Prince Albert | |||||
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Prince Consort | |||||
Portrait by Winterhalter, 1859
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Consort of the British monarch | |||||
Tenure | 10 February 1840 – 14 December 1861 | ||||
Born |
Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Germany |
26 August 1819||||
Died | 14 December 1861 Windsor Castle, Berkshire, UK |
(aged 42)||||
Burial | 23 December 1861 St George's Chapel, Windsor; 18 December 1862 Frogmore, Windsor |
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Spouse | Queen Victoria (m. 1840) | ||||
Issue |
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House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
Father | Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
Mother | Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg |
Full name | |
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Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel German: Franz Albrecht August Karl Emanuel |
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel;created Prince Consort 1857; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband of Queen Victoria.
He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria; they had nine children. Initially he felt constrained by his role of consort, which did not afford him any power or responsibilities, but gradually developed a reputation for supporting many public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery worldwide, and was entrusted with running the Queen's household, office and estates. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a resounding success.
The Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. He aided the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his wife to be less partisan in her dealings with Parliament—although he actively disagreed with the interventionist foreign policy pursued during Lord Palmerston's tenure as Foreign Secretary.
Albert died at the relatively young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victoria's death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, named after the ducal house to which Albert belonged.