Queen Victoria's Granddaughters 1860-1918

by Croft, Christina

  The confinement was not easy. After a prolonged labour, the child was removed by forceps, leaving Beatrice prostrated for several weeks. The baby, however, was a healthy, sturdy daughter who, according to her grandmother, bore a strong resemblance to her cousin, Ella of Hesse. As the first princess to be born in Scotland for many centuries, she was feted by the Scots and much was made of her baptism in the Presbyterian Crathie Kirk, where she was christened Victoria Eugenie after her godmother, the Roman Catholic Empress Eugenie of France. In the family, however, she was always known by her third name, Ena.

  Boisterous and lively, the young Battenbergs brought a breath of youth to the English palaces and revived in the Queen a jollity that she had rarely displayed since the death of Prince Albert. Servants and guests alike were amazed to hear her laughing so freely with the children whom she claimed to love ‘as much as their parents do.’

  When Ena was two years old, a second brother, Leopold was born, and two years later he was followed by a fourth child, Maurice. To accommodate the growing family an extra wing, the Durbar Wing, was added to Osborne House and there, in the freedom of the Isle of Wight, the children learned to cycle and swim.

  Raised in a family of boys, Ena was a wild unruly child and, though the Queen was extremely indulgent with her, there were occasions when she found it necessary to give the little girl a slap.

  “She runs about all over the place,” wrote her cousin, Moretta of Prussia, “& the Indians & nurses after her, try to get her back, she is so strong.”[79]

  Another cousin, Marie Louise, was also enchanted by her naughty little cousin and recognised that she possessed such ‘great qualities’ that ‘great possibilities’ lay ahead of her.

  Ena’s adventurousness rivalled that of her brothers and on one occasion almost resulted in tragedy. One Saturday afternoon in February 1894, the six-year-old princess was riding at Windsor when her pony stumbled and threw her before rolling on top of her. The little girl managed to walk home but on reaching the palace was violently sick before lapsing into unconsciousness. Fearing a brain haemorrhage, the Queen’s physician, Sir James Reid, remained in attendance all night but by the following morning the ‘splendid child’ began to show the slightest signs of recovery.

  “The little princess is much better than she was, but I am still anxious about her,” wrote Sir James. “She is quite conscious when awake but rambles a little when asleep…I trust the improvement may go on steadily but I tell them that she is not yet out of danger and I watch her very closely both when she is asleep and awake.”[80]

  After so serious an accident, it came as a relief to see her gradually becoming ‘obstinate and troublesome’ again, and Ena remained as fearless as ever. In fact, as she later confessed, the most daunting aspect of her childhood was the terror she felt when her grandmother grilled her about her Bible studies.

  Chapter 12 – If You Love Him Set Him Free

  Hohenzollerns (Prussians)

  Vicky & Fritz: Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Prussia; then Emperor and Empress Frederick

  Children of Vicky & Fritz:

  Willy

  Charlotte

  Henry

  Moretta

  Sophie

  Mossy

  Irène of Hesse: daughter of Princess Alice; wife of Henry of Prussia

  Battenbergs

  Sandro: Alexander of Battenberg; deposed Sovereign Prince of Bulgaria

  From Berlin, Moretta could only gaze in wonder at the evident bliss of Aunt Beatrice and Cousin Victoria with their Battenberg husbands while happiness with Sandro continued to be denied her. Though her mother urged her not to give up hope, the Kaiser remained intransigent and by 1886 the chances of the Hohenzollerns accepting Sandro into their clan had reached their nadir. Undercover agents sent by the Tsar stirred the Bulgarians against the prince and, before the end of the year, after a series of swashbuckling adventures and heroic escapades, he had been ousted from his throne. Eventually, he returned home to Darmstadt so disillusioned and depressed that, even when the people begged him to return, he refused, declaring that he would not set foot on Bulgarian soil again.

  His fall from power made little difference to lovelorn Moretta, who dramatically claimed that if she could not marry Sandro she would kill herself. Distraught, Vicky pleaded more fervently on her behalf but her efforts merely strengthened the Prussians’ resolve. Infuriated by her ‘meddling’, Bismarck initiated a whispering campaign to discredit both the Crown Princess and Sandro. The prince, it was said, had contracted syphilis; he was decadent; he was homosexual; the Crown Princess was so eager to promote the match because she wanted the handsome young man for herself. When Vicky continued plead Sandro’s case, the Kaiser stated that if the wedding ever took place, he would disown both Moretta and her mother.

  For a further year, the saga dragged on. Sandro waited, Moretta languished, and her mother struggled for a solution but by spring 1887 Vicky and her daughters faced a more immediate concern.

  On Tuesday, 22nd March, Fritz’s father, Emperor Wilhelm I, celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a banquet in Berlin at which Queen Victoria was represented by Bertie and Lenchen. During the dinner, Fritz was to toast his father and formally announce the engagement of his son, Henry, to Cousin Irène of Hesse – an event that the shy Hessian princess anticipated more with trepidation than excitement – but when Fritz rose to speak, his voice was barely audible.

  Throughout the winter, he had been troubled by a sore throat and hoarseness, which did not improve as expected with the coming of spring. Assuming that the illness was an after-effect of his recent bout of measles, the Crown Prince initially paid little heed to the symptoms but as they persisted he finally accepted his doctors’ advice and agreed to take a cure. In April, following the confirmation of his younger daughters, he and Vicky travelled with Moretta, Sophie and Mossy to the fashionable spa town of Ems. Away from the capital, he seemed a little better but when the family returned to Berlin in May there was no evidence of any great improvement.

  Further medical investigations uncovered a series of growths on his larynx, which the doctors attempted to excise in a brutal and painful procedure, carried out without anaesthetic. The Crown Prince patiently bore the ordeal but no sooner were the growths removed than others appeared. At Bismarck’s suggestion, Vicky consulted a renowned British throat specialist, Dr. Morell Mackenzie, who recommended an immediate biopsy and arranged for a further examination when the Crown Prince visited England for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.

  To avoid the smog of London, Vicky and Fritz stayed in the outskirts at Upper Norwood but it was clear to the guests that, despite the Crown Prince’s noble bearing in the jubilee procession, he was seriously ill. When the jubilee celebrations were over, Mackenzie removed another growth and recommended an extended period of convalescence. Vicky, Fritz and their three younger daughters enjoyed a visit to the Isle of Wight and a brief sojourn with the Queen at Balmoral before travelling to the Austrian Tyrol. As the autumn chill set in, they moved on to the warmer climes of St. Remo in Italy where ‘the gentilezza of the young princesses captured all hearts.’[81]

  Far from the damp, dust and stresses of Berlin, Fritz’s condition appeared to be improving. He was happy in Italy with Vicky and their daughters who, he told a friend, ‘surround us with their loving tenderness.’ His recuperation seemed so effective that by October, Mackenzie was able to report that:

  “…when I saw him at Baveno he was going on very well. There never has been anything at all characteristic of malignant disease as far as (the naked eye) appearance goes…”[82]

  Though he added a note of caution, Vicky was sufficiently confident to write to the Queen that she was certain of his recovery.

  Within a month however, larger growths appeared and this time Mackenzie had no doubt that they were malignant.

  “Without rising from my chair I informed His Imperial Highness that a very unfavourable change had taken place in his throat.
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br />   “He said, ‘Is it cancer?’ to which I replied, “I am sorry to say, Sir, it looks very much like it.’…The Crown Prince received the communication with perfect calmness. After a moment’s silence, with a smile of peculiar sweetness, which so well express the mingled gentleness and strength of his character, he grasped my hand and said, ‘I have lately been fearing something of the sort. I thank you, Sir Morell, for being so frank with me.’ In all my long experience, I have never seen a man bear himself under similar circumstances with such unaffected heroism.”[83]

  The Crown Prince’s condition worsened throughout the winter but by February 1888, news reached him that his father was dangerously ill and it was vital he should return to Berlin to take up his duties.

  It was impossible, Vicky said, for Fritz to go back to the dusty capital before Mackenzie had re-examined him, and she immediately summoned the doctor to Italy. This time Mackenzie was forced to confirm to the family what Fritz had known all along: the tumours were cancerous and nothing could be done.

  While Vicky struggled to come to terms with the devastating news, rumours ran rife through Berlin. The Crown Prince’s lengthy absence and the reported use of mercury in his treatment led to speculation that he was suffering from syphilis contracted during his visit to Egypt in 1869. Disputes between the Mackenzie and the German doctors exacerbated the situation until stories spread that the Crown Princess and her English[·] doctors were deliberately killing him or alternatively keeping him alive just long enough to secure her position as Empress. Vicky’s determination to maintain a cheerful appearance for Fritz’s sake did nothing to allay the gossip; her smiles merely confirmed to her critics that she cared nothing for her husband and had already taken other lovers.

  The German doctors recommended immediate surgery but, when Mackenzie warned that Fritz would not survive the operation, the Crown Prince declined further treatment. At the height of the tension, Willy rushed to Italy demanding a full account of the prognosis so that he might report back to the dying Kaiser. Disgusted by his bombastic manner, Vicky refused him access to his father and he returned to Berlin angry and offended, openly stating that Mackenzie was killing the Crown Prince. To Vicky’s despair, Charlotte and Henry agreed and, likewise, urged their father to ignore the advice of British doctor and opt instead for surgery.

  By February 1888, the tumours had grown so large that Fritz had no alternative but to undergo a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe. A month later, on 9th March 1888, a telegram arrived at his villa in Italy informing him that his father had died and he was now Emperor.

  For thirty years, Vicky had been preparing for this moment. The miseries of life in Prussia had been made bearable only by the thought that one day Fritz would succeed his father and implement numerous reforms. His accession had come too late. While Fritz wept for the dead Emperor, Willy heartlessly declared that it was impossible for a man who could not speak to rule Germany and suggested that his father should abdicate in his favour. Hearing of his outburst, a disgusted Queen Victoria angrily dispatched a letter telling Vicky to send Willy and his ‘odious, ungrateful wife’ away to ‘find their level.’

  In spite of the warm welcome he received at each station, the long journey to Berlin in appalling weather exacerbated Fritz’s condition, and by the time he reached the Charlottenburg Palace in the middle of a snowstorm, he was utterly exhausted. Despite his earnest pleading, Mackenzie eventually succeeded in preventing him from attending his father’s funeral but he could not keep him from carrying out the necessary affairs of state, and the weight of his new responsibilities quickly took their toll.

  On 24th May 1888, he struggled to attend Henry and Irène’s wedding but the service exhausted him and, though he put on a brave appearance, the guests were only too aware of his pallor and the laboured whistling of his breath through the tracheotomy tube.

  Within days, his health deteriorated even more alarmingly. In April, Queen Victoria, deeply saddened by the news, paid a visit to Charlottenburg to offer what comfort she could but she knew as well as anyone that there was little hope of a recovery.

  Unable to implement the reforms of which he and Vicky had dreamed for so long, Fritz at least had the opportunity to grant one of his wife’s dearest wishes by consenting to the marriage of Moretta and Sandro. Realising that he was dying, Fritz composed a will in which he included a message for his son and successor:

  “I wish to have set in evidence as my unbiased personal opinion that I entirely acquiesce in the betrothal of your second sister with Prince Alexander of Battenberg. I charge you as a filial duty with the accomplishment of this my desire, which your sister Victoria [Moretta] for so many years has cherished in her heart. I count upon your fulfilling your duty as a son by a precise attention to my wishes, and as a brother by not withdrawing your co-operation from your sister.”[84]

  After reigning for only three months, the fifty-six-year-old Emperor Frederick III died at the Friedrichskron Palace, his favourite home in Potsdam, surrounded by his family on 15th June 1888.

  “Thus,” wrote Morell Mackenzie, “passed away the noblest specimen of humanity, it has ever been my privilege to know…No one could know him even slightly without loving him…He has gone down to the grave leaving us the memory of a stainless life and a beautiful death.”[85]

  As his widow and daughters sat weeping at the bedside, however, Willy virtually snatched the crown from his dead father’s hands. Even as Fritz lay dying, his heir had ordered a battalion of guards to surround the Friedrichskron and, the moment that Fritz breathed his last, he ordered them to prevent anyone from leaving the building. While the new Kaiser Wilhelm II ransacked his father’s desk in search of incriminating documents, soldiers forbad his mother from even going into the garden to pluck flowers for her dead husband.

  Willy’s heartless behaviour at his father’s deathbed marked only the beginning of the trials that Vicky and her younger daughters were to suffer at his hands in the early months of their bereavement. Initially Willy agreed to abide by Fritz’s request that no post-mortem should be carried out on his body but, when he was approached by the German doctors seeking to discredit Mackenzie, the new Kaiser changed his mind and ordered an autopsy, after which the unceremonious funeral was carried out in such haste that few foreign royalties were able to attend. Still more distressing for his mother, Willy immediately demanded that she should send him Fritz’s uniforms and effects; and for the Empress Frederick and her daughters worse was to come. Not only did he adamantly refuse to permit Moretta and Sandro to marry, but he also curtly informed his mother that she and her daughters must leave the Friedrichskron Palace, which had been the girls’ home all their lives. In a deliberate attempt to erase his father’s memory, he announced the palace was to revert to its original unimaginative name the New Palace. Refusing his mother’s requests for various alternative accommodations, he offered her instead the smallest mansion in Potsdam.

  Broken-hearted at her loss, and despairing at her son’s unfilial behaviour, Vicky’s sole comfort came from her younger daughters and from an empathetic mother in England. No one knew the extent of a widow’s grief better than Queen Victoria, and, as usual in a family crisis, her kindness came to the fore. While urging Vicky to ‘struggle on bravely’ for the sake of her ‘three dear girls’, she offered to send a small sum of money to help them to purchase a country house, as well as extending her customary invitation to England. Grieving, ousted from their home and facing the galling prospect of having to show obeisance to their haughty and self-righteous sister-in-law, Vicky and the young princesses leaped at the chance of escaping from Berlin and gratefully accepted their grandmother’s invitation.

  In mid-November 1888, Moretta, Sophie and Mossy arrived with their mother for a tearful reunion with the Queen. The genuine warmth and concern with which the British people welcomed Vicky, their Princess Royal, almost tempted her into accepting Queen Victoria’s offer of making England her permanent home. For three months, she and her daug
hters remained at Osborne and Windsor with the Queen who was ‘kindness itself’ but, by the time they moved on to Sandringham House in March, Moretta could only wonder at her grandmother’s evident change of attitude towards the possibility of marriage to the Battenberg prince.

  The Queen had always championed Sandro’s cause and claimed that his unceremonious ousting from his throne had turned him into ‘a martyr as well as a hero.’ Yet now it seemed to Moretta that her grandmother’s enthusiasm had cooled. It was impossible, the Queen explained, for Moretta to disregard the will of her new Emperor and, since Willy remained obdurate, she must resign herself to life without her prince. Not until she returned to Berlin, did Moretta discover the true reason for her grandmother’s change of heart.

  Liko had informed the Queen that his brother’s passion had waned. Waiting in Darmstadt and losing hope of ever being allowed to marry into the Hohenzollern family, Sandro had become involved with an actress in the Darmstadt theatre to whom he would soon propose.

  When a heartbroken Moretta eventually discovered the truth, she rushed back to England for comfort, where ‘Grandmama’ held and kissed her as they wept together.

  Sandro Battenberg married his actress and Moretta had no option but to reconsider her future.

  Chapter 13 – Happiness Is Not To Be Hers

  Hohenzollerns (Prussians)

  Vicky: Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter; the widowed German Empress Frederick

  Vicky’s children and their spouses:

  Willy: German Emperor - Kaiser Wilhelm II

  Dona: German Empress - Willy’s wife

  Charlotte: Princess of Saxe-Meiningen

  Bernhard: Prince of Saxe-Meiningen

  Henry: Prince of Prussia