Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk

Granddaughter of King Edward VII (1893-1945)

Princess Maud

Countess of Southesk

Lady Southesk in the 1920s

Born| Lady Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha Duff
(1893-04-03)3 April 1893
East Sheen Lodge, Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, England
Died| 14 December 1945(1945-12-14) (aged 52)
London, England
Burial| 18 December 1945

Kinnaird Castle, Brechin, Scotland

Spouse|

Charles Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk

(m. 1923)​

Issue| James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife
Father| Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife
Mother| Louise, Princess Royal

Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk (born Lady Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha Duff; 3 April 1893 – 14 December 1945), titled Princess Maud from 1905 to 1923, was a granddaughter of Edward VII. Maud and her elder sister, Alexandra, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title of Princess and the style of Highness.[1][2]

Although Princess Maud did not otherwise carry out royal engagements, because of her position in the Commonwealth's order of succession she served as a Counsellor of State between 1942 and 1945.

## Early life

[edit]

Maud was born at East Sheen Lodge, Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, on 3 April 1893. Her father was Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife.[3] He was raised from Earl to Duke of Fife following marriage to Maud's mother, Princess Louise of Wales, the third child and eldest daughter of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.[3]

Maud was christened on 22 June 1893 in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace.

Maud and her sister were unique in sharing descent from both King William IV (through his mistress, Dorothea Jordan), and William IV's niece, Queen Victoria, who succeeded him because he left no legitimate issue.[3]

## Princess

[edit]

Princess Maud as a teenager

In 1900, Queen Victoria granted Maud's father a second dukedom of Fife in the peerage of the United Kingdom with a special remainder providing for the succession of the duke's daughters and their male-line descendants to the title, in default of a male heir. Maud became second in line to the dukedom, after her elder sister Alexandra, and her descendants would eventually succeed to the peerage.

As a cognatic great-granddaughter of a British monarch (Queen Victoria), Maud was not entitled to the title of a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland nor to the attribute Royal Highness. Instead she was styled Lady Maud Duff, as the daughter of a duke.[3] She was fifth in the line of succession to the British throne at the time of her birth.

On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII gave (on the occasion of his birthday) Maud's mother the title of Princess Royal. He further ordered Garter King of Arms to gazette Maud and her sister with the style and attribute of Highness and the style of Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names, with precedence immediately after all members of the British royal family bearing the style of Royal Highness.[3]

She took part in the carriage procession for members of the royal family when she attended the state funeral of Edward VII in 1910 (she was styled in the London Gazette as "Her Highness Princess Maud" and her sister "Her Highness Princess Alexandra", both without the territorial designation "of Fife").[4] She attended the coronation of her uncle, George V, on 22 June 1911 with the royal family, styled as "Her Highness Princess Maud" (without territorial designation).[5]

Maud's uncle, King George V, in letters patent dated 20 November 1917, restructured the styles and titles of the royal family by restricting the titles of Prince or Princess and the style of Royal Highness to the children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign's sons, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. The Letters Patent also stated that "the titles of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness, and the titular dignity of Prince and Princess shall cease except those titles already granted and remaining unrevoked". This had no direct effect on Maud and her sister, whose rank and style derived from the specific promotions granted to them by their grandfather, Edward VII, and George V took no further action to retract the royal warrant conferring the princely title and attribute upon them. Maud therefore continued to use her princely title until her 1923 marriage.[6] Upon her marriage to Charles, Lord Carnegie, however, she chose to be known as Lady Maud Carnegie (or, from 1941, the Countess of Southesk), dropping her princely title however remained legally a British princess until her death.

She rode in the carriage procession with members of the royal family at the funeral of George V in 1936; on this occasion she was styled in the London Gazette as "Lady Maud Carnegie".[7] She also attended the coronation of her first cousin George VI in May 1937, taking part in the procession of members of the royal family, and was officially styled as Lady Maud Carnegie.[8]

## Marriage

[edit]

On 13 November 1923, Maud married Charles, Lord Carnegie (23 September 1893 – 16 February 1992) at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London.[3] Lord Carnegie was the eldest son of Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk and inherited the title of Earl of Southesk on his father's death on 10 November 1941.

Maud and her husband operated a model farm from Elsick House, in Kincardineshire, Scotland. They had one child, James (23 September 1929 – 22 June 2015).[3]

## Girl Guides

[edit]

Maud was a devoted supporter of the Girl Guides movement. She was a County Commissioner in Angus and Aberdeenshire and a member of the Executive Committee in Scotland. She was a recipient of the Silver Fish Award, Girl Guiding's highest adult honour, in 1937.[9]

## Later life, illness and death

[edit]

St Ninian's Chapel, Braemar \- inscription commemorating Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk (1893–1945)

Princess Maud consistently appeared at the Court of St. James's among the royal family, although she did not undertake official or public duties. During George VI's absence in Africa in 1943, Maud served as a Counsellor of State. At the time of her death in 1945, she was thirteenth in line to the British throne and heir presumptive to the dukedom of Fife, since her sister's only son Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, had died in 1943. Maud's only son James, Lord Carnegie, succeeded his aunt as 3rd Duke of Fife in 1959.[3] He succeeded to his father's titles in 1992.

Princess Maud died in a London nursing home on 14 December 1945 after a bout of acute bronchitis. Her will was sealed in Llandudno in 1946. Her estate was valued at £44,008 (or £1.2 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).[10]

## Ancestry

[edit]

See also: Descendants of Christian IX of Denmark

Ancestors of Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 8\. Sir Alexander Duff

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

| 4\. James Duff, 5th Earl Fife|

|  |  |
| 9\. Anne Stein

| 2\. Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife|

|  |  |  |  |
| 10\. William Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll

| 5\. Lady Agnes Hay|

|  |  |
| 11\. Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence

| 1\. Princess Maud|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 12\. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

| 6\. Edward VII of the United Kingdom|

|  |  |
| 13\. Victoria of the United Kingdom

| 3\. Louise, Princess Royal|

|  |  |  |  |
| 14\. Christian IX of Denmark

| 7\. Princess Alexandra of Denmark|

|  |  |
| 15\. Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## References and notes

[edit]

1. ^ "No. 27852". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 November 1905. p. 7495.
2. ^ The distinction lies in being granted the styles of both Princess and Highness. Other female-line descendants of a British sovereign, such as the children of Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and of Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg, had been granted the style of Highness, but not that of Prince or Princess, presumably because they derived a princely style from their fathers, which was not the case of Princess Maud and Princess Alexandra. Their cousin Princess Victoria Eugénie of Battenberg was born "Highness" by virtue of an 1885 warrant of Queen Victoria and was created "Royal Highness" by Edward VII immediately prior to her 1906 marriage to the King of Spain: "No. 27901". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 April 1906. p. 2421.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, p. 306. ISBN 0-220-66222-3
4. ^ "No. 28401". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 July 1910. p. 5475.
5. ^ "No. 28535". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 September 1911. p. 7079.
6. ^ "The Next Royal Marriage: Princess Maud and Lord Carnegie". Register. 6 November 1923.
7. ^ "No. 34279". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 April 1936. p. 2773.
8. ^ "No. 34453". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 1937. p. 7037.
9. ^ "Honour to the Countess of Southesk". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Aberdeen, Scotland. 6 August 1937. p. 5.
10. ^ Evans, Rob; Pegg, David (18 July 2022). "£187m of Windsor family wealth hidden in secret royal wills". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2022.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk.

* Portraits of Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk at the National Portrait Gallery, London

* v
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British princesses

The generations indicate descent from George I, who formalised the use of the titles prince and princess for members of the British royal family. Where a princess may have been or is descended from George I more than once, her most senior descent, by which she bore or bears her title, is used.

1st generation|

* Sophia Dorothea, Queen in Prussia

2nd generation|

* Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
* Princess Amelia
* Princess Caroline
* Mary, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel
* Louise, Queen of Denmark and Norway

3rd generation|

* Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick
* Princess Elizabeth
* Princess Louisa
* Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark and Norway

4th generation|

* Charlotte, Princess Royal and Queen of Württemberg
* Princess Augusta Sophia
* Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg
* Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
* Princess Sophia
* Princess Amelia
* Princess Sophia of Gloucester
* Princess Caroline of Gloucester

5th generation|

* Charlotte, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
* Princess Elizabeth of Clarence
* Queen Victoria
* Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
* Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck

6th generation|

* Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress
* Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
* Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
* Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
* Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg
* Princess Frederica, Baroness von Pawel-Rammingen
* Princess Marie of Hanover

7th generation|

* Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife
* Princess Victoria
* Maud, Queen of Norway
* Marie, Queen of Romania
* Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia
* Alexandra, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
* Princess Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera
* Margaret, Crown Princess of Sweden
* Lady Patricia Ramsay
* Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone
* Marie Louise, Princess Maximilian of Baden
* Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
* Princess Olga of Hanover

8th generation|

* Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
* Alexandra, Princess Arthur of Connaught and Duchess of Fife
* Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk
* Princess Sibylla, Duchess of Västerbotten
* Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
* Frederica, Queen of Greece

9th generation|

* Queen Elizabeth II
* Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
* Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy

10th generation|

* Anne, Princess Royal

11th generation|

* Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
* Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank
* Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor

12th generation|

* Princess Charlotte of Wales
* Princess Lilibet of Sussex

Princesses whose titles were removed and eligible people who do not use the title are shown in italics.

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