Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein

Infobox British Royalty|highness
name =Prince Albert
title =Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
predecessor =Ernest Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
successor =Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
full name =Albert John Charles Frederick Arthur George
titles ="HH" The Duke of Schleswig-Hostein
"HH" Prince Albert
"HH" Prince Albert of Schleswig-Hostein
royal house =House of Oldenburg
father =Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
mother =Princess Helena of the United Kingdom
date of birth =birth date|1869|2|26|df=y
place of birth =Frogmore House, Windsor
date of death =death date and age|1931|4|27|1869|2|26|df=y
place of death =Berlin, Germany
occupation =Military|

Prince Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (Albert John Charles Frederick Arthur George; 26 February 1869 - 27 April 1931) was a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was the second son of Victoria's daughter, Princess Helena, by her husband Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. He was 1921-31 the Head of the House of Oldenburg and also Duke of Augustenborg in Danish titulary and the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.

Military career

Like his elder brother, Prince Christian Victor, Albert was destined for a military career. However, while Christian Victor's was in the British Army, Albert served with the Prussian Army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Uhlans of the Guard. During the First World War he was excused from service against the British by the German Emperor, and spent the war in Berlin on the staff of the Governor of the city.

Duchy

In 1921, the Prince succeeded as the head of the Augustenborg branch of the House of Schleswig-Holstein, following his childless cousin Duke Ernst Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. This was the senior branch of the House of Oldenburg, to which the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the King of Denmark, the King of Norway, the King of the Hellenes, the former Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the Russian Imperial Family belonged.

uccession

As the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and as the Head of the House of Oldenburg, Duke Albert was succeeded by his distant cousin Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Glucksburg (who happened to also be the husband of a daughter of Albert's uncle Frederick August of Augustenborg).

Titles, styles, honours and arms

*1869-1917: "His Highness" Prince Albert of Schleswig-Hostein
*1917-1921: "His Highness" Prince Albert
*1921-1931: "His Highness" The Duke of Schleswig-Hostein

Issue

Despite never marrying, Prince Albert fathered a daughter, Valerie Marie. Born 3 April 1900 in Liptovský Mikuláš, Hungary, she was placed with a Jewish family called Schwalb. On 15 April 1931 shortly before his death, Albert wrote to her and admitting her paternity. Then, on 12 May, she changed her surname from Schwalb, the name of her foster family, to "zu Schleswig-Holstein".

On 28 June 1925, in Vienna, Valerie Marie -then only the daughter of the Schwalb family- married with the lawyer Ernst Johann Wagner, but divorced him on 14 February 1938 and this childless marriage was annulled in Salzburg on 4 October 1940. When she intended to marry again, it became important to establish her parentage officially, as the Nazi laws prohibited marriages between Jews and Aryans. This was done with the assistance of her aunts, Helena Victoria and Marie Louise; they signed a statement attesting to her paternal lineage, who, on 26 July 1938, officially acknowledged her.

In Berlin-Charlottenburg on 15 June 1939 a civil marriage took place between her and Prince Engelbert-Charles, 10th Duke of Arenberg, and, after the annulment of her first marriage a religious ceremony took place in Münster near Westfalen, on 9 October 1940; like his first marriage, this union was childless too. Valerie Marie died in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, on 14 August 1953 in a apparent suicide. She never knew the identity of her mother.

Latest complete investigations and documents of adoptión of the Schwalb family they have demonstrated that indeed she was daughter of Baroness Bertha Marie Madeleine of Wernitz (b. 17 August 1868 in Berlin), who died 4 April 1900 in Liptovský Mikuláš, as a consequence of Valerie Marie's childbirth. [ [http://www.dinastias.com/cgi-bin/gwd.exe?b=dinastias;lang=en;i=40499 Valerie zu Schleswig-Holstein ] ] [ [http://www.europeandynasties.com/descendants_of_adelold_i_von_wer.htm Descendants of Adelold I von Wernitz ] ] [ [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/oldenburg/oldenburg4.html Oldenburg 4 ] ]

Ancestry

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1= 1. Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
2= 2. Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
3= 3. Princess Helena of the United Kingdom
4= 4. Christian, Duke of Augustenborg
5= 5. Countess Lovisa-Sophie Danneskiold-Samsøe
6= 6. Albert, Prince Consort
7= 7. Victoria of the United Kingdom
8= 8. Frederik Christian II, Duke of Augustenborg
9= 9. Louise Auguste of Denmark
10= 10. Christian Conrad Sophus, Count of Danneskiold-Samsøe
11= 11. Johanne Henriette Valentine Kaas
12= 12. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
13= 13. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
14= 14. Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
15= 15. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
16= 16. Frederik Christian I, Duke of Augustenborg
17= 17. Princess Charlotte of Holstein-Plön
18= 18. Johann Friedrich Struensee
19= 19. Caroline Matilda of Great Britain
20= 20. Frederick Christian, Count of Danneskiold-Samsøe
21= 21. Friedericke Louisa von Kleist
22= 22. Frederick Christian Kaas
23= 23. Edele Sophie Kaas
24= 24. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
25= 25. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf
26= 26. Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
27= 27. Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
28= 28. George III of the United Kingdom
29= 29. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
30= 30. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (= 24)
31= 31. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf (= 25)

References