name of Simeon Sakskoburggotski and served as Bulgaria's prime minister from 2001 to 2005. The ducal house consisted of all male-line descendants of John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld legitimately born of an equal marriage and females, their wives in equal and authorised marriages, their widows until remarriage.
According to the House law of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the full title of the Duke was: There were two official residences, in Gotha and Coburg. Therefore, the whole ducal court, including the court theatre, had to move twice a year: from Gotha to Coburg for the summer and from Coburg to Gotha for the winter. For the Court Theater, two identical buildings had to be built in 1840 in Gotha and Coburg and thereafter maintained at the same time. In addition to the residential castles, Friedenstein in Gotha and Ehrenburg in Coburg, the ducal family used the Schloss Reinhardsbrunn in Gotha, as well as the Rosenau and Callenberg Castles in Coburg, a hunting lodge in Grein, Austria. Ernest I 1826–1844 Ernest II 1844–1893 Alfred 1893–1900 Charles Edward 1900–1918 Charles Edward 1918–1954 Friedrich Josias 1954–1998 Andreas 1998–presentAlthough the ducal branch is eponymous with the dynasty, its head is not the senior member of the family genealogically or agnatic. In 1893, the reigning duke Ernest II died childless, whereupon the throne would have devolved, by male primogeniture, upon the descendants of his brother Prince Albert.
However, as heirs to the British throne, Albert's descendants consented and the law of the duchy ratified that the ducal throne would not be inherited by the British monarch or heir apparent. Therefore, the German duchy became a secundogeniture, hereditary among the younger princes of the British royal family who belonged to the House of Wettin, their male-line descendants. Instead of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales inheriting the duchy, it was diverted to his next brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Upon the latter's death without surviving sons, it went to the youngest grandson of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany. Charles Edward's uncle Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and his male line had renounced their claim. Although senior by birth, they were either not acceptable to the German Emperor as either a member of the British military or unwilling to move to Germany; the current head of the ducal branch is the grandson of Charles Edward. Since the duchy was abolished in 1918, the heads use the title Prince rather than Duke.
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry is a Catholic cadet branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was founded with the marriage of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, with Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág, their second son Prince August inherited the estates of the House of Koháry in Austria. August's youngest son became Ferdinand I of Bulgaria; the Portuguese line was founded by Prince Ferdinand's eldest son, Ferdinand the younger, who married Queen Maria II of the House of Braganza and became king himself. It was overthrown in the Revolution of 1910, after which it became extinct in 1932 upon the death of Manuel II. Duarte Nuno of Braganza and his successors were descendants of the banished Miguelist line. Pedro V Luís I Carlos I Manuel II Ferdinand I Boris III Simeon II In 2001, elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria as Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha—also known as
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