Princess Alice of the United Kingdom

Born on April 25, 1843, in Buckingham Palace in London, Princess Alice was christened Alice Maud Mary in the royal chapel by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury on June 2. The reaction of the British people was mixed at best to the revelation of her gender. Even the Privy Council, in their message to Prince Albert following her birth, offered their “congratulations and condolences”.

Her godparents were Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover (as he could not attend, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge stood proxy for him), Princess Feodora of Leiningen (Princess Victoria, Dowager Duchess of Kent stood proxy), Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy), and Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester, the Anglo-Saxon variation of whose name, Matilda, was used as one of Alice’s middle names, Maud.

She was the second daughter of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, after Princess Victoria, the future Empress of Prussia and the third child after Victoria and Edward, the Prince of Wales. Her younger siblings were Alfred, the future Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Princesses Helena and Louise, Princes Arthur and Leopold.

As the Buckingham Palace did not have enough private apartments the growing royal family needed, Alice’s parents bought Osborne House in East Cowes in Isle of Wight as a family holiday residence. Her parents were firm believers in monarchy based on family values and raised Alice and her siblings in accordance with it. They wore middle-class clothes regularly and spent nights in sparsely furnished rooms with little to no heat. Prince Albert, together with his close friend Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar, planned her education.

Her connection with the British people was apparent from an early age. She would often visit the tenants living and working within the premise of the royal estate of Balmoral Castle or run away from her governess at Windsor Castle and sit in a public pew to watch ordinary people going about their daily lives. During the Crimean War, an eleven-year-old Alice accompanied her mother and eldest sister to the London hospitals to visit wounded soldiers.

Queen Victoria wanted her children to marry for love, but she maintained that her prospective son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws would have to be from other European royal families. While acknowledging Alice and her siblings’ emotions, her stand made sure that the Crown would benefit from such unions. The Queen started to devise a marriage for Alice in 1860. Both William, Prince of Orange, and Prince Albert of Prussia were considered and rejected.

It was Princess Victoria who suggested Prince Louis of Hesse, who she had met during her visit to the Hessian court. He was the nephew of Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse. In 1860, Prince Louis and his brother Prince Henry visited the Windsor Castle so that they could supposedly enjoy the Ascot Races along with the British royal family, but in reality, the Queen wanted to evaluate them both as a potential husband for Alice.

Princess Alice’s own meeting with Louis had gone really well. When the Hessian princes left London, he asked for her photograph and she acknowledged that she was attracted to him. With the Queen’s approval, their engagement took place on April 30, 1861. Queen Victoria convinced Prime Minister Henry John Temple to get Alice a dowry of £30,000.

Prince Albert was still alive during the engagement and the royal family was looking forward to celebrating the union in great opulence. But his death in December 1861 cast a shadow of grief over the wedding, making it a subdued affair. Princess Alice of the United Kingdom married Prince Louis of Hesse on July 1, 1862 in a private ceremony in the dining room of Osborne House. Her paternal uncle, the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, gave her away. The couple spent their honeymoon at St Claire in Ryde.

The first problem Alice and Louis faced as husband and wife concerned their place of residence. As she was a daughter of the Queen of the United Kingdom, it was expected that a new house would be built for her, but the people of Darmstadt, the Grand Ducal seat, were not inclined to fund such a project and Louis III seemed to agree with his subjects. Eventually, a house in the city’s ‘Old Quarter’ was given to the newlywed couple. It stood overlooking a bustling street.

Alice flourished in the early years of her marriage. She was a woman in love and had a purpose to win over the citizens of Darmstadt, who while welcomed her in the city with celebration and enthusiasm after her marriage, had previously borne a certain amount of resentment towards her for the residence controversy. Germain artist and courtier Paul Weber gave her art lessons.

She gave birth to her first child, Victoria Alberta Elisabeth Mathilde Marie, on April 5, 1863, during her visit to England to attend the wedding of her brother, the Prince of Wales with Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Queen was present during the delivery. The Hessian court chaplain was summoned over to England so he could christen the newest addition to the ducal family.

Her second daughter, Elisabeth, was born on November 1, 1864 at Alice and Louis’ new residence in Kranichstein. A disagreement unfolded between Alice and her mother over her decision to breastfeed her children, which the Queen did not like. She was further distressed upon realising that, Alice, with her new responsibilities of motherhood and at the Hessian court, would visit her less often. Their relationship began to deteriorate at this point and would never fully recover.

Hesse supported Austria during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, putting Alice and her elder sister Victoria on the opposite sides. Louis left Alice heavily pregnant with their third child to marshal the Hessian cavalry against the Prussians. After sending their children to England for safety, Alice carried out the duties her sex and rank required, making bandages for the army and readying the hospitals. On July 11, she delivered her third child, Princess Irene.