For many years, the story circulated – a story that, alas, has been proven to be untrue – that Prince Albert’s biological father was a Jew. His mother did have an affair with the “Court Jew” Baron von Meier, but this was somewhat later. If the story had been true, the author of this blog, whose ancestors had a family connection by marriage (through the first cousin of his grandmother) with Baron von Meier, would have ties – even not exactly intimately close ties – to practically every existing royal family.
The legendary facts were as follows:
Soon after she became queen in 1837, Victoria decided to marry her cousin, Albert. He was assumed to be the second son of Grand Duke Ernest of Saxe Coburg.
In 1934, Laurence Housman published the play Victoria Regina, which became a great success on Broadway when Helen Hayes played the queen. In England, the Lord Chamberlain did not permit a performance because it presented members of the royal family who were still alive. But another reason may have been that it contained a scene that stated that Lord Melbourne, the prime minister, only allowed Victoria to marry Albert because he was not the son of Grand Duke Ernest. There had been reports that the Grand Duke was suffering from an unnamed and undesirable disease.
Mr. Tudor, British Minister at the Court of Saxe-Coburg Gotha: If your Lordship wishes to prevent the marriage with Prince Albert, it can be done quite easily.
Lord Melbourne: I’ve been trying all I know how. And it’s God damn difficult. She shut me down – as if I were nobody. I’ve tried more than once.
Tudor: It need not be difficult, my Lord. You have merely to state certain facts, and – the match will be off.
Melbourne: Well, now you do interest me, exceedingly! Already morganatically married to some German wench, eh?
Tudor: Oh, no, no. Nothing of that sort. The Prince has a blameless character. The same cannot be said about his late mother, the Duchess.
Melbourne: No, so I.… Her parents separated over something, I believe.
Tudor: They separated when the Prince was five years old. She went to live in Paris; he never saw her again. The cause of the separation was of more than five years’ standing, my Lord. (This is said with meaning.)
Melbourne (rising, with sharp interest): Heh? You don’t say so!
Tudor: After five years the parties forgot to be prudent; the thing got about.
Melbourne (sitting down): Who was — the other party?
Tudor: One of the Court Chamberlains: a very charming and accomplished person, but a commoner, and of Jewish extraction.
Melbourne (pondering deeply): Dear me! Dear me! … Healthy?
Tudor: Oh, quite.… You have only to tell Her Majesty that her cousin, Prince Albert, is not quite so much her cousin as she imagines.
• • • • •
Lord Melbourne believed a Jew would have been preferable as the father of future kings or queens of England than a man suffering from the hereditary condition of hemophilia. Since Albert was the biological son of Grand Duke Ernest of Saxe Coburg, who was thought to be a hemophiliac, Lord Melbourne would have preferred Albert to be the baron’s son. But, as it happened, he was wrongly informed, and there was nothing wrong with Victoria’s father-in-law.
Source: “I Remember The Location Exactly”by Eric Koch
