Queen Victoria's Grandchildren - Part 2 of 3

Queen Victoria's Grandchildren Part 2. The Children of Alice and Alfred The Children of Alice Alice married Prince Louis, heir to the Duke of Hesse. They had a happy family and lived modestly by royal standards, Alice making clothes for the children who cleaned their own rooms and learned to cook. Alice was passionate about nursing and often took her children with her to visit common people in hospitals. After Alice's early death from diphtheria, Queen Victoria took her children under her wing and they spent many holidays in the UK. Victoria was 15 when her mother died so she acted as a second mother to her younger siblings. She fell in love with her cousin, Louis of Battenberg, who was from a poor branch of the family and a British naval officer. Her father objected but Victoria married Louis anyway. While Louis was stationed in Malta, Victoria contracted typhoid fever and Louis himself nursed her back to health. They were very happy together, living mostly in the UK and had four children. Victoria was interested in science, drew detailed geological maps, and participated in archaeological digs. She personally educated her children who called her a walking encyclopedia. Victoria and her daughter Louise were in Russia visiting her sister Zarina Alexandra and trying to persuade her away from the influences of Rasputin. When World War I broke out and they made it out of the country on the last ship back to Britain, Louis was forced to resign from the navy because of his German heritage. The family anglicized their name from Battenberg to Mountbatten. The eldest daughter Alice was diagnosed with schizophrenia and Victoria took over raising her grandson Philip, who is now the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. During World War II, Victoria was terrified for her children and grandchildren fighting on both sides of the conflict and she was bombed out of her home at Kensington Palace. She died in 1950, aged 87. Elizabeth was charming, friendly, and considered to be one of the great beauties of her day. Among her many admirers was her cousin Wilhelm who wrote her love poems, but she was unimpressed and rejected his proposal. She fell in love with childhood friend Grand Duke Sergei of Russia, younger brother to the Tsar. The couple bonded over love of art and religious faith, Elizabeth converting to Russian Orthodoxy. She loved children but never had any of her own. She instead fostered an orphaned niece and nephew. Sergei became governor of Moscow and expelled 20,000 Jews from the city. Elizabeth condemned him for it and said that God would punish them. In 1905, Sergei was assassinated by revolutionaries. In grief and penance, Elizabeth sold off all of her jewelry and possessions and used the funds to build a convent which she joined as a nun. She also built a hospital, pharmacy, and orphanage in which she worked tirelessly to help the poor of Moscow. She tried to warn her sister Tsarina Alexandra away from Rasputin but was not heeded. In 1918, new Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin ordered the arrests of many imperial family members including Elizabeth. Soldiers beat the prisoners and threw them down a mine shaft, but the fall did not kill them and the soldiers could hear them crying and Elizabeth singing a hymn at the bottom of the shaft. They then threw in grenades but the singing continued. Finally, they filled the shaft with brushwood and set it on fire and the singing ceased. Elizabeth was 53. Irene married her Aunt Victoria's son, Prince Henry of Prussia. They were both easygoing and got on well with each other and everyone else. They had three sons, two had hemophilia. The eldest, Baldmar, though perpetually ill, lived to be 57 while the youngest died after a bump on the head at the age of four. After her sister Tsarina Alexandra and her family were murdered during the Russian Revolution, a woman named Anna Anderson emerged in Berlin claiming to be Alexandra's youngest daughter, Anastasia. Irene visited Anna but was sure that she was not her long-lost niece. Irene's middle son immigrated to Costa Rica and built a banana and coffee plantation. Irene lived to be 87. Ernst Louis inherited the dukedom of Hesse at 24. He married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Millette of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, nicknamed Ducky. The couple were terribly mismatched. Ernst was serious while Ducky preferred to socialize and shirk her royal duties. The couple often argued and many tea trays were thrown. They wanted to divorce but their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, objected. When Ducky abandoned her husband and daughter Elizabeth to live in the south of France and rack up staggering gambling debts, Ernst finally filed for divorce. Ducky spread rumors that she had caught her husband in bed with a man and that no male servant was safe in his employ. Ernst was devoted to their daughter but she died of typhoid at the age of 8, breaking her father's heart. Ernst had a more harmonious marriage to Princess Eleanor of Zom-Holmsholmsvik and they had two sons. He also maintained a long-term relationship with Karl-Ulgos Linger, the inventor of mouthwash. During World War I, Ernst served as an officer at his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm's headquarters. Following the war, the Duchy of Hesse was abolished and Ernst lost his throne. He died in 1937. Friedrich, called Friddy by his family, was a cheerful and lively child despite being ill with hemophilia. At two years old, while playing with his brother, he fell 20 feet out of a window. He would have survived the fall were it not for his condition, which prevented his blood from clotting. He died a few hours later of a brain hemorrhage. Alexandra was a joyful child, but after the death of her mother and younger sister, she became withdrawn and reserved. She was Queen Victoria's favorite grandchild and the Queen wanted her to marry her cousin Albert Victor and someday be Queen of the UK. But Alex instead fell in love with Nicholas, heir to the throne of Russia, whom she met while attending her older sister Elizabeth's wedding at the Winter Palace. The Tsar did not approve as Alex was from an unimportant family. He pushed his son towards several other royal ladies, but Nicholas was adamant that Alex was the only woman for him. When Nicholas's father died and he became Tsar, the couple were finally married. They had four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, but Russian law said that a woman could not inherit the throne. Alex's shy nature, trouble with the language, and inability to produce a male heir made her unpopular with the Russian people. Finally, they had a son, Alexei, but he had hemophilia and was very sickly. He was often unable to walk and suffered excruciating pain. Even minor bumps and bruises could be life-threatening for the boy. Alexandra felt incredibly guilty about passing on the disorder to her son and obsessed about his health. The desperate mother turned to faith healer Grigory Rasputin and he seemed to help ease Alexei's anguish. The Tsarina became increasingly dependent on crude Rasputin, who rarely bathed, slept with dozens of his followers, and enjoyed exposing himself in public. At the outbreak of World War I, Nicholas led the army against his wife's German family and left her in charge of running the country. She had no experience of governing and was a terrible ruler. She leaned heavily on Rasputin's advice and the two were hated by the people. Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles. The war impoverished Russia and the people were starving. In 1917, revolution broke out and Tsar Nicholas was deposed. They sought asylum in Britain but their mutual cousin George V was nervous about being associated with a man now labeled a tyrant and failed to save them. Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children were imprisoned and shot to death in a basement. Marie was born on May 24th. Her grandmother Queen Victoria's birthday. She was a sweet child who was adored by her parents and older siblings. She was very close to her older sister Alexandra and the pair often dressed alike. When Marie was four, the family fell ill with diphtheria. Alice was the only one who showed no symptoms and she nursed her husband and children tirelessly. After two weeks of illness, Marie succumbed to the disease and her family was heartbroken. The rest of them seemed to be recovering when Alice was struck ill and exhausted from caring for her loved ones deteriorated quickly. She died at 35 and was buried next to Marie. This statue of mother and child was placed over their tomb. Alfred married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. The couple had six children. He was a lifelong navy man and was often away from his family. His daughter Marie said that she didn't even know her father's hair color. Their domineering and haughty mother was not particularly close to the children either. She believed in marrying her daughters young before they were old enough to think for themselves. In 1893, Alfred inherited the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from his uncle and moved the family to Germany. Alfred, the family's only son, was next in line to be duke. His engagement to Duchess Elsa Matilda Marie was announced. But while the rest of the family was at a party celebrating their parents' 25th wedding anniversary, the prince shot himself. The exact circumstances of his death are unknown and family members tried to cover it up, claiming that he died of a tumor or tuberculosis. The prominent theories are that he was heartbroken after having to set aside his mistress for an arranged marriage or that he may have discovered that he was actually the son of Prince Alfred and his lover Mabel Fitzgerald, who may have had a secret marriage. He may simply have suffered from depression, a condition which was little understood at the time. He survived the initial gunshot but died two weeks later of his injuries. He was 24. Marie had dazzling blue eyes and was courted by her first cousin, future George V, but their mothers didn't get along and objected. Instead, she married Ferdinand, crown prince of Romania. They had six children. The couple did not get on well in the beginning and Marie caused a scandal by having an affair with an army officer. But the royal couple eventually settled into a mutual admiration. Ferdinand's father died in 1914 and he and Marie became king and queen. Marie was very popular with the people and wielded a great deal of influence over her husband, convincing him to side with the UK during World War I. During the war, Bucharest was occupied by the central powers and the royal family took refuge in Moldova. There, she and her daughters worked as nurses caring for soldiers, many of whom had cholera. In 1918, Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bulcovia joined with Romania, and Ferdinand and Marie were crowned king and queen of the United Romania in an elaborate coronation. Marie attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, representing Romania in the formation of the League of Nations. She also made a diplomatic tour to the United States. Ferdinand died in 1927 and their son set out to tarnish his mother's reputation and force her out of the capital. She died in 1938 at 62. In 1947, the monarchy was abolished and communist officials tried to slander Marie's reputation by claiming that she had been a drunkard who regularly hosted orgies at the palace. When the communist party was overthrown in 1989, Queen Marie regained her popularity as a national hero. Victoria, nicknamed Ducky, was in love with her first cousin, Grand Duke Kirill of Russia, but the Orthodox Church forbid incestuous marriages, so she instead married her first cousin Ernst Louis, future Grand Duke of Hesse. The couple were miserable and fought often. Ernst was serious and sober while Victoria enjoyed a glamorous social life and hosting wild parties. Ducky claimed she had caught her husband in bed with a man and that no male servant was safe in his employ. The couple divorced, scandalizing the royal family who didn't go for that sort of thing. Two years later, their only child, Elizabeth, died of typhoid at the age of eight. Victoria eloped with her first love, Grand Duke Kirill of Russia in defiance of Tsar Nicholas II. In retaliation, Kirill was stripped of his titles and exiled from Russia. The couple lived in Paris and had three children. They were eventually allowed back to Russia, just in time for the revolution. They barely escaped the massacre of royals and moved to Finland. As one of the few surviving Romanovs, Kirill proclaimed himself Tsar in exile. Victoria died in 1936 at age 59. Alexandra's mother arranged her marriage to Prince Ernst II of Hohenlohenburg. Queen Victoria and Alfred objected as Ernst's family no longer ruled. But the young couple were cousins, so that was okay. They moved to Germany and had five children. During World War I, Alexandra worked as a Red Cross nurse. She was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, which she and her children joined. She died in 1942, age 63. In 1879, Alfred and Maria had a stillborn son. Beatrice, like her sister Victoria, was in love with a Russian cousin, Grand Duke Mikhail. They were prevented from marrying by Orthodox law, and Mikhail broke off the relationship. Beatrice traveled to Egypt to get over her broken heart. She met Alfonso de Orleón y Borbón at the wedding of his cousin Alfonso XIII of Spain to her cousin Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. The couple married, but she refused to convert to Catholicism, so they were exiled to Germany. They had three sons. The family were eventually allowed to return to Spain. King Alfonso, a notorious womanizer, made advances to Beatrice, which she rejected, and they were once again exiled. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, the family lost most of their wealth and property, and most tragically, their second son Alonso was killed in action. Beatrice lived to be 82, dying in 1966. In the final episode, we'll meet the children of Helena, Arthur, Leopold, and Beatrice. Among them, a beloved crown princess of Sweden, a queen of Spain whose hemophilia gene was her husband's excuse for philandering, and the first British royal to hold down a regular job. If you enjoyed this video, please like, subscribe, comment your thoughts, and check out my other royal history videos. If you really want to help, please consider supporting me on Patreon. A link is in the description. Thank you for watching!