passed his claim to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on to his younger brother). Many were in favor of his nomination, including Prime Minister Lord Palmerston as well as Ernest's sister-in-law. In a letter written to her uncle Leopold I of Belgium, Victoria stated her support for a new royal branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (as Leopold had been chosen as King of the Belgians in 1831), as well as her desire for her second son, Alfred, to succeed his uncle in the duchy. As negotiations continued however, she began to lose enthusiasm for the idea. There were problems to the nomination; Ernest had no legitimate children, and thus would have had to adopt one of the princes of his house to succeed him as King of Greece. To solve this problem, Ernest suggested to Palmerston that he simply take the title Regent of Greece and hold the kingdom in trust for his chosen heir. He also stipulated that if he accepted the throne, it should be subject to certain guarantees by the other powers. The apparent deal-breaker, though, was the fact that Ernest wanted to acquire the Greek throne and still maintain control of his "safer" duchies. In the end, the British cabinet thought the proposed conditions unacceptable. His recommendations having been turned down, Ernest in turn refused. In 1863, the Greek throne was accepted by another member of a royal family: the Princess of Wales' younger brother Prince William of Denmark. Ernest would later comment, "That this cup was spared me, I always regarded as a piece of good fortune". Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars Ernest, like his brother, was in favor of a German unified, federal state. In seeking to realize this goal, Ernest liked to dabble in whatever political system promised the most success. He subsequently watched the growth of liberalism in Germany with much interest and tried to build links with the movement's leaders. During Albert's lifetime, Ernest took a close interest in the movement for reform, and was perceived as a progressive within Germany. His favorable view of liberalism caused his duchy to become an asylum for political refugees from other German states. In 1863, he attended the liberal Frankfurt Conference, which was openly avoided by more conservative Prussia. Though his attendance made him no friends in Prussia, he developed such strong contacts in Austria that many looked to him as