Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha was born at East Sheen Lodge in Richmond, London, England on April 3, 1893. She was the youngest child of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, and a grandchild of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.  As a female-line great-granddaughter of the British sovereign, (Queen Victoria) at birth, Maud was not entitled to the title of Princess or the style Royal Highness. Instead, she was styled Lady Maud Duff, the style of the daughters of a Duke.  Through their father, Maud and her sister Alexandra were descendants of King William IV of the United Kingdom, who had no legitimate children but had ten illegitimate children with actress Dorothea Jordan.

Maud had one older sister:

Maud, on her mother’s lap, with her sister; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

In 1900, when it became apparent that the Duke and Duchess of Fife were unlikely to have a son to inherit the title, Queen Victoria issued the Duke of Fife a new Letters Patent as Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This Letters Patent gave the second dukedom of Fife a special remainder that allowed the dukedom to pass to the daughters of the 1st Duke of Fife if he had no son, and then to the male heirs of his daughters. Therefore, Alexandra became heir to her father’s dukedom and Maud was second in line.

Maud’s mother was the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and was created Princess Royal during her father’s reign, in 1905.  At the same time, Alexandra and Maud were granted the title of Princess with the style of “Highness” and received precedence immediately after all members of the royal family bearing the style of “Royal Highness.” This act was unprecedented and when the College of Arms told King Edward VII it could not be done, the King simply said, “Do it!” Alexandra and Maud’s maternal uncle, the future King George V, was greatly disturbed by this act.  Maud was then styled Her Highness Princess Maud.

Maud and her husband Charles Carnegie; Credit – Wikipedia

On November 13, 1923, Maud married Charles Alexander Bannerman Carnegie, the eldest son of Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk, at the Royal Military Chapel at the Wellington Barracks in London, England. After her marriage, Maud stopped using ‘Her Highness Princess Maud’ and was known as Lady Carnegie. In 1941, upon his father’s death, Maud’s husband became the 11th Earl of Southesk.

The couple had one child:

On December 14, 1945, Maud, aged 52, died of bronchitis at a nursing home in London, England on the 84th anniversary of the death of her great-grandfather Prince Albert. She was buried at the home of the Carnegie family, the Earls of Southesk, Kinnaird Castle in Brechin, Angus, Scotland. Her husband survived her, remarried, and died in 1992 at the age of 98.  In 1959, Maud’s son James Carnegie succeeded his maternal aunt, Princess Arthur of Connaught, 2nd Duchess of Fife, as the 3rd Duke of Fife, because her only child, Alastair, 2nd Duke of Connaught, had predeceased her.  James also succeeded his father upon his death in 1992 as the 12th Earl of Southesk and as Chief of the Clan Carnegie. James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife died in 2012 and his son David Carnegie became the 4th Duke of Fife.

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