The weeks and months passed, and yet Alice hadnt yet said a word. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. 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. As they sat there, the building shaking around them, Alice must have simply prayed for her nightmare to be over. Princess Alice of Battenberg was famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust during the Second World War by sheltering them in her Athens home. They had four children. She devoted her life to good deeds and spiritual growth, and was notable among European royalty for taking Jews into her home during the Holocaust. You couldnt miss Princess Alice at her daughter-in-laws coronation. The funeral of Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester will take place on 5 November at 11am in St George's Chapel, Windsor. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. By Julie . Alice was the eldest sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma. They ended up settling in Paris, enjoying a quiet life alongside other Greek refugees. Princess Andrew protested that she was sane and repeatedly tried to leave the asylum. Princess Alice of Battenberg. ", she said. She had spent years living in squalor in war-torn Athens. Queen Victoria was her great-grandmother and Queen Elizabeth II is her daughter-in-law. It was a disaster for the monarchyand Alice was in even more danger than most. [39] In a letter to her son, she admitted that in the last week before liberation she had had no food except bread and butter, and no meat for several months. Motherhood wasnt Alices only passion. Her great-uncle, Prince Albert, was crowned King Edward VII soon after. )[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. The Bolsheviks would eventually murder Elizabeth along with the rest of the Romanovs, but during Alices visit, everything seemed A-OK in Russia. 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. 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. Princess Alice of Battenberg is one of the most compelling new characters in the latest season of "The Crown" - the hit Netflix show that has given the world an insider's view of the private and public lives of the British royal family over the past century. Princess Alice was forcibly removed from her children and tossed in Ludwig Binswangers sanatorium in Switzerland. He had barely seen Alice a handful of times since he sent her off to the sanatorium in 1930. However, nearly 20 years after Alice's death, she was finally buried alongside her aunt on August 4, 1988 with a commemoration service held by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem. Around this point in her life, Princess Alice started to claim that she was receiving divine messages from spiritual forces. Birth. In 1988, she got her wish, and her remains were moved from Windsor Castle to the Holy Land. [53][54] Prince Philip said of his mother's sheltering of persecuted Jews, "I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. The Crown would make it seem as if Philip didnt contact his mother between his wedding and her arrival in Buckingham Palace in 1968, but she also attended Queen Elizabeths coronation and corresponded with her son the episode title Bubbikins refers to one of the pet names Alice used in her letters to Philip, which she addressed to Bubby-kins.. 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. Alices mother soon realized something wasdifferent about her. Traveling to England must have been a strange experience for Alice. Date of death. Supporters restored Constantine to the throne in 1920, allowing Alice and her family to return homebut that didnt last long. Princess Alice was low on the totem pole, but her connection to Victoria ensured she'd end up embroiled in Europe's messy game of thrones before long. 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. After a failed restoration, another banishment, and the near-execution of her husband at the hands of Greek revolutionaries, Princess Alice converted to the Greek Orthodox church and began to experience religious hallucinations. Surprise surprise, Sigmund Freud believed that Princess Alices hallucinations were caused by sexual frustrationwhich was pretty much the same diagnosis he gave to most his patients. After Mussolinis fall in 1943, the Axis forces occupied Athens. [18] Prince Andrew, who had served as commander of the Second Army Corps during the war, was arrested. Alices sudden change in behavior terrified them, and they sent her to several specialists to try and find out what was really happening. "[55] In 2010, the Princess was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. [46] Edwina continued her own tour, and died the following month. 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. She was congenitally deaf. [1] She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. [35] She organised two shelters for orphaned and lost children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighbourhoods. At Factinate, were dedicated to getting things right. The death of the Duke of Edinburgh has highlighted the extraordinary legacy of his mother, Princess Alice, a deeply religious woman famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust. 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. 20052023 Mashable, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. [10] She adopted the style of her husband, becoming "Princess Andrew". Before her death in 1969, she wrote him a letter: "Dearest Philip, be brave, and remember I will never leave you, . Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? 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. Despite the health struggles she faced, the. His conclusions were absolutely bizarre. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways. She married her first cousin once-removed, George . Her family didnt agree. [31], During World War II, Princess Andrew was in the difficult situation of having sons-in-law fighting on the German side and a son in the British Royal Navy. Princess Alice of Battenberg was even more interesting than 'The Crown' gives her credit for. However, her work only got harder as WWII raged on. You would think that, being a royal and all, Princess Alice would have left a handsome will behind. In 1993 she was posthumously given the "Righteous Gentile" award by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. However, she did still have some jewels remaining from her more glamorous days. The life of Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Victoria's great-granddaughter, Prince Andrew of Greece's wife and Queen Elizabeth II's mother-in-law. In October 1937, Cecilie's father-in-law Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse died. She had come a long way from begging for her freedom in a sanatorium. 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. Let's stop playing and make it happen. Princess Alice of Battenberg was even more interesting than 'The Crown' gives her credit for. However, while she made it out of Greece, she didnt have much time left. Philip was the fifth child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. A German general personally paid her a visit and asked her if there was anything he could do for her. Within the family Henry was known as 'Liko' - a childhood nickname derived from the Italian translation of his name - 'Enrico'. [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. 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. Alice was brilliant, and soon she could speak and lip-read in both English and German. [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. By June of 1917, the Greeks had finally had enough of their king and all his relativesand that included Alice herself. 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. [21][22] Soon afterward, she began claiming that she was receiving divine messages and that she had healing powers. 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. After they sent her to a sanatorium, Princess Alice scarcely saw anyone from her family for the rest of her life. After years in a small, humble flat, Alice moved to the former royal palace in the middle of the city. Princess Alice of Battenberg: a final reunion. After the fall of King Constantine II of Greece and the imposition of military rule in Greece in 1967, Princess Andrew was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at Buckingham Palace in London, where she died two years later. 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 was a daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, King Edward's niece. If it wasnt love at first sight, it was close. After several years, she left the . She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth's engagement ring. 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. Of all the props, Raccacoonie made a mint. Princess Alice: The Royals' Greatest Secret: Directed by Joanna Burge, Tamsin Curry. [44] Her daughter-in-law became queen of the Commonwealth realms in 1952, and Princess Andrew attended her coronation in June 1953, wearing a two-tone grey dress and wimple in the style of her nun's habit. That day did eventually comebut the damage had already been done. Princess Andrew honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family. Alice of Battenberg. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. "[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. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the country's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (19191922), and the family was once again forced into exile until the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935. Alice later revealed to her son just how desperate the final days of Germanys occupation had been. Alice returned to Athens to work with the poor, despite the fact that Andrew was still banned from the country. But Princess Alice had served her city through years of warfareshe wasnt going to stop now. Early life[change| change source] Princess Alicewas born 25 February 1883 at Windsor Castle. 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. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Alice was born deaf and suffered poor mental health. After she married Prince Andrew of Greece . As seen in The Crown Season 2 episode Paterfamilias, Princess Alice was estranged from her family following her institutionalization. [49] She died at Buckingham Palace on 5 December 1969. Then WWI broke out, and things went from bad to worse. With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English and German. 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. Princess Alice was an unconventional royal who prioritized helping others over wealth and privilege. He had a treatment in mind, too. She was born in Tatoi, Greece as the third child and daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. By signing up to the Mashable newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications On 2 February 1931 at Darmstadt Cecilie married George Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. From her heroism during WWII to her abandonment in a mental institution, this forgotten royal is worth a closer look. [3] During World War I, her brother-in-law King Constantine I of Greece followed a neutrality policy despite the democratically elected government of Venizelos supporting the Allies. Buckingham Palace ( London) Place of burial. [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. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. [27] Binswanger also diagnosed the princess with schizophrenia. Prince Philip, along with his sister, Princess George of Hanover, accepted the award on her behalf in 1994. . Please reach out to us to let us know what youre interested in reading. [2], Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta (where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed). [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. Lets just, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIIIs First Wife, Indelicate Facts About Jennifer Coolidge, Hollywoods Late Bloomer, Stormy Facts About Sammy Davis Jr., The Worlds Greatest Entertainer, Secret Facts About Peter Sellers, The Tragic Comic, Scorned Facts About Farida, Egypts Rejected Queen. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. One day, Princess Alice was living off of meager war rations in Athens.