#Louis Mountbatten First Marquess of Milford Heaven

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Photograph of Alix of Hesse and By Rhine (Empress Alexandra Feodorovna,) her husband Emperor Nicholas II, and her sisters with their spouses (her brother Ernest Louis appears alone.)

From left to right, Grand Duke Ernest Louis, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Emperor Nicholas II, Irene, Princess Heinrich of Prussia, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven and Louis Mountbatten, first Marquess of Milford Haven

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The Husbands of the Four Graces

Some time ago, I read a very interesting book about Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters (Victoria, Elizabeth, Irene, and Alix.) The title was "The Four Graces," and ever since I read it, that is the way I think about the daughters of Grand Duke of Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine and the beautiful princess Alice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second daughter of Queen Victoria.

These young women were among the most marriageable princesses of their generation. They were beautiful, accomplished and Queen Victoria's granddaughters. There was no need to look for husbands for them. Among their suitors could be found future Kaisers, Tsars and Kings of England even though it was well known that any or all of the princesses could be carriers of hemophilia (inherited from their august grandmother Victoria.) Their sons might be bleeders. One of their brother's had been, therefore Princess Alice, their mother, had been a carrier.

The four men they married appear in the first photograph above; one marquess, one prince, one grand duke, and one Emperor (all of them very handsome):

👑Louis Mountbatten, first Marques of Milford Heaven (the man all the way to the left on the picture) married Princess Victoria Alberta Elisabeth Mathilde Marie of Hesse and By Rhine. Victoria and Louis had two sons and neither one of them had hemophillia.

👑The Hohenzollern Prince and brother of the German Keiser, Prince Heinrich of Prussia (the man to the right of Mountbatten in the photograph) married Princess Irene Luise Marie Anne of Hesse and By Rhine. They were first cousins since Heinrich was the son of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, who was the older sister of Princess Alice. They had three sons. Two out of the three had hemophilia. One died in childhood of causes related to that disease.

👑 Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia (the man to the right of Prince Heinrich) married Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse and by Rhine. Sergei and Elizabeth had no children.

👑The soon-to-be Tsar Nicholas II of Russia married Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix. Alix had one son, and he had hemophilia. (gcl)