Charles Edward (Leopold Charles Edward George Albert;19 July 1884 – 6 March 1954) was the last sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, reigning from 30 July 1900 to 14 November 1918, and later was a Nazi party politician.
His parents were Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont. His paternal grandparents were Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Charles Edward's father, a haemophiliac like many other European royals, died before his son's birth. Charles Edward was brought up as a British prince. He was a sickly child who developed a close relationship with his grandmother and his only sibling, Alice. He was privately educated, lastly at Eton College.
In 1899, Charles Edward was selected to succeed to the throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a state of the German Empire, because he was deemed young enough to be re-educated as a German. He moved to Germany at the age of 15. Between 1899 and 1905, he was put through various forms of education, guided by his cousin, German Emperor Wilhelm II. He ascended the ducal throne in 1900 upon the death of his uncle, Duke Alfred, but reigned through a regency until 1905. In 1905, Wilhelm II arranged for his niece Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein to marry Charles Edward. The couple had five children: Johann Leopold, Sibylla, Hubertus, Caroline Mathilde, and Friedrich Josias. Princess Sibylla was the mother of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Charles Edward was a conservative ruler with an interest in art and technology. He tried to emphasize his loyalty to his adopted country through various symbolic gestures. Still, his continued Anglophilia and closeness to the British royal family were off-putting to both his subjects and the German elite. During the First World War, he chose to support the German Empire and participated in the Imperial German Army in non-combatant positions due to a disability. The German Revolution deposed him like the other German monarchs. He had also lost his British titles due to his decision to side against the British Empire.
During the 1920s, the former duke became a moral and financial supporter of violent far-right paramilitary groups in Germany. By the early 1930s, he was supporting the Nazi Party and joined the party in 1933. He was given various positions in the Nazi regime, including being made leader of the German Red Cross. He was involved in promoting eugenicist ideas which provided a basis for the murder of many disabled people. He acted as an informal diplomat for the regime, and was especially involved in attempting to shift opinion among the British upper class in a more pro-Nazi direction. His attitudes became more pro-Nazi during the Second World War, though it is unclear how much of a political role he played. After the war, he was interned for a period and was given a minor conviction by a denazification court. He died of cancer in 1954.
