Princess Alexandrine of Baden spent fifty years in one of the most uncomfortable positions in European royalty.
She was the wife of a man who conducted affairs openly, kept mistresses in the same house as his wife, and spent his later years as a figure of quiet ridicule among the younger generation of royals.
Through all of it, Princess Alexandrine of Baden remained loyal, dignified, and by most accounts genuinely devoted to a husband who did little to deserve it. Queen Victoria, who adored Alexandrine as a person, struggled to understand how she tolerated it.
Who Was Princess Alexandrine of Baden?
Princess Alexandrine of Baden was born Alexandrine Luise Amalie Friederike Elisabeth Sophie on 6 December 1820 in Karlsruhe, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
She was the eldest of eight children of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden, and his wife, Princess Sophie of Sweden, a daughter of King Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden.
Her mother’s Swedish lineage gave Princess Alexandrine of Baden a direct descent from King George II of Great Britain through her maternal great-grandmother.
She grew up at one of the more culturally sophisticated courts in the German states, and her early life was one of the quietly privileged existences typical of the European aristocracy of the era.
The Tsar Who Did Not Marry Her
In 1838 and 1839, Tsarevich Alexander of Russia, the future Emperor Alexander II, made the Grand Tour of Europe that was conventional for young men of his rank.
His father, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, had suggested Princess Alexandrine of Baden as a suitable bride. Negotiations between the Russian and Baden courts proceeded to the point where Princess Alexandrine of Baden considered herself betrothed.
On his way home from the tour, Alexander stopped at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt, where he met Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. He chose her instead. The betrothal to Princess Alexandrine of Baden was quietly dissolved. Alexander and Marie married in 1841.
Marriage to Ernest II
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who married Queen Victoria in 1840, was convinced that a suitable marriage would improve the character of his elder brother Ernest, then heir to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Albert advocated for Princess Alexandrine of Baden as the right match. Ernest was less enthusiastic about the institution of marriage in general, but agreed.
In January 1842, Ernest travelled to Karlsruhe to propose. His approach was reportedly direct to the point of bluntness, telling Alexandrine that she should either say yes and allow them to get to know each other, or simply decline in one word.
She said yes. Princess Alexandrine of Baden and Ernest married on 13 May 1842 in Karlsruhe. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were present at the ceremony. Ernest succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 29 January 1844.
A Marriage Without Children
Before his marriage, Ernest had contracted a venereal disease through his numerous affairs. Medical opinion at the time warned him that continued behaviour of this kind could leave him unable to father children.
The marriage produced no heirs. Ernest went on to father at least three illegitimate children, making clear where the problem lay, but Princess Alexandrine of Baden appears to have believed, or accepted the suggestion, that the childlessness was her own fault.
Ernest continued his affairs throughout the marriage. At one point he maintained two mistresses while living in the same household as Princess Alexandrine of Baden, an arrangement that Queen Victoria described in a letter to one of her children as perfectly monstrous. Victoria could not understand how Alexandrine accepted it. Alexandrine, for her part, showed no public sign of complaint.
At Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, a small and memorable incident illustrated how the marriage had come to be regarded. Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse recalled how Alexandrine would trail behind her husband calling out his name with affection.
Grand Duke Sergei of Russia, not realising that Ernest was approaching from the other end of the room, imitated Alexandrine’s call. Sergei saw the look on Prince Ernest Louis’s face, turned, and both men fled in separate directions.
Her Character and Her Work
Princess Alexandrine of Baden was not merely a loyal and suffering wife. She used her position to do practical good. During the Franco-German War of 1870 to 1871, she worked with the Red Cross, treating German wounded soldiers. She received the Bavarian Order of Theresa and the Prussian Order of Louise in recognition of this work.
She funded an all-girls school, the Gymnasium Alexandrinum, through a dedicated school foundation. She also supported the Ernst Foundation, which provided assistance to students in financial need. On her death she left 620,000 marks from her personal assets to the people of Coburg.
Victoria came to regard Princess Alexandrine of Baden as something close to a sister. She loved Ernest for Prince Albert’s sake, and genuinely valued Alexandrine independently of her husband.
Later Life and Death
Ernest II died on 22 August 1893 after a short illness. As the marriage had produced no children, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha passed to Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Princess Alexandrine of Baden survived her husband by eleven years, living quietly at Schloss Callenberg in Coburg as Dowager Duchess. She died on 20 December 1904 at the age of 84. She was buried in the Ducal Mausoleum at Friedhof am Glockenberg in Coburg, alongside her husband.
She outlived Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, and Ernest by decades, and spent those decades largely out of public life. Princess Alexandrine of Baden had given her loyalty to a man who did not return it and her money to people who needed it. History has been quiet about her. She was not.
