The Children of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse

His Seven Children with Princess Alice of Great Britain

Sep 24, 2009

Grand Duke Louise IV of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of Great Britain, Queen Victoria's daughter, had seven children, including Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.

Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine married Princess Alice of Great Britain, Queen Victoria's second daughter, and together they had seven children. Unfortunately, Alice was a carrier of the blood disease hemophilia, a condition she would pass on to three of her children, most tragically to her daughter Alix who would carry it to the Russian royal family as the wife of Tsar Nicholas II. When Princess Alice died young from diphtheria, her children were mostly raised at the court of their grandmother Queen Victoria, making them as English as they were German.

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863–1950)

Princess Victoria of Hesse took over the household after her mother’s death. After marrying the German Prince Louis of Battenberg, she moved permanently to England where Louis was a member of the Royal Navy. He served loyally, but had to leave the navy during World War I amidst anti-German feeling. It was at this time that his family anglicized their name to Mountbatten, and after dropping his royal title he became the Marquess of Milford Haven, a title his son George inherited.

Their children led remarkable lives. Princess Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and mothered Prince Philip, now husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. Princess Louise married King Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden, becoming Queen Louise of Sweden. Prince Louis, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was the last Viceroy of India and oversaw the transition of power back to the Indians. He was made the Earl of Burma.

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864–1918)

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, “Ella,” named after her ancestress St. Elisabeth of Hungary, was reputedly the most beautiful of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters. She was even courted by her cousin, the future Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, but she turned him down for another cousin, Grand Duke Sergei of Russia.

After Sergei’s assassination in 1905, Grand Duchess Elisabeth turned to her new Russian Orthodox faith for comfort. She became a nun, using her great wealth to open the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary. She was assassinated in 1918 because she was a Romanov, and she was later buried in the Church of Maria Magdelene in Jerusalem. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized her in 1981.

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (1866–1953)

Princess Irene of Hesse was said to be the least exceptional of all of Princess Alice’s children, but she had a happy life. She married her cousin, Prince Henry of Prussia, in the first marriage between two descendants of Queen Victoria. Sadly, she was a carrier of hemophilia, a disease she passed on to two of their three children, one of whom died young.

Prince Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1868–1937)

Prince Ernst, who became the reigning Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine upon the death of his father in 1892, was spoiled, timid, and probably bi-sexual, and very ill-matched in marriage with his cousin Princess Victoria Melita of Great Britain. After the death of their grandmother Queen Victoria, who had arranged the marriage, this unhappy couple divorced.

With only a daughter Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig still needed an heir, so he married Princess Eleonore. They were actually fairly happy, and had two sons together. In 1918, however, Ernst Ludwig abdicated the throne of Hesse and by Rhine, as most German princes did after World War I.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse and by Rhine (1870–1873)

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, “Frittie,” was a favorite child of his parents. Tragically he inherited hemophilia, and died young from hemorrhaging after falling from a palace window.

Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (1872–1918)

Sweet and shy Princess Alix, named after her mother, was a favorite of her grandmother Queen Victoria. While in Russia for the wedding of her sister Ella she met the future Tsar Nicholas II and they fell in love. They married about a week after the funeral of his father Tsar Alexander III, beginning their married life with the kind of tragedy that would never leave it.

Life in Russia was very difficult for the young Tsarina Alexandra. The people were turning against the Russian royal family, and shy Alexandra never really got used to life at court. She also carried hemophilia, which she passed on to her son the Tsarevich Alexei, destabilizing the Romanovs further as they now had an unhealthy heir to the throne. Things got even worse when Alexandra turned to the faith healer and probable charlatan Rasputin, who used his influence to interfere in politics, making the weak ruler Tsar Nicholas II even more unpopular. The entire family was assassinated in 1918.

Princess May of Hesse and by Rhine (1874–1878)

Princess May died young from diphtheria right before her mother succumbed to the same illness.

Source:

Eilers, Marlene A. Queen Victoria’s Descendants. Falkoping, Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books, 1997.

Packard, Jerrold M. Victoria’s Daughters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

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