Deutsche Version
Leopold's posthumous son was born on July 19, 1884 at Claremont House in Exeter. He was named Charles Edward and he inherit his father title of Duke of Albany. Because of genetic laws of inheritance, he was not an haemophiliac like his father. Charles Edward was brought up in England, being educated at Eaton. When he was fifteen years old, in 1900, his uncle Alfred, Leopold's brother, died.of cancer. Alfred was first duke of Edinburgh; later on, he inherited the dukedom of Saxe Coburg and Gotha at the death of Prince Albert's brother, Duke Ernst. Alfred's only son had died in 1899 without issue, so it was decided that Charles Edward should inherit his uncle's dukedom. He went to live in Germany and became Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. His mother, Princess Helen, said: "I have always tried to bring Charlie up as a good Englishman and now I have to turn him into a god German.
Charles Edward attended to Leichterfelde Miliatry Cadet School, the German equivalent to Sandhurst.. He married Victoria Adelheid of Schleswig Holstein, a niece of Kaiser Wilhelm's wife, Empress Augusta Victoria, in October 11, 1905. He was promoted to the rank of general in the German Army. His wife bore him five children: Hereditary Prince Johann Leopold, Princess Sibylla, Prince Hubertus, Princess Karoline Mathilde and Prince Fredrich Josias
At the outbreak of World War I, Charles Edward found himself in a difficult possition; he was proud of his German rank but at the same time, he didn't want to take up arms against England, his country
of birth. In 1918, at the collapse of the German Empire, he was forced to abdicated the ducal throne and he was stripped of his British titles. Afterwards, Charles Edward gave support to all the militant groups that sprang up in Germany, which purpose was to rebuild and free Germany from the humilliate conditions of the treaty of Versailles. He bacame a leading member of the Germany National Peoples Party (DNVP), supported mainly by aristocrats and wealthy people in general. In 1931, he promoted the Harzburg Front, an alliance between the DNVP and the Nazis (National Socialist Party), supported minly by middle class and workers. The Nazis got prestige form this alliance and in 1933, they became the strongest party in Germany. In the elections of that year the Nazis received 44% of the votes; the DNVP only the 8%, giving the alliance the 52%. Few months after the elections, the Nazis absorbed the DNVP by Hitler's ordeal. Most of DNVP members, including Charles Edward, joined the Nazis. Charles Edward became a Group Leader in the Brownshirts.
Hitler sent Charles Edward to England as president of the Anglo-German fellowship. Hios mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and to see the possibility of pact between both countries. After the death of King George V in 1936, Charles Edward had a converstaion with the new King, Edward VIII. He later reported Hitler thet King Edward believed in an alliance with Germany; according to him the King wanted himself to talk with Hitler instead of the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. But the Anglo-German talks would stayed in nothing at the King's abdication in late 1936.
Charles Edward continued sending Hitler reports which encourage the Fhurer to exagerate the strenght of the pro-German party in England.
When the War ended, Coburg was took by the American forces of General Patton, who allowed Charles Edward to continue living with his family in his castle of Veste. In 1946 he was senteced to a denazification court and heavily fined. He lived his last years in seclusion and in poverty in Coburg. He died on March 6, 1954. The dukedom was inherited by his youngest son, Friedrich Josias, since his eldest son, Johann Leopold, had married morganatically and his second son, Hubertus had died in action in 1943. Charles Edward's daughter Sibylla married the Swedish Prince Gustaf Adolf and she was the mother of King Charles XIII Gustaf of Sweden.