Alice of the United Kingdom
1843 – 1878 · Generation XXXIV · Grand Duchess of Hesse · House of Windsor
Alice of the United Kingdom (1843–1878). Grand Duchess of Hesse. Married Louis IV of Hesse in 1862. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Nursed her family through diphtheria and died of it at thirty-five; ancestor of Prince Philip. The second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, she was schooled at Osborne under a plan devised by Baron Stockmar, and as a girl of eleven toured London’s hospitals during the Crimean War. She nursed her grandmother the Duchess of Kent and then her father through their final illnesses in 1861, and for six months afterwards served as the grieving Queen’s unofficial secretary. Her wedding to Louis of Hesse at Osborne in July 1862 was, her mother said, more funeral than wedding. In Darmstadt, often at odds with her mother, she organised military hospitals during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, drawing on her friend Florence Nightingale’s advice, and befriended the controversial theologian David Friedrich Strauss. The death of her haemophiliac son Friedrich after a fall in 1873 left her lastingly grief-stricken. Her daughter Alix became Empress of Russia.
Place in the family
- Alice of the United Kingdom was a daughter of Queen Victoria.
- Alice of the United Kingdom was the third of 9 children of Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Queen Victoria recorded in this archive.
- The archive records 32 of her descendants, across 6 generations.
One of 53 people of House of Windsor (from 1917) in this archive. The present house — it renamed itself Windsor in 1917, setting aside the German title Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → King George III → Edward Duke of Kent → Queen Victoria → Alice of the United Kingdom.
Parents
- Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819 – 1861)
- Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901)
Siblings
- Victoria Princess Royal (1840 – 1901)
- King Edward VII (1841 – 1910)
- Alfred Duke of Edinburgh (1844 – 1900)
- Helena of the United Kingdom (1846 – 1923)
- Louise Duchess of Argyll (1848 – 1939)
- Arthur Duke of Connaught (1850 – 1942)
- Leopold Duke of Albany (1853 – 1884)
- Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857 – 1944)
Partners
- Married Louis IV of Hesse (1837 – 1892) in 1862 — 2 children together
Children
- Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863 – 1950)
- Alix of Hesse (1872 – 1918)
Life
- 1843 — Born
- 1862 — Married Louis IV of Hesse
- 1878 — Died