Prince Andrew (1882-1944) and Alice, Princess Andrew Of Greece (1885-1969)

[Vasillisos Markos]

In Hugo Vickers' biography of Alice, he relates that several members of the Greek and British Royal Families were upset with Frederika and her directive not to tell Alice of Helen's approaching death. It is possible that mean spirited stories were being bandied about but this appears to have some facts behind it and if Alice and Helen were not friendly to one another, then why keep it from Alice? Royals can be as petty as us mere mortals

[BELTRANEJA]

I do not think Queen Federik did this, because I think the Queen Fedwerika had no such authority or power to decide what to say or not say Alice, Alice had family, they were who decided about her...If this was true, it was decided by her family, not Queen Federika

[Vasillisos Markos]

Why wouldn't Frederika have the seeming authority to keep the news from Alice about Ellen's illness? After all, King Paul and Queen Frederika were the heads of the Greek Royal Family:

[Ellen's] surviving daughters, Olga and Marina, arrived at her bedside the night before she died. Crown Prince Constantine was likewise summoned to see his favourite great-aunt. 'Hello darling,' said Aunt Ellen, opening her eyes to see him. But Alice was not at the death bed. For some reason, not a kind one, Queen Frederika gave specific instructions that news of Ellen's illness was to be withheld from her. She was not even told that she had died. Alice had to make do with attending the funeral, after which Ellen was buried next to Prince Nicholas at Tatoi.

By June, when she attend the wedding of Alice's granddaughter, Margarita of Baden, to Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia at Salem the froideur between them had developed into open hositility. As Dickie [Mountbatten] wrote to [the Queen of Sweden]: 'Now she [Alice] has explained to me how Freddy deliberately withheld news of Ellen's illness and even death from Alice, I am on her side in her treatment of F . . .d at Salem.' Louise [Queen of Sweden and sister to Alice] replied: 'I am glad Alice was not in the wrong this time. I fear Freddy will end by getting her husband turned out.' Even at Christmas 1958, Alice declined to join King Paul and Queen Frederika for the festivities. Eventually Queen Frederika was forced to apologize.

Vickers, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, pp. 356-57

[Vlaha Karatsokaros]

I agree with Odette.
First, princess Alice was speending her time between various monasteries or quasi-monasteries of non-descript order and Athens. She never played a role in Athenian life. Besides, the Greeks were never impressed by the Battenberg title, a minor and totally irrelevant princely house that attained status solely thanks to the British connection.
Grand Duchess Helen, princess Nikolaou of Greece was a woman of glamorous and utterly elegant appearance who socialized a lot in Athens and was always enticing and impressing the Greeks by her style. In his Modern Political History Spiros Markezinis describes in detail the appearances of princess Helen always accompanied by her lady-in-waiting Mademoiselle Mika Skouzέ.
Besides, Helen would always remind everyone that she was also the mother of two important and most elegant royal ladies, Princess Marina of Kent and Olga of Yugoslavia (La princesse Paul de Yugoslavie).

In brief, Alice of Battenberg and Helen of All Russias were two worlds apart in every respect!

[Vlaha Karatsokaros]

Although there is NO denying of princess Alice's good deeds and good will, there is also little doubt that the Battenberg family was quite eccentric to say the least. A lot has been written about Queen Louise's wandering alone in London. Winston Churchill was making unkind references to Lord Mountbatten's megalomaniacal attitude etc etc.
All I am saying here is that reading about the Battenbergs (what they did, felt in various circumstances) should always be heavily scrutinized.

[BELTRANEJA]

if the Alice family was not happy with the concealment, why were not they to tell Alice ?Everyone knew it, they were in disagreed, but it was easier to blame the Queen Federik. They could spoke with Alice but...

[Odette]

I agree with all of the above postings.
Royals can be petty like the rest of us and if Alice's family wanted her to know about P Helen's failing health they could disclose the information to her, rather than discussing it later and blaming Q Frederica for keeping the news from her.
Why would Q Frederika withold the news from P Alice?
I read Vicker's book and what he said about the subject but in simple terms it makes no sense.

[Vasillisos Markos]

Sure, it may make no sense but that does not mean it did not happen. In my line of work, I've seen inexplicable actions by many people during times of illness and crisis, and they are usually reacting to slights in the past. Maybe it was because of tension between Alice and Frederika in the past that Frederika instructed no one to tell Alice, or she might have done it because of problems between the two princesses and she thought Ellen's wishes were being honored. Alice was certainly responsible for her share of hurt feelings but there is no denying that near the end of her life, Alice devoted more time to spiritual beliefs and perhaps, just perhaps, she wanted that last chance to see Princess Nicholas. After all, they were the only members of the Greek royal family to remain in Greece during World War II.

With the exception of Marina of Kent (who I must confess might have told Alice but perhaps she had more pressing worries like the imminent death of her mother and can justly be excused for not telling her), who else in Alice's British family would have known about Ellen? I daresay none of them would have, not even Prince Phillip, and it has never been implied that they knew anything until Ellen died. Thus, the information was known by the Greek royals, of which Alice was still a member of the family.

That being said, I love these discussions and I guess we will never really know all of the facts surrounding this very human family during the final illness of one of its members.

[snowflower]

I found informations suggesting that Princess Alice was a carrier of haemophilia. Apparently her grandson Prince Kraft ( daughter of Margarita and Gottfried of Hohenlohe- Langerburg) was a mild haemophiliac. Do you think this is true? I ve never heard again anything relevant. After all all of her brothers were healthy and she did bore a very healthy son ( alive and kicking at 89).

[iowabelle]

Perhaps Margarita had a spontaneous mutation in her genes which caused his condition. After all, there were no known ancestors of Queen Victoria who had the disease or were carriers.

[Warren]

Prince Kraft is discussed in the Queen Victoria & Haemophilia thread in the British Forums.
There is also the Haemophilia in European Royalty thread in the Royal Genealogy Forum.

[Dierna23]

Originally Posted by BELTRANEJA

It is posible, she could have been a nervous breakdown.
I found thisd picture:
They are:
Prince Nikolaos and her wife, Grand Duchess of Russian , Helen, Prince Andrews and Princess Alice of Battenberg

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6849/principenikolaosconlagr.jpg

What a wonderful rare picture of them together. Thanks, Beltraneja! I'm not sure if this one has been posted before.

It shows Alice in 1907, painting by Philip de Laszlo.

[CyrilVladisla]

Princess Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece married in a civil ceremony at Darmstadt on October 6, 1903. Tsar Nicholas II, who was Prince Andrew's first cousin, gave the couple a Wolseley motor car.

Deaf Princess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teClIAwDeRU

[eya]

Like today 25 February 1885 born the Princess Alice. In May 2012, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, made the documentary filming «The Queen's mother in law» from Chanel 4 concerning her life of Princess.

Ch4.The.Queens.Mother.in.Law.PDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org - Video Dailymotion

[miss whirley]

Alice attended her sister's funeral in 1965. You can see her - dressed in her nun's habit - on the steps in this video, from 0:38-0:43.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QCuCpRRAww

[WreathOfLaurels]

An interesting article about Prince Andrea and his influence on Prince Charles from beyond the grave. You never hear much about Andrea in relation to his descendants

(It's behind a paywall and I don't know how to get behind it but you can read the first page)

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy - Why is Charles Always So Unhappy?! - Cambridge Journals Online

[WreathOfLaurels]

Gay Influence: Prince Andrew of Greece

I was always under the impression that andrea spent the last years of his life living with a mistress, and that him and alice were happy before it all turned to custard, but whatever....

[Lee-Z]

Originally Posted by WreathOfLaurels

Gay Influence: Prince Andrew of Greece

May well be all true, but imo that article is writen with the intention to stir up scandal (f.i. there is no need for the sidenote about P.Andrew and Fergie, other then to drag up juicy stuff), and i usually don't completely trust articles like that...

[WreathOfLaurels]

Its still intersting as its an example of the type of gossip that goes around - a barometer of popular perceptions and an indicator of the moral Economy. Please indulge this nerd - gossip is of course not an indicator of historical fact but is interesting for contempary views of certain figures and how it reflects popular morality and social mores...

[Denville]

Originally Posted by WreathOfLaurels

Gay Influence: Prince Andrew of Greece

I was always under the impression that andrea spent the last years of his life living with a mistress, and that him and alice were happy before it all turned to custard, but whatever....

One mistress? I dont think so, I think several! he and Alice problaby had a few years of OK marriage but he was a playboy and she had various problems..Mental health and so on...