Happy 73rd Birthday to HRH The Prince of Wales

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Camilla Parker Bowles, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Susex, HRH The Prince of Wales, King Edward VII, King William IV, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince's Trust, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born November 14, 1948), is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles was born in Buckingham Palace on November 14, 1948, during the reign of his maternal grandfather King George VI, as the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was baptised there by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, on December 15, 1948.

The death of his grandfather and the accession of his mother as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 made Charles the heir apparent. As the monarch’s eldest son, he automatically inherited the titles Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Charles attended his mother’s coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Prince Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester by his mother on July 26, 1958. His investiture was not held until July 1, 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.

The Prince of Wales is both the oldest and the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is the oldest Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales. He surpassed the record held by Edward VII on September 9, 2017. If he becomes monarch, he will be the oldest person to do so, the current record holder being King William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830. Upon the death of his father, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021, Charles also inherited the title of Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince of Wales took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970, and he made his maiden speech in June 1974, the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884. He spoke again in 1975. Charles began to take on more public duties, founding The Prince’s Trust in 1976, and travelling to the United States in 1981.

He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, both of which his father attended as a child. He later spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976.

In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he had two sons: William and Henry, the current Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Susex respectively.

In 1996, the couple divorced following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties. Diana died as the result of a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles. Although legally she is the Princess of Wales out of respect for the late Diana, Princess of Wales she is known as the Duchess of Cornwall.

The Prince of Wales has five grandchildren. The children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The Children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are Archie and Lillibet Mountbatten-Windsor.

As the Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen. He founded The Prince’s Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince’s Charities, and is a patron, president, or a member of over 400 other charities and organisations.

As a self-described environmentalist, Charles has spoken publicly about issues such as organic farming and climate change, which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups. His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been the subject of criticism.

His views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received significant attention from British architects and design critics. Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his architectural tastes. He is also an author or co-author of a number of books.

German Emperor Wilhelm II: Psychology and Relationships

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Albert Edward, German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King Edward VII, Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

With yesterday being the anniversary of the death of German Emperor Friedrich III and the accession of his son, Wilhelm II, I thought i do a little character study. I find German Emperor Wilhelm II a fascinating subject to study. Historians like myself have frequently stressed the role of Wilhelm’s personality in shaping his reign. Historian Thomas Nipperdey concludes WilhelmII was :

gifted, with a quick understanding, sometimes brilliant, with a taste for the modern,—technology, industry, science—but at the same time superficial, hasty, restless, unable to relax, without any deeper level of seriousness, without any desire for hard work or drive to see things through to the end, without any sense of sobriety, for balance and boundaries, or even for reality and real problems, uncontrollable and scarcely capable of learning from experience, desperate for applause and success,—as Bismarck said early on in his life, he wanted every day to be his birthday—romantic, sentimental and theatrical, unsure and arrogant, with an immeasurably exaggerated self-confidence and desire to show off, a juvenile cadet, who never took the tone of the officers’ mess out of his voice, and brashly wanted to play the part of the supreme warlord, full of panicky fear of a monotonous life without any diversions, and yet aimless, pathological in his hatred against his English mother.

Historian David Fromkin states that Wilhelm had a love–hate relationship with Britain. According to Fromkin “From the outset, the half-German side of him was at war with the half-English side. He was wildly jealous of the British, wanting to be British, wanting to be better at being British than the British were, while at the same time hating them and resenting them because he never could be fully accepted by them”.

Langer et al. (1968) emphasise the negative international consequences of Wilhelm’s erratic personality: “He believed in force, and the ‘survival of the fittest’ in domestic as well as foreign politics … William was not lacking in intelligence, but he did lack stability, disguising his deep insecurities by swagger and tough talk. He frequently fell into depressions and hysterics … William’s personal instability was reflected in vacillations of policy. His actions, at home as well as abroad, lacked guidance, and therefore often bewildered or infuriated public opinion. He was not so much concerned with gaining specific objectives, as had been the case with Bismarck, as with asserting his will. This trait in the ruler of the leading Continental power was one of the main causes of the uneasiness prevailing in Europe at the turn-of-the-century”.

Relationships with foreign relatives

Because of Wilhelm’s personality issues it created difficult relationships amongst his foreign relatives. As a grandchild of Queen Victoria, Wilhelm was a first cousin of the future King George V of the United Kingdom, as well as of Queens Marie of Romania, Maud of Norway, Victoria Eugenie of Spain, and the Empress Alexandra of Russia. In 1889, Wilhelm’s younger sister, Sophia, married the future King Constantine I of the Hellenas (Greece). Wilhelm was infuriated by his sister’s conversion to Greek Orthodoxy; upon her marriage, that he attempted to ban her from entering Germany.

Wilhelm’s most contentious relationships were with his British relations. He craved the acceptance of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, and of the rest of her family. Despite the fact that his grandmother treated him with courtesy and tact, his other relatives found him arrogant and obnoxious, and they largely denied him acceptance. He had an especially bad relationship with his Uncle Bertie, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). Between 1888 and 1901 Wilhelm resented his uncle, himself a mere heir to the British throne, treating Wilhelm not as Emperor of Germany, but merely as another nephew.

In turn, Wilhelm often snubbed his uncle, whom he referred to as “the old peacock” and lorded his position as emperor over him. Beginning in the 1890s, Wilhelm made visits to England for Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight and often competed against his uncle in the yacht races. Edward’s wife, the Danish-born Alexandra, first as Princess of Wales and later as Queen, also disliked Wilhelm, never forgetting the Prussian seizure of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark in the 1860s, as well as being annoyed over Wilhelm’s treatment of his mother.

Despite his poor relations with his English relatives, when he received news that Queen Victoria was dying at Osborne House in January 1901, Wilhelm travelled to England and was at her bedside when she died, and he remained for the funeral. He also was present at the funeral of King Edward VII in 1910.

In 1913, Wilhelm hosted a lavish wedding in Berlin for his only daughter, Victoria Louise. Among the guests at the wedding were his cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and King George V, and George’s wife, Queen Mary.

This date in History: May 6th, 1910. The death of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

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Bronchitis, Emperor of India, Ernest Cassels, King Edward VII, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of the United Kingdom, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince of Wales

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings
~ William Shakepeare “The Life and Death of Richard the Second.”
Act 3, Scene 2

King Edward VII habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day. In 1907, a rodent ulcer, a type of cancer affecting the skin next to his nose, was cured with radium. Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis. He suffered a momentary loss of consciousness during a state visit to Berlin in February 1909. The king was not a well man. In March 1910, he was staying at Biarritz when he collapsed. He remained there to convalesce, while in London Asquith tried to get the Finance Bill passed. The King’s continued ill health was unreported by the press and the Palace and for that he attracted criticism for staying in France while political tensions were so high.

HM King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India.

On April 27 he returned to Buckingham Palace, still suffering from severe bronchitis. On May 4 Edward made his last journal entry. Queen Alexandra returned from visiting her brother, King George I of Greece, in Corfu a on May 5. For the first time the King did not greet the Queen at the train station. His dusky and grey complexion worried both family and doctors.

The following morning, May 6, the King was angered when his valet placed informal clothes to wear instead of his traditional clothing. He dressed in a frock coat and was placed in a chair by the window. He ate a light luncheon, smoked a cigar and collapsed when Sir Ernest Cassel visited him. Shortly thereafter the King suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Parkthat afternoon. The King replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad.” These were his final words.

Princess Victoria (his daughter) sent for the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The doctors, who had given up hope, administered morphia to ease the pain. The Queen allowed Edward’s mistress Mrs. Alice Kappel and others to say goodby as the King sat in his armchair.

At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed with the help of the Prince of Wales. He died 15 minutes later. That evening King George V wrote in his diary, “I have lost my best friend and the best of fathers I have never had a word with him in my life I am heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief.”

Deathbed of King Edward VII.

Queen Alexandra refused to allow the King’s body to be moved for eight days afterwards, though she allowed small groups of visitors to enter his room. On May 11, the late King was dressed in his uniform and placed in a massive oak coffin, which was moved on May 14, to the throne room, where it was sealed and lay in state, with a guardsman stood at each corner of the bier. Despite the time that had elapsed since his death, Alexandra noted the King’s body remained “wonderfully preserved”.

On the morning of May 17, the coffin was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall, with the new King and his family walking behind. Following a brief service, the royal family left, and the hall was opened to the public; over 400,000 people filed past the coffin over the next two days.

His funeral, held on 20 May 1910, marked the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. A royal train conveyed the King’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, where Edward VII was buried at St George’s Chapel.

Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians.
Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

January, the Gloomy Month

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Death, January, King Edward VII, King George III, King George V, Kings and Queens of England, Prince Edward Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria

Yesterday, January 22nd, was the 115th anniversary of the Death of Queen Victoria. But did you know that January has been a month where many British royals have died? We start with King George III who died January 29, 1820. His son, HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, predeceased his father and died 6 days prior on January 23, 1820. His anniversary is today. His daughter, Queen Victoria, died on January 22, 1901. Her grandsons also died in January. The eldest son of the then Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), Prince Albert-Victor, Duke of Clarence, died January 14, 1892. His brother, King George V, died on January 20, 1936. King George V’s sister, Princess Louise, The Princess Royal, died on January 10, 1931. HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria and brother of King Edward VII, died on January 16, 1942. The Duke of Connaught’s youngest daughter, HRH Princess Patricia of Connaught (Lady Patricia Ramsay) died on January 12, 1974. Lastly, HRH Princess Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, longest surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria died on January 3, 1981. I may have missed some But January is a gloomy month for the royal family.

Royal Nicknames

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Alexander III of Russia, Czar of Russia, David Duke of Windsor, Duke of Cambridge, George VI, King Edward VII, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Lilibet, Nicholas II, Prince of Wales, Prince William of Wales, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Royal Nicknames, Victoria-Patricia of Connaught

“Lilibet”

Last week I discussed double names. This week I will discuss nicknames. Nicknames are common and they seem to be common in every family. In my family I remember my mother not caring for nicknames and in my family I seem to have been the only member to have received a nickname. Well, that is not entirely true. I have an elder sister whom all her friends call her Cathy but family members call her Catherine. It is the opposite for me. All my friends call me Bill but all my family members call me Billy. I am pushing 50 and they still call me Billy!! Grr.

Royalty is no exception. I will mainly be referring to Queen Victoria’s family and extended family and their descendants in this entry. I can conceive that even those royals with a double name had nicknames. I do know that is true. Edward VII, called Albert-Edward, when he was Prince of Wales, was called Bertie in the family. His son, Albert-Victor, was known as Eddy in the family. King George VI was actually named Albert and took the name George after the abdication crisis in order to sooth the crisis by giving the monarchy a sense of continuity when Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936. George VI was also called Bertie in the family. And speaking of Edward VIII he was called David in the family. According to the biography on Edward VIII by Philip Ziegler the name David was an after thought and many reasons were given for the name David ranging from trying to gratify the Marchionese of Waterford and even some vague prophecy about a great king over the water named David. The book mentions that even from birth he was called David within the family. However, no reasons were given why his last name, out of a long string of names, was chosen.

Like the name Bertie in the above paragraph some nicknames get handed down. Princess Margaret of Connaught, daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (himself a son of Queen Victoria) was nicknamed Daisy as was her granddaughter, the current Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II. I think also specific nicknames developed to distinguish family members with the same first name. The above mentioned cases of Albert-Edward and Albert-Victor are a good examples. Sometimes nicknames came from their personalities. Princess Alix of Hess and by Rhine was called Sunny when she was younger. However after the early death of her mother, Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, Alix became more sullen and shy and withdraw. As an adult married to Czar Nicholas II of Russia (and known as Alexandra he name upon conversion to Russian orthodoxy) she was called Alicky by her husband.

I could go on and on with all the nicknames and I will leave a list of nicknames at the end of this blog post but I want to finish this post with a bit of a rant. To my knowledge all of these nicknames were private and not used publicly. To have done so would have expressed a degree on familiarity with the royals that I don’t think would have been acceptable during the Victorian and later eras. So I have a little beef with Prince Harry of Wales. I think this is one of the first occasions that a royal nickname has been used both within the family and by the general public. Personally much prefer Henry to Harry. I have nothing against the name Harry I just like Henry better. It is a name with a long royal tradition in Britain. I had once remember reading that the queens uncle, the late Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester also held the nickname Harry, but that is was used privately. I cannot find that information to confirm it, so I may be wrong. Oh well, that is my little rant.

So nicknames are as common within royal families as they are in other families. I will leave you now with a list of nicknames for many royals of the Victorian era. This list is not exhaustive.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain ~ Lilibet
Victoria, Princes Royal ~ Vicky (she was called Pussy when very young)
Wilhelm II, German Emperor ~ Willy
Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein ~ Dona
William, Duke of Clarence ~ Wills
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh ~ Affie
Friedrich III, German Emperor ~ Fritz
Alexander III, Czar of Russia ~ Sasha
Helena of Great Britain ~ Lenchen
Victoria-Mary of Teck (Queen Mary) ~ May
Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh ~ Ducky
Beatrice of Edinburgh ~ Baby Bee
Victoria-Patricia of Connaught ~ Patsy
Charles-Edward, Duke of Albany (Carl-Eduard, Duke of Coburg) ~ Charlie
Caroline-Matilda of Albany-Coburg ~ Calma
Victoria-Eugenie of Battenberg ~ Ena
Elisabeth of Hess and by Rhine ~ Ella
Friedrich-Wilhelm of Hess and by Rhine ~ Frittie
Marie of Hess and by Rhine ~ May & Maly
Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hess and by Rhine ~ Ernie
Nicholas II, Czar of Russia ~ Nicky
George V, King of Great Britain ~ Georgie.

I am sure there are others out there. Readers feel free to comment on the ones I have missed.

 

 

The House of Windsor

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House of Orange-Nassau, House of Windsor, King Edward VII, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Marquess of Cambridge, Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Queen Mary I, Queen Victoria

July 17, 1917.

HM King George V

Anti German feelings were running high in the United Kingdom during World War I. Ever since the death of Queen Victoria, who was a member of the House of Hanover, the name of Britain’s royal house was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, named after the German duchy where Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, had originated. Under this pressure King George V decided to change the name of the royal house and to relinquish all German titles for himself and extended family members living in the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha they were also titled Duke or Duchess of Saxony.

By Royal Proclamation on this date HM King George V changed the name of the royal house to Windsor.

Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor.

Windsor Castle had long been associated with the Monarchy and naming a dynasty after a Castle did have precidence in Europe. Both the Habsburg and Hohenzollern royal families were named after castles.

Descendants in the female line from Queen Victoria (or in the case of the Teck family were descendants of George III in the female line) also had to relinquish their German styles and titles. The Battenberg family anglicized their name to Mountbatten while the Teck family, which Queen Mary belonged, became the Cambridge family stemming from their maternal descent from HRH Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, 7th son of King George III.

HSH Prince Louis of Battenberg (married to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine) and his children relinquished their German titles and on November 7, 1917 King George V created Louis, Marquess of Milford Haven, Earl of Medina, and Viscount Alderney in the peerage of the United Kingdom. At this time his younger three children, Louise, George and Louis also dropped their princely titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten. The youngest son, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was Britain’s last Viceroy of India. The eldest daughter, Alice, had married prince Andrea of Greece and never bore the surname Mounbatten. However, her son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, did choose Mountbatten has his surname when he became a British subject in 1947.

The Duke of Teck, Prince Adolphus, brother of Queen Mary, became Adolphus Cambridge and was made a Peer of the Realm by King George V as Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Eltham, and Viscount Northallerton. Queen Mary’s younger brother, Prince Alexander of Teck, was married to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Alice of Albany, created him as Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon. Princess Alice was allowed to keep her royal title as she was a male line descendant of Queen Victoria.

The name of the dynasty will remain the same during the reign of a Queen Regnant. For example, Queen Mary I 1553-1558, remained a Tudor despite being married to a Habsburg. Queen Anne remained a Stuart despite being married to a Danish prince of the House of Oldenburg. The same with Queen Victoria, the name of the Royal House did not change from Hanover to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until the accession of her son. King Edward VII, in 1901. However, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, wanted the Queen Elizabeth II to issue a proclamation in 1952 changing the name of the royal house to that of Mountbatten. Queen Mary was a wee bit upset about this maneuver and spoke to Prime Minister Winston Churchill about the issue. Later that year the queen did issue her own proclamation affirming the name of her family and royal house as that of Windsor. This was slightly amended in 1960 where the queen proclaimed that male descendants of her and Philip who are not titled Prince or Princess of the United Kingdom will carry the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. This did not change the name of the Royal House.

What about the future? This is from the website of the British monarchy.

A proclamation on the Royal Family name by the reigning monarch is not statutory; unlike an Act of Parliament, it does not pass into the law of the land. Such a proclamation is not binding on succeeding reigning sovereigns, nor does it set a precedent which must be followed by reigning sovereigns who come after.

The tradition would have it that when Charles becomes king the name of the Royal House would change. Philip was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg. Charles could keep the name Windsor or the name of his Father’s royal house or the name Mounbatten or Mountbatten-Windsor. Being the traditionalist that I am I was all in favor of changing the name to reflect the new royal house on Charles’s accession. However, I have changed my mind. Given that the British monarchy will change to cognatic primogeniture where the eldest child succeeds to the throne regardless of gender it makes more sense to retain the name Windsor. In the future we could have the same situation as the Dutch where three Queen Regnants have reigned. It would just be silly and cumbersome to change the royal house each and every time. The Dutch remain the House of Orange-Nassau. Besides, Windsor is a very British sounding name and so associated with the monarchy that I now think it should remain…forever.

 

HSH Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969)

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Battenberg, Buckingham Palace, Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene, Duke of Edinburgh, Hesse and By Rhine, Holocaust, King Edward VII, King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Kings and Queens of England, Prince Andrew of Greece., Prince Philip, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Victoria, Righteous among the Nations

She was christened HSH Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg and was the eldest daughter and child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine. Prince Louis of Battenberg was a morganatic scion of the house of Hesse and was the son of f Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Countess Julia von Hauke. Louis was first cousin to his wife’s father, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine. Grand Duke Ludwig had married Princess Alice of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Because of his close relationship with the British royal family, Alice’s father, Prince Louis, lived in the UK and had an illustrious career in the British Navy rising to the post of First Sea Lord in 1912.

Princess Alice was born on February 25, 1885 in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. While very young her mother noticed that Alice was slow in learning to talk. Soon it was diagnosed that she suffered from a congenital form of deafness. Despite this problem Alice was able to lip read and speak English, German, French and later Greek. Because of her father’s military career Alice lived in London, Darmstadt, Jugenheim, and Malta. She was later joined by three siblings, George, Louise (who became Queen Consort of Sweden) and Louis, who became Earl Mountbatten of Burma and the last Viceroy of India.

At the coronation for her great-uncle, King Edward VII, in 1902 she met and fell in love with Queen Alexandra’s nephew, Prince Andrea (Andrew) of Greece and Denmark. The two were married the next year, October 6, 1903 with a civil ceremony in Darmstadt, followed by a Lutheran and then Greek Orthodox services. Alice and Andrea had four children between 1905 and 1914. They were all girls, Margarita, Theodora, Cecile, Sophie who all married into various German royal houses. After a gap of six years Alice and Andrea had their last child a son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, who made the most prized marriage of them all when he married the future Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on November 20, 1947.

During the early part of her marriage Alice visited her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, in Russia and became interested in the religious order she had founded along with the charity work she was engaged in. These were to become a significant focus for her entire life. Also at this juncture Greek politics, which seems to often be unstable, were experiencing political tumult once again and Prince Andrea had to renounce his military position because the political squabbles. However, he was reinstated once the Balkan Crisis of 1912 required his presence. During the Balkan Wars Alice’s nursing work lead to her being given the Royal Red Cross Award in 1913. When World War I broke out in 1914 her brother-in-law King Constantine I of Greece kept the country neutral despite the prime Minister’s support of the allies.

World War I caused great pains and tragedy for Alice and her relatives. All her German relations lost their thrones and postilions at the end of the war. He maternal aunts, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia and the Empress Alexandra of Russia and her family, were brutally murdered in 1917. Her father and two brothers, living in the UK were forced to give up their German princely titles in a wave of anti- German sentiment. In replace of their titles they Anglicized their territorial designation of Battenberg into the surname of Mountbatten and her father was created Marquess of Mildford Haven. King Constantine I was exiled during the war and briefly reinstated. Shortly after the birth of her son, Prince Philip, in 1921 the Greek Royal Family was once again exiled. The situation became so precarious that Prince Andrea was arrested and with his life endangered King George V sent a British cruiser, the HMS Calypso, to rescue the royal family. The king feared a repeat of what happened to the Russian Royal Family.

By the 1930s Princess Alice became very religious and reported having visions. She was shortly diagnosed with schizophrenia and was institutionalized for brief period and then took two years to recover her stability. During the time she cut off ties to her family and she became estranged from her husband. In 1936 her daughter Cecile and her husband (her cousin Georg Donatus of Hesse and By Rhine) and two of their sons were killed in a plane crash. At the funeral she saw her husband for the first time in six years. When World War II broke out Princess Alice found herself with divided loyalties. Her son prince Philip was a member of the British Navy while her sons-in-law were fighting for Germany. She remained in Greece during the war continuing her charity work such as setting up soup kitchens for the poor. She would visit her sister Louise, who was married to King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, and smuggle in medical supplies. She also helped hide escaped Jews during this period when Athens was occupied by Italy.

Sadly as she was moving toward a reconciliation with her husband Prince Andrea died of a heart attack in 1944 at the age of 62. In 1947 Alice returned to Great Britain for the marriage of her son to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI. Alice returned to Greece, which had restored the monarchy after the war, and established an order of nuns. She remained in Greece until politics once again the monarchy was the victim of a military coup in 1967 forcing her to leave. Her son and the Queen Elizabeth II offered her an apartment in Buckingham Palace and lived there until her death on December 5, 1969 at the age of 84. She was initially interred in St George’s Chapel but was transferred to Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. In 1994 Alice was named by Israel “Righteous among the Nations” for aiding Jews during the war. In 2010 she was named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. A deeply religious woman dedicated to service she left no material possessions. For a large part of her life she wore a nun’s habit even though she was never ordained as a nun. She also was a chain smoker for the majority of her adult life.

HRH Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark