Alice, The Enigma - A Biography of Queen Victoria's Daughter Read online

  Alice, The Enigma

  A Biography of Queen Victoria’s Daughter,

  Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse-and-by-Rhine

  Christina Croft

  © Christina Croft 2013

  A Hilliard & Croft Book

  Acknowledgement

  I would like to thank Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, for her kind permission to quote from Queen Victoria’s online journals.

  Contents

  Who’s Who

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – To Whom Much Is Given

  Chapter 2 - What a joyous childhood we had!

  Chapter 3 – A Vain Little Thing

  Chapter 4 – Our Little Riots

  Chapter 5 – The Real Separation from Childhood

  Chapter 6 – A Very dear Companion

  Chapter 7 – Her Future is Still Undecided

  Chapter 8 – A Very Dear Good Fellow

  Chapter 9 – Everything Has Changed

  Chapter 10 – A Strange Sort of Presentiment

  Chapter 11 – Mute Distracted Despair

  Chapter 12 – Strength of Mind & Self-Sacrifice

  Chapter 13 - A Love Which Increases Daily

  Chapter 14 – How Wonderfully We Are Made

  Chapter 15 – She Should Accommodate Herself To My Habits

  Chapter 16 – The Uncertainty of Life

  Chapter 17 – This Too Horrid War

  Chapter 18 – This Mad, Wicked Folly of Women’s Rights

  Chapter 19 – To Love One’s Grief

  Chapter 20 – How Far From Well I Am

  Chapter 21 – Dear Papa!

  Epilogue

  Who’s Who

  AFFIE (Alfred) (1844-1900) Alice’s younger brother

  ALBERT (1819-1861) Prince of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha; Prince Consort; Alice’s father

  ALICE, (1843-1878) Princess of Great Britain, Grand Duchess of Hesse-and-by-Rhine; Queen Victoria’s second daughter

  ALIX (1872-1918) Alice’s fourth daughter

  ANNA (1843-1865) Princess of Hesse; Alice’s sister-in-law

  ARTHUR (1850-1942) Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; Alice’s younger brother

  BEATRICE (1857-1944) Alice’s youngest sister

  BERTIE (Albert Edward) (1841-1910) Prince of Wales; Alice’s eldest brother

  CHARLES (1809-1877) Prince of Hesse; Alice’s father-in-law

  EDWARD (1776-1820) Duke of Kent; Queen Victoria’s father

  ELIZABETH (1815-1885) Princess of Hesse; Alice’s mother-in-law

  ELLA (Elizabeth) (1864-1918) Alice’s second daughter

  ERNEST AUGUSTUS (1771-1851) King of Hanover; Alice’s great-uncle and godfather

  ERNEST II (1818-1893) Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha; Alice’s uncle and godfather; Prince Albert’s brother

  ERNIE (Ernst Ludwig) (1868-1937) Alice’s eldest son

  FEODORE (Feo) (1807-1872) Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg; Alice’s aunt and godmother; Queen Victoria’s half-sister

  FRITTIE (Frederick Wilhelm) (1870-1873) Alice’s second son

  FRITZ (Frederick Wilhelm) (1831-1888) Crown Prince of Prussia; Vicky’s husband

  HENRY (1838-1900) Prince of Hesse; Alice’s brother-in-law

  HILDYARD, Sarah (Tilla), Governess to Alice and her siblings

  IRÈNE (1866-1953) Alice’s third daughter

  LENCHEN (Helena) (1846-1923) Alice’s younger sister

  LEOPOLD (1790-1865) King of the Belgians; Alice’s great-uncle

  LEOPOLD (1853-1884) Duke of Albany; Alice’s youngest brother

  LOUIS (1837-1892) Alice’s husband; Prince and later Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt

  LOUISE (1800-1831) Duchess of Coburg; Prince Albert’s mother

  LOUISE (1848-1939) Alice’s younger sister

  LUDWIG III (1806-1877) Grand Duke of Hesse

  LYTTELTON, Sarah (1787-1870) Governess to Alice and her siblings

  MAY (Mary) (1874-1878) Alice’s youngest daughter

  SOPHIE MATILDA (1773-1844) Duchess of Gloucester; Alice’s great-aunt and godmother

  STRAUSS, David (1808-1874) German theologian and writer

  VICKY (1841-1901) Princess of Great Britain/Crown Princess of Prussia; Alice’s elder sister

  VICTORIA (1786-1861) Duchess of Kent; Alice’s grandmother

  VICTORIA (1819-1901), Queen of Great Britain; Alice’s mother

  VICTORIA (1863-1850) Alice’s eldest daughter

  WILHELM I (1797-1888) Crown Prince, later King of Prussia/German Emperor; Fritz’s father

  WILLIAM (1840-1879) Prince of Orange; Heir Apparent to the throne of the Netherlands

  WILLIAM (1845-1900) Prince of Hesse; Alice’s brother-in-law

  WILLY (Wilhelm II) (1859-1941) Prince of Prussia; Alice’s nephew; Vicky’s eldest son

  Prologue

  Of all Queen Victoria’s nine children, none was more intriguing than her second daughter, Alice. The contradictions in her personality are so striking that, while she has often been overshadowed by her more illustrious brother, King Edward VII, and her brilliant sister, the German Empress Frederick, she remains to this day an enigma, the depths of whose character are virtually impossible to penetrate.

  Renowned for her cheerfulness and sense of humour, she was nonetheless prone to melancholy and virtually driven to the point of despair by the tragedies in her public as well as her personal life. A dedicated philanthropist, who devoted herself to the service of the poor, she was simultaneously attracted to beautiful jewellery and earned her mother’s censure for her love of ‘fine society’. Unorthodox, yet profoundly spiritual, she, who wrote of her resignation to the will of God in the most heartrending circumstances, was accused by the Prussian Queen of atheism, and was not ashamed to be associated with one of the most controversial theologians of the age. She loved her children deeply and was devoted to her husband, yet her marriage became increasingly unsatisfying and, as she told the Queen, being a wife and mother did not come naturally to her.

  Unconventional and unafraid of involving herself in taboo causes, she was ever conscious of the privileges and responsibilities of her royal status; and, while inspiring devotion in the people whom she selflessly served, she was criticised, too, by those closest to her for her outspokenness and inability to endure a lack of commitment in others.

  At the age of eighteen, during her mother’s overwhelming grief at the death of Prince Albert, Alice put aside her own sorrow to assume all the duties of the monarch, but, while the country applauded her diligence, the stress of her repressed grief would affect her to the end of her life. For Alice was, first and foremost, her father’s daughter. He alone had, she believed, understood the most profound aspects of her character, and she created of him a model of perfection to which she would always aspire. The greatest tragedy of her life was not so much his demise as the fact that he had created so perfect and happy a childhood for her that nothing that came afterwards could ever quite live up to her high expectations.

  By the time of her premature death at the age of only thirty-five, Alice had lived through two wars, had lost two of her children, and had exhausted herself in her devotion to duty to the extent that she suffered from disillusionment almost to the point of despair. Nonetheless, in the final tragic weeks of her life, she met unimaginable grief with courage and serenity, and her last words demonstrated her ultimate redemption and the beautiful restoration of all she had loved and lost.

  Chapter 1 –

  To Whom Much Is Given

  Scents of jasmine and magnolia drifted from the terrace and mingled with the salty sea air in the warmth of a summer’s af
ternoon. In front of a wooden cabin, a posse of little children busied themselves with wheelbarrows and spades, each tending a separate garden plot while their father looked on and smiled. Amid the abundance of flowers, carrot-tops sprouted through the soil. Now they were ready to harvest and present to Prince Albert, who would examine them studiously before taking several coins from his pocket to purchase the fruit of his children’s labour.

  Ten-year-old Alice proudly gathered her offerings and eagerly anticipated her father’s approval. Few things in life brought her greater pleasure than winning his smile, and, nowhere captured his essence more completely than here in the gardens of ‘dear Osborne’ – the house he had designed as a private home for his family. This was the place to which Alice’s heart would forever return, for although her destiny lay overseas, Osborne, with its memories of ‘dear Papa’ would forever be home.

  Prince Albert studied the home-grown offerings and, after checking the certificates issued by the Head Gardener, he murmured a few compliments and handed over the payment at the market-rate. Even as Alice took the coins, she knew that this was more a reward for her industry than for the quality of her produce. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, consort to one of the most prestigious monarchs in an era of monarchical glories, had little need of his children’s vegetables but he gained great satisfaction from knowing that they had learned the most important lesson of all: with privilege comes responsibility, and, for all the advantages of their station, the children of Queen Victoria must recognise their duty to live useful and independent lives. It was a lesson which his second daughter, Alice, would take to heart and, from her earliest years to the end of her short life, she would strive to live up to his ideal of a dutiful princess.

  No one would ever have a greater influence upon Alice than her father, in whom she found not only a model worthy of imitation, but also an empathetic soul who, alone in the world, seemed to understand the depths of her sensitivity. From him, she would acquire a determined self-sacrifice, and in him she would find the inspiration to raise her own children in the same loving and happy atmosphere which he had created for her.

  Unlike the majority of princes of the age, Prince Albert undertook the responsibilities of parenthood with great diligence. While many of his contemporaries were content to consign the welfare of their offspring to the nannies whom their wives had appointed, Prince Albert paid close attention to every detail of his children’s upbringing, devoting himself to creating a healthy environment in which they could nurture their talents; and planning the best possible education to prepare them for their future roles as altruistic servants and leaders of their people. Above all, he wished to cultivate simplicity so that, whatever their futures might be, they would never become so proud of their exalted position that they would forget the Gospel line, which formed the foundation of his own life:

  ‘For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.’

  Apart from his genuine love of his family and his deep-rooted spiritual beliefs, two motives spurred Prince Albert in his quest to perfect his children’s upbringing. His own childhood memories were far from idyllic, for, although as the second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha he grew up in the picturesque beauty of Schloss Rosenau, his early years were marred by an event which would affect him for the rest of his life. With great fondness he always remembered his loving mother, Louise of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg, whom he resembled both in looks and in character. Seventeen years younger than her husband, she delighted in joining Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, in their games, but there was no doubt at all that Albert was her favourite, and he, in return, adored her.

  Unfortunately for Albert, this domestic idyll was soon to be shattered. While he was still a small infant, his rakish father regularly neglected his wife to spend more and more time with his mistresses. Abandoned and lonely, Louise sought comfort with an army officer, the Duke’s stable master, Count Alexander von Hanstein, but when her unfaithful husband, with the double-standards of the age, discovered the liaison, he was incensed and seized the opportunity for a separation. Louise was banished from Coburg and was never permitted to see her children again. In time, she married her lover but their happiness was short-lived. In 1831 she died of cancer at the age of only thirty.

  For five-year-old Albert, his mother’s sudden departure was inexplicable. In vain he waited for her return but, as time passed and it was clear that she was not coming home, he learned to hide his feelings and suppressed his distress by devoting himself wholeheartedly to duty, study and the acquisition of knowledge:

  “From his earliest years he seems never to have flinched from labour, and he had amassed vast treasures of exact knowledge, which he did not for a moment exhibit for ostentation…”[1]

  Nonetheless, he never forgot his mother and even though, when his father remarried Albert developed a close bond with his stepmother, this early childhood experience left him with a tendency towards melancholy, an extreme work-ethic and a sense of the transient nature of life. Years later, according to Queen Victoria, he:

  “…spoke with much tenderness and sorrow of his poor mother and was deeply affected in reading, after his marriage, the accounts of her sad and painful illness. One of the first gifts he made to the Queen was a little pin he had received from her when a little child.”[2]

  His sad experience left him, too, with a horror of infidelity and the determination to ensure that his own children would be raised in a more stable family.

  A second, more practical, consideration inspired his scrupulous plans for his children’s upbringing: the absolute necessity of restoring the tarnished image of a monarchy which had sunk into disrepute during the reigns of his wife’s predecessors.

  By the time of Queen Victoria’s accession, the intermittent madness of her grandfather, George III, and the wayward behaviour of her Hanoverian uncles had caused immense damage to the reputation of the Royal Family. The Queen’s ‘wicked uncles’ – the sons of King George III – were too preoccupied with their creditors and pleasure-seeking to pay a great deal of attention to their duties, and the numerous cartoons and caricatures which featured in periodicals of the era, demonstrated the extent to which the public viewed them with disdain.

  The eldest of these sons, the Prince Regent who succeeded as King George IV, was infamous for his gluttonous excesses and his very public dislike of his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, whom he had married solely to secure a government grant to settle his numerous debts, and whom he so despised that he even refused her access to Westminster Abbey for his coronation.

  Miraculously, considering their mutual antipathy, George and Caroline managed to produce an heir – a daughter named Charlotte on whom the future of the ruling House of Hanover depended. When, following her marriage to the dashing Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Charlotte became pregnant, the succession seemed secure, but her untimely death in childbirth at the age of only twenty-one shattered such hopes and, since her father was now long-estranged from his wife, sparked an unseemly race among her uncles to produce a legitimate heir.

  George III’s second son, Frederick, Duke of York, whose inadequacies as a soldier were celebrated in the popular rhyme, The Grand Old Duke of York, was unhappily married and predeceased his elder brother, dying without legitimate issue.

  The third son, the Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews, who eventually succeeded as King William IV, had enjoyed an unspectacular career in the Royal Navy, and, although he had fathered at least ten illegitimate children, he, too, had failed to produce a legitimate heir.

  The fourth son, Edward, Duke of Kent, had had an equally unimpressive military career. In his role as Governor of Gibraltar, he had imposed such harsh discipline on the troops that he had provoked a mutiny. Although he developed a keen interest in freedom of worship and the improvement of working conditions for the poor, he, like his brothers, squandered a fortune in gambling and other excesses and
preferred to maintain a mistress than to marry. Eventually, following the death of Princess Charlotte, the fifty-year-old Edward decided to do his duty (and to receive a settlement of his debts) by finding a wife. Discarding his long-time lover (who retired briefly to a French convent before marrying a South American prince), he married Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, sister of the widowed Prince Leopold.

  Nine months later, the future Queen Victoria, was born but Edward had little time to enjoy the delights of fatherhood. When his daughter was only eight months old, he took her to the seaside in Devon where he caught a chill which developed into a fatal pneumonia. Though too young at the time of his death to have any recollections of him, Queen Victoria was later assured by those who knew him that he was the best of the sons of King George III.

  The fifth son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who would inherit the throne of Hanover[a], enjoyed the worst reputation of all. He had fallen in love with a twice-married woman, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whose second husband died so unexpectedly that it was rumoured that she had poisoned him in order to marry Ernest. Such was her unpopularity that even Ernest’s mother, Queen Charlotte, refused to receive her at court, while Ernest himself became the victim of increasingly lurid tales. Slanderous stories about him abounded: it was said that in a fit of anger he had slit his valet’s throat; that he had struck an innocent woman; that he had driven Lord Graves to commit suicide by conducting an affair with his wife; and even that he had conducted an incestuous liaison with sister, who bore him a child. Although the majority of the stories were fictitious, the fact that such tales circulated at all demonstrates the extent of his unpopularity.