How to get Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on the throne of the UK?

A question for all of you, if one were to want Queen Victoria's second son Alfred, otl Duke of Edinburgh on the throne of the UK, how would one go about achieving that?
 
A question for all of you, if one were to want Queen Victoria's second son Alfred, otl Duke of Edinburgh on the throne of the UK, how would one go about achieving that?

Assuming Victoria's children are born as in OTL
(and you are not going to propose a mass death toll in the Saxe-Coburgs)
then you have to kill off Albert Edward , Prince of Wales before the conception of any of his children
because as Victoria's first son he and any of them would inherit before the "spare"

Assuming no other changes ITTL, then the latest date for this would be spring 1863 ( Albert Victor being born January 1864)

His father Albert the Prince consort died in 1861, supposedly of Typhoid though other theories propose a more chronic illness.

If it was typhoid, just have A E catch the same strain with the same result

a more dramatic alternative would be to have them blown up by Fenian Terrorists when both were at the Curragh Army camp in August 61
 
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The biological POD is quite likely .. given that there was a minor Typhoid epidemic in Europe in 1861

the Prince consort even visited Cambridge where Edward returned to "study" after his time in the Army at the Curragh. (He was whisked away because of his sexual adventures which were becoming a bit too indiscreet)

The chemical POD is plausible because the Fenian Brotherhood was founded in Dublin in late '58
though OTL they did not begin their murder campaigns for some years ... having no real support in Ireland at that time.
 
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Okay so if one goes with the bilogicial pod how do you think Alfred would develop as prince of Wales and later King?
 
Okay so if one goes with the bilogicial pod how do you think Alfred would develop as prince of Wales and later King?

Hard to say,

assuming that Victoria survives the double blow and lives for roughly the same time
I'd assume Alfred would be much like his brother ... a solution in search of a problem.

in OTL much like the current DoE he was a serving RN officer
in this ATL, I think Alfred would be denied that career
(He was genuinely a Captain though his ship was given mostly diplomatic and goodwill missions
which to all accounts he performed well ... so I suppose he could have held his own as Heir)

In his youth he was physically tough enough to survive an assassins bullet in Australia,
Shot in the back while at a fund raising event for a local charity ... the man was probably mad ... even the Prince argued against execution ... but he was an Irish emigrant and hung "just in case"
However in later life, he became frailer.
In fact Alfred died in 1900 i.e. before his mother so he would never have become King unless you kill her off too :eek:

As to his character
In middle age, he was know as a cultured gentleman and philanthropist - though in music his taste was better than his personal ability to play.

As for actual political ability
When promoted to Admiral, and given a real fleet to handle, he was well regarded as an organizer and something of a technical expert on naval innovations
OTL he only became a nominal ruler in 1893, long after Saxe Coburg had been swallowed by the Prussian Empire
so he was only a figurehead but in his short reign he was accepted as well intentioned.

He might have filled in his fathers role as the Queens balance wheel better than "Bertie"
 
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Okay interesting hmm, how might he develop as a King if his mother dies in the 1870s or 1880s?

Sorry you caught me updating my own post

Best I can do is quote (some of) the changes I made

When promoted to Admiral in the 1870s, and eventually given a real fleet to handle, he was well regarded as an organizer and something of a technical expert on naval innovations

OTL he only became a nominal ruler of Saxe Coburg in 1893, long after Saxe Coburg had been swallowed by the Prussian Empire
so he was only a figurehead but in his short reign he was accepted as well intentioned.

FWIW I think he might have filled in his fathers role as the Queens balance wheel better than "Bertie" until her death
and there after been as good a monarch as she was but of course without the huge prestige her "seniority" and "matriachal position" gave her.

My main concern would be whether he had the "cosmopolitan" outlook that Edward developed
and which proved so important in the 1900s to counter the rise of Prussia.
 
Hmm interesting.

Not sure about the cosmopolitan outlook as his social and political views are never mentioned in anything I've read about him. Perhaps we could see that as going to the middle ground?
 
Hmm interesting.

Not sure about the cosmopolitan outlook as his social and political views are never mentioned in anything I've read about him. Perhaps we could see that as going to the middle ground?

As I see it, the problem is the timeline

OTL Alfred was interested enough in the RN to suggest it as a career himself
In line with the practice at the time joined his first ship at ~ 14 years in 1858.
He did not make Lieutenant til 1863 and command itself till 1866 (about normal for a the time)

If his father and older brother dies in 1861 he is only 17 years old and still a midshipman.
He had already done some diplomatic glad handing but was hardly a seasoned royal
and would hardly be in a position to step into his fathers shoes at his mother side.

My take would be he would be whisked home and kept in cotton wool.


My conclusion: OTL Alfred tells us very little about ATL Alfred
 
Very true.

My own problem is I have more knowledge on the naval side than I do the home politics
(and that only as by extension of my "Age of Sail" investigations)

I'd be working from a position of ignorance and using first principles to try and construct the ATL Alfred
 
My own problem is I have more knowledge on the naval side than I do the home politics
(and that only as by extension of my "Age of Sail" investigations)

I'd be working from a position of ignorance and using first principles to try and construct the ATL Alfred
Fair enough.

I do think his naval career being ended would have a lot of lastin effects
 
To get him on the throne? Have him sneak into the throne room and sit on it? To make him King? Make his brother a gay blade in the vernacular of today rather than then and have him really not like women and so resist marriage right up until the time he dies of typhoid.
 
To get him on the throne? Have him sneak into the throne room and sit on it? To make him King? Make his brother a gay blade in the vernacular of today rather than then and have him really not like women and so resist marriage right up until the time he dies of typhoid.
#controversial
 
Only controversial in that the older brother refused to play nice about marriage. Usually the upper-crust homosexual men of that era (and before) got married, produced at least an heir and went about their business while the wife did hers. Sometimes the heir produced wasn't the product of mr. and mrs. upper-crust but mrs. u-c and whomever she entertained herself with. But, unless the child was repudiated by the father, it was legally considered the child of the woman's husband......
 
Only controversial in that the older brother refused to play nice about marriage. Usually the upper-crust homosexual men of that era (and before) got married, produced at least an heir and went about their business while the wife did hers. Sometimes the heir produced wasn't the product of mr. and mrs. upper-crust but mrs. u-c and whomever she entertained herself with. But, unless the child was repudiated by the father, it was legally considered the child of the woman's husband......

Wasn't there a case of someone marrying into an aristocratic family - the earls of something, but fearing the madness that ran in it. The Countess told the prospective fiancé very plainly he had nothing to fear, since none of her daughters were the earl's.
Easiest is still, IMO, Bertie miscarrying or dying in infancy.
 
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