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Honored Contributor
Posts: 36,053
Registered: ‎08-19-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

Hope Ernest doesn't marry that dark haired gal and give her and future children his disease.

Have to Google him and see if that's what he died of

Honored Contributor
Posts: 36,053
Registered: ‎08-19-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

[ Edited ]

Who was Albert’s brother Prince Ernst?

Portrait of Ernst

As little boys, Ernst and Albert were brought up like twins with a close bond that was only strengthened by their family troubles. According to their childhood tutor, “they went hand-in-hand in all things, whether at work or at play. Engaging in the same pursuits, sharing the same joys and the same sorrows, they were bound to each other by no common feelings of mutual love.”

The two German princes had to endure their parents’ separation and divorce and their mother’s banishment: they never saw her again before her death, which came only a few years later. Their father the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had endless affairs and liaisons, barely pausing to marry his sister’s daughter the Duchess Marie who became the boys’ stepmother (as well as their first cousin). All in all it was a weird childhood.

Ernest and Albert first visited their “eligible” cousin Victoria in 1836. She found Ernest lively and sociable with a love of gossip and also approved of Albert, but – despite the hopes of the boys’ families – no marriage proposal for either Prince was forthcoming. So off they went back to the continent. Ernst trained in the military and both brothers then went to the University of Bonn, before setting off on a trip around Europe.

In 1839 they went back to England to visit Victoria, who had now become Queen. It was Albert who caught her eye and five days later she proposed.

Ernst now needed to marry and advance the family name, just like his brother.

Who did Ernst marry in real life – and did he have syphilis?

Victoria: Harriet and Ernst

Ernest suffered from venereal disease in his late teens and early 20s, which was partly his father’s fault for encouraging him to live a wild, promiscuous lifestyle. The Duke took his sons to sample the “pleasures” of Paris and Berlin, something which horrified Albert but appealed a great deal to his older brother.

Ernst’s appearance and his health deteriorated, and by the time he visited England in 1839 – on the trip where Albert became engaged – he was noticeably ill, with the Queen’s lady-in-waiting Sarah Lyttelton describing him as “very thin and hollow-cheeked and pale”.

Still, many wives were considered for Ernst but he remained unmarried until his mid-20s. Prince Albert initially encouraged him to get married, but after he found out about his brother’s disease he advised him to wait until he was better.

By 1842 his symptoms had presumably improved because he tied the knot with Princess Alexandrine of Baden. Her parents were only a a minor Grand Duke and the daughter of the deposed King of Sweden, not an ideal match as far as Ernst’s ambitious family was concerned – but two years later, Ernst’s father died and he himself became Duke.

Alexandrine was an absolutely loyal and devoted wife, but unfortunately the years went by and the marriage remained childless. Even though it’s extremely likely that the problem was Ernst’s as his venereal disease made her infertile, she blamed herself and stuck by him – while he seems to have shown her little regard. He was unfaithful and continued to have affairs, fathering at least three illegitimate children and at one point bringing two mistresses to live with him and his wife. Alexandrine seems to have turned a blind eye and continued to call him “Ernst, my treasure”, baffling outsiders.

After their marriage, Alexandrine and Ernst visited Victoria and Albert in England and the two couples got on extremely well, although the trip had to be cut short when Ernst’s new wife became ill. But later, after her husband’s death, Queen Victoria expressed her disapproval of both her brother-in-law and sister-in-law: Ernst was embarrassingly open about his lovers, and Alexandrine was scandalously willing to put up with it and be humiliated.

Despite the souring relationship, childless Ernst agreed to take Victoria’s second son as his heir to the ducal throne.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,260
Registered: ‎04-20-2013

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday


@kelsey17wrote:

I have enjoyed this series too.....but i was very disappointed when Rufus Sewell (Lord M)  left the series....i enjoyed him with Victoria.........Albert is ok.......but i must admit i don't love his speaking voice in this role....a bit creepy for me....

do like Ernest.....can't believe it is a Season finale already!!


I too love this show, but when Albert is speaking I only understand half of his words...very difficult to understand.....

Contributor
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎05-10-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

I saw this and decided to read what you had to say   I have enjoyed this show   I found the article about Alberts brother very interesting   I too am looking forward in watching the new show that will startin April   Please post a reminder when this show will start

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,640
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

[ Edited ]

I've never seen the actor that plays Albert in anything else, does he normally talk like this in other roles or IRL?  I realize he's using a German accent for this role, but is that his normal tone of voice or was this how Albert actually talked?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,845
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

@aubnwa01 I wondered about Albert's speaking voice too.  I just don't care for him and his mumbling....not to mention he never smiles.  Ernest is much more personable (at least on the series) and charming.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,640
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

@haddon9  Photos of Tom Hughes actually smiling are hard to come by!  I listened to a couple snippets of interviews with him on You Tube & he's very soft spoken, but he does sound better with his natural British accent than the way he speaks in that mumbling German accent in the show.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 43,246
Registered: ‎01-08-2011

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

Loved this!  When Albert fell through the ice, I "knew that was the end"!  I guess the loss on the Abbey will be forever in my mind.

 

Loved the splender of Albert's Christmas!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 36,053
Registered: ‎08-19-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday

Thank God Ms. Cook is getting married. She was so desperate it was pathetic. Don't know how successful of a marriage it will be given her fiancee's preferences, but, she won't be a spinster.

 

I'd rather be a spinster, but, that wasn't the mindset back then.

 

Ernest did the right thing by pushing off that gal who threw herself at him and at least Uncle Leopold finally told her why.  In real life Harriet was married and had 11 kids think I read and hardly knew Ernest.

 

I deplore what they do when they do these shows. Made up fiction for the most part. That whole African child thing I don't remember reading about.

 

Who cares about Mrs. Skeritt and Mr. Penge. LOL Waste of time. Plenty to cover on the Queen and now she is expecting # 4 which I think will be 'Alfie' and will be born with hemophilia and will eventually die. Victoria, was a carrier of the gene and passed it down to 2 of her daughters.

 

 I 'THINK' women are carriers, but, can't get the disease only sons get it.

Women pass the gene thru the daughters and they pass it to their sons.

I'll have to study up on it to be sure, but, seems what I've read.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,095
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Victoria Season Finale Sunday


@SharkEwrote:

Who was Albert’s brother Prince Ernst?

Portrait of Ernst

As little boys, Ernst and Albert were brought up like twins with a close bond that was only strengthened by their family troubles. According to their childhood tutor, “they went hand-in-hand in all things, whether at work or at play. Engaging in the same pursuits, sharing the same joys and the same sorrows, they were bound to each other by no common feelings of mutual love.”

The two German princes had to endure their parents’ separation and divorce and their mother’s banishment: they never saw her again before her death, which came only a few years later. Their father the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had endless affairs and liaisons, barely pausing to marry his sister’s daughter the Duchess Marie who became the boys’ stepmother (as well as their first cousin). All in all it was a weird childhood.

Ernest and Albert first visited their “eligible” cousin Victoria in 1836. She found Ernest lively and sociable with a love of gossip and also approved of Albert, but – despite the hopes of the boys’ families – no marriage proposal for either Prince was forthcoming. So off they went back to the continent. Ernst trained in the military and both brothers then went to the University of Bonn, before setting off on a trip around Europe.

In 1839 they went back to England to visit Victoria, who had now become Queen. It was Albert who caught her eye and five days later she proposed.

Ernst now needed to marry and advance the family name, just like his brother.

Who did Ernst marry in real life – and did he have syphilis?

Victoria: Harriet and Ernst

Albert suffered from venereal disease in his late teens and early 20s, which was partly his father’s fault for encouraging him to live a wild, promiscuous lifestyle. The Duke took his sons to sample the “pleasures” of Paris and Berlin, something which horrified Albert but appealed a great deal to his older brother.

Ernst’s appearance and his health deteriorated, and by the time he visited England in 1839 – on the trip where Albert became engaged – he was noticeably ill, with the Queen’s lady-in-waiting Sarah Lyttelton describing him as “very thin and hollow-cheeked and pale”.

Still, many wives were considered for Ernst but he remained unmarried until his mid-20s. Prince Albert initially encouraged him to get married, but after he found out about his brother’s disease he advised him to wait until he was better.

By 1842 his symptoms had presumably improved because he tied the knot with Princess Alexandrine of Baden. Her parents were only a a minor Grand Duke and the daughter of the deposed King of Sweden, not an ideal match as far as Ernst’s ambitious family was concerned – but two years later, Ernst’s father died and he himself became Duke.

Alexandrine was an absolutely loyal and devoted wife, but unfortunately the years went by and the marriage remained childless. Even though it’s extremely likely that the problem was Ernst’s as his venereal disease made her infertile, she blamed herself and stuck by him – while he seems to have shown her little regard. He was unfaithful and continued to have affairs, fathering at least three illegitimate children and at one point bringing two mistresses to live with him and his wife. Alexandrine seems to have turned a blind eye and continued to call him “Ernst, my treasure”, baffling outsiders.

After their marriage, Alexandrine and Ernst visited Victoria and Albert in England and the two couples got on extremely well, although the trip had to be cut short when Ernst’s new wife became ill. But later, after her husband’s death, Queen Victoria expressed her disapproval of both her brother-in-law and sister-in-law: Ernst was embarrassingly open about his lovers, and Alexandrine was scandalously willing to put up with it and be humiliated.

Despite the souring relationship, childless Ernst agreed to take Victoria’s second son as his heir to the ducal throne.


Please fix..Albert did not suffer from VD as a child, Ernst however did.