At each station more officials arrived to greet them and, as they neared their destination, Louis’ parents and uncle, Grand Duke Ludwig III, boarded the train to accompany them on their entrance into the town. That evening, Queen Victoria, who had been tracking every stage of their travels, recorded with relief that they had safely reached Darmstadt[110].
Despite the heavy rain, which had continued for most of the journey, Alice’s first glimpse of her new home could not have been more promising. Enthusiastic crowds had gathered to catch a glimpse of the returning prince and his bride, and, as they processed through the brightly decorated streets, they were showered with flowers. Bands played, and a mounted escort rode alongside the carriage, while girls in white dresses assembled to be presented to the English princess.
“I am really deeply touched by the kindness and enthusiasm shown by the people, which is said to be quite unusual,” Alice wrote to the Queen.”[111]
The crowds were equally enamoured of her, as reports proliferated of her cheerful but dignified bearing, her prettiness and the graciousness with which she responded to the welcome.
Eventually, they reached the house of Louis’ parents, where the rest of the family had assembled, and Alice could begin to familiarise herself with her new relations.
In spite of his refusal to allow Louis and Alice to reside in his palace, the eccentric Grand Duke Ludwig proved to be very accommodating and eager to make Alice feel at home. Having been recently widowed, the fifty-five-year-old Ludwig III empathised with Queen Victoria and, as Alice told her mother, he took a ‘warm interest in all my brothers and sisters.”[112] On the first evening, he presented her with a diamond bracelet, which he and his wife had chosen several months earlier, and over the next few weeks he would put himself out to show her around the Grand Duchy[o].
While Louis’ parents were equally welcoming, it was obvious to Alice that they did not extend to one another the affection that they showed to her. Louis’ father, Prince Charles, was first and foremost a soldier, who had preferred to spend time with his regiment than with his wife, whom he considered dull and unattractive – not least because, in a physical response, perhaps, to his lack of affection, she grew increasingly obese with the passing of years. To Alice, however, Princess Elizabeth showed nothing but kindness, quickly earning her love, respect and admiration.
“I admire her also now that I know and understand her,” Alice wrote. “There is so much beneath, so much Geműth [warm-heartedness], tenderness, and delicacy of feeling.”[113]
Alice was already familiar with Louis’ siblings, Henry and Anna, the former of whom had accompanied Louis on his visits to England, and the latter of whom had been one of her bridesmaids. Henry closely resembled his father in character and appearance, and the better Alice came to know him, the more she enjoyed his cheerful company.
Anna, too, became a good friend, whose ‘gentle humble spirit’ Alice admired, despite Vicky’s extremely unflattering description:
“I do not think her pretty – she has not a fine figure but a passable one…She has an incipient twitching in her eyes…and her teeth are nearly all spoilt…She will never have anything graceful in her deportment…She has a very deep voice and rather a gruff abrupt way of speaking, frowning when she speaks, partly to conceal her shyness and partly to conceal her eyes which are perpetually twitching while she is talking…Her eyes are small and insignificant and she has not much expression in her face. Whether she is clever or not, I have not the slightest idea…”[114]
Their scholarly youngest brother, sixteen-year-old William, was, according to Alice, a connoisseur of art and an historian with a specific interest in ancient Rome.
One of the most fascinating members of the family was Louis’ ‘clever and amusing’ uncle, Prince Alexander. While serving in the Russian army, Alexander had committed the terrible crime of marrying a commoner, Julia von Haucke, lady-in-waiting to his sister, the Tsarina Marie. Having been dismissed from his regiment, he returned to Hesse where his brother, the Grand Duke, eventually gave Julia the title ‘Princess of Battenberg’. The couple and their five children settled at the picturesque Heligenberg Castle in Jugenheim, which, despite Alexander’s faux pas, would become a regular holiday destination for the Tsar and his family as well as a delightful resort for Louis and Alice.
While Alice was forming favourable impressions of her in-laws, she was making an equally positive impression on them. Just as the crowd had been touched by her cheerful dignity, Louis’ family was gratified by her eagerness to listen and learn all she could about her new homeland. As she finally lay down to sleep on her first night in the Grand Duchy, she could rest assured that she had lived up to her father’s expectations and made an excellent beginning to her new life as a future Grand Duchess.
Situated about two hundred miles south-west of Berlin, Hesse-Darmstadt (Hesse-and-by-Rhine) was one of the most charming regions of Central Europe. Originally a part of Thuringia, the area had become an independent landgraviate in the 16th century, and, after joining Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine in 1808, it was elevated to the status of Grand Duchy. Although neither as wealthy nor as powerful as Vicky’s Prussian relations, the ruling family of Hesse had made some very prestigious connections. The 18th century, Frederika Louisa had married the King of Prussia; and two years before Alice was born, Louis’ aunt, Marie, had married the future Tsar Alexander II, establishing a Russian connection which would continue through Alice’s children.
By the time of Louis and Alice’s wedding, Darmstadt – a ‘dull town with fine wide streets, and the grass growing in them’[115] – had been the most prominent town in the Grand Duchy for over three hundred years, and it was there, on the site of the former Botanical Gardens, that work, partly funded by Queen Victoria, had already begun on the New Palace. In the meantime, though, Alice had to adapt to a far smaller household than would be expected for a daughter of the British Queen. Allocated a small suite of rooms in Louis’ parents’ house, she was attended by very few servants, which made entertaining visitors very difficult. Nevertheless, she did what she could to arrange the furniture and pictures according to her own taste, and was happy to report that Louis had gone to the trouble of having the rooms decorated in the ‘English style.’
For a while, at least, the thrill of being newly married compensated for the lack of space, for, although she hardly dared to tell her grieving mother how happy she was, Louis could not have pleased her more.
“If I say I love my dear husband, that is scarcely enough –” she wrote. “…it is a love and esteem which increases daily, hourly; which he also shows to me by such consideration, such tender, loving ways….what have I done to deserve that warm, ardent love, which my darling Louis ever shows me?”[116]
Moreover, during her first few weeks in Hesse, there was little time to pay much attention to the restrictions of her accommodation. Her days were busy and well-ordered. Rising at seven-fifteen and taking coffee at eight, she usually went out with Louis in the mornings, returning at ten to attend to her extensive correspondence. In this, she was helped by her father’s former librarian, Dr Becker, who had come from England to assist in arranging her affairs and would soon be appointed as her private secretary and treasurer. As a member of the ruling family, Alice was expected to be au fait with current events and therefore had the ‘great bore’ of reading the daily newspapers before ‘breakfast’ at noon. Throughout the afternoon, she received official visitors until dinner at four o’clock, after which she and Louis were able to spend time alone, reading together and discussing their plans for the future. Often, though, Louis’ regimental duties kept him away for long periods of time, leaving Alice waiting impatiently for the sound of his footsteps on the stairs when he returned.
After their initial welcome, most of Louis’ family were too absorbed in their own lives and commitments to be regular visitors, but his parents were constant companions and, despite her willingness to adapt, it did not take long for Alice to r
ealise that living under their roof was hardly an ideal start to her marriage. Apart from the limitations of space and the realisation that, when winter came and the gardens were out of use, it would be impossible to receive anyone, she clearly felt that she and Louis needed greater privacy.
In an effort to assure her that soon they would have their own home, Louis took her to Stauffenberg where he had acquired a ruined castle, which he was gradually converting into a country house, but the restoration was slow and laborious and it would be a long time before the place was habitable. The Grand Duke agreed to allow the young couple to take possession of a ‘ramshackle old schloss’ at Kranichstein, about three miles from Darmstadt, as a summer residence, but the place had not been inhabited for almost a hundred years, and even by 1866 it was still only half-furnished. Louis optimistically suggested that, since the Grand Duke was fond of Alice, he might be willing to change his mind about allowing them to live in his palace in Darmstadt, but Alice was far less hopeful, and, after only three weeks of living with her in-laws, she saw no alternative but to inform the Grand Duke that she and Louis would return to England in the autumn so as not to ‘incommode our parents any longer.’[p]
In fact, there was a far more personal motive for wanting to return home. By then, Alice realised that she was pregnant and, recalling Vicky’s first traumatic childbirth in Germany, would feel safer and more comfortable under the care of her mother’s doctors. Aware that the Hessians could take offence at this precipitous departure, she assured herself that they would understand that it was not due to any ‘ill will on our part’, and, in the meantime, made every effort to visit many towns and cities of the Grand Duchy, sometimes wandering about incognito to familiarise herself with the Hessian culture.
The efficiency of the German transport system made it possible, too, to travel with ease beyond the borders of Hesse-Darmstadt to visit her relatives and friends. In early August, she and Louis stayed in Coburg as guests of her godfather, ‘Uncle Ernest’; and the following month they spent time with her mother and siblings who were holidaying in neighbouring Thuringia.
Since early September, Queen Victoria and her younger children had been staying at Rheinhardtsbrunn Castle, which had immediately become a centre for happy reunions. Bertie arrived shortly after the Queen, followed by her sister, ‘Aunt Feo’, and her former governess, the aged Lehzen. On the 15th of the month, Vicky and Fritz arrived with their children; and five days later, Louis and Alice reached the neighbouring Schweizerhaus, where they were to stay with the Duke and Duchess of Coburg.
While other members of the party disappeared on expeditions, Alice and Louis spent the greater part of the holiday with the Queen, which provided Alice with an ideal opportunity to tell her mother she was pregnant. The Queen observed that she looked thin and drawn but ‘for that there is a good reason’, and noted again how happy she and Louis were together. Dining with the Queen, sketching the scenery, enjoying a donkey ride, and driving out through the early autumnal sunshine, little had changed between Alice and her mother since her wedding. As happened so often, though, sad news and illness cast a cloud over the holiday. First came word of the death of Alice’s great-aunt, and a few days later, her youngest brother, Leopold, accidentally stuck a pen into the roof of his mouth, which bled so profusely that it eventually had to be cauterised. Contrary to the often-repeated myth that Queen Victoria virtually neglected Leopold, she frequently visited his room and wrote a daily account of her anxious discussions with the doctors, who remained with him night and day until his recovery.
More cheerfully, before leaving Rheinhardtsbrunn, arrangements were finalised for Alice and Louis’ return to England in late autumn. It was agreed that, due to their restricted finances, the Queen would send the Victoria & Albert to bring them from Antwerp to Gravesend, and they would stay until after the birth of Alice’s baby, allowing Louis plenty of time to fulfil his intention of visiting the northern industrial towns of Leeds and Manchester.
Before leaving for England, Alice and Louis still found the time to travel to Baden, where Alice’s friend, Louise of Prussia, was now Grand Duchess, and where they also called to see Aunt Feo’s ‘small’ but ‘pretty’ home. On returning to Darmstadt, they played host to Alice’s brothers, Bertie and Arthur, both of whom made an instantly favourable impression on the Hessians and their Grand Duke.
Separation from her family had hardly been as distressing as Alice had feared. Between visits to neighbouring regions, she had spent only about ten weeks in Hesse, and, as the year drew to its close, she eagerly anticipated the return home for what was prove a very eventful stay. Despite the Hessians’ sadness at her departure, it was with a happy heart that Alice set sail in mid-November, her only regret being that her father would not be there to greet her.
“In talking last night,” she wrote to the Queen, “Louis said what I feel so often, that he always felt as if it must come right again, and we should find dear Papa home again.”[117]
Resigned, though, to his physical absence, she added piously, “In another home we shall.”
Shortly before ten o’clock in the morning on the first anniversary of Prince Albert’s death – Alice joined her sisters and mother in the room where her father had died. A bust of the Prince Consort had been surrounded by fresh flowers, and, as Queen Victoria knelt by the bed, Dean Stanley read from the Gospel of St John:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
After several more readings and prayers, Queen Victoria stood up and kissed her daughters before preparing for a more formal service at noon; and in the evening, at the exact hour of the Prince’s death, a further sermon was read.
Four days later, at seven o’clock in the morning on 18th December 1862, a year to the day since Alice and Queen Victoria had chosen the site, Prince Albert’s remains were taken from the vault in St George’s Chapel to the new mausoleum which, although still under construction, was sufficiently complete to merit consecration. The coffin, carried by Louis and three of Alice’s brothers, was lowered into a temporary sarcophagus, after which the Queen and Alice arrived for a service, led by Dean Stanley, the Bishop of Oxford and the Dean of Christ Church.
“The whole household was there,” wrote Dean Stanley. “The Bishop, the two Deans and two or three Windsor clergy were raised on a platform at the east end, immediately above the sarcophagus. The Queen and the children came in when everyone was assembled. They remained inside while the clergy and choir walked around chanting the psalm. The Bishop then read two or three prayers extremely well, and then were sung two hymns…Then was read the deed of consecration prefaced by the Queen herself…Then she and the family passed out and we returned as we came.”[118]
The re-interment was the first of three major events which took place during Alice’s stay in England and it was appropriate that so solemn an occasion should occur towards the end of a year which had been characterised chiefly by mourning. There was a strange irony, too, in a rather harrowing accident which Alice experienced on the last day of December when, while travelling from Osborne House to Newport, her carriage struck an obstacle and she was thrown out into the road. Although she was badly shaken, neither she nor the baby was harmed but, after all the upheavals of 1862, the accident seemed an appropriate conclusion to such a tumultuous year. As 1863 dawned, she could shake off the events of the past twelve months and look forward to two far happier experiences: gaining a new sister-in-law and becoming a mother.
To his family’s relief, Bertie’s escapade with the actress in Ireland had not jeopardised the plans for his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. After months of planning and negotiation between the Danish and British Royal Families, the wedding took place
in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, on 10th March 1863. Alice, who was delighted by her new sister-in-law, had designed the crystal lockets engraved with diamonds and coral, representing the red and white of the Danish flag, and wrought into the initials ‘A-E–A’ for Albert Edward and Alexandra, which Bertie gave to the bridesmaids.
Twenty-one-year-old Bertie and his eighteen-year-old bride looked so happy together that everyone agreed that they made perfect couple, and, although the Queen found the ceremony tortuous as her thoughts inevitably returned to her own wedding day, it was the first truly joyful family occasion since the death of Prince Albert. Of course, at the Queen’s insistence, the image of the late Prince appeared in most of the wedding photographs, as though his spectre were hovering over the proceedings, reminding Bertie of his former errors and his duty to live up to his father’s high standards of morality.
Following the ceremony, as Bertie and Alexandra left for a honeymoon at Osborne, Alice, who had modestly concealed her pregnancy beneath a cape throughout the celebrations, returned to Windsor Castle to await the birth of her child. By 3rd April, she was feeling decidedly unwell, thrusting her mother into a constant state of agitation in anticipation of ‘the event’. The following day, she was so uncomfortable that the Queen summoned Mrs Lilly, the nurse who had been in attendance when Alice herself was born, who instantly sent for the midwife, Mrs Clark, and Dr Charles Locock – the aging obstetrician who had also attended the Queen’s accouchements.
Alice, The Enigma - A Biography of Queen Victoria's Daughter Page 14