That's what Princess Victoria, mother to Princess Alice of Battenberg (who later became Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark), famously said of her daughter when she adopted a gray nun's. Alice saw her husband, Prince Andrew, and son, Prince Philip for the first time in six years at their daughters funeral. Later in the 1920s, Princess Alice suffered mental ill health: having been born deaf, she had found herself isolated and she began to experience 'religious delusions', believing that she had been intimate with Christ. Please let us know if a fact weve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect its inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. From 1949 until her death, she was sometimes known as Mother Superior Alice-Elizabeth; Honours; Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and . After all, two of her daughters were married to Germans. Princess Andrew was born Princess Alice of Battenberg, the eldest of four children of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by the Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and Prince Louis of Battenberg, who in 1917, relinquished his German titles, and was created the Marquess of Milford Haven. She lived in Greece until the exile of most of the Greek royal family in 1917. Princess Alice was born in Windsor Castles Tapestry Rooma far cry from the sanatorium shed eventually find herself in. When Alice was released she returned to Athens and resisted the Nazi occupation of Greece by harboring a Jewish family and smuggling them out of the country, an act for which she was posthumously awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel. It wouldnt last long, though. Princess Alice in 1945: some 15 years after she reportedly suffered a religious crisis that caused her to be separated from her family (Image: Getty Images). Nonetheless, when visited by a German general who asked her, "Is there anything I can do for you? In 1993 she was posthumously given the "Righteous Gentile" award by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. Princess Alice was royalty, and she was staying in a fairy swanky sanatorium, which meant the greatest minds of the day studied her and tried to understand her condition further. 5 December 1969. Queen Victorias 63-year reign ended in 1901, and a 16-year Princess Alice attended the funeral. The entire time that Princess Alice remained locked up in the sanatorium, she insisted that she was sane and begged to be let free. At the end of the war the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires had fallen, and Princess Andrew's uncle, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, was deposed. Why? 20052023 Mashable, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. For the first several years after she got out, in fact, she had absolutely no contact with them at all. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. They had three children, two boys and one baby daughter. After they sent her to a sanatorium, Princess Alice scarcely saw anyone from her family for the rest of her life. He couldnt believe his eyes when he found her. Alice was the eldest sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma. She was christened Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie in Darmstadt on 25 April 1885. ", she said. Princess Alice: The Royals' Greatest Secret: Directed by Joanna Burge, Tamsin Curry. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 - 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, and the paternal grandmother of King Charles III. Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on 10 December 1969,[50] but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (near her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, a Russian Orthodox saint). The British Royal Family was in turmoil during Alices childhood. Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (known as Andrea within the family), the fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia, while in London for King Edward VII's coronation in 1902. The liberation of Athens didnt free the city from conflict. Then WWII broke out, and five more years passed with the couple not seeing one another. Shortly after Philip and Elizabeth's wedding, she started a convent in Greece and increasingly fell on hard times. She was previously married to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. She grew more and more distant from her husband. Were always looking for your input! Despite her distance from her husband (she had barely seen him in a decade), she still wanted to be with her people. As they sat there, the building shaking around them, Alice must have simply prayed for her nightmare to be over. Birth. At Factinate, were dedicated to getting things right. Princess Alice helped save a Jewish family from the Holocaust by sheltering them in her Athens palace during the Nazi occupation of Greece. Naturally, Alice attended the coronation, likely a long and boring day for herbut at least she had something to keep her distracted. Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 - 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II . Alice was brilliant, and soon she could speak and lip-read in both English and German. Back in the premiere, Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Mary of Teck looked down on Princess Alice, taking note of her nuns habit and mentioning that she had recently been released from a sanitorium, but Bubbikins gives more context for Princess Alices place in the royal family. Prince Ludwig was born in 1931, Prince Alexander on 1933 and Princess Johanna, the youngest in 1936. She had few possessions remaining, as she had given most of them away to those in need. She was the wife of Prince Andrew of Greece, and mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Princess Alice of Battenberg was even more interesting than 'The Crown' gives her credit for. Prince Harry Got Emotional During His Speech, How The Crown's Actors Compare to the Royals, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. [38] Earlier, in 1913, Rachel's husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece. Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (22 June 1911 - 16 November 1937) was the sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. According to The New York Times, the delay was due to a religious dispute that arose from the princess identifying as Greek Orthodox, while the grand duchess's grave was located in the Russian Orthodox Church of St Mary Magdalene. Princess Alice took in the Cohen family and hid them from the Germans for the rest of WWII. Princess Alice appears in Bubbikins, the fourth episode of The Crown Season 3, two seasons after her character had a quick cameo in the shows first episode as a guest at her son Prince Philip and thenPrincess Elizabeths wedding. (Getty) Alice was kept at the asylum for two years and during that time her relationship with Andrew grew distant and he abandoned her for his mistress. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery. Princess Alice was an unconventional royal who prioritized helping others over wealth and privilege. After a show trial, he was sentenced to banishment, and Prince and Princess Andrew and their children fled Greece aboard a British cruiser, HMS Calypso, under the protection of the British naval attach, Commander Gerald Talbot. The Princess married the handsome Georg Donatus, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse. See you at your inbox! She founded the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. When the Allies liberated the city, a British statesman tracked her down. Princess Alice of Battenberg (* 25.2.1885, O 6.10.1903, 5.12.1969) Princess Louise of Battenberg, Queen consort of Sweden Prince George of Battenberg, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma: Prince Louis of Battenberg (* 24.5.1854, O 30.4.1884, 11.9.1921) Prince Heinrich of Battenberg "[55] In 2010, the Princess was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. Just a few short years later, she sat at a British royal wedding, across from the King of England himself. So since The Crown didn't go into much detail on that front, we've done a little research ourselves about Prince Alice's deathand the incredible honor she received more than 20 years later. That is just the kind of woman that Princess Alice was. Calling all Disney adults and 'Titanic' fanatics. Burial. All Rights Reserved. Princess Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903. The story of Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is horrific. Philip was the fifth child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Around this point in her life, Princess Alice started to claim that she was receiving divine messages from spiritual forces. At the request of King George V, he relinquished the Hessian title Prince of Battenberg and the style of Serene Highness on 14 July 1917, and anglicized the family name to Mountbatten. Date of death. On 2 February 1931 at Darmstadt Cecilie married George Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Well, by 1943, the king was long gone, but Cohens son still remembered the promise. Though Alices privilege protected her from the worst for a while, eventually, she ended up in the muck with everyone else. She was, after all, Queen Victorias great-granddaughter. Her great-uncle, Prince Albert, was crowned King Edward VII soon after. She had six godparents: her three surviving grandparents, Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, and Julia, Princess of Battenberg; her maternal aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia; her paternal aunt Princess Marie of Erbach-Schnberg; and her maternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria. Her family didnt agree. She met her husband, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1902 at the coronation of King Edward VII, with the two marrying a year later. Getting thrown in a sanatorium is bad enough, but for Princess Alice, that was just the half of it. She finally passed on December 5, 1969, in Buckingham Palace. Before her death in 1969, she wrote him a letter: "Dearest Philip, be brave, and remember I will never leave you, . After their wedding, Prince Andrew continued his career in the military and Princess Andrew became involved in charity work. Then WWI broke out, and things went from bad to worse. "[35], After the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in September 1943, the German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of Greek Jews had sought refuge. And now that WWII was actually behind her, she could finally start living her life again. United Kingdom. After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, she adopted the style of her husband, becoming Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. Her mother couldnt believe it of her own daughter, exclaiming, What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays canasta?. Alices family sent her to the finest psychiatrists in Europe, and they all offered the same diagnosis: Princess Alice was a paranoid schizophrenic. Below, the real-life details surrounding the last years of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who died at Buckingham Palace at the age of 84 on December 5, 1969. Then a tragedy forced her to change her plans. [12] On their return to Greece, Prince and Princess Andrew found the political situation worsening, as the Athens government had refused to support the Cretan parliament, which had called for the union of Crete (still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire) with the Greek mainland. At this point, people in England whispered that Prince Philips mother had gone utterly senilebut that was mostly because of her appearance and her humble clothing. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress. In return, King George had offered him any service that he could perform should Cohen ever need it. She couldnt save the 60,000 Jews whom the Germans deported, but she could at least do this. The only problem was, it was completely deranged. Alice grew up at a tumultuous time for European monarchs her maternal aunt Alix was the wife of Czar Nicholas II of Russia, who was famously assassinated with his entire family in 1917 (remember Anastasia? 'Nonsense,' she replied, 'there's a . Princess Alice of Battenberg was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. He and then-Princess Elizabeth were married in November 1947, and they were married for more . Princess Alice of Battenberg was born in Windsor Castle in 1885; her mother was Queen Victoria Is granddaughter and her father was a Prince of Rhine and Hesse. Her daughters all married German princes, while her son, Prince Philip, went to Britain to stay with Alices brothers. Victoria Alice Elisabeth Julie Marie Mountbatten was born 25 February 1885 in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom to Ludwig von Battenberg (1854-1921) and Viktoria von Hessen und bei Rhein (1863-1950) and died 5 December 1969 Buckingham Palace, London, England, United Kingdom of unspecified causes. In October 1937, Cecilie's father-in-law Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse died. Apparently, sending her to an insane asylum just wasnt the kind of thing Princess Alice would get over. She arrived in the palace an an honored guest, and lived there until her death in 1969. Princess Alice had one other son who was not a hemophiliac. From there, she set up a base of operations with the Red Cross, providing relief to the people of the city. The Crowns ability to take something as complex as the postWWI fall of European monarchies and distill it into a deeply human story is admirable. . She was congenitally deaf. Few have heard of the Queen's mother-in-law, Princess Alice. "[41], Princess Andrew returned to the United Kingdom in April 1947 to attend the November wedding of her only son, Philip, to Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heir presumptive of King George VI. Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903 and after the couple had all of their five children, life would drastically change for the English princess. The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William today made a profoundly moving visited the tomb of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, on the final da. Elizabeth inspired Alice to live a more religious life. However, while she made it out of Greece, she didnt have much time left. They married in 1902 and got to their royal business. Below, the real-life details surrounding the last years of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who died at Buckingham Palace at the age of 84 on December 5, 1969. Everything in Alice's life was put on hold, and she spent endless days and nights reading to her father and trying to ease his pain. And, unfortunately for Alice, the cards were stacked against her. Our editors handpick the products that we feature. Following her diagnosis, the royal family could only think of one thing to do with Princess Aliceand it wasnt good. [2], Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta (where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed). Mourning. Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; February 25, 1885 - December 5, 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II. Alice later revealed to her son just how desperate the final days of Germanys occupation had been. Thats how Alice found herself huddling in the palace cellars with her children as the French bombarded Athens. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. Princess Alice stayed locked up in the sanatorium for two years, despite her many pleas for freedom. But for a woman with such blue blood, Princess Alices life was no fairy tale. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. It all started when little Alice reached the age when her parents expected her to start talking. In 1960, she visited India at the invitation of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who had been impressed by Princess Andrew's interest in Indian religious thought, and for her own spiritual quest. Her son Philip was finally getting married, and Alice just had to meet the blushing bride he had chosen. Queen Victorias nine children and countless grandchildren saw to that. The little Princess Alix is sat directly beneath her mother's bust and may be . In one of the most extravagant, gilded ceremonies in the world, Alice stood in a simple grey dress and wimple, like a nuns habit. In 1937, Princess Alice received devastating news: Her daughter Cecilie, her son-in-law, and two of her grandchildren lost their lives in an air accident that shocked the world and the royal family. Unfortunately, not all of Princess Alices royal duties were quite so fun. He had a treatment in mind, too. Early life[change| change source] Princess Alicewas born 25 February 1883 at Windsor Castle. Such a hectic childhood would be hard on anyone, and Princess Alice of Battenberg wasnt just anyone. She was a hero, she had royal blood, but the military dictatorship was a threat. When she finally left, she simply wanted to be left alone at last. Despite this, we don't hear much else about her until it's revealed by Philip (Tobias Menzies) in episode 7's "Moondust" that she's died. Discovery alleges that Paramount undercut their $500 million deal. She organized soup kitchens, and even smuggled medical supplies into the country from Sweden under the guise of a visit to her sister, Louise. According to Hugo Vickers biography Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece(Opens in a new tab), he also visited her in Greece twice in 1967. That winter, her father fell seriously ill with typhoid fever. The British Royal Family orbits around Princess Alice of Battenberg. [13], With the advent of the Balkan Wars, Prince Andrew was reinstated in the army, and Princess Andrew acted as a nurse, assisting at operations and setting up field hospitals, work for which King George V awarded her the Royal Red Cross in 1913. But while the wedding was a littleuncomfortable, obviously, at least little Alice looked adorable as Marys eight-year-old bridesmaid. The Mother: Alice of Battenberg, Princess Andrew of Greece. And, if her demand wasnt courageous enough, she was also hiding a secretone that would mean certain death if it got out. [37] During this period, Princess Andrew hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who sought to evade the Gestapo and deportation to the death camps. Prince Andrews brother was King Constantine of Greece, whose sustained neutrality in World War I led to a collapse of his reign. She later claimed she had had an out-of-body experience. Though the government supported the Allies, Alices brother-in-law, King Constantine I, refused to take a side. The Greeks lost the Greco-Turkish War, and in the aftermath, a military coup seized power and exiled the royals yet again. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Charitable to a fault, she had long since given everything away. This, coupled with an unreliable father who was often absent in the. [36], The occupying forces apparently presumed Princess Andrew was pro-German, as one of her sons-in-law, Prince Christoph of Hesse, was a member of the NSDAP and the Waffen-SS, and another, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, had been invalided out of the German army in 1940 after an injury in France. [47][48], Despite suggestions of senility in later life, Princess Andrew remained lucid but physically frail. )[30] She resumed contact with her family, and in 1938 returned to Athens alone to work with the poor, while living in a two-bedroom flat near the Benaki Museum. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. In reality, she left no possessions at all when she passed. She went months without meat of any kind, and by the time the British arrived, she had been living on nothing but bread and butter for weeks. It is an interesting recreation of Queen Victoria's family, grouped around a bust of the dead Prince Consort. Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born profoundly deaf at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great grandmother Queen Victoria. The funeral will be private, attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and the Princess's family and friends, and will not be a State occasion. Princess Alice had been diagnosed with congenital deafness as a child and had been pushed to learn how to lip-read and speak English and German. He died in June 1866. She generally split her time between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta, with countless diplomatic trips sprinkled throughout. According to their site, they were specifically recognizing her efforts during World War II to hide a Jewish woman and her children at her home in a German-occupied Athens. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. During World War II, Princess Alice lived in the Athens palace of her brother in law, Prince George of Greece, and worked with the Swedish and Swiss Red Cross. The couple had five children: four daughters and a son - the future Duke of Edinburgh and consort to Queen Elizabeth II of England. [29] In 1937, her daughter Cecilie, son-in-law, and two of her grandchildren were killed in an air accident at Ostend; she and Prince Andrew met for the first time in six years at the funeral. Of his mother, Philip said: I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. They eventually got their answer. Eventually, she was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother, Princess Battenberg, identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist. Her tribulations were explored during Channel 5's documentary, 'Princess Alice: The Royals' Greatest Secret'.. She loves a great Oprah viral moment and all things Netflixbut come summertime, Big Brother has her heart. Born: 10-Jun - 1921 Birthplace: Corfu, Greece Died: 9-Apr - 2021 Location of death: Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England Cause of death: unspecified Gender: Male Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Royalty Nationality: England Executive summary: Duke of Edinburgh The first Battenbergs were a family of German counts that died out about 1314 and whose seat was the castle of Kellerburg, near Battenberg, in Hesse. An . Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, has died aged 99, Buckingham Palace has announced. Mini Bio (1) Princess Alice of Battenberg was born on February 25, 1885 in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, UK. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded a Greek Orthodox nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. At least, for Alice, this was some respite from the conflict. Born at Windsor Castle on February 25, 1885, in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, she was the daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of Grand Duchess Marie of Russia and Prince William of Sweden. Maybe she would have carried on like that for the rest of her life. Her work has previously appeared in BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Esquire. Through her divine messages, Princess Alice became convinced that she had been given healing powers by God. [14] By June 1917, the King's neutrality policy had become so untenable that she and other members of the Greek royal family were forced into exile when her brother-in-law abdicated. My mom never told me how her best friend died. [33][34] She moved out of her small flat and into her brother-in-law George's three-storey house in the centre of Athens. [17], On King Constantine's restoration in 1920, they briefly returned to Greece, taking up residence on Corfu at Mon Repos (inherited by Prince Andrew on his father's assassination in 1913). Battenberg family, English Mountbatten, a family that rose to international prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries, the name being a revival of a medieval title. Next up: her own show. [10] She adopted the style of her husband, becoming "Princess Andrew". Princess Alice was the last grandchild of Queen Victoria to die, in January 1981, almost 115 years after the death of Prince Sigismund of Prussia, the first grandchild of Queen Victoria to die. Princess Alice of Battenberg was even more interesting than 'The Crown' gives her credit for. For other uses, see, The Russian Chapel was the personal possession of, Princess Alice of Battenberg never used the Mountbatten surname nor did she assume the. She converted to the Greek Orthodox Church and began plans for a religious order of nursesthe same plan her martyred cousin Elizabeth Feodorovna had outlined all those years ago to her. Then, at the final hour, their savior arrived. Later, Israels Holocaust memorial institution would declare her Righteous Among Nations for her efforts. We want our readers to trust us. Philip had been a boy when shed seen him last, and now he was a strapping 16-year-old. Alices mother soon realized something wasdifferent about her. Princess Alice never forgot about her meeting with her aunt, Elizabeth Feodorovna, who spoke of founding a nursing order of nuns. This was no Bedlamsome of the worlds richest mental patients resided at the sanatoriumbut to Alice, it was nothing more than a prison. Although she wrote to her mother, she refused contact with anyone else in her family. "She was a person with deep religious faith and she would have considered it to be a totally human action to fellow human beings in distress. [4] Educated privately, she studied French,[5] and later, after her engagement, she learned Greek. Alices parents were desperate for an answerbut they wouldnt like the one theyd get. She worked for the Red Cross, helped organise soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister Louise, who was married to the Crown Prince. Increasingly deaf and in failing health, Princess Andrew left Greece for the last time following the 21 April 1967 Colonels' Coup. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, first by Thomas Ross, a psychiatrist who specialised in shell-shock, and subsequently by Sir Maurice Craig, who treated the future King George VI before he had speech therapy. Later in her life, the "Princess of Battenberg" established an order of nuns, giving away all her possessions before dying on 5 December 1969. . Princess Alice didnt leave Athens until 1947but this time, she had a pretty good reason to exit. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress. [16] The following year, two of her aunts, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, were murdered by Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. So, why worry about that?. The coup meant that there was a target on Prince Andrews back. Alice didnt personally owe this man anything, but he needed her help, and she wasnt going to turn him away. Mashable is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without express written permission. [35] She organised two shelters for orphaned and lost children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighbourhoods. . Thanks for your help! She was born on February 25, 1885, at Windsor Castle. [56], "Princess Andrew" redirects here. So, who was the lucky lady Philip managed to tie down? Princess Alice may have been an outlier amongst the British royal family, but just about every person depicted on the show lived an even more astounding life in the reality of history. Her doctors subjected her to electroconvulsive therapy and x-rayed her reproductive organs under the assumption that her mental instability was connected to her libido (that treatment was Sigmund Freuds idea, which tracks).