Prince Francis of Teck

Prince Francis
Born (1870-01-09)9 January 1870
Kensington Palace, London, England
Died 22 October 1910(1910-10-22) (aged 40)
Balmoral Castle, Scotland
Burial Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore
House Württemberg
Father Francis, Duke of Teck
Mother Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
Teck-Cambridge Family
Francis, Duke of Teck
Adolphus, Marquess of Cambridge
Alexander, Earl of Athlone
The Duchess of Teck with her children, about 1884.

Prince Francis of Teck GCVO DSO (9 January 1870 – 22 October 1910), was the second son of the Duke of Teck and brother of Queen Mary, queen consort to King George V.

Family

Francis Joseph Leopold Frederick, known as "Frank", was born at Kensington Palace and educated at Wellington College, Cheltenham College (Stone, 1912, p. xviii)[1] and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

His father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created the Countess von Hohenstein). His mother was the Duchess of Teck (née Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge), the youngest daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge and a granddaughter of King George III. Frank was styled His Serene Highness Prince Francis of Teck at birth.

Personal life

Prince Francis was a gambler, whose debts led to him being sent to pursue his military career in India.

Prince Francis never married. According to Julia P. Gelardi's Born to Rule, Prince Francis was vigorously pursued by Maud of Wales, his sister's sister-in-law. The two exchanged letters, but it soon became clear that Francis was not interested in Maud. She went on to marry her first cousin Prince Carl of Denmark, becoming Queen of Norway in 1905.

Francis had an affair with society beauty Ellen Constance, wife of Francis Needham, 3rd Earl of Kilmorey,[2] to whom he allegedly bequeathed the Cambridge emeralds, part of the Teck family jewels. In order to recover these family heirlooms, his sister May, by this time Queen Mary, had Francis's will sealed by a court, and subsequently negotiated with Lady Kilmorey to buy back the emeralds, reportedly paying her ₤10,000 for them.[3]

The English actress Sarah Miles has claimed to be the great-granddaughter of Prince Francis, through her grandfather, allegedly an illegitimate son of the prince called Francis Remnant, born at Richmond, Surrey, in 1894.[4]

Military career

He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and served in the Lancers and the Royal Rifle Corps before joining the Royal Dragoons in 1890. He rose to the rank of Major, before retiring in 1901.

In 1902 he again visited South Africa, and following the end of hostilities returned to England in June that year on board the SS Kinfauns Castle.[6]

Death and legacy

He died suddenly in 1910 at the age of forty, having caught pneumonia at Balmoral.[7]

On his early death, shortly before his sister's coronation as queen of the United Kingdom, Francis of Teck's will set a legal precedent when it was sealed, to avoid potential scandal.[8] The document remains unpublished, and subsequent royal wills have followed this tradition.

He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.

Ancestors

References

  1. ↑ Stone, E.D. (1912), Herbert Kynaston: a short memoir with selections from his occasional writings. London, Macmillan and Co., Ltd. Retrieved September 6, 2011 from https://archive.org/stream/herbertkynastons00kynauoft/herbertkynastons00kynauoft_djvu.txt
  2. ↑ "Ellen Constance (née Baldock), Countess of Kilmorey". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  3. ↑ "The Cambridge Emeralds and the Delhi Durbar Parure". From Her Majesty's Jewel Vault.
  4. ↑ Sarah Miles, A right royal bastard (1993), p. 20: "Clarice... the eldest child of Francis (Frank) Remnant, bastard son of Prince Francis of Teck".
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 27377. p. 7395. 15 November 1901.
  6. ↑ "The Army in South Africa - Troops returning home". The Times (36790). London. 10 June 1902. p. 14.
  7. ↑ "Secret wills of the royals - a tale of mistresses, jewels and cover-ups". Guardian. 27 March 2007.
  8. ↑ "Philandering Prince Frank set seal on wills". Daily Telegraph. 28 Mar 2007.
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