Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein KG GCVO PC ADC (Frederick Christian Charles Augustus; 22 January 1831 – 28 October 1917) was a minor Danish-born German prince who became a member of the British Royal Family through his marriage to Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, the fifth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Prince Christian
Born(1831-01-22)22 January 1831
Augustenborg, Denmark
Died28 October 1917(1917-10-28) (aged 86)
Schomberg House, London
Burial1 November 1917
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
23 October 1928
Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore
Spouse
Issue
Full name
Frederick Christian Charles Augustus
HouseSchleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
FatherChristian, Duke of Augustenborg
MotherCountess Louise Sophie of Danneskiold-Samsøe

Early life

Prince Christian was born in Augustenburg Palace. He was the second son of Christian August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and his wife, Countess Louise Sophie of Danneskiold-Samsøe.

In 1848, young Christian's father, Duke Christian August, placed himself at the head of a movement to resist by force the claims of Denmark upon the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, two personal possessions of the kings of Denmark, of which Holstein also was a part of the German Confederation. A year earlier, King Frederick VII acceded to the Danish throne without any hope of producing a male heir. Unlike Denmark proper, where the Lex Regia of 1665 allowed the throne to pass through the female royal line, in Holstein Salic Law prevailed. The duchy would most likely revert to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg family, their cadet branch of the house of Holstein-Sonderburg. During the 1852 First War of Schleswig, Prince Christian briefly served with the newly constituted Schleswig-Holstein army, before he and his family were forced to flee the advancing Danish forces (see history of Schleswig-Holstein). After the war, he attended the University of Bonn, where he befriended Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (later the German Emperor Frederick III).

Marriage

In September 1865, while visiting Coburg, The Princess Helena met Prince Christian. The couple became engaged in December of that year. Queen Victoria gave her permission for the marriage with the proviso that the couple live in Great Britain. They married at the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle on 5 July 1866. Seven days before the wedding, on 29 June 1866, the Queen granted her future son-in-law the style of Royal Highness by Royal Warrant.[1]

Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, as they were known, made their home at Frogmore House in the grounds of Windsor Castle and later at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. They had six children, known commonly as:[2]

Honours and offices
Garter encircled arms of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, as displayed on his Order of the Garter stall plate in St. George's Chapel.

Orders and decorations

Military and civil appointments

Prince Christian was given the rank of major general in the British Army in July 1866[14] and received promotions to the ranks of lieutenant general in August 1874[15] and general in October 1877.[16] From 1869 until his death, he was honorary colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment. However, he never held a major field command or staff position. He was High Steward of Windsor[17] and Ranger of Windsor Great Park, and was awarded a Doctor of Civil Law degree by the University of Oxford. He received the freedom of the city of Carlisle on 7 July 1902, during a visit to the city for the Royal Agricultural Society′s Show.[18]

As a "Minor Royal", he officiated at many public functions. These included participation, with the Princess Helena, in the speech day of Malvern College in 1870.[19]

Death

Prince Christian died at Schomberg House, Pall Mall, in October 1917, in his eighty-sixth year. He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore in Windsor Great Park.

Ancestry

References
  1. "No. 23133". The London Gazette. 3 July 1866. p. 3816.; National Archives, HO 38/61, p.396-397
  2. Charles Mosley, editor-in-chief, Burke’s peerage & baronetage, 106th ed. Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1999. ISBN 2-940085-02-1.
  3. "No. 23141". The London Gazette. 20 July 1866. p. 4099.
  4. "No. 26541". The London Gazette. 10 August 1894. p. 4606.
  5. "No. 27281". The London Gazette. 5 February 1901. p. 765.
  6. "No. 26725". The London Gazette. 27 March 1896. p. 1960.
  7. Shaw, William Arthur (1906). The Knights of England. 1. London: Sherratt & Hughes. p. 416.
  8. "Herzoglich Hausorden Albrechts des Bären", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch für das Herzogthum Anhalt (in German), Dessau, 1894, p. 17, retrieved 16 June 2020
  9. "Großherzogliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtums Baden (in German), Karlsruhe, 1884, pp. 60, 72, retrieved 16 June 2020
  10. "Königliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreichs Bayern (in German), Munich, 1908, p. 9, retrieved 16 June 2020
  11. Rangliste der Königlich Preußischen Armee und des XIII. (Königlich Württembergischen) Armeekorps für 1914 [List of Ranks of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914] (in German). Berlin: Ministry of War, Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Son. 1914. p. 361.
  12. "Herzoglich Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden", Staatshandbuch für die Herzogthümer Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (in German), Gotha: Thienemann, 1865, p. 20, retrieved 16 June 2020
  13. "Kungl. Svenska Riddare-Ordnarne". Sveriges statskalender (in Swedish). 1905. p. 441. Retrieved 16 June 2020 – via runeberg.org.
  14. "No. 23133". The London Gazette. 3 July 1866. p. 3817.
  15. "No. 24132". The London Gazette. 18 September 1874. p. 4431.
  16. "No. 24508". The London Gazette. 2 October 1877. p. 5457.
  17. "thePeerage.com - Index to High Stewards". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  18. "Court Circular". The Times (36814). London. 8 July 1902. col a, p. 10.
  19. Cookson, R.T.C, ed. (1905), The Malvern Register 1865-1904, (Originally compiled by Laurence Sidney Milward & Edward Clifford Bullock) (2nd ed.), Malvern, UK: Malvern Advertiser, p. xvi, retrieved 29 August 2010 2009 reprint via Google books (Note: Google's authorship citation is inaccurate - see Internet Archive version for actual title page)
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