bavarikon4UDescription
The wedding between Prince Albert from the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861) and Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland (1819-1901, r. 1837-1901) was a coup within dynastic marriage policy with far-reaching consequences. The couple managed to restore the renown of the discredited British monarchy. After several other important weddings had already taken place, the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had now finally arrived among the European high aristocracy. The nine children of the royal couple as well as the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren in their turn would marry into the European royal families.
After those authorised on both sides had concluded the marriage contract (Staatsarchiv Coburg LA A 160), the British Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) and the Coburg envoy Freiherr Christian Friedrich von Stockmar (1787-1863) exchanged the luxurious ratification documents. Thereby, the marriage partners declared the contract to be valid. The parchment libellum with velvet cover and seal in a silver capsule signed by Queen Victoria came to the family archive in Coburg and is today preserved in the Staatsarchiv (State Archive) Coburg. The ratification documents issued by Prince Albert and by his father Duke Ernst I (r. 1806-1844) are kept at the Royal Archive in Windsor.