#princess Alice of Greece and Denmark

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

Rare photo of Greek Royal Family Matriarch, Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark (née Battenberg) with niece-in-law Dowager Queen Frederica of Greece (née Princess of Hanover) and new mother, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (née Princess of Denmark) with newborn Princess Alexia, 1965

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Queen Olga of Greece (née Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia) with her daughter Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia (née Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark) and her daughter in law Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark (née Princess Alice of Battenberg), all in traditional Greek costumes. Early 1900s

Source: Princess Victoria of Wales’s albums

[loiladadiani]

Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 1885 – 1969) - Princess of Greece and Denmark

One of her Great-Grandmothers was Queen Victoria; her maternal grandmother was Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine; her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia; her father was Prince Louis of Battenberg. Her son was Prince Phillip, consort of Queen Elizabeth II.

She married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

She had five children: Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Theodora, Margravine of Baden

Cecilie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse

Sophie, Princess George of Hanover

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Alice suffered incredibly through her life, but she did not let that stop her from always thinking of others; she was born with a hearing deficit and her brilliant mother Victoria, taught her to lip read not in one but several languages. She had a husband who preferred to gamble in Montecarlo to being with his wife and children or...anything else. She was diagnosed with squizophrenia (there is no evidence that this was a correct diagnosis even though it was issue by Dr. Freud himself) and her pelvic organs irradiated to produce an early menopause (this was supposed to relieve the symptoms according to the medical thinking of the times). She lost her daughter Cecilie in a plane crash.

Yet, like her grandmother Alice, helping others came to her naturally. Israel gave her the award Righteous Among the Nations, bestowed on people who risked their own lives to help Jewish people survive the Holocaust. She worked for the Swiss Red Cross.

The princess founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled after the convent that her aunt, the martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, had founded in Russia in 1909. She dedicated herself to helping others but eventually the order failed because of lack of funds.

And besides all of that, she was beautiful.

She died at Buckingham Palace at the age of 84.

(I have to add something here: Alice's smile in the picture is one of the most open, sweetest, tenderest, and most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. It filled me with awe, and thinking about her life brought tears to my eyes)

[queenalexandraofdenmark]

~ ROYALS AND THEIR SIGNATURES ~

Part 3/3

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Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark(Princess Alice of Battenberg)

Crown Princess Thyra of Hanover(Princess Thyra of Denmark)

Princess Diana, Princess of Wales

Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna

Empress Elisabeth(Sissi) of Austria

Empress Maria Feodorovna(Dagmar of Denmark)

Tsar Alexander III

Princess Helen, Duchess of Albany(Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont)

Empress Maria Alexandrovna

[grandmaster-anne]

Queen Louise of Sweden (née Lady Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten); Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark by Lafayette, c. 1900s, © National Portrait Gallery, London

[royalsofhistory]

— Various women of the Greek Royal Family, photographed in their traditional Hellenic clothing.

[royalpain16]

Prince Philip (above middle) was the youngest child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (right) and Princess Alice of Battenberg (left)

Prince Philip was born in Corfu in 1921 eight years after the assassination of his grandfather, King George I of Greece.

[heavyarethecrowns]

[postcard-from-the-past]

1903 wedding of Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark at the Darmstadt Palace. You can spot the Russian Imperial family among the guests

German vintage postcard, mailed in 1903

[roehenstart]

Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1885-1969) by Philip de László.

[royally-obsessed]

🧁

Which royal deserved better?

I think Princess Alice really did deserve better, she deserved a happier marriage, without infidelity, if only Prince Andrea could have realized that. She deserved so much better than the asylum they had put her in.

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

Rare photo of Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark (née Battenberg) with her infant son Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark, 1921 🤍

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Princess Louise of Battenberg (middle) with her cousins (foster cousins) Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (the younger) and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich,

Princess Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark’s wedding celebrations, Germany 1903

[royaljewellery]

Hesse Strawberry Leaf Tiara, Garrard, circa 1861

Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse (1871)

Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Duchess of Hesse (1898) /

Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, Grand Duchess of Hesse (c.1910)

Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse (1937)

[the-jewel-catalogue]

Princess Andrew's Meander Tiara

The term “meander” is another word for the Greek key design that makes up the band of this tiara. No one seems to know precisely when Princess Andrew, who was born Princess Alice of Battenberg, acquired the tiara, but it would make sense that she received a Greek key tiara after marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903.

The tiara is made of diamonds, and the Greek key design is punctuated by a central laurel wreath element and two honeysuckle elements. 

The tiara was handed over to Princess Anne, who still owns the piece today. 

Zara paired her great-grandmother’s tiara with a veil for her Scottish wedding, paying tribute to her lesser-known royal heritage.

~ The Court Jeweller

[grandmaster-anne]

Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark by H. Walter Barnett, c. 1903, © National Portrait Gallery, London