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

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German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Grand Duke Louis IV of Hess and by Rhine, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Irene of Hesse and By Rhine, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

From the Emperor’s Desk: In this entry I will only cover her birth until marriage.

Princess Irene Luise Marie Anne 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. 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 Elizabeth of Prussia. She was the wife of Prince Heinrich of Prussia, a younger brother of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and her first cousin. The SS Prinzessin Irene, a liner of the North German Lloyd was named after her.

Her siblings included Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and (Alix) Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. Like her younger sister, the 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. Alice considered Irene an unattractive child and once wrote to her sister Victoria that Irene was “not pretty.” She would never be considered a great beauty like her sisters Elisabeth and Alix, but she did have a pleasant, even disposition. Princess Alice brought up her daughters simply.

Despite her mother’s assertion Princess Irene was not attractive, as the author of this blog, Liam, I wholeheartedly disagree and from the pictures I have posted I think HRH was very pretty.

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, kneeling at left, with her grandmother Queen Victoria and, from left to right, her sister Elisabeth, brother Ernest Louis, sister Victoria and, sitting, her sister Alix in February 1879, two months after the deaths of her mother and sister Marie.

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.

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.

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 Friedrich III, was dying of throat cancer, and less than a month after the ceremony, Irene’s cousin and brother-in-law ascended the throne as German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

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.

April 25, 1843: Birth of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine

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Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Albrecht of Prussia, Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince of Orange, Prince Willem of the Netherlands, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Princess Royal, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (Alice Maud Mary; April 25, 1843 – December 14, 1878) was Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine from June 13, 1877 until her death in 1878 as the wife of Grand Duke Ludwig IV.

She was the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alice was the first of Queen Victoria’s nine children to die, and one of three to predecease their mother, who died in 1901. Her life had been enwrapped in tragedy since her father’s death in 1861.

In this blog entry I will be focusing on her marriage to the future Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

When her father, Prince Albert, became fatally ill in December 1861, Alice nursed him until his death. Following his death, Queen Victoria entered a period of intense mourning and Alice spent the next six months acting as her mother’s unofficial secretary.

Alice’s matrimonial plans were begun in 1860 by her mother. Queen Victoria had expressed her wish that her children should marry for love, but this did not mean that her choice of suitors would necessarily be extended to anybody outside the Royal Houses of Europe.

Raising a British subject to royalty, however high their rank, was politically objectionable, and also wasted any opportunity for a useful foreign alliance. The Queen instructed her daughter Victoria, recently married to Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, to produce a list of eligible princes in Europe.

Her search produced only two suitable candidates: the Willem, Prince of Orange; and Prince Albrecht of Prussia. Prince Albrecht of Prussia was a cousin to Victoria’s husband Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia.

Prince Albrecht of Prussia

Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837 – 1906) was also a cousin of the Prince of Orange given he was the son of Prince Albrecht of Prussia and his wife Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, daughter of King Willem I of the Netherlands.

Willem, Prince of Orange (1840 – 1879), was heir apparent to the Dutch throne as the eldest son of King Willem III and his first wife, Princess Sophie of Württemberg. In 1849, after the death of his grandfather King Willem II of the Netherlands, he became Prince of Orange as heir apparent. His Victorian upbringing turned out to be a disaster.

The Prince of Orange was soon discounted. He journeyed to Windsor Castle so that Queen Victoria could look him over in person, but he proved unpalatable to Alice.

Prince Willem of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange

Albrecht of Prussia was born in Berlin, the son of Prince Albrecht of Prussia and his wife Princess Marianne, daughter of King Willem I of the Netherlands. His father was a brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and of Wilhelm I, German Emperor, whose son was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (future German Emperor Friedrich III) the wife of Princess Alice’s sister, Princess Victoria the Princess Royal.

Prince Albrecht of Prussia also showed little interest in Alice, despite strong pressure from his pro-British mother, Queen Sophie of the Netherlands. Prince Albrecht, too, was spurned, with Prince Friedrich Wilhelm remarking that his cousin would not do for “one who deserves the very best”.

With both of the leading candidates now discounted, Princess Victoria suggested Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, a minor German royal, the nephew of the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Princess Victoria had gone to the court of Hesse to inspect Ludwig’s sister, Princess Anna, as a potential bride for her brother, the Prince of Wales.

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom

Although not favorably impressed with Princess Anna, she was impressed with Ludwig and his brother Prince Heinrich. Both were invited to Windsor Castle in 1860, ostensibly so they could watch the Ascot Races in the company of the royal family, but in reality, the visit was a chance for the Queen to inspect her potential son-in-law.

The Queen admired both Ludwig and Heinrich, but noted how well Ludwig and Alice got along together. When the Hessian family departed, Ludwig requested Alice’s photograph, and Alice made it clear that she was attracted to him.

Engagement and wedding

Alice was engaged to Prince Ludwig of Hesse on 30 April 30,1861, following the Queen’s consent. The Queen persuaded the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, to secure the agreement of Parliament for Alice to receive a dowry of £30,000 (£2.86 million as of 2022).

Although the amount was considered generous at the time, Prince Albert remarked that “she will not be able to do great things with it” in the little realm of Hesse, compared to the riches that her sister Victoria would inherit as future Queen of Prussia and German Empress.

Furthermore, the couple’s future home in Darmstadt, the Grand Ducal seat, was uncertain. Although Queen Victoria expected that a new palace would be built, the people of Darmstadt did not want to meet that expense, and the resulting controversy caused resentment there. This meant that Alice was unpopular in Darmstadt before she even arrived.

Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine

Between the engagement and the wedding, Alice’s father Prince Albert died on December 14, 1861. Despite the Queen’s grief, she ordered that the wedding should continue as planned.

On July 1, 1862, Alice and Ludwig were married privately in the dining room of Osborne House, which was converted into a temporary chapel. The Queen was ushered in by her four sons, acting as a living screen blocking her from view, and took her place in an armchair near the altar.

Alice was given away by her uncle, Albert’s brother Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was flanked by four bridesmaids: her younger sisters, Princesses Helena, Louise and Beatrice, as well as Louis’s sister Princess Anna. For the ceremony, Alice wore a simple white dress, with a veil of Honiton lace and a wreath of orange blossom and myrtle, but was required to wear black mourning clothes before and after the ceremony.

Prince and Princess Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine

The Queen, sitting in an armchair, struggled to hold back her tears, and was shielded from view by the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, her second son, who cried throughout the service.

The weather at Osborne was dreary, with winds blowing up from the Channel. The Queen wrote to her eldest daughter, Victoria, that the ceremony was “more of a funeral than a wedding”, and remarked to Alfred, Lord Tennyson that it was “the saddest day I can remember”.

The Princess’s life in Darmstadt was unhappy as a result of impoverishment, family tragedy and worsening relations with her husband and mother.

February 25, 1885: Birth of Princess Alice of Battenberg

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Princess Alice of Battenberg (February 25, 1885 – December 5, 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II.

Alice was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. 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 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.

Alice’s three younger siblings, Louise, George, and Louis, later became Queen of Sweden, Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.

Alice was christened Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie in Darmstadt on April 25, 1885.

She was congenitally deaf.

Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (known as Andrea within the family), the fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia, while in London for King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.

They married in a civil ceremony on October 6, 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day, there were two religious marriage ceremonies; one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and one Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. She adopted the style of her husband, becoming “Princess Andrew”.

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.

Princess Margarita 1905 – 1981.
Married Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Princess Theodora 1906 – 1969.
Married Berthold, Margrave of Baden.

Princess Cecilie 1911 – 1937.
Married Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

Princess Sophie 1914 – 2001.
Married 1. Prince Christoph of Hesse-Cassel
Married 2. Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1921 – 2021.
Married Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom

After their wedding, Prince Andrew continued his career in the military and Princess Andrew became involved in charity work. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of Grand Duchess Marie of Russia and Prince William of Sweden.

While there, she talked with her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, (born Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine) who was formulating plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses. Princess Andrew attended the laying of the foundation stone for her aunt’s new church. Later in the year, the Grand Duchess began giving away all her possessions in preparation for a more spiritual life.

She lived in Greece until the exile of most of the Greek royal family in 1917. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the country’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and the family was once again forced into exile until the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935.

In 1930, Princess Andrew was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to a sanatorium in Switzerland; thereafter, she lived separately from her husband.

After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. She stayed in Athens during the Second World War, sheltering Jewish refugees, for which she is recognised as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel’s Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded a Greek Orthodox nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.

Princess Andrew returned to the United Kingdom in April 1947 to attend the November wedding of her only son, Philip, to Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI. She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth’s engagement ring. On the day of the wedding, her son was created Duke of Edinburgh by George VI.

For the wedding ceremony, Princess Andrew sat at the head of her family on the north side of Westminster Abbey, opposite the King, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. It was decided not to invite Princess Andrew’s daughters (the groom’s sisters) to the wedding because of anti-German sentiment in Britain following World War II.

After the fall of King Constantine II of Greece and the imposition of military rule in Greece in 1967, Princess Andrew was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at Buckingham Palace in London, where she died two years later.

In 1988, her remains were transferred from a vault in her birthplace, Windsor Castle, to the Church of Mary Magdalene at the Russian Orthodox convent of the same name on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

December 14, 1895: Birth of Prince Albert of York, future King George VI of the United Kingdom

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George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; December 14, 1895 – February 6, 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from December 11, 1936 until his death in 1952. He was concurrently the last Emperor of India until August 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved. King George VI was the father of the United Kingdom’s current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

The future George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra).

His mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck. Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was the daughter of Adolphus of Cambridge, son of George III of the United Kingdom.

The new prince’s birthday, December 14, 1895, came on the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and the 17th anniversary of the death of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine.

Uncertain of how the Prince Consort’s widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth on “Mausoleum Day”, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been “rather distressed”. Two days later, he wrote again: “I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her.”

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: “I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good.”

Queen Victoria holding her great-grandson Prince Henry of York. Sitting on the cushion at her feet is Prince Albert of York. Behind him is his sister Princess Mary and standing next to the Queen is Prince Edward of York.

Consequently, he was baptised “Albert Frederick Arthur George” at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on February 17, 1896. Within the family, he was known informally as “Bertie”, the same name his grandfather the future King Edward VII was known by.

The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name “may supplant the less favoured one”. Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward.

The Duchess of Teck’s wishes came true when Prince Albert chose George as his regal name when he succeeded his brother as King on December 11, 1936.

When Prince Albert was born on December 14, 1895 his style and title was His Highness Prince Albert of York.

On May 28, 1898 Queen Victoria issued Letters Patent granting Albert (and his brothers and sister) the style of “Royal Highness”.

May 28, 1898 Letters Patent

“Victoria by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas by virtue of Our Letters Patent dated the thirtieth of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty four wherein We declared Our Royal will and pleasure in that behalf the children of the sons of any Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland are entitled to the style of “Royal Highness” Know Ye that in the exercise of our Royal and undoubted prerogative and of Our especial grace We do hereby declare our further Royal will and pleasure that the children of the eldest son of any Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style title or attribute of “Royal Highness” in addition to such titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or other titles of honour if any as they may otherwise possess Our will and pleasure further is that Our Earl Marshal of England or his deputy for the time being do cause these our Letters Patent or the enrolment thereof to be recorded in Our College of Arms to the end that Our officers of Arms and all others may take due notice thereof. In Witness whereof we have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent.. Witness Ourself etc.”

September 24, 1950: Death of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Part I.

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Diptheria, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (Victoria Alberta Elisabeth Mathilde Marie; April 5, 1863 –September 24, 1950) was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837–1892), and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843–1878), daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Victoria’s mother died while her brother and sisters were still young, which placed her in an early position of responsibility over her siblings. Over her father’s disapproval, she married his first cousin Prince Louis of Battenberg, an officer in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, and lived most of her married life in various parts of Europe at her husband’s naval posts and visiting her many royal relations. She was perceived by her family as liberal in outlook, straightforward, practical and bright.

During World War I, she and her husband abandoned their German titles and adopted the British-sounding surname of Mountbatten, which was simply a translation into English of the German “Battenberg”. Two of her sisters—Elisabeth and Alix, who had married into the Russian imperial family—were killed by communist revolutionaries.

She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and mother-in-law of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden.

Victoria was born on Easter Sunday at Windsor Castle in the presence of her maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was christened in the Lutheran faith in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, in the arms of the Queen on April 27. Her godparents were Queen Victoria, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse (represented by Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine), the Prince of Wales and Prince Heinrich of Hesse and by Rhine.

Her early life was spent at Bessungen, a suburb of Darmstadt, until the family moved to the New Palace in Darmstadt when she was three years old. There, she shared a room with her younger sister, Elisabeth, until adulthood. She was privately educated to a high standard and was, throughout her life, an avid reader.

During the Prussian invasion of Hesse in June 1866, Victoria and Elisabeth were sent to Britain to live with their grandmother until hostilities were ended by the absorption of Hesse-Cassel and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt into Prussia.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military hospitals were set up in the palace grounds at Darmstadt, and she helped in the soup kitchens with her mother. She remembered the intense cold of the winter, and being burned on the arm by hot soup.

In 1872, Victoria’s eighteen-month-old brother, Friedrich, was diagnosed with haemophilia. The diagnosis came as a shock to the royal families of Europe; it had been twenty years since Queen Victoria had given birth to her haemophiliac son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and it was the first indication that the bleeding disorder in the royal family was hereditary. The following year, Friedrich fell from a window onto stone steps and died. It was the first of many tragedies to beset the Hesse family.

In early November 1878, Victoria contracted diphtheria. Elisabeth was swiftly moved out of their room and was the only member of the family to escape the disease. For days, Victoria’s mother, Princess Alice, nursed the sick, but she was unable to save her youngest daughter, Victoria’s sister Marie, who died in mid-November.

Just as the rest of the family seemed to have recovered, Princess Alice fell ill. She died on December 14, the anniversary of the death of her father, Prince Albert. As the eldest child, Victoria partly assumed the role of mother to the younger children and of companion to her father. She later wrote, “My mother’s death was an irreparable loss … My childhood ended with her death, for I became the eldest and most responsible.”

Marriage and family

At family gatherings, Victoria had often met Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was her first cousin once removed and a member of a morganatic branch of the Hessian royal family. Prince Louis had adopted British nationality and was serving as an officer in the Royal Navy. In the winter of 1882, they met again at Darmstadt, and were engaged the following summer.

After a brief postponement because of the death of her maternal uncle Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Victoria married Prince Louis on 30 April 1884 at Darmstadt. Her father did not approve of the match; in his view Prince Louis had little money and would deprive him of his daughter’s company, as the couple would naturally live abroad in Britain.

However, Victoria was of an independent mind and took little notice of her father’s displeasure. Remarkably, that same evening, Victoria’s father secretly married his mistress, Countess Alexandrine von Hutten-Czapska, the former wife of Alexander von Kolemine, the Russian chargé d’affaires in Darmstadt.

His marriage to a divorcee who was not of equal rank shocked the assembled royalty of Europe and through diplomatic and family pressure Victoria’s father was forced to seek an annulment of his own marriage.

September 12, 1837: Birth of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Part II.

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In March 1877, Ludwig IV became heir presumptive to the Hessian throne when his father, Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine, died, and less than three months later, found himself as the reigning grand duke upon the demise of his uncle, Ludwig III, on June 13, 1877.

A year and a half later, November 1878, the Grand Ducal household fell ill with diphtheria. Ludwig’s eldest daughter Victoria was the first to fall ill, complaining of a stiff neck in the evening of November 5. Diphtheria was diagnosed the following morning, and soon the disease spread to Ludwig’s children Alix, Marie, Irene, and Ernst.

Ludwig himself became infected shortly thereafter. Elisabeth was the only child to not fall ill, having been sent away by Alice to the palace of the Princess Charles, Ludwig’s mother.

Marie became seriously ill on November 15, and Alice was called to her bedside, but by the time she arrived, Marie had choked to death. A distraught Alice wrote to Queen Victoria that the “pain is beyond words”. Alice kept the news of Marie’s death secret from her children for several weeks, but she finally told Ernst in early December.

Ernst’s reaction was even worse than she had anticipated; at first he refused to believe it. As he sat up crying, Alice broke her rule about physical contact with the ill and gave him a kiss. At first, however, Alice did not fall ill. She met her sister Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia as the latter was passing through Darmstadt on the way to England, and wrote to her mother with “a hint of resumed cheerfulness” on the same day.

However, by Saturday, December 14, the anniversary of her father, Prince Albert’s death, she became seriously ill with the diphtheria caught from her son.

Grand Duchess Alice’s last words were “dear Papa”, and she fell unconscious at 2:30 am. Just after 8:30 am, she died. Alice was buried on 18 December 1878 at the Grand Ducal mausoleum at Rosenhöhe outside Darmstadt, with the Union Flag draped over her coffin. A special monument of Alice and her daughter Marie was erected there by Joseph Boehm.

From then on, Grand Duke Ludwid IV reigned and raised his five surviving children alone.

When looking for a husband for Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales suggested that Beatrice marry their sister Alice’s widower, Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse of Hesse and by Rhine.

The Prince of Wales argued that Beatrice could act as replacement mother for Louis’s young children and spend most of her time in England looking after her mother. He further suggested the Queen could oversee the upbringing of her Hessian grandchildren with greater ease.

However, at the time, it was forbidden by law for Beatrice to marry her sister’s widower. This was countered by the Prince of Wales, who vehemently supported passage by the Houses of Parliament of the Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill, which would have removed the obstacle.

Despite popular support for this measure and although it passed in the House of Commons, it was rejected by the House of Lords because of opposition from the Lords Spiritual. Although the Queen was disappointed that the bill had failed, she was happy to keep her daughter at her side.

Grand Duke Ludwig IV contracted a morganatic marriage on April 30, 1884 in Darmstadt (on the eve of the wedding of his eldest daughter, for which Queen Victoria and other relatives of his first wife were gathered in the Hessian capital) with Countess Alexandrine Hutten-Czapska (September 3, 1854 –May 8, 1941), daughter of Count Adam Hutten-Czapski and Countess Marianna Rzewuska.

She was the former wife of Aleksander von Kolemin, the Russian chargé d’affaires in Darmstadt. But the couple, facing objections from the Grand Duke’s in-laws, separated within a week and the marriage was annulled within three months. As a compensation, she received the title Countess von Romrod on 31 May 1884. Alexandrine later married for the third time to Basil von Bacheracht.

Death

Grand Duke Ludwig IV died on March 13, 1892 of a heart attack in the New Palace in Darmstadt and was succeeded by his son, Ernst-Ludwig. His remains are buried at Rosenhöhe, the mausoleum for the Grand Ducal House outside of Darmstadt.

September 12, 1837: Birth of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Part I.

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Grand Ducal Highness, Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine, Louis IV of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Ludwig IV (September 12, 1837 – March 13, 1892) was the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, reigning from June 13, 1877 until his death. Through his own and his children’s marriages he was connected to the British Royal Family, to the Imperial House of Russia and to other reigning dynasties of Europe.

Early life

Ludwig was born at the Prinz-Karl-Palais in Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine in the German Confederation, the first son and child of Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine (1809 – 1877) and Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1815 – 1885), granddaughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia.

As his father’s elder brother Ludwig III (1806-1877), the reigning Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, had been married to his first wife since 1833 without legitimate children and from 1868 was married morganatically, Prince Ludwig was from birth second-in-line to the grand ducal throne, after his father.

First marriage

On July 1, 1862, Louis married Princess Alice, a daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. On the day of the wedding, the Queen issued a royal warrant granting her new son-in-law the style of Royal Highness in the United Kingdom. In the German Confederation his style remained Grand Ducal Highness. The Queen also subsequently made Prince Ludwig a knight of the Order of the Garter.

Although an arranged marriage orchestrated by the bride’s father Albert, Prince Consort, the couple did have a brief period of courtship before betrothal and wed willingly, even after the death of the Prince Consort left Queen Victoria in a protracted state of grief that cast a pall over the nuptials.

Becoming parents in less than a year following their marriage, the young royal couple found themselves strapped financially to maintain the lifestyle expected of their rank. Princess Alice’s interest in social services, scientific development, hands-on child-rearing, charity and intellectual stimulation were not shared by Ludwig who, although dutiful and benevolent, was bluff in manner and conventional in his pursuits.

The death of the younger of their two sons, Frittie, who was afflicted with hemophilia and suffered a fatal fall from a palace window before his third birthday in 1873, combined with the wearying war relief duties Alice had undertaken in 1870, evoked a crisis of spiritual faith for the princess in which her husband does not appear to have shared.

In 1866 the Austrians suffered defeat in the Austro-Prussian War and the Hessian grandduchy was in jeopardy of being awarded as the spoils of war to victorious Prussia, which annexed some of Austria’s other allies (Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau), a fate from which Hesse-Darmstadt appears to have been spared only by a cession of territory and the close dynastic kinship between its ruler and the Emperor of Russia (Alexander II’s consort, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, was the sister of Hesse’s Grand Duke Ludwig III and of Prince Charles).

In the Franco-Prussian War provoked by Bismarck’s manipulation of the Ems telegram in 1870, Hesse and by Rhine this time found itself a winning ally of Prussia’s, and Prince Ludwig was credited with courageous military service, especially at the Battle of Gravelotte, which also afforded him the opportunity of mending the previous war’s grievances with the House of Hohenzollern by fighting on the same side as his brother-in-law and future emperor, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia.

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy 99th Birthday to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

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George I of Greece, Happy Birthday, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, June 10, 1921), is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.

HRH Duke of Edinburgh and HM Queen (official photo released in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh’s 99th birthday).

Ancestry

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921, the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Prince Philip is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, itself a Collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg, he was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark, and he was from birth in the line of succession to both thrones; the 1953 Succession Act removed his family branch’s succession rights in Denmark. Philip’s four elder sisters were Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie, and Sophie. He was baptised in the Greek Orthodox rite at St. George’s Church in the Old Fortress in Corfu.

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, 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, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Princess Alice of Battenberg

Princess Alice of Battenberg’s father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and By Rhine through his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia von Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in 1858 by Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse of By Rhine. Alice’s three younger siblings, Louise, George, and Louis, later became Queen of Sweden, Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.

Prince and Princess Andrew of of Greece and Denmark

Prince Philip’s family was exiled from the Greece when he was an infant. After being educated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, aged 18.

Prince Philip and his father.

That same year, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. During the visit, the Queen and Louis Mountbatten asked Philip to escort the King’s two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, who were Philip’s third cousins through Queen Victoria, and second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark. Elizabeth fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters when she was 13.

From July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth, whom he had first met in 1934. During the Second World War he served with distinction in the Mediterranean and Pacific Fleets. After the war, Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Elizabeth.

Before the official announcement of their engagement in July 1947, he abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname Mountbatten. He married Princess Elizabeth on November 20, 1947. Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. In post-war Britain it was not acceptable for any of the Duke of Edinburgh’s German relations to be invited to the wedding, including Philip’s three surviving sisters, all of whom had married German princes.

The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Elizabeth

Philip left active military service when Elizabeth became queen in 1952, having reached the rank of commander, and was formally made a British prince in 1957.

Philip and Elizabeth have four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. Through a British Order in Council issued in 1960, descendants of the couple not bearing royal styles and titles can use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which has also been used by some members of the royal family who do hold titles, such as Princess Anne, and Princes Andrew and Edward.

A keen sports enthusiast, Philip helped develop the equestrian event of carriage driving. He is a patron, president, or member of over 780 organisations, and he serves as chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for people aged 14 to 24. He is the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch and the oldest ever male member of the British royal family. Philip retired from his royal duties on 2 August 2017, aged 96, having completed 22,219 solo engagements since 1952.

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

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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.

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

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.

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.