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Alice of Battenberg, Alice of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Andrew of the Hellenes, coronation, Duke of Edinburgh, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, George I of the Hellenes, Philip of Greece and Denmark, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Christian IX of Denmark, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, royal wedding
Princess Alice of Battenberg ( February 25, 1885 – December 5, 1969) was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria of the UnitedKingdom. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria’s second daughter.
Her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine through his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in 1858 by Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Her three younger siblings, Louise, George, and Louis, later became Queen of Sweden, Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.
Alice’s mother noticed that she was slow in learning to talk, and became concerned by her indistinct pronunciation. Eventually, she was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother, Princess Julia of Battenberg, identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist.
With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English and German. Educated privately, she studied French, and later, after her engagement, she learned Greek. Her early years were spent in the company of her royal relatives, and she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Duke of York (later King George V) and Mary of Teck in 1893. A few weeks before her 16th birthday, she attended the funeral of Queen Victoria in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and shortly afterward she was confirmed in the Anglican faith.
Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (January 21, 1882 – December 3, 1944) was a Prince of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of the Hellenes and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. He was a grandson of Christian IX of Denmark and father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the UnitedKingdom. He was a prince of both Denmark and Greece by virtue of his patrilineal descent.
Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark while both were in London for King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.
They fell in love, and the following year, on October 6, 1903, Andrew married Alice in a civil wedding at Darmstadt. The following day two religious wedding services were performed: one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and another Greek Orthodox service in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe.
The bride and groom were closely related to the ruling houses of the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Denmark, and Greece, and their wedding was one of the great gatherings of the descendants of Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark held before World War I. Prince and Princess Andrew had five children, all of whom later had children of their own.
Children:
1. Margarita 1905 – 1981, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
2. Theodora 1906 – 1939, Margravine of Baden
3. Cecilie 1911 – 1937, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
4. Sophie 1914 – 2001, Princess of Hesse-Cassel, Princess of Hanover
5. Philip, 1921 – 2021, Duke of Edinburgh