Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, Marchioness of Milford Haven (1863-1950)


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Vasillisos Markos

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A thread devoted to this amazing woman is needed on this forum. Victoria was the grandmother of Prince Philip and was instrumental in raising him after his mother, Princess Alice, fell ill with a mental illness and his father, Prince Andrea of Greece, was an absentee father.

Victoria was the eldest child of Princess Alice of Great Britain, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. She was very close to her grandmother and a keen observer of all the royals, inside and outside of England. Her sister Alexandra became the Empress of Russia and her daughter Louise became Queen of Sweden.

According to Wikipedia, Victoria's unpublished memoirs were written with the help of Sophie Buxhoevden, who was devoted to Empress Alexandra. I would love to get my hands on this primary historical resource. Can anyone recommend a biography of this woman?
 
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I find Victoria very interesting myself and I would like to learn more about her . I admitt that one of the things that I find fascinating about her is the fact that, in an almost "ironically" neat way, she was born as the granddaughter of the Regnant Queen of GB and died as grandmother (in law) of the next Queen Regnant of GB ;). The other thing I know about her is that she and Queen Victoria had a large correspondence because her grandmother liked her "no nonsense" approach of things and found her more pragmatist than the rest of her Hessian granddaughters (although I am sure that acting as her grandmother's confidant in the Hessian family wasn't always pleasing).
VM I think there is a good book about all the four Hessian sisters but I don't remember a title.
 
Snowflower,

How great that you noted the "bookending" of Victoria's life as granddaughter and grandmother of queens regnant. I will need to research some book titles and see what I can uncover either at a bookstore or library. Some things which jump out at me from reading other memoirs: some people considered Victoria "mannish" at times; she was a tomboy and loved (too much and in poor health) smoking; she had a non-conformist way of looking at things; and she was a "doer" and the person everyone turned to for advice or to see that things got done.
 
Was she such a heavy smoker? And yet she scolded her daughter Alice so much for smoking and never stopped until she died. I wonder who taught her to smoke, and how her relatives didn't make it quite, since smoking wasn't an ideal habit for a proper and demure Victorian lady (and a princess at that)
 
I had assumed that she was a heavy smoker but I don't really know that for sure. She did start smoking at age 16 and never quit until her death. Many of the royals smoked but the women especially would not smoke in public. This may be why she criticized Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh's mother. And I think the Queen smokes (or at least she did when younger).

As for being demure and proper, Queen Victoria relaxed her standards on smoking near the end of her life and allowed her ladies to light up occasionally.
 
I had assumed that she was a heavy smoker but I don't really know that for sure. She did start smoking at age 16 and never quit until her death. Many of the royals smoked but the women especially would not smoke in public. This may be why she criticized Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh's mother. And I think the Queen smokes (or at least she did when younger).

As for being demure and proper, Queen Victoria relaxed her standards on smoking near the end of her life and allowed her ladies to light up occasionally.


I have never heard that The Queen has ever smoked but I do know that Philip smoked until his wedding day.
 
I thought I had read somewhere that Elizabeth smoked and that the Windsors often gave cigarette lighters and ashtrays as gifts. The article was clear that the Queen never smoked in public. Maybe I am wrong -- anyone?
 
I have just started reading Louis and Victoria: The First Mountbattens. It is very well written and scholarly. The book starts out with the fall of the Battenbergs when Louis's father marries for love a woman beneath his station. What made this so surprising and despicable to the other royals was at the time Alexander (the father) was a favorite of the Tsar and his sister was married to the Tsarevich. Despite being personas non grata, the Battenburgs managed to get back into the European royals good graces.

The dust jacket mentions that Victoria was taught to smoke by the Kaiser. It also mentions that Victoria was quite a talker (as were her sisters) and that she believed monarchy to be an anachronism. Despite this, she took offense when her governess dropped the honorific "Princess" before her name when mentioning her. I am now at the point where Victoria's mother, Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, has just died. So far a good read.
 
Sounds delicious, I love cake! The book also mentions that Victoria's husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg, designed and created a device which he called a course indicator to be used on the open seas and if he had patented it, Louis would have made quite a bit of money. Unfortunately, he did not but I don't think that bothered him much. Prince Louis had to endure much jealousy by other Naval officers who believed he was favored because of his royal status. From all accounts, however, Louis was a top notch naval officer and deserved every appointment he received.
 
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Hi,

There is a book on the four Hessian Princesses, "The Four Graces" by Ilana Miller being published soon (in the next year).....
The publisher is Eurohistory.com, run by Arturo Beeche....

Larry
 
Vecchiolarry,

Great news. I will enjoy reading this book. I still don't know a lot about Ella or Irene.
 
Isn't this the 2nd book written about the Hesse sisters, the first being the Family Mob. They (the sisters) all did live exciting and tragic lives. I wonder why no one has written about the Edinburgh sisters (but I guess Marie outshines them all).
 
She is the great grandmother of prince Phillip duke of Edinburgh

She also seems to be the ONLY child of princess Alice to have decendents living today that are known since:
-Princess Irene had 3 sons but her grandchildren and great grandchildren's whereabouts are unknown
-Elisabeth(murdered in 1918 and no children with Sergei )
- Ernest Ludwig had a daughter but died young then he had two sons who seemed to have disappeared from history
-alix had 4 daughters and 1 son who could have continued the family but were murdered with their parents along with aunt Ella(Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine)
- Frederick (hemophiliac that died falling out of a window at a young age)
- Marie( family called her "may" but she died of diphtheria at a young age)

She also miraculously wasn't a carrier of hemophilia unlike her mother and two sisters.
 
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She was Philip's grandmother actually. Her daughter was Alice, Philip's mother.

It was from her home at KP that he left on his wedding day to go to Westminster Abbey to marry Elizabeth and she provided a stable home environment for him while growing up in many ways.
 
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She was truly a remarkable woman. I did not realize that none of Princess Alice's other children, save Victoria, left any living descendants. I knew that Ernest's line died out, and so did Alix, but what happened to Irene's descendants? Didn't Prince Sigismund have children and descendants who are still alive today?
 
Victoria's brother Ernst Ludwig's one son Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine, George Donatus was married to Phillip's sister, Cecilia of Greece and Denmark. Sadly, George, Cecilia, and their children except for an infant daughter were tragically killed in a plane crash in Belgium while flying to London to attend his brother's wedding.:flowers:
 
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Victoria's brother Ernst Ludwig's one son Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine, George Donatus was married to Phillip's sister, Cecilia of Greece and Denmark. Sadly, George, Cecilia, and their children except for an infant daughter were tragically killed in a plane crash in Belgium while flying to London to attend his brother's wedding.:flowers:


And the infant daughter died a couple of years later.

It was at the funeral of this sister that the infamous photos of Philip with officers in Nazi uniforms were taken - the ones that Al Fayad claim show that Philip was a Nazi. The fact that he was about 15/16 at the time and at a family funeral for a serving officer is ignored by many people when they see these photos.
 
Excuse me Iluv, but who was the serving officer? The infant daughter,? Do you mean as the daughter of a serving officer she had a military funeral?
 
She is the great grandmother of prince Phillip duke of Edinburgh

She also seems to be the ONLY child of princess Alice to have decendents living today that are known since:
-Princess Irene had 3 sons but her grandchildren and great grandchildren's whereabouts are unknown
s.

Princess irenes descendants are known. Her grandaughter, Princess Barabara of Prussia married Duke Christian Ludwig of Mecklenberg Schwerin. They had two daughters, Duchess Donata who married Alexander Solodkoff and they have three children born between 89 and 94. Then there is Duchess Edwina who is married to Konrad von Posern and they have three sons.
I assume that what you meant is that she has no descendants that are in the public eye like Prince Phillip is?
 
Excuse me Iluv, but who was the serving officer? The infant daughter,? Do you mean as the daughter of a serving officer she had a military funeral?


Sorry - no the funeral I was referring to was that of Cecilie and her family. That was the one that had a military element and Philip was there because Cecilia was his sister. Cecilie husband was a serving officer in the Germany military at the time of his death and being in the mid-30s of course he was serving in the Nazi military (not saying he necessarily was a Nazi).

I don't know if her attended the other funeral of his young neice who died I think in 1939.
 
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Thanks, all explained. I remember reading something about Prince Philip's sister dying with her family flying to a wedding, was it this sister?
 
Thanks, all explained. I remember reading something about Prince Philip's sister dying with her family flying to a wedding, was it this sister?


Yes. The sister, her husband and two of their three children all died in the crash. The third child died a couple of years later.

This all happened in the 1930s when Philip was a teenager.
 
:previous:
There were two more victims of the crash: Cecilie's mother in law, Grand Duchess Eleonore, and Georg and Cecilie's fourth stillborn child, a son, with whom Cecilie was eight months pregnant.
 
Princess irenes descendants are known. Her grandaughter, Princess Barabara of Prussia married Duke Christian Ludwig of Mecklenberg Schwerin. They had two daughters, Duchess Donata who married Alexander Solodkoff and they have three children born between 89 and 94. Then there is Duchess Edwina who is married to Konrad von Posern and they have three sons.
I assume that what you meant is that she has no descendants that are in the public eye like Prince Phillip is?

Thank you Fearghas for this confirmation. I thought Irene's descendants were still around. So it appears that out of all of Princess Alice's children, the only two who still have issue living are Victoria and Irene. And one of Victoria's descendants is heir to the English throne.
 
Vasillisos Markos said:
Thank you Fearghas for this confirmation. I thought Irene's descendants were still around. So it appears that out of all of Princess Alice's children, the only two who still have issue living are Victoria and Irene. And one of Victoria's descendants is heir to the English throne.

Technically 2- Charles and William (if we are taking heirs and heirs of heirs)
 
Technically 2- Charles and William (if we are taking heirs and heirs of heirs)

I believe the heir to the throne is Charles; William is second in line to the throne. If we take your suggestion, then Victoria has many descendants who are "heirs" to the throne: Prince Philip and the Queen's four children, and their children, and their children:flowers:
 
Vasillisos Markos said:
I believe the heir to the throne is Charles; William is second in line to the throne. If we take your suggestion, then Victoria has many descendants who are "heirs" to the throne: Prince Philip and the Queen's four children, and their children, and their children:flowers:

Yes, yes of course you're right :) I guess I just take William as an heir because he will most likely definitly be king of England whereas the Queens other children probably won't- it was meant as a lighthearted comment
 
Yes, yes of course you're right :) I guess I just take William as an heir because he will most likely definitly be king of England whereas the Queens other children probably won't- it was meant as a lighthearted comment

I did not mean any offense. And you are right--in all likelihood, it will be Charles and then William on the throne (although I must say, with the Queen's longevity, William may have better odds than his father, but I hope Charles lives long enough to be King). My original post was meant to stress that a direct descendant of Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine is poised to be the next monarch:flowers:
 
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that my book The Four Graces: Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters is finally available on Amazon and at the Eurohistory site. I hope you'll enjoy the work!!
 
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