The TRAGIC Journey of Princess Alice: A Daughter of Queen Victoria

being a daughter of Queen Victoria should have meant to living a fairy tale life full of wealth power and love instead she lived a life of betrayal loss and tragic endings this is part one of the Forgotten story of Princess Alice she was born a royal disappointment from the moment of birth she was the third child and after a son was born last time the public eagerly awaited the birth of another the Sun and air to the throne please continue to support my channel by subscribing however this was not to be when she was born a girl Princess Alice on the 25th of April 1843 at Buckingham Palace her birth was not a happy occasion the privy Council even sent a letter to her father giving congratulation and condolence her life was different than people imagine a princess would live she lived with parents who were obsessed with each other but also obsessed with their children being the best that they could Prince Albert developed the children's education and it was a strict system that had to be stuck to Alice and siblings dressed in Practical humble clothing and they lived in unadorned lodgings without regular heating as their mother preferred the cold Alice was different from her sister siblings she was extremely empathetic she was one of the middle Children of the large Royal brood and she got along with all of them although she did have a closer bond with her older siblings Vicki and Edward Alice wanted more than her royal lifestyle she wanted to experience a life outside of her royal family she liked to visit the workingclass tenants at Bal moral and find out how they lived this do desire to see how other people lived led to her escaping her Gess one day in order to attend a local church and sit in the pews rather than attend her royal mass at Windsor Castle Chapel this hinted at her rebellious side as everybody has Alice has two sides to her she was dependable and empathetic but she could also have a temper this was perhaps learned as a way to protect herself as a middle child that would have been up against her other headstrong and opinionated siblings she was known to lash out with her tongue when she was angry with her siblings and this only got worse over the years when Alice was old enough and her mother deemed her fit for marital matchmaking it was decided that she would be married while still a teenager her sister had just married Frederick of Prussia in 1858 and now it was time for her her to be matched to an eligible bachelor Victoria was keen on a love match for her daughter so long as it was one of the eligible European Royal houses this did not leave a large scoope for a real love match and the options were very far and few Alice's newly wed sister Vicki was in charge of compiling a list of eligible European Bachelors she only found two men suitable William the prince of orange and Prince Albert of Prussia Albert of Prussia was also Vicki's husband's cousin and when Princess Alice was set up to meet these suitors she was not happy with it at all the family of the prince of orange were beside themselves with Glee at the prospect of him Marrying an English princess and so he traveled from the Netherlands to Windsor Castle to meet the potential bride and her mother-in-law Alice was brutal in her response and she was not keen at all and she told her mother she did not like him at all her second mat seemed even more unsuitable because she was far too good for him the second suit was recommended as the cousin of Alice's new brother-in-law Frederick but Frederick himself claimed his cousin wasn't good enough for Alice who deserves the very best her options were now down to Z hero but there was another man an underdog of a sutor her sister Vicki started to wreck her brain for another match after her first two choices crashed and burned eventually she landed on Prince Louie of Hess he came from a respectable German house and Queen Victoria invited him to winsel Castle to meet his future bride she liked him immediately and the Sparks were flying they got on amazingly in each other's company upon his departure he asked for her autographed as a Keepsake and Alice was impressed with him Queen Victoria immediately made plans to marry the pair but then tragedy struck and her grandmother died Princess Alice was immensely happy during the Spring of 1861 she had met her life love and had gotten engaged in the April to Prince Louie but it was also full of Sorrow for her maternal grandmother The Duchess of Kent when she died in her bed Alice wasn't just close to The Duchess she had also taken up the job of nursing her in her final weeks of life and so she had to watch as her grandmother deteriorated before sadly passing away her looking after her family members did not stop there she took on the role of Family Care caregiver when her mother struggled with her emotions she was sent by her father to comfort her but tragedy struck again her father became Gravely ill and again she took on the role of looking after him on December 1861 Alice's father Albert Fell dangerously ill with complications from undiagnosed Crohn's disease the prince had struggled with his health throughout his whole life but he had been particularly stressed out with the debarted behaviors of his son Edward who had been parading his Mistresses in public Queen Victoria and Princess Alice believed they could save Albert by tending and caring for him but their hope vanished when he passed away from his illness The Fallout from his death plunged the public and the royal family into a deep state of mourning Queen Victoria blamed her son for killing her husband due to the stress he had brought to his door she even refused to notify her heir of his father's death Alice was not one for tensions in the family but she was struggling with the morality of not telling her brother of her father's death and so she betrayed her mother when she went behind her back to sneak a telegram to Edward Victoria and Edward never fully reconciled with the queen remarking that I never can or shall look at Edward without a shudder this act of rebellion meant that her relationship with her mother was forever tarnished but Alice had more to worry about than this her grandmother and father had not long died but she was still planning the wedding to her true love Prince Louis of hes and so she got married among the most tragic time during the Victorian era in pure British fashion and with a stiff upper lip Queen Victoria insisted that the ceremony go ahead even after Prince Albert passed the wedding went ahead on the 1st of July 1862 but it was not the fairy tale wedding she had hoped it was more of an extension of the family's morning than a wedding Alan should have gotten married and it should have been the happiest day of her life but it turned more into a nightmare the whole Palace was still in the depths of mourning for Prince Albert and no one was trying to hide it her large opulent wedding was downsized from a church to converting the dining room of her childhood home into a chapel Not only was her wedding much smaller than anticipated she also wore black at her wedding she arrived to the ceremony in a white gown with a lace veil and an orange blossom and Myrtle classic bouquet that represented a royal getting married but Queen Victoria demanded that everyone ader to morning protocol and forced everybody to wear black before and immediately after the wedding the queen made the wedding all about her her feelings and her presence the queen had her sons take her in into the makeshift Chapel she had them stand in front of her to Shield her from prying eyes throughout the entire ceremony while the pair married the Monarch sat in an armchair near The Altar and tried not to cry the nuls were miserable with the queen even noting that it was more of a funeral than a wedding the poet Alfred Lord Tennison said it was the saddest day that I can remember the wedding was finished by 400 p.m. and when the evening began to slow down Queen Victoria gave her a gift Victoria presented Princess Alice with a gold bracelet inlaid with pearls and diamonds it was from both of her parents and it was inscribed with the words two dear Alice from your loving parents Albert and Victoria are who thou visibly parted are ever United with a miserable day over with Alice could finally look forward to her honeymoon but unfortunately this was no better than the wedding Alice had a miserable wedding but she was living a happy marriage with her new husband she was extremely happy and this made things difficult with her mother who was grieving her husband the Monarch was jealous of Alice's happy content life and so the princess had to try to not look too happy when she was around her mother mother it was a difficult start to her married life and her relationship with her mother but it would take a much darker turn Alice moved to Louis's home in darad as Royal Brides often do she had to move out of the family home and into the family of her new husband's household she arrived there in 1862 and crowds of people welcomed her with cheers and she wrote to Queen Victoria I believe the people never gave gave so hearty a welcome despite the warm welcome from the people Alice was extremely homesick she was also Bor of her new life but she shouldn't have worried about being bored join me in part two to learn of how Alice experienced further loss with the death of her own children before also losing her own life too her father and in-law disgraced her and Hess simply couldn't accommodate someone of Alice's considerable rank Queen Victoria had envisioned Alice getting a newly built pristine Palace over there but that's not what happened Prince Lou's father had inadequate and declining resources and he refused to waste what little wealth he had left to find or build the newlyweds appropriately lodgings instead Alice and her groom lived in a simple house overlooking a street in the rumbling old quarter of dad this was a far cry away from what she was used to in England despite this Alice tried to be accommodating and she tried her hardest to fit in as soon as she started to fit in her personal life imploded as was expected of her she started getting pregnant giving birth to babies right after the wedding having two children Victoria and Elizabeth within the first 2 years of marriage this caused some tension with her mother Alice was passionate about breastfeeding her babies which was less common at the time but the most resistance she experienced came from her own mother who hated the thought of her daughter doing it as a year years wore on though the queen took her displeasure to new heights Princess Alice was confident and comfortable in her own skin and she also admired the bodies of others she took up a strong interesting nursing and she even became friends with the famous Florence Nightingale this traumatized her mother who was so horrified she wrote a warning to Alice's younger sister Louise about Alice's perverse interests the queen was wary that Alice would take a gical stance with the princess and so the queen insisted don't let Alice pump you be very silent and cautious about your interior there was an ulterior motive behind her actions with her daughter and that was because she was a very jealous woman she struggled with the idea of Alice being happy and Victoria didn't want to let her daughter go because she was so utterly miserable herself her response to this was to snipe at her instead and each year the sniping worsened Alice was content and happy with her children she visited England less and less and the queen struggled seeing Alice happy but she didn't have to wait long to see her miserable because on the 7th of October 1870 Alice gave gave birth to her second son and fifth child frederck AKA fry the new baby was the fam's favorite but something was seriously wrong with him due to a genetic condition that the queen had passed down to her own children called hemophilia this prevents blood clotting in male children and she had passed it right down to Alice and then to little fry the royal disas was being passed down all over Europe due to the many marriages that were arranged by Victoria and as a male with the disease it was nothing less than a death sentence at the time this disease went on to kill Alice's brother Leopold in 1884 unsurprisingly everyone feared the worst for the princeling Frederick who would go on to die in a devastating way on the 29th of May 1873 the little boy fell 20 ft from his window when he was hanging out of it at home the fool would have injured and could have been fatal for any child but coupled with this Royal disease meant he stood no chance at all the boy did not die on impact he awoke after the fall but even the best doctors in the land couldn't control his internal BL leading and so he devastatingly passed away leaving Alice heartbroken Alice was played with grief for years she never ever got over the loss of her beloved Son she sent a letter to her mother who was not very empathetic of her grief only 2 months after the fall stating I am glad you have a little colored picture of my darling I feel lower and sadder than ever and miss him so much so continually the years that followed started a dark spiral her mother did little to support her and she was far too filled with jealousy and bitterness that this dominated her emotions towards Alice Alice was stubborn and they often clashed but now they would go on to exchange vicious letters Alice attempted to give some diplomatic advice to Victoria but the monic wrot back I do not think dear child that you should tell me what I ought to do for 2 years Alice withdrew from public life to heal herself and look after her remaining two girls Alex and Marie and her son Ernest she used her surviving son to cope with the loss of her other son and she kept him close by as well as promoting him to her new favorite in hardly letting him out of her sight at this time her marriage was also taking a battering the problem started out as minimal but worsened over Time Prince Louis of Hess was a lovely kind man he was also a little soft headed and could be emotionally stunted and he offered little support to the struggling princess she was disappointed with her husband's response to their son's death and by 1876 she was becoming increasingly full of resentment and she was not afraid to let him know she wrote to him accusing him of writing empty and bare letters that left her cold and alienated from her real self confessing that I feel myself through them that I have less to say to you than any other person despite the marriage woes the pair would be catapulted into higher ranking roles when in 1877 Lou's father passed away which made them the Grand Duke of hes and Alice the grand duess the pair knew the time would eventually come but the role was not what Alice expected she had always struggled to settle into the life and H and the local people could sense it describing her as a stiff princess she had a whole new level of responsibility on her shoulders and she felt extra pressure to perform as the new head of the country she wrote to her mother that she dreaded everything and it was more than she could stand in the long run her letters of concern fell on deaf ears with her mother who delittle comfort her the Grim Reaper came to her home on a dark cloudy night in November 1878 early in the month Alice's oldest girl Victoria took ill with a sore stiff neck they were not to know that her diagnosis was terminal and that she had contracted diptheria a bacterial infection that was often fatal in the Victorian era there was not long to get their heads around this as within days she died Alice was able to dodge the infection at first but four of her children Alex Marie Irene in Earnest and even her husband felt ill within days of Victoria showing no symptoms Alice was used to caring for others and she tried to make everyone better but she couldn't on November the 15th Alice's youngest daughter Marie who was only 4 years old fell severely ill the staff gave a grave diagnosis and suggested that the grand duess she'd attend her bedside to say goodbye Alice arrived but unfortunately before she arrived Marie had choked and now her body was already turning cold she was so devastated by the death of her daughter that she kept it a secret from her other children so not to dampen their Spirits while they were also fighting against the infection however she finally gave in to her son nnest when he wondered where she was he was so crushed by the news that he required Comfort by his mother who gave him a kiss that would go on to be fatal Alice had introduced a strict no contact order in the house but due to the young boy's grief she tragically went against this and instead became infected by her son she contracted the infection shortly after and on Saturday the 14th of December Alice fell incredibly ill with dip fuia so much so that she barely survived for a few more hours at 2:30 she spoke her heartbreaking Last Words Whispering dear papa before losing Consciousness and never waking up again on the anniversary of her father's death she had been reflecting on her father's death while in the grips of the disease perhaps aware that her end was near too her final words were dear papa Alice's sister Victoria was heartbroken over the death of her sister but she was banished from attending the funeral due to tensions between the two Nations Queen Victoria outlived her daughter by two decades and Alice had been her first child to die Queen Victoria who was always looking for Cosmic connections noticed this connection with her husband and she called it almost incredible and most mysterious and lamented that this terrible day come around again even after the deaths in the family the heartache did not end there Alice and Louis's daughters married into Russian royalty which ended in tragedy for both of them their daughter Alex went on to marry SAR Nicholas II of Russia and Elizabeth married Grand duuke sergy alexandrii of Russia both women were brutally murdered by the bevic mercilessly so were Alex's five children this marked the end of the Roman of Dynasty please continue to support my channel by subscribing please comment like And subscribe if you wish for more stories and leave your suggestions below and I will endeavor to cover them

Channel: Past People

Views: 22,179

Keywords: PRINCESS ALICE, VICTORIAN ERA, QUEEN VICTORIA, RUSSIAN ROYALTY, DUKE OF HESSE, princess alice of battenberg, QUEEN VICTORIA DAUGHTER, LOUIS IV, GRAND DUKE HESSE, GRAND DUCHESS HESSE, DUKE, KING, QUEEN, VICTORIANS, PRINCE ALBERT, PRINCE ALBERT CHILDREN, QUEEN VICTORIA CHILDREN, PRINCESS ALICE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, PRINCESS VICTORIA, PRUSSIA VICTORIA, PRUSSIAN WAR, Romanov, Nicholas II of Russia, QUEEN VICTORIAS CHILDREN, alice von batternberg, victoria empress of germany

Id: vr18DjfKsxk

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 13 2023