Marriage of Princess Beatrice of Great Britain
The Royal Union of Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg
Sep 14, 2009
The marriage of Princess Beatrice of Great Britain and Prince Henry of Battenberg was happy, but marred by the constant presence of Beatrice’s mother, Queen Victoria. The Battenbergs spent their entire married life with the queen, and thus were never really able to have a family life or home of their own.
The Difficult Engagement of Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg
The widowed Queen Victoria was adamantly opposed to Princess Beatrice (1857–1944) getting married. Queen Victoria’s beloved husband Prince Albert had died when Beatrice was only four years old, and Victoria reasoned that Beatrice’s place was at home serving her mother her whole life. And for her early adult life Beatrice had done just that, being the obedient daughter at her mother’s side, running errands, handling the queen’s private paperwork, and doing anything else her mother needed.
At the age of twenty-seven, however, she met Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896) and became determined to marry him. Princess Beatrice was instantly charmed by the handsome and athletic prince who was serving as an officer in the Prussian Household Cavalry. But as determined as Beatrice was to marry, Queen Victoria was equally determined to keep her youngest child by her side.
Other royals were against the marriage as well. The Battenbergs were a lesser royal family, the result of a morganatic marriage between a Hesse prince and a Polish countess. The Prussian royal family in particular didn’t think that a Battenberg was good enough to marry into the English royal family.
But Prince Henry’s poverty and lack of position ended up helping the marriage, because Queen Victoria soon realized that he should have no problem with moving to Great Britain. The two would be allowed to marry, Queen Victoria finally agreed, as long as nothing changed and Princess Beatrice continued serving her.
The Wedding of Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg
Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg were married on July 23, 1885, in Whippingham Church at Queen Victoria’s Osborne House. Princess Beatrice wore her mother’s own Honiton lace veil, the only one of Queen Victoria’s five daughters allowed to do so. Happily, Queen Victoria ended up becoming quite fond of Prince Henry, naturalizing him and making him a British royal highness after the wedding.
The Short Marriage of Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg
After a short honeymoon, the couple moved in with Queen Victoria, and would spend the rest of their married life living with her. Princess Beatrice continued as she always had, working as her mother’s private secretary and general helper. Prince Henry, however, had nothing to do, which made him understandably restless and caused some friction in the marriage.
The Battenbergs had four children, one of whom later became Queen Ena of Spain. Their parents and grandmother adored them, and the “Battenberg kids” were allowed to run around the castle and burst in on their grandmother whenever they liked, providing the old queen with a happy domesticity she had not known since her husband died. Prince Henry supervised their education, partly because he had nothing else to do.
The Death of Prince Henry of Battenberg
In 1889, Queen Victoria gave Prince Henry the relatively meaningless positions of governor and captain general of the Isle of Wight and governor of Carisbroke Castle. But he was still bored, and in 1895 finally insisted on being allowed to go on the Ashanti expedition, a British expedition to Africa. Prince Henry contracted jungle fever and died on the way home. He and Princess Beatrice had only been married ten years.
The Widowed Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice mourned her husband, but her life continued in the same way it always had, serving her mother and raising her children. After Queen Victoria died, Princess Beatrice inherited Osborne Cottage where she lived the rest of her life. She spent her final years still serving Queen Victoria, editing her mother’s diaries for posterity.
The marriage of Princess Beatrice of Great Britain and Prince Henry of Battenberg lasted ten years and produced four children, the descendants of whom are still alive today. They had a happy union, but unfortunately were never able to live their own life away from Queen Victoria’s control.
Source:
Packard, Jerrold M. Victoria’s Daughters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
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