Romanian Queen Consort. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred, the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and his wife, who was born Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Her father was the second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and his mother had granted him the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent on May 24, 1866. On the death of his paternal uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and the relinquishment of the right to succession of his elder brother (the future King Edward VII), he became the sovereign duke of that duchy on August 22, 1893. Marie's mother was the only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. As her father did not become Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until shortly after her marriage, Marie was known as Princess Marie of Edinburgh, in reference to her father's British title. She spent most of her youth in England and in Malta for several years while her father served as a Royal Navy officer, eventually attaining the rank of admiral on October 18, 1887 and served as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet from February 5, 1886 until March 11, 1889. Her father would be promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet on June 3, 1893, shortly before succeeding his uncle as Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her father relocated the family to Coburg in Germany in 1889 as the heir to his uncle, the reigning duke. A beautiful young woman, Marie was much sought after as a bride by many royal princes, including her first cousin, the future King George V. Eventually, the proposal of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania was accepted and they were married on January 10, 1893 at Schloss Sigmaringen, the ancestral seat of the Sigmaringen branch of the House of Hohenzollern, to which Crown Prince Ferdinand belonged. They couple had six children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Marie's early years of marriage were difficult, but eventually her relationship with her husband developed into one of mutual respect. Life at court as the wife of the Crown Prince was made difficult due to the domineering nature of her husband's uncle, King Carol I of Romania, who removed her first two children from her care. A popular Crown Princess, Marie was even more beloved by the Romanian people as Queen Consort, her husband succeeding to the throne as King Ferdinand on the death of his uncle on October 10, 1914. She was very influential with her husband and she used her influence to compel her husband to join the Allies in 1916, during World War I, fighting against the Central Powers. Queen Marie was actively involved with the Red Cross during the war. Her youngest child, Prince Mircea, died on November 2, 1916 at less than four years of age while Austrian troops were approaching the Romanian capital, requiring the hasty burial of her son and the departure of the royal family to the safety of Iași, a city in Moldavia (a region within Romania). As a result of the capture of the Romanian capital; the occupation of much of the country by enemy forces; and the withdrawal of Russia from the war due to the October Revolution, the Armistice of Focșani was signed by King Ferdinand on December 9, 1917, ending the fighting between Romania and the Central Powers, much to the chagrin of Queen Marie. The war was to end in less than a year and Romania was to benefit from its support of the Allied Powers, acquiring Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania, greatly increasing the size of the nation. She attended the Paris Peace Conference and through her efforts obtained international recognition of Romania's acquisition of these territories, creating a Greater Romania and greatly enhancing the prestige of her nation by her conduct. She and her husband, the king, undertook a successful diplomatic tour of Europe in 1924 and were the first royals to tour the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. A subsequent solo tour of the United States in 1926 was a great success. As Ferdinand I had succeeded to the Romanian throne during a time of war, a coronation had been postponed until peace had been achieved. The coronation of King Ferdinand and Marie as his Queen Consort took place in the courtyard of a specially built Coronation Cathedral in the city of Alba Iulia on October 15, 1922. King Ferdinand died on July 20, 1927 of intestinal cancer. Their eldest son, Prince Carol, had renounced his rights to the throne in December, 1925 as a result of his checkered marital history and continuing extramarital affair with Magda Lupescu. Therefore, Queen Marie's five year old grandson, Michael, the only child of Prince Carol and his wife, Princess Helen of Greece, succeeded his grandfather on the Romanian throne. Michael was deposed when his father, Prince Carol, seized the Romanian throne on June 6, 1930, thus inaugurating what would be a disastrous reign that ended in his abdication on September 6, 1940. Queen Marie was not to see the ultimate failure of her eldest son's reign, dying on July 18, 1938 at Pelișor Castle in Sinaia, Romania. She was interred at the Mănăstirea Curtea de Argeș and her heart was buried at her summer palace in Balchik in the Stella Maris chapel. Following the acquisition of that region by Bulgaria, her daughter, Ileana, transferred Queen Marie's heart to Bran Castle, where it was interred in a specially built chapel. The heart was removed from Bran Castle by members of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's Communist regime in 1968 and it was later transferred to the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest. A small casket containing Queen Marie's heart was placed on display in the room where she died at Pelișor Castle in Sinaia, Romania in 2015.