Alfred V von Kerlich

Alfred, Duke von Kerlich (1810-1893) was a Braslander landowner and politician. He was the son of Duke Rudolf II von Kerlich.

Public life

He was educated by private tutors and later joined the Royal Army, where he led a very distinguished career until his retirement in 1871. After that he became a Member of Parliament, well-known for his monarchism but also for his outspokenness and his sometimes aggressive attitude.

Alfred was known for his proportions: he looked almost like a giant and was extremely strong. This made him a very intimidating figure, but one also easily recognisable by the public. He spoke with the local Markunder slang and was a frequent visitor at some of the city's taverns and cabarets, which made him quite popular with the common people. Around the time of his daughter Amelia's wedding to Crown Prince Frederick, a legend circulated in Markund claiming that the prince did not really want to marry the young girl, but that he had been too afraid of the duke to refuse her.

He died in 1893.

Personal life

In 1832 he married Countess Ulrike von Henslen. They had five children: Friedrich (born 1833), Alexandra (born 1834), Luise (born 1835), Helene (born and died 1836) and Peter (1838-1839). Ulrike died after giving birth to her youngest son.

Alfred remarried in 1840 to Princess Isabella von Lorensberg, and they had eleven children: Alfred (1841-1853), Amelia (born 1843), Heinrich (born 1845; disappeared in 1868 during an expedition to the Philippines), Sophie (born 1846), Isabella (born 1847), Ludmilla (born 1849), Richard (born and died 1851), Eleonore (born 1852), Rudolf (born 1853), Maximilian (born and died 1854) and Karl Theodor (born 1856). Isabella died in 1867.

The Duke married for the third time in 1868, to Baroness Elsa von Leyenhuss. They had a son, Viktor, born in 1871.