Queen Victoria's Granddaughters 1860-1918 Read online

  Queen Victoria’s Granddaughters

  1860-1918

  by

  Christina Croft

  © Christina Croft 2013

  All rights reserved.

  A Hilliard & Croft Book

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  A note about appellations

  Prologue

  The Granddaughters in Birth Order

  Part I

  “Like the Rabbits in Windsor Park”

  The Royal Families

  Chapter 1 The advice of a mother of nine children

  Chapter 2 The Prussian influence

  Chapter 3 A constant increase

  Chapter 4 Frail puny babies

  Chapter 5 Poor dear Lenchen

  Chapter 6 After all they are English

  Chapter 7 Grandmama will try to be a mother to you.

  Chapter 8 My beloved Leopold

  Part II

  “A Very Doubtful Happiness”

  Happy and Unhappy Marriages

  Chapter 9 Nature has made her so

  Chapter 10 Great matches do not make great happiness

  Chapter 11 A Jubilee baby

  Chapter 12 If you love him set him free

  Chapter 13 Happiness is not to be hers

  Chapter 14 My Benjamin

  Chapter 15 It really is not wise to leave these girls dans la vague

  Chapter 16 All I can repeat is that I am perfectly happy

  Chapter 17 Tell my granddaughter to come home to me

  Chapter 18 A mere child & quite inexperienced

  Chapter 19 Who can guess what his tastes may be?

  Chapter 20 She is like my own child

  Part III

  “The Last Link Is Broken”

  Changes and Conflicts

  Chapter 21 One must be tolerant

  Chapter 22 We were all so hoping for a boy

  Chapter 23 The sun has gone out of our lives

  Chapter 24 We shall never see her anymore

  Chapter 25 Poor girl she is utterly miserable now

  Chapter 26 Revolution is banging on the door

  Chapter 27 A sensible girl full of good intentions

  Chapter 28 The terrible illness of the English family

  Chapter 29 A saintly heroine & a lascivious satyr

  Part IV

  “Marching To Their Death”

  War and Tragedy

  Chapter 30 The Bulgarians have gone off their heads

  Chapter 31 This is the end of everything

  Chapter 33 Hessian witches and German spies

  Chapter 34 Poor Nicky! Poor Russia!

  Chapter 35 Have I not English blood in my veins?

  Chapter 36 I would rather die in Russia

  Chapter 37 Victors & vanquished

  Epilogue After Atlantis

  Appendix I – Thoughts on the death of Prince Albert

  Appendix II – Queen Victoria’s Excessive Mourning

  Appendix III – Queen Victoria & Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  Appendix IV – Queen Victoria’s Favourite Authors

  Appendix V – The Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

  Recommended Reading & References

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank the following for assisting in finding copyright holders and granting permission to include the quotations in this book:

  Artellus Ltd;

  The estate of James Pope-Hennessy;

  Michaela Reid;

  Professor Sarah McNair Vosmeimer; Hanover College, Indiana, http://history.hanover.edu/project.php ;

  Wendy Reid Crisp 989 Milton, #3D, Ferndale, California, U.S.A. 95536;

  Francis Barnard,

  http://www.barnardf.demon.co.uk

  Michael Nelson;

  Tom Kinter,

  www.tkinter.org;

  The Folio Society;

  Pearson Education;

  Richard Birch Associates;

  Greg Newby, www.gutenberg.org;

  HarperCollins;

  Random House UK;

  The Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland, http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/hp.php

  Pan Macmillan;

  The Leopard Magazine;

  Mark Burstein and the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, http://www.roydavids.com

  English Heritage

  The curators of Osborne House

  The curator of Leeds University Library, Russian Collection

  Every attempt has been made to contact the copyright holders of all the extracts quoted in this book. Any infringement is entirely accidental and will be immediately acknowledged and corrected if required.

  A note about appellations

  Throughout this book, after much consideration, I decided to use the familiar names used between members of Queen Victoria’s family. My reason for so doing is quite simply that, with so many characters who share the same name, it would be confusing to the reader to discern to which Victoria or Marie etc. the text was referring.

  The book was written as a labour of love and no disrespect is intended towards any of the characters.

  Prologue

  On 6th July 1868, when told of the birth of her seventh granddaughter, Queen Victoria remarked that the news was ‘a very uninteresting thing for it seems to me to go on like the rabbits in Windsor Park.’ Her apathy was understandable – this was her fourteenth grandchild, and, though she had given birth to nine children, she had never been fond of babies, viewing them as ‘frog-like and rather disgusting…particularly when undressed.’ The early years of her marriage had, she claimed, been ruined by frequent pregnancies; and large families were unnecessary for wealthy people since the children would grow up with nothing worthwhile to do.

  Nevertheless, her initial reaction to the birth of Princess Victoria of Wales belied the genuine concern that Queen Victoria felt for each of her twenty-two granddaughters. ‘As a rule,’ she wrote, ‘I like girls best,’ and she devoted a great deal of time to their wellbeing and happiness, showering them with an affection she had seldom shown her own children.

  Though at times she found them too big, too noisy, too boisterous or too ill-mannered, she was ever on hand to offer support and to welcome them into her homes. No matter how pressing affairs of state, she never missed their birthdays and was always available when they were in need. When one was in labour, the Queen was at her side, holding her hand and mopping her brow; when one’s marriage failed or another’s love was unrequited, the Queen held her as she wept. She felt deeply for their troubles, sympathised with their sorrows and worried about their futures. Even when they exasperated her by ignoring her advice, she was quick to forgive them. She missed them when they were far away and took offence if they did not accept her invitations to Osborne, Balmoral, or Windsor. The truth was that, almost in spite of herself, she loved them deeply: ‘They are like my own children;’ she wrote to the Earl of Fife, ‘their happiness is very near my own heart.’[1]

  The twenty-two princesses were raised in eight separate family groups: the Hohenzollerns (or Prussians), the Waleses, the Hessians, the Edinburghs, the Christians, the Connaughts, the Albanys and the Battenbergs – and their lives and personalities were as varied as their names. Some lived and died in virtual obscurity, others played a major role in world events. Some were pale and sickly, others robust and energetic; some strikingly beautiful, others tragically plain. Several met with appalling violence and tragedy, while others enjoyed the carefree lives of wealthy Victorian women. They grew up as far apart as England, Germany, Malta, and India, sometimes amid great wealth, other times struggling to maintain royal standards. Twenty-seven
years passed between the birth of the first and the birth of the last but they shared the common bond of being shaped by their English grandmother, whose influence was apparent even in their names. The Queen often expressed the hope that all her grandchildren would be called after her or their grandfather, Prince Albert, resulting in seven Victorias, while the majority of the rest had Victoria or Alberta somewhere in their litany of names.[·]

  By 1914, through a series of dynastic marriages, the Queen’s granddaughters included the Empress of Russia, the Queens of Spain, Greece and Norway, and the Crown Princesses of Roumania and Sweden. As their brothers and cousins occupied the thrones of Germany, Britain and Denmark, Prince Albert’s dream of a peaceful Europe created through bonds of kinship seemed a real possibility.

  “All our cousins,” wrote Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, “were more like brothers and sisters than mere blood relations.”[2]

  Yet in little more than a decade after Queen Victoria’s death, the Prince Consort’s dream would lie shattered in the carnage of the First World War. Royal cousins and even siblings would find themselves on opposing sides; two of them would die horrifically at the hands of revolutionaries and several others would be ousted from their thrones. They had lived through the halcyon days of the European monarchies but their lives, like the lives of millions of their peoples, would be changed forever by the catastrophe played out on the battlefields of France.

  Through all the upheavals, tragedies and conflicts one person had bound them together and, even when wars had divided their nations, to the end of their lives, they would look back and remember ‘dearest grandmama’ with love.

  The Granddaughters in Birth Order

  Charlotte of Prussia, Princess Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen (1860-1919). Daughter of Vicky

  Victoria of Hesse-and-by-Rhine, Princess Louis Battenberg, Marchioness of Milford Haven (1863-1950). Daughter of Alice

  Ella, Elizabeth of Hesse-and-By-Rhine, Grand Duchess Serge/Elizaveta Feodorovna (1864-1918). Daughter of Alice

  Moretta, Victoria Moretta of Prussia, Princess Adolph of Schaumburg-Lippe (1866-1929). Daughter of Vicky

  Irène of Hesse-and-By-Rhine, Princess Henry of Prussia (1866-1953). Daughter of Alice

  Louise of Wales, Duchess of Fife (1867-1931). Daughter of Bertie

  Toria, Princess Victoria of Wales (1868-1935). Daughter of Bertie

  Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway (1869-1938). Daughter of Bertie

  Sophie of Prussia, Queen of the Hellenes (1870-1932). Daughter of Vicky

  Thora, Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1870-1948). Daughter of Lenchen

  Alix of Hesse-and-By-Rhine, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918). Daughter of Alice

  Mossy, Margaret of Prussia, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (1872-1954). Daughter of Vicky

  Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Aribert of Anhalt (1872-1957). Daughter of Lenchen

  May, Princess Marie of Hesse-and-By-Rhine (1874-1878). Daughter of Alice

  Missy, Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Roumania. (1875-1938) Daughter of Affie

  Ducky, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess of Hesse, Grand Duchess Kyril/Victoria Feodorovna (1876-1936). Daughter of Affie

  Sandra, Alexandra of Edinburgh, Princess Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1878-1932). Daughter of Affie

  Daisy - Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (1882-1920). Daughter of Arthur

  Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone (1883-1981). Daughter of Leopold

  Baby Bee, Beatrice of Edinburgh, Infanta of Bourbon-Lyons (1886-1975). Daughter of Affie

  Patsy, Victoria Patricia of Connaught, Lady Alexander Ramsay (1886-1974). Daughter of Arthur

  Ena, Victoria Eugenia Battenberg, Queen of Spain (1887-1969). Daughter of Beatrice

  Part I

  “Like the Rabbits in Windsor Park”

  The Royal Families

  Chapter 1 - The Advice of a Mother of Nine Children

  Hessians

  Alice: Queen Victoria’s second daughter

  Louis: Alice’s husband, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt

  Victoria: Eldest daughter of Alice and Louise

  Ella (Elizabeth): Second daughter of Alice and Louis

  Irène: Third daughter of Alice and Louis

  Ernie (Ernst Ludwig): Eldest son of Alice and Louis

  Hohenzollerns (Prussians)

  Vicky (Victoria): Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter; Crown Princess of Prussia.

  Fritz (Frederick): Vicky’s husband, Crown Prince of Prussia.

  A swish of black skirts broke the silence as a short, round figure bustled along the corridors of Osborne House, huffing in indignation. Queen Victoria was definitely not amused. She sat down at her desk, her back as straight as a rod, and taking a pen in her podgy red hands, hastily scratched at the paper.

  It was ridiculous and hurtful – she poured out her pain and exasperation – that her own daughters should disregard the advice of a mother of nine children, who surely knew better than anyone the correct behaviour for women of their station!

  Determined that the letter’s recipient should feel suitably shamed and repentant, her hand flew over the paper but, even before she had reached the end of the page, she might well have suspected that her increasingly wayward daughter would probably ignore the reprimand.

  It was not the first time that Princess Alice had offended her mother. Before she left home, she had been a dutiful daughter and in the weeks following Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria could not have coped without her[·]. As the Queen withdrew into her own inconsolable grief, Alice was left to attend to her mother’s duties, without a thought for her own distress at the loss of a father she loved. In fact, she had proved such a devoted and diligent child that, had Albert himself not already made preparations for her wedding, the Queen would have been content to keep her at home forever.

  In the two years since her marriage to Louis, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, however, Alice’s behaviour had become increasingly out-of-hand. It was one thing to show an interest in Florence Nightingale’s theories of nursing, quite another to develop so unseemly a fascination with anatomy. Alice thought nothing of discussing unsuitable matters with all and sundry and so indelicate was her conversation that the Queen was reluctant to allow her younger daughters to visit Darmstadt for fear of what they may hear.

  And now this!

  It had been traumatic enough for Queen Victoria to hand over her innocent child to a husband but the speed with which Alice became pregnant had been even harder to bear. At the time of her wedding in July 1862, Alice had expressed such a horror of having children that the Queen was sure she would prefer to remain childless but exactly nine months later she had returned to Windsor to give birth to a daughter. For the Queen, who remained at her side throughout the eight-hour labour, the experience was more harrowing than if she were going through it herself and she promptly berated Louis for inflicting such torture on her child. Though placated by the news that the baby would be named Victoria Alberta, the Queen made it clear that she hoped it would be a long time before the ordeal was repeated.

  Alice ignored the advice and in less than a year she was again in an unfortunate condition. This time she spared her mother’s nerves by staying in Germany for the birth of a second daughter, Elizabeth (Ella), but the Queen barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief when the appalling news arrived from Darmstadt: Alice had dispensed with wet nurses to breast-feed her baby herself!

  Queen Victoria could hardly contain her revulsion. That her own daughter should indulge in such an animal and time-consuming practice, which was demeaning for any woman but for a princess unheard of and unnecessary, was beyond her comprehension. And still more devastating was the discovery that Alice’s elder sister, Vicky, was to blame!

  The podgy red hand flew over the page. Alice might offer the excuses that she had adopted the practice for the good of her health and because no pressing social duties dema
nded her attention, but the same could not be said for her elder sister.

  Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise (Vicky), her late father’s favourite child, had seldom, if ever, stepped out of line before. Intellectually brilliant, artistically gifted, she had even conveniently fallen in love with her parents’ first choice of marriage partner: Crown Prince Frederick (Fritz) of Prussia. Through the ups and downs of life in Berlin (and in spite of Fritz’s unfailing love there were more downs than ups) she had maintained a frequent, almost daily, correspondence with her mother and struggled against insurmountable odds to live up to her parents’ expectations. Until now!

  Not only had Vicky defied the Queens of both Britain and Prussia to breast-feed her own fourth baby, but had also positively encouraged Alice to do the same! Queen Victoria put down her pen and seething with disgust sent word to the Royal Dairy that a cow should be named ‘Alice.’

  In the quaint German Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, twenty-one-year-old Princess Alice received the reprimand with equanimity. She was used to raising eyebrows in Hesse as well as in England. It had taken the Hessians some time to accustom themselves to the sight of their future Grand Duchess wandering in and out of the homes of the poor or carrying out the most menial tasks in their hospitals. In aristocratic circles too, there were those who were quick to criticise the number of controversial characters she invited to her home to discuss her unorthodox views of feminism, politics, philosophy and religion. Even her husband found aspects of her character unfathomable and, much as she loved him, after two and a half years of marriage Alice doubted that he would ever be able to understand her fully.