The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse


Book Description

A gripping family saga and a portrait of a world in turmoil The Princesses of Hesse were Queen Victoria's grandchildren. After the sudden death of her daughter Alice, Queen Victoria took an obsessive interest in the marriage prospects of the four girls she left behind. Very little went according to plan. Fortunately, Queen Victoria did not live to see her direst fears for the girls spouses being realised. She died in January 1901, just before her beloved Hesse granddaughters became caught up in the maelstrom of early 20th century Europe. The youngest sister, Alix, married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia; she was assassinated, along with the rest of her family, in a cellar in Ekaterinburg. The second, Ella, married the Russian Grand Duke Serge. After he was assassinated, she became a nun, only to be assassinated by the Bolsheviks twenty-four hours after Alix in 1918. The third, Irene, married the Kaiser's brother, Prince Henry, and was entangled in the 1918 German uprisings. The eldest sister, Princess Victoria, married Prince Louis Battenberg, and became the mother of Lord Louis Mountbatten and grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Their lives were all dramatic, and this group biography shows how they interacted as sisters, forever jostling for status and relaying the politics and intrigues that surrounded them. Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen letters from the sisters as well as from their grandmother Queen Victoria, The Princesses of Hesse takes us on a sweeping journey across the tumultuous landscape of the turn of the century - from the dramas of the Russian Court to the Russian Revolution, and through both World Wars in which they often found themselves on opposing sides. Both intimate and epic in scope, Frances Welch's biography sheds new light on the four sisters' lives, illuminating a remarkable period of history in the process.







Ella


Book Description

Following the death of her mother, Ella spent some years at Windsor with her grandmother, Queen Victoria. During this time she met & became engaged to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovitch. It was at their wedding that her sister, Alix, formed a love match with the future Tsar Nicholas II, an event which sealed the fate of both sisters.




Dearest Mama


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Princess Alice


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The Life and Death of Ella Grand Duchess of Russia


Book Description

Following the death of her mother, Ella spent some years at Windsor with her grandmother, Queen Victoria. During this time she met & became engaged to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovitch. It was at their wedding that her sister, Alix, formed a love match with the future Tsar Nicholas II, an event which sealed the fate of both sisters.




ALICE GRAND DUCHESS OF HESSE


Book Description

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Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter


Book Description

The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view. Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement. The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother's controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers-especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the "masculine" art of sculpture and go to art college-and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school. The rumors of Louise's colorful love life persist even today, with hints of love affairs dating as far back as her teenage years, and notable scandals included entanglements with her sculpting tutor Joseph Edgar Boehm and possibly even her sister Princess Beatrice's handsome husband, Liko. True to rebellious form, she refused all royal suitors and became the first member of the royal family, since the sixteenth century, to marry a commoner. She moved with him to Canada when he was appointed Governor-General. Spirited and lively, Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals, and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance.