Monday, August 20, 2012

The Civil List: 1901 & 1910



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In 1901, King Edward VII's Civil list was £470,000.  This amount covered "Their Majesties' Privy Purse," staff salaries, expenses for the King's household, Works, Royal Bounty Alms and Special Services, and the final category "Unappropriated."  £8000 fell into the final category.

In 1901, the Prince of Wales received £20,000 per year.  The Princess of Wales received £10,000.  The other members of the royal family who received a Civil List appanage (for their expenses) were the Duke of Connaught (£25,000), Empress Friedrich (£8,000), Princess Christian (Princess Helena) of Schleswig-Holstein (£6,000), Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (£6,000), Princess Henry of Battenberg (£6,000), Duchess of Edinburgh (£6000), the Duchess of Albany ($6000), the Duke of Cambridge (£12,000), the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (£3000), and Edward's daughters shared £18,000.


There were few changes to the 1910 Civil List. The new King received the same amount as his father.   Queen Alexandra was added to the 1910 Civil List.  She received £70,000 a year.  No appropriations were made for King George V's young children.

With the exception of Empress Friedrich and the Duke of Cambridge, as both died during the reign of Edward VII, there were no other changes to the amount of money provided to members of the Royal Family, including the widows of Queen Victoria's younger sons and the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the former Princess Augusta of Cambridge, a granddaughter of George III.  She received £3000 per year, which had been approved by Parliament in 1843 and included in her marriage treaty.

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 The Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Stretliz's annuity was suspended by the British Government in September 1914. The matter was debated in Parliament as the "payment arose out of a contract made before the war began," according to a New York Times report. The British government proposed that the payments be stopped because the Grand Duchess had become a German subject by marriage.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George confirmed that the payments to Princess Augusta had been "suspended." The final payment was made on July 6, 1914.   The Dowager Grand Duchess, Queen Mary's maternal aunt, died in 1916.

Sir John Jardine, in a parliamentary debate on November 18, 1914, asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any "grand dukes, dukes, or other sovereign princes of the German Empire, or any of their relations, being subjects of the German Emperor, are in receipt of pensions, allowances, or other money payments out of the public funds of the United Kingdom?

Lloyd George responded that the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz's pension had already been suspended, but the annuities to Princess Christian and Princess Henry of Battenberg were being paid, these princesses being British subjects who were resident in the United Kingdom. In the case of the Duchess of Edinburgh, it was held, as stated in 1893 by the then Solicitor-General in the House of Commons, that the late duke did not lose his British nationality by taking the Oath of Allegiance as Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and the payment of the annuity to the duchess is being continued in view of this fact and of the terms of the Treaty between Great Britain and Russia of 22nd January 1874.

The Duchess of Edinburgh's pension was brought up again in a debate on June 5, 1917, when Arthur Lynch, MP, asked Stanley Baldwin, then Financial Secretary of the Treasury, if the Duchess' annual annuity of £6000 was being paid during the war.  He referred to the duchess as the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Mr. Baldwin responded, "An annuity of £6,000 has been paid during the war to the Duchess of Edinburgh under license, and the payment is being continued in consequence of the terms of the Treaty of 22nd January 1874, between Great Britain and Russia."

The Duchess of Edinburgh received her annuity until her death in 1920.

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2 comments:

Wymanda said...

I find it odd that two princesses who married into foreign houses continued to be payed an anuity. Surely it was up to their husbands and country of marriage to maintain their lifestyle???

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

why would it be odd to continue to pay Princess Christian and Princess Henry? They were daughters of Queen Victoria. Prince Christian was one of a number of princes of Schleswig-Holstein, and he had no fortune. Prince Henry of Battenberg was one of several children of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine who married morganatically to Countess Julie von Hauke, who was created a Princess of Battenberg. Henry's brother Louis married Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (his first cousin once removed). The princesses were Princess Helena and Princess Beatrice - and they and their husbands remained in the UK. Christian and Henry were upgraded by QV to HRH, and they became British nationals. Helena and Beatrice carried out many engagements throughout their lives. Helena was very interested in nursing and has at least one hospital named for her. The children of these marriages were all born in England, apart from Beatrice's daughter, Ena, who was born in Scotland. (She married the King of Spain.) Henry was a member of the Privcy Council and served in the Ashanti campaign, where he contracted malaria and died. Victoria also gave the HH to the children of these two marriages, the Battenbergs were Serene highnesses by original creation. Thus, the titles were foreign, but the families were members of the British royal family. Helena's eldest son Christian Victor died from injuries as a British soldier. Poor Albert, though, had to become German when he became heir to the SH estates. During the war, he asked to have a desk job in Berlin because he did not want to fight the British as he was born in England, and his mother was a British princess. He did not lose his British nationality.
The two daughters were Princesses Helena Victoria and Marie Louise. The latter was briefly married to Aribert of Anhalt. In 1917, they dropped the of Schleswig-Holstein and were known as HH Princess Helena Victoria and HH Princess Marie Louise (who wrote a wonderful memoir, My Memories of Six Reigns) Both were active in many charities. Beatrice had four children, Alexander (created Marquess of Carisbrooke in 1917), Ena (Queen of Spain) Leopold (Lord Leopold Mountbatten, who died following surgery as he was a hemophiliac) and Prince Maurice who was killed in France during the first weeks of the first world war. He was a British soldier.
Britain was the country of marriage ... and neither husband had a fortune. Victoria wanted these daughters to remain in England with her. She did not want to send another daughter to marry in a foreign country. The eldest daughter, Victoria, who married the future German emperor, also received an allowance up through her death - this was probably established in the marriage treaty.