The Marriage of Princess Alice of Great Britain
Royal Union with Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine
Sep 9, 2009
The marriage of Queen Victoria’s third child, Princess Alice, to the future Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine was happy, although marred by political problems and some family tragedies. Princess Alice of Great Britain (1843–1878) and Prince Louis of Hesse and by Rhine (1837–1892) married for love, albeit with some encouragement from her parents, and their marriage withstood family complications, deaths, and war.
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine
Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert wanted their daughters to marry German princes in the hopes that through these royal unions their liberal political views could spread throughout Europe. The German grand duchy of Hesse and by Rhine was small and not very important, but the Hesse family had recently made some important dynastic marriages, particularly with the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
Thus, the young German Prince Louis of Hesse was seen as an appropriate match for the daughter of the queen of Great Britain. He was also heir to the grand duchy after his childless uncle and his father, so one day he would be in a position of some importance among the German principalities.
The Engagement and Wedding of Princess Alice and Prince Louis
When Prince Louis was first invited to Great Britain to meet the young princess, he knew that it was as a potential spouse for the queen’s daughter. Although they were not given much time to get to know each other, he liked Alice and Alice was charmed by the handsome prince. The two decided that they could make a good marriage and got engaged.
Their marriage got off to a gloomy start, however, due to the death of the bride’s father just seven months before their wedding. Their July 1, 1862, wedding took place in the dining room of Queen Victoria’s Osborne House, with almost everyone but Princess Alice clad in black. Prince Louis had been created a British royal highness right before the wedding, and the widowed Queen Victoria hoped that the couple would spend most of their time in England until Prince Louis inherited the grand duchy.
Prince Louis and Princess Alice’s Married Life in Hesse-Darmstadt
After her marriage, Princess Alice had a difficult time settling into life in Hesse’s capital of Darmstadt. She retained her British ways and always resisted the regulations of life in the foreign court. She and her husband were poor by royal standards, and their poverty meant problems for them at home and also that Princess Alice could not return to England as much as she would have liked.
The couple also suffered because of political problems, made worse by familial complications. The neighboring kingdom of Prussia continually threatened invasion and takeover of the smaller German principalities, a threat made worse by the fact that the heir to the Prussian throne was married to Alice’s sister Victoria. Familial ties were strained when Prince Louis commanded the Hessian cavalry against Prussia when the kingdom invaded Holstein, and after Hesse was forced to surrender to Prussia it suffered some territorial loss.
While her husband was off fighting Prussia, Princess Alice became obsessed with the medical care of soldiers and later with improving nursing care. This obsession would take over her time and take her away from her husband, driving a wedge between them. She founded the Princess Alice Women’s Guild, which trained nurses, and the Princess Alice Society for Women’s Training and Industry, which educated women. She also founded the Princess Alice Hospital, which treated the poor for free.
In 1877, Prince Louis succeeded his father as Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine, taking on the ruling of the small grand duchy. His wife threw herself into helping her husband with his new duties, and at least now they were working toward the same goals.
Prince Louis and Princess Alice’s Family Life and Children
In 1866 Prince Louis and Princess Alice were able to move into the New Palace, and here were able to establish a home in which to raise their family. They were devoted parents, with Princess Alice mothering her children with the same love and compassion she showed everyone in her care.
Louis and Alice raised seven children, among whom was the future Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. Their happiness was marred by the early deaths of their son Wilhelm Frederick from hemophilia and their daughter May from diphtheria. After nursing her other children through diphtheria, Princess Alice succumbed to the disease, dying in 1878 at the age of thirty-five. Prince Louis and their children mourned the princess who had done so much for her family and Hesse and by Rhine.
Source:
Packard, Jerrold M. Victoria’s Daughters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
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