Prince Francis of Teck
Prince Francis ( "Frank" ) Joseph Leopold Fredrick of Teck, GCVO, DSO ( born January 9, 1870 Kensington Palace, in London today, † October 22, 1910 in London ) was a British nobleman Württemberg descent. He was a younger brother of Queen Mary of Teck.
Life
His Serene Highness Prince Francis ( called Frank, German name Franz ) was the second son of Duke Francis of Teck, the founder of the unebenbürtigen Württemberg branch line Teck and his wife, the British Princess Mary Adelaide.
While his sister Mary became engaged to the future heir to the throne and his brothers Adolphus and Alexander did in the military career and were considered socially, Francis was considered a " black sheep " of the family. Already at boarding school - he and his older brother were the first members of the British Royal Family, who attended a public school from 1882 - he fell on by bad behavior. He had to leave the Wellington College after he had thrown the headmaster over a hedge and then visited the Cheltenham College.
From his chronically stuck in dire financial straits mother, whose favorite son he was, he had inherited the inability to deal with money. He was a gambler, the playful to the bulk of his fortune with horse betting. Handsome and life had remained unmarried Prince Francis - not without reason - a reputation as a notorious womanizer; him numerous extramarital affairs and illegitimate children were even rumored. The actress Sarah Miles claims about to be his descendant. An advantageous engagement to his relatives Princess Maud, who was very interested in him, struck from Francis.
After attending the Military Academy Sandhurst, Prince Francis in 1890 joined the Royal Dragoons Regiment. After he had lost in 1895 with a single horse bet £ 10,000 and could not pay, he was in 1896 transferred to India, where he served as aide- de-camp of the commander in Quetta. 1897/98 he served in the Anglo- Egyptian army and took part in the final defeat of the Mahdi uprising in the Sudan ( Nile campaign, battles of Atbara and Khartoum ). After services in England and Ireland, he fought 1899/1900 in South Africa in the Second Boer War. In 1901 he left the rank of major active military service, where he was popular with his comrades. He eventually became chairman of the Middlesex Hospital, for which he collected funds.
1907 proclaimed the New York Times the engagement of Prince Francis with Nora Langhorne, daughter of the American railroad entrepreneur Chiswell Langhorne and sister of Nancy Astor, but this was denied again the next day. Francis ', however, probably the only " true love " with which he actually held a long-standing unspoken but well known in the family and circle of friends relationship, was Ellen " Nellie " Constance Baldock. Nellie Baldock, daughter of Edward Holmes Baldock parliamentarian, however, was not only much older, but already married to the Earl of Kilmorey, mother, and possibly a former mistress of Edward VII
In 1910, Prince Francis underwent an operation in the nasal area. For recovery, but also about the tortured relationship with his siblings to improve, he spent the summer in the Scottish Balmoral, the summer holiday residence of the royal family. His sister had recently become queen after the death of her father. Francis ' condition worsened, however, and here he was treated by the royal physician James Reid. However, when a severe pleurisy was ( according to other sources pneumonia) discovered he was quickly transported back to London and operated, but it was too late; Finally, with only 40 years, he died in the presence of the king and queen of blood poisoning.
Under condolences to his family, he was buried in the crypt of St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle; later found a reburial at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore instead.
Testament: scandal of the Cambridge Emeralds
The grief of his family beat him to indignation when Francis ' Testament was known: He inherited an important family heirloom, the Cambridge Emeralds, not to his sister, as had been widely expected, but to his beloved Nellie Baldock. Such an open admission of his relationship had the potential, his sister, whose coronation was just about to bring into disrepute. Queen Mary decided, therefore, to be sealed his will with judicial decision, thus depriving the public ( in contrast to the wills of ordinary citizens that are made public). This practice has since been maintained to this day for all members of the royal family and confirmed by the court in 2007 after a complaint in relation to the will of Princess Margaret.
The Cambridge Emeralds are approximately 30 to 40 emeralds, which had been acquired by Auguste, Duchess of Cambridge, Francis ' grandmother, and her husband. As the heir reached the jewels to Francis ' mother, who in turn transmitted it to him. After his death and inheritance to his beloved Queen Mary bought the Emeralds secretly back for significantly inflated price of £ 10,000 of Nellie Baldock; the jewels were then incorporated into the Parure that Mary wore at the coronation in India and have since been located in royal possession.