Father Francis, Duke of Teck | Name Prince of | |
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Born 9 January 1870 ( 1870-01-09 ) Mother Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge Died October 22, 1910, Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom Parents Francis, Duke of Teck, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge Siblings Mary of Teck, Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge Cousins Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Grandparents Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Similar People Francis - Duke of Teck, Mary of Teck, Princess Mary Adelaide, Prince Adolphus - Duke of C, Alexander Cambridge - 1st Earl of | ||
Prince Francis of Teck (9 January 1870 – 22 October 1910) was the brother of the British queen Mary of Teck, wife of King George V.
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Family
Francis Joseph Leopold Frederick, known as "Frank", was born at Kensington Palace and educated at Wellington College, Cheltenham College (Stone, 1912, p. xviii) 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, 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.
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.
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.
Death and legacy
He died suddenly in 1910 at the age of forty, having caught pneumonia at Balmoral.
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. The document remains unpublished, and subsequent royal wills have followed this tradition.
He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.