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November 25, 1876: Birth of HRH Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess of Russia.

25 Thursday Nov 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Empire of Europe, Featured Royal, Grand Duke/Grand Duchy of Europe, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Divorce, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Alfred of Edinburgh, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess of Russia, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Kirill Alexandrovich of Russia Russian Orthodox Christianity, King Edward VII of United Kingdom, Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh

Today, November 25th, is the 145th anniversary of the birth of HRH Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess of Russia. (November 25, 1876 – March 2, 1936) Victoria Melita was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and also of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Born a British princess, Victoria spent her early life in England and lived for three years in Malta, where her father served in the Royal Navy. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, where Victoria’s father became the reigning duke in 1893.

In her teens Victoria fell in love with her first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (the son of her mother’s brother, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia) but his faith, Rusian Orthodox Christianity, discouraged marriage between first cousins. Bowing to family pressure, Victoria married her paternal first cousin, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine in 1894, following the wishes of their grandmother, Queen Victoria.

The marriage failed – Victoria Melita scandalized the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901. The couple’s only child, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, who they nicknamed Ella, died of typhoid fever in 1903 at the age of 8.

In 1905, Victoria married Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia. They wed without the formal approval of Britain’s King Edward VII (as the Royal Marriages Act 1772 would have required), and in defiance of Russia’s Emperor Nicholas II. In retaliation, the Emperor stripped Kirill of his offices and honours, also initially banishing the couple from Russia.

They had two daughters and settled in Paris before being allowed to visit Russia in 1909. In 1910 they moved to Russia, where Nicholas recognized Victoria Melita as Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. After the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917 they escaped to Finland (then still part of the Russian Republic) where she gave birth to her only son, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in August 1917.

In exile they lived for some years among her relatives in Germany, and from the late 1920s on an estate they bought in Saint-Briac in Brittany. In 1926 Kirill proclaimed himself Russian Emperor in Exile, and Victoria supported her husband’s claims. Victoria died after suffering a stroke while visiting her daughter Maria in Amorbach (Lower Franconia).

HIH Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

She is the grandmother of Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, claimant to the Russian Throne, and the great-grandmother of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, claimant to the German Imperial Throne.

HI & RH Prince Georg Friedrich, The Prince of Prussia

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Part III.

27 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Empire of Europe, Featured Noble, Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, Royal House

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Cecile of Greece and Denmark, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine, Kensington Palace, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, the prince of Wales, Victoria Mountbatten, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

In 1937, Victoria’s brother, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, died and soon afterwards her widowed sister-in-law, nephew, granddaughter and two of her great-grandchildren all died in an air crash at Ostend.

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Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, had married Victoria’s nephew (Ernst Ludwig’s son), Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine. They and their two young sons, Ludwig and Alexander, were all killed.

Further tragedy soon followed when Victoria’s son, George, died of bone cancer the following year. Her granddaughter, Lady Pamela Hicks, remembered her grandmother’s tears.

In World War II Victoria was bombed out of Kensington Palace, and spent some time at Windsor Castle with King George VI. Her surviving son (Louis Mountbatten) and her two grandsons (David Mountbatten and Prince Philip) served in the Royal Navy, while her German relations fought with the opposing forces.

Victoria spent most of her time reading and worrying about her children; her daughter, Alice, remained in occupied Greece and was unable to communicate with her mother for four years at the height of the war.

After the Allied victory, her son, Louis, was made Viscount Mountbatten of Burma. He was offered the post of Viceroy of India, but she was deeply opposed to his accepting, knowing that the position would be dangerous and difficult; he accepted anyway.

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Victoria was present at the christening of her great grandson, the current Prince of Wales.

Victoria fell ill with bronchitis (she had smoked since the age of sixteen) at Lord Mountbatten’s home at Broadlands, Hampshire, in the summer of 1950. Saying “it is better to die at home”, Victoria moved back to Kensington Palace, where she died on September 24 aged 87. She was buried four days later in the grounds of St. Mildred’s Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight.

Legacy

With the help of her lady-in-waiting, Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, Victoria wrote an unpublished memoir, held in the Mountbatten archive at the University of Southampton, which remains an interesting source for royal historians. A selection of Queen Victoria’s letters to Victoria have been published with a commentary by Richard Hough and an introduction by Victoria’s granddaughter, Patricia Mountbatten.

Lord Mountbatten remembered her fondly: “My mother was very quick on the uptake, very talkative, very aggressive and argumentative. With her marvellous brain she sharpened people’s wits.” Her granddaughter thought her “formidable, but never intimidating … a supremely honest woman, full of commonsense and modesty.”

Victoria wrote her own typically forthright epitaph at the end of her life in letters to and conversation with her son: “What will live in history is the good work done by the individual & that has nothing to do with rank or title … I never thought I would be known only as your mother. You’re so well known now and no one knows about me, and I don’t want them to.”

July 11,1866: Birth of Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine. Part I.

11 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Happy Birthday, Royal Genealogy, Royal Titles, royal wedding, This Day in Royal History

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Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine, HRH Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, Irene and Heinrich, Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince Henry of Prussia, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (Irene Luise Marie Anne, Princess of Hesse and by Rhine, July 11, 1866 – November 11, 1953) was the third child and third daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

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Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

Her maternal grandparents were Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Elisabeth of Prussia, the second daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie-Anna of Hesse-Homburg and a granddaughter of Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia.

Princess Irene’s siblings included Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg (the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and mother-in-law of king Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden), Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Empress Nicholas II of Russia. Like her younger sister, the Russian Empress, Irene was a carrier of the hemophilia gene, and Irene would lose her sisters Alix and Elisabeth in Russia to the Bolsheviks.

She received her first name, which was taken from the Greek word for “peace”, because she was born at the end of the Austro-Prussian War. Her mother, Princess Alice, considered Irene an unattractive child and once wrote to her sister Victoria that Irene was “not pretty.” Though not as pretty as her sister Elizabeth, Irene did have a pleasant, even disposition.

I personally disagree with her mothers assessment. As seen in these pictures below, I think Princess Irene was very pretty.

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Princess Alice brought up her daughters simply. An English nanny presided over the nursery and the children ate plain meals of rice puddings and baked apples and wore plain dresses. Her daughters were taught how to do housework, such as baking cakes, making their own beds, laying fires and sweeping and dusting their rooms. Princess Alice also emphasized the need to give to the poor and often took her daughters on visits to hospitals and charities.

The family was devastated in 1873 when Irene’s haemophiliac younger brother Friedrich, nicknamed “Frittie”, fell through an open window, struck his head on the balustrade and died hours later of a brain hemorrhage. In the months following the toddler’s death, Alice frequently took her children to his grave to pray and was melancholy on anniversaries associated with him.

In the autumn of 1878 Irene, her siblings (except for Elizabeth) and her father became ill with diphtheria. Her younger sister Princess Marie, nicknamed “May”, died of the disease. Her mother, exhausted from nursing the children, also became infected. Knowing she was in danger of dying, Princess Alice dictated her will, including instructions about how to bring up her daughters and how to run the household. She died of diphtheria on December 14, 1878.

Following Alice’s death, Queen Victoria resolved to act as a mother to her Hessian grandchildren. Princess Irene and her surviving siblings spent annual holidays in England and their grandmother sent instructions to their governess regarding their education and approving the pattern of their dresses. With her sister Alix, Irene was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of their maternal aunt, Princess Beatrice, to Prince Henry of Battenberg.

Marriage

Irene married Prince Heinrich of Prussia, the third child and second son of Friedrich III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal on May 24 1888 at the chapel of the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. As their mothers were sisters, Irene and Heinrich were first cousins.

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Irene and Heinrich

Their marriage displeased Queen Victoria because she had not been told about the courtship until they had already decided to marry. At the time of the ceremony, Irene’s uncle and father-in-law, the German emperor, was dying of throat cancer, and less than a month after the ceremony, Irene’s cousin and brother-in-law ascended the throne as Emperor Wilhelm II.

Heinrich’s mother, Empress Victoria, was fond of Irene. However, Empress Victoria was shocked because Irene did not wear a shawl or scarf to disguise her pregnancy when she was pregnant with her first son, the haemophiliac Prince Waldemar, in 1889. Empress Victoria, who was fascinated by politics and current events, also couldn’t understand why Heinrich and Irene never read a newspaper. However, the couple were happily married and they were known as “The Very Amiables” by their relatives because of their pleasant natures. The marriage produced three sons.

May 29, 1873: Tragic death Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine.

29 Friday May 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Royal Death, Royal Genealogy, This Day in Royal History

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Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Hemophilia, Nicholas II of Russia, Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince Henry of Prussia, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Princess Irene of Hesse and By Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (Friedrich Wilhelm August Victor Leopold Ludwig; October 7, 1870 – May 29, 1873) was the haemophiliac second son of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, one of the daughters of Queen Victoria. He was also a maternal great-uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh through his eldest sister Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

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Alice, Princess of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and By Rhine (Mother)

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Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine (Father)

Life

Friedrich, called “Frittie” in the family, was a cheerful and lively child despite his illness. “Leopold” was added as one of his names in honor of his mother’s hemophiliac brother, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, who was Friedrich’s godfather.

Death

His haemophilia was first diagnosed in February 1873, a few months before his death, when he cut his ear and bled for three days. Bandages could not stanch the flow of blood. In late May 1873, Friedrich and his older brother Ernst-Ludwig were playing together in their mother’s bedroom. Ernst-Ludwig ran to another room, which was set at right angles to Alice’s bedroom and peered through the window at his younger brother.

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Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine

Alice ran to get Ernst-Ludwig away from the window. When she was out of the room, Friedrich climbed onto a chair next to an open window in his mother’s bedroom to get a closer look at his brother. The chair tipped over and Friedrich tumbled through the window, falling twenty feet to the balustrade below. Friedrich survived the fall and might have lived had he not been a haemophiliac. He died hours later of a brain hemorrhage.

Aftermath

Following Friedrich’s death, his distraught mother often prayed at his grave and marked anniversaries of small events in his life. His brother Ernst told his mother he wanted all of the family to die together, not alone “like Frittie.” Two of Friedrich’s sisters, Irene, who married her first cousin , Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Alix, who married Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, also had haemophiliac sons.

The life of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1895–1903)

04 Monday May 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, Royal Titles

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Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and By Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Typhoid, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh

Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (Elisabeth Marie Alice Viktoria; March 11 1895 – November 16, 1903) was a German Hessian and Rhenish princess, the only daughter of Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and his first wife, Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, who was born Princess Elisabeth of Prussia, the second daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg and a granddaughter of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is her great-great-grandson.

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Birth

Princess Elisabeth’s parents, nicknamed ‘Ernie’ and ‘Ducky,’ were first cousins who married at the instigation of their common grandmother, Queen Victoria. The marriage was an unhappy one from the start. Princess Victoria-Melita was eighteen at the time of Elisabeth’s birth. She was fond of Elisabeth, but found it hard to compete with Ernst’s devotion to their daughter.

Ernst was convinced even before Elisabeth could speak that he alone could understand her. At the age of six months, she was scheduled to move to a new nursery and her father ‘consulted’ her on her color preferences. He claimed that she made ‘happy little squeals’ when he showed her a particular shade of lilac material. Ernst then decorated her nursery in shades of lilac. He later had a playhouse built for his daughter that stood in its own garden. Adults were forbidden to enter “much to the frustration of royal nurses and tutors, who could be seen pacing up and down impatiently outside as they waited for their high-spirited young charges to stop their games and emerge.”

Childhood

Margaretta Eagar, a governess for the daughters of Emperor Nicholas II, described Elisabeth as “a sweet and pretty child, with wide blue-grey eyes and a profusion of dark hair. She was much like her mother, not only in face, but also in manner.” The four-year-old Elisabeth wanted a baby sister and tried to persuade her aunt and uncle to let her parents adopt one of her paternal first cousins, Tatiana or Maria (daughters of Nicholas II). Her parents had only one other child together, a stillborn son, in 1900.

She was a favorite with her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who called the little girl “my precious.” Queen Victoria refused to permit the unhappily married Victoria and Ernst to divorce for the sake of Elisabeth. It was Elisabeth whom Queen Victoria asked to see first and to receive eightieth birthday greetings from in 1899. When the child heard Queen Victoria’s pony cart approaching on the road below Windsor Castle, the four-year-old Elisabeth ran out on the balcony, waving and calling, “Granny Gran, I’m here!” Elisabeth’s playfulness made the queen laugh out loud.

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Princess Elisabeth with her great-grandmother Queen Victoria

Elisabeth’s grandmother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the Duchess of Edinburgh, (married to Queen Victoria’s second son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) brought five-year-old Elisabeth to see Queen Victoria on her death bed on January 22, 1901. After the queen died, the child was taken in to see her body and told that her great-grandmother had gone to be with the angels. “But I don’t see the wings,” Elisabeth whispered.

Elisabeth sat next to her second cousin, Prince Edward of York (called David by family and friends, later to become King Edward VIII) during Queen Victoria’s funeral. “Sweet little David behaved so well during the service,” wrote his aunt Maud, “and was supported by the little Hesse girl who took him under her protection and held him most of the time round his neck. They looked such a delightful little couple.

In his memoirs, written more than thirty years after her death, her father wrote of Elisabeth’s “deep sensitivity” and “very large heart.” He wrote that “I never knew a child who had so much influence on adults. Her inner personality was very strong, and she had a natural quality that protected her from being spoiled.”

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Grand Duchess Victoria-Melita and her daughter Princess Elisabeth

In October 1901, after the death of Queen Victoria, Elisabeth’s parents finally divorced. Her mother had rekindled a previous romance with another cousin, her future husband, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia. Her father, according to letters written by her mother, had been caught cavorting with domestic servants.

Her parents’ divorce meant that Elisabeth divided her year between Darmstadt and her mother’s new home in Coburg. Elisabeth was at first mistrustful of her mother and resented the divorce, although Victoria-Melita did her best to mend her relationship with her daughter during her visit with Elisabeth in the spring of 1902. She was only partially successful, though Victoria enjoyed turning her daughter into an outstanding horsewoman.

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In his memoirs, Ernst said he had difficulty persuading Elisabeth to visit her mother. Before one visit, he found the child “whimpering under a sofa, full of despair.” He assured Elisabeth that her mother loved her too. “Mama says she loves me, but you do love me,” Elisabeth replied. Margaret Eagar thought the child’s eyes were the saddest she had ever seen. “Looking at her I used to wonder what those wide blue-grey eyes saw, to bring such a look of sadness to the childish face,” she wrote.

On October 6, 1903, Ernst hosted a large family gathering at Darmstadt for the wedding of his niece, Princess Alice of Battenberg, to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, (parents of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh).

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A few weeks later he took Elisabeth to stay with his younger sister, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, her husband, Emperor Nicholas II, and their family. At the imperial family’s hunting lodge in Skierniewice, Poland, Elisabeth went on long walks and had picnics in the forest with her cousins.

Her nanny, who called Elisabeth “my baby,” woke Elisabeth in the middle of the night and settled her in a window seat of the nursery so that she might look out on the game spread out upon the grounds below.

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Grand Duke Ernst with his daughter Princess Elisabeth

One morning, the eight-year-old awoke with a sore throat and pains in her chest, which the Russian Court doctor put down to too much excitement with her cousins the previous day. Her fever rose to 104 degrees. The imperial party didn’t believe her illness was a serious one and went ahead with their plans for the day and attended the theater as planned. By the evening Elisabeth was in even more severe pain and had started gasping for breath. A specialist was summoned from Warsaw. The specialist gave her injections of caffeine and camphor to stimulate her slowing heart, but without success.

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“Suddenly she sat up in her bed and looked from one to the other of us with wide, frightened eyes,” wrote Eagar. “She cried out suddenly, ‘I’m dying! I’m dying!’ She was coaxed to lie down again, but remained agitated. “The child turned to me, and said anxiously, ‘Send a telegram to mama.'” Eagar promised it would be done. “She added, ‘immediately.’ … We continued to fan the feeble spark of life, but moment by moment it declined.

She began to talk to her cousins, and seemed to imagine she was playing with them. She asked for little Anastasie and I brought the wee thing into the room. The dying eyes rested on her for a moment, and Anastasie said, ‘Poor cousin Ella! Poor Princess Elizabeth!’ I took the baby out of the room.” Doctors told Alexandra that the child’s mother should be notified, but the telegram did not arrive until the following morning, when Elisabeth had already died. An autopsy following her death confirmed that she had died of virulent typhoid, although it was rumored she had eaten from a poisoned dish intended for the Emperor.

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Grand Duke Ernst with his daughter Princess Elisabeth

Elisabeth’s body was placed in a silver casket, a gift from Nicholas II, for the journey back to Darmstadt. Her father arranged a white funeral, with white instead of black for the funeral trappings, white flowers, and white horses for the procession. The Hessian people came out by the thousands to view the funeral procession and “sobbed in unison so that I could hear it,” Ernst wrote.

A cousin, German Emperor Wilhelm II, expressed shock at the child’s death in a letter to Emperor Nicholas II on the day after. “How joyous and merry she was that day at Wolfsgarten, when I was there, so full of life and fun and health … What a terrible heartrending blow for poor Ernie, who doted and adored that little enchantress!”

Elisabeth was buried in the Rosenhöhe with other members of the Hessian Grand Ducal family. A marble angel was later installed to watch over her grave. In a final gesture to Elisabeth and Ernst, Victoria Melita placed her badge of the Order of Hesse, granted to her upon her marriage, into Elisabeth’s coffin.

Ernst was still devastated by the memory of his daughter’s death thirty years later. “My little Elisabeth,” he wrote in his memoirs, “was the sunshine of my life.”

April 19-21, 1894: Royal Celebrations in Coburg, Germany.

21 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Empire of Europe, Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, royal wedding, This Day in Royal History

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Coburg Germany, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Royal Engagement, royal wedding, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Victoria Princess Royal

In April 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia joined his Uncle Sergei and Aunt Elisabeth (born a Princess of Hesse and By Rhine) on a journey to Coburg, Germany, for the wedding of Elisabeth’s and Alix’s brother, Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine to their mutual first cousin Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh

The wedding took place on April 19, 1894, at Schloss Ehrenburg. The match was actively encouraged by their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, who attended the wedding.

Other guests attended the wedding including Emperor Wilhelm II, the Empress Friedrich (Emperor Wilhelm’s mother and Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter), Nicholas’s uncle, the Prince of Wales, (future King Edward VII) and the bride’s parents, Prince Alfred and his wife Maria (daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia) the reigning Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Also at the wedding At the wedding, Ernst-Ludwig’s surviving sister, Princess Alix.

Once in Coburg Nicholas proposed to Alix, but she rejected his proposal, being reluctant to convert to Orthodoxy. But Emperor Wilhelm II later told her she had a duty to marry Nicholas and to convert, as her sister Elisabeth had voluntarily done in 1892.

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Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine

Thus Nicholas and Alix became officially engaged on April 20, 1894. Nicholas’s parents Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) initially hesitated to give the engagement their blessing, as Alix had made poor impressions during her visits to Russia. However, they gave their consent only when they saw Emperor Alexander III’s health deteriorating.

On April 21, 1894 this famous picture of Queen Victoria and many royals was taken at Edinburgh Palais in Coburg during the wedding festivities. Despite this being the wedding of Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the excitement of imminent match between Tsarevich Nicholas and Alix of Hesse and By Rhine threw those nuptial celebrations into the shade.

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This date in History: June 22, 1911. Birth of Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark.

22 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, Grand Duchy of Hesse and By Rhine, Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Philip Mountbatten, Prince Andrew of Greece., Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (June 22, 1911 –November 16, 1937) was the third child and daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg and thus a sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was born at the summer estate of the Greek Royal Family at Tatoi, fifteen kilometres north of Athens.

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Cecilie of Greece and Denmark

Her mother was the daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg (a grandson of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse-Darmstadt) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine, daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine (another grandson of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse-Darmstadt) and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (second daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).

Although her given name was Cecilie, she was known to her family as Cécile. Cecilie was baptised at Tatoi on July 2, 1911. Her godparents were King George V of the United Kingdom, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Duchess Vera of Württemberg. Through her father Cecilie was a grandchild of King George I of Greece and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia (a granddaughter of Czar Nicholas I of Russia).

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The family of Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. (Cecilie is fifth from the left and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is the little boy at the end).

Cecilie had three sisters: Margarita (wife of Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg), Theodora (wife of Berthold, Margrave of Baden) and Sophie (wife firstly of Prince Christoph of Hesse and secondly of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover). Her brother Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

On February 2, 1931 at Darmstadt, Cecilie married Prince Georg-Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, her maternal first cousin once removed. Georg Donatus, was the son of Ernest-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine (son of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Denmark and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom) and his second wife Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich.

They had four children:

Ludwig 1931-1937
Alexander 1933-1937
Johanna 1936-1939
Stillborn son 1937-1937

On May 1, 1937 Cecilie and her husband both joined the Nazi Party.

Death
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Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark

In October 1937, Cecilie’s father-in-law Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine died, making Georg-Donats titular Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine. A few weeks after the funeral, her brother-in-law Prince Ludwig was due to be married to the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes in London.

On November 16, 1937, Georg Donatus, Cecilie, their two young sons, Ludwig and Alexander, and Georg’s mother Grand Duchess Eleonore left Darmstadt for London, where they planned to attend the wedding. The aircraft in which they were travelling crashed in flames after hitting a factory chimney near Ostend, Belgium, killing all on board. Cecilia was eight months pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the remains of the baby were found in the wreckage; a Belgian official enquiry concluded that Cecilie had given birth mid-flight and the landing attempt was made in bad weather because of this.

Cecilie was buried with her husband and three of her children in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family. Cecilie’s daughter Johanna was adopted by her paternal uncle, Prince Ludwig and his wife Margaret (who married the day after the crash). However, Johanna died two years later from meningitis and is buried with her parents and siblings. Cecilie was the first of Prince Andrew and Princess Alice’s children to die.

Did they meet?

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by liamfoley63 in Royal Genealogy

≈ 2 Comments

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1815, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington Napoleon, Battle of Waterloo, Charlotte Zeepvat, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Duke of Connaught, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine, Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Arthur, Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia, Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Queen Victoria's Family: A Century of Photographs, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album

One of the things I enjoy about royalty is how its members connect to the past and the rich history of each nation. One example I showed was the christening of Queen Elizabeth II and one of her godparents was HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1850-1942) son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I failed to mention that the Duke of Connaught was also a godfather to one of his own descendents, his great-granddaughter, Queen Margrethe II, current Queen Regnant of Denmark! Even the Duke of Connaught’s life connects us to the past. One of his godparents was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) who lead the British in defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815!

When I scan across the genealogy charts of these royal families it is often difficult to see all the lives that overlap. In many families, after a generation or two, relatives can be scattered all about different countries or different regions of the same country and never see or meet one another. I have cousins I have not seen in nearly 30 years.  In my head I have some people belonging to certain eras and it is interesting to see how some of these people spanned the eras. For example, at 91, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is someone I associate with today’s time period. Yet in his youth he interacted with people I associate more with the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

I have a couple of books by Charlotte Zeepvat. One is called Queen Victoria’s Family: A Century of Photographs & the other is The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album which both showcase wonderful family photographs. Although I will not be able to post some of the photographs but I did want to discuss some of the family connections they depict. I found these interesting and I hope you will also.

1910.

There is a picture of the funeral procession of King Edward VII of Great Britain. In the procession is the new king, George V, and his two eldest sons, Edward, Duke of Cornwall (future Edward VIII) and Prince Albert (future George VI). Also in the procession was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. I had known that the Kaiser and George V were fist cousins, what I did not know was that the Kaiser had met the future George VI, father to the the present queen.

1921.

There is another family gathering of the Swedish royal family. In the picture is Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, whose daughter, Princess Margaret of Connaught had just died unexpectedly the previous year. Also depicted is her widowed husband, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph (Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden) and his children, the youngest, prince Carl-Johan just passed away a month or so ago.

1931.

There are a couple of pictures with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh which connects him to the Victoria era. One takes place in 1931 with the marriage of his sister, Princess Cecile of Greece and Denmark to Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine. Standing in front of Prince Philip is his great-uncle, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, and next to him is his sister, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine) grandmother to prince Philip and the bride, Princess Cecile of Greece and Denmark. Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine and the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven were grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

1937

In October of 1937 Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine and his wife, Cecile of Greece and Denmark (along with two of their children) were killed in a plane crash en-route to the wedding of his brother, Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine to Margaret Campbell-Geddes. In the funeral procession were members of German Royalty. Prince Philip, then aged 16, walked in front of Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia the son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

1939.

Speaking of the Kaiser. The book had a picture of the Kaiser holding his great-grandson Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, son of Prince Louis-Ferdinand and Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia. Although Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia married unequally he still claims to be the head of the House of Prussia.

1940.

In the book is also the only picture I have seen of King Alfonso XIII of Spain with his grandson the current Spanish King, Juan Carlos. Alfonso XIII was born a king in 1886 after the death of his father. One of the two people in European History to be born a king. The other was King Jean I of France who died a five days after his birth in 1316.

There you have some interesting connections. I will have more for next Monday’s look at royal Geology.

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