biography
| name: |
Albert, Prince
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in full Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1819–61)
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| biography:
| Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, EC Germany, the younger son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Louisa, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg. He studied in Brussels and Bonn, and in 1840 married his first cousin, Queen Victoria - a marriage that became a lifelong love match. Ministerial distrust and public misgivings because of his German connections limited his political influence, although his counsel was usually judicious and far-sighted. He took a keen interest in industry, technology, and the arts, and presided over the Royal Commission that raised support for the Great Exhibition of 1851, whose profits enabled the building of museum sites in South Kensington and the Royal Albert Hall (1871). He died of typhoid in 1861, occasioning a long period of seclusion by his widow. The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens was erected to his memory in 1871. |
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