#well paul i was also killed on 11 march but in my book all tsars are tyrants

[twyrrinren]

March is very fruitful for death of tyrants

(5 March - Stalin; 15 March - Caesar)

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Victoria Louise: The last princess of Prussia

Victoria Louise of Prussia was born on 13 September 1892 as the seventh child and only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

Her mother later wrote in her diary, “After six sons, God has given us as our seventh child, a small but very strong little daughter. She was born at half past three in our much beloved Marmor (Marble) Palace during the night of Monday/Tuesday. The pleasure over this little ray of sunshine was great, not just for us parents and the nearest relatives, but indeed the whole nation rejoiced at the birth of the little girl. May she some day become a joy and a blessing for many – as she has created happiness by her appearance – let her have happiness in life. Her father, who up to now had always wanted sons, was very happy and is marvelling still.” Although a particularly healthy child, she was very delicately formed.

Victoria Louise was assigned an English governess, Miss Topham. As the only girl in the family, she grew up wanting to be like her brothers. Her brothers made her march with a small wooden rifle, and she enjoyed wearing Highland dress as it made her look more like them. She grew up with a love for horses and often went riding with her mother. Her confirmation took place in the Friedenskirche in Potsdam on 18 October 1909.

Her English governess once wrote that the “warlike” Wilhelm “unbends to a considerable extent when in the bosom of his family… [and is] the dominating force of his daughter’s life. His ideas, his opinions on men and things are persistently quoted by her.”

Wilhelm loved his daughter so much that he let her get away with things he would have never allowed his sons to say or do. Her siblings recognized their father’s adoration of their little sister, so much so that the eldest, Crown Prince Wilhelm, once wrote that she was, “the only one of us who succeeded in her childhood in gaining a snug place” in the Kaiser’s heart."

A few days later she was made Colonel-in-Chief of the 2nd Guard Hussar Regiment, of which Victoria Louise was very proud. When she presented her regiment in a march past her father the following year she wrote, “When I lie in bed at night my heart beats with joyful excitement at the thought that in four weeks time I am to lead my regiment past you. I can never thank you enough, and I kiss your hand for bestowing me this great favour. I have always regretted not having been a boy, so as to be able to join your army, but now at least I have been consoled by your gesture.”

In May 1911, Victoria Louise accompanied her parents on a state visit to the United Kingdom. Immediately there were rumours that she was to be engaged to the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, who was 17 at the time. She remembered him as nice but also thought he looked terribly young. In any case, the rumours remained rumours. At the beginning of 1912, Victoria Louise became ill with bronchitis and spent several weeks recuperating at St Moritz. While travelling to Bad Homburg to join her mother, news arrived of the death of Prince George Wilhelm of Hanover. He had been on his way to the funeral of King Frederick VIII of Denmark – his uncle – when he was killed in a car accident near Nackel in Mark Brandenburg.

Upon her father’s orders, her brothers Prince Eitel Fritz and Prince August Wilhelm went to the lying-in-state and formed a guard of honour. Shortly after this, Prince George Wilhelm’s younger brother Ernst August came by to personally thank the Emperor.

Ernst August was now the heir to the defunct throne of Hanover, from which his family had been deposed by the Prussians. Upon his first meeting with the Emperor and Empress, Victoria Louise found him quite stiff and solemn – he had just lost his brother after all. When the topic came to horses, Victoria Louise offered to show him her thoroughbreds, and the ice seemed to finally have been broken.

She later wrote that she was in love with him at first sight. Her mother wrote, “He certainly made an impression on my child from the first. God knows whether it will ever come to anything.” In the end, the Duke of Cumberland, Ernst August’s father, renounced any claims to the Duchy of Brunswick in favour of his son and Ernst August was to refrain from claiming the Hanoverian throne.

In May 1913, they were to be married, and it would turn out to be the last great gathering of foreign royals before the First World War. On 24 May, Victoria Louise put on a wedding dress and was helped with her bridal crown and a veil by her mother. After the exchanging of the vows, a 36-gun salute was fired. The day ended with a banquet attended by a 1,000 guests. Her father made the toast, “My darling daughter, today, as you leave our house, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the joy you have given me and your mother, and for the ray of sunshine which you have been in our house.” They spent their honeymoon climbing the mountains and walking in the woods of Gmunden.

In March 1914, Victoria Louise gave birth to their first child; a son also named Ernst August who had plenty of royal godfathers, such as Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and the Tsar of Russia.

Just a few months later, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated, kickstarting the First World War. Her husband reported to the army and days followed without any news from him. She began to fill her time with the care of the wounded soldiers. A large block of the castle became a hospital. At Christmas, her husband wrote to her, “Today is Christmas Eve and we three are separated. It is a severe sacrifice, but in these times it is the least we can do. The worse it is just now, the better it will be later. God bless you.” All of Victoria Louise’s brothers were now in the army as well.

In November 1918, the German Empire came to an end with the abdication of Victoria Louise’s father. He had crossed the border into the Netherlands and had been granted asylum. Brunswick itself was not safe either and as Victoria Louise lay ill with the Spanish flu revolutions rocked the state.

The family – now with the additions of Georg Wilhelm and Frederica – was ordered to leave immediately and together they left for Karlsruhe. Upon arrival, they were promptly arrested. They managed to escape to Bavaria and then on to Austria. They went to live with Ernst August’s parents until they could move into Villa Weinburg. In 1919, she gave birth to their fourth child.

In March 1920, Victoria Louise was at last allowed to visit her parents in their Dutch exile. Along the way, she visited several relatives. Her mother had been terribly ill for quite some time. Her parents were able to buy their own home in the Netherlands, and House Doorn and the few miles around it became their new home. Her mother did not live to enjoy it for very long. As her mother lay dying, they received the news that Victoria Louise’s brother Prince Joachim had killed himself. The Empress died on 11 April 1921, but Victoria Louise was not there.

Her father’s decision to remarry not even two years later hurt Victoria Louise. His intended bride was the much younger and widowed Hermine Reuss of Greiz, who had five children by her first husband. Victoria Louise and her brother Oskar wrote a letter to their father, but the wedding went ahead as planned, though several members of the family – including Victoria Louise – were not present. The following year, Victoria Louise gave birth to her fifth and last child, a son named Prince Welf Henry.

It was the Crown Prince who first had contact with Adolf Hitler in 1926. He also sent Hermann Göring to Doorn to meet with the Emperor. Prince August Wilhelm became a member of the Nazi party to his father’s dismay. Victoria Louise met Hitler in 1933 when he invited her and her husband to Berlin. She thought him to be polite and correct and he spoke in a friendly fashion. She would meet him a few more times over the years.

Their children were growing up now, and in 1938, Frederica married the future King Paul of Greece. At the end of the year, Victoria Louise became a grandmother with the birth of Sophia (later Queen of Spain and mother of King Felipe VI of Spain).

The Second World War threw things into turmoil. Victoria Louise’s sons went off to war with their cousins. The invasion of the Netherlands brought her father into an uncomfortable position, and he would welcome the invaders with open arms, smilingly shaking soldiers’ hands. He would die the following year on 4 June 1941 with Victoria Louise by his side.

The end of the Second World War brought the American and British troops to Victoria Louise’s home. Several boxes of the German Foreign Office had been stored at her home, and they mainly showed interest in those. They were confiscated by the Americans, but Victoria Louise and her family were treated well by them. Nevertheless, the family went on the move once more, and they went to Marienburg Castle.

Ernst August suffered from an eye ailment that required an operation. He lost the sight in one eye, and a little while later, he had a severe inflammation of the lungs and never fully recovered. In early 1953, he became weaker and weaker. He told his doctor, “I’ve lived a wonderful life, and I want to go through the remainder courageously.” Victoria Louise was by his side during his final hours. He died on 30 January 1953. Victoria Louise would survive him for almost 30 years.

She returned to Brunswick two years after her husband’s death. She threw herself into charity work and worked for prisoners of war who returned from Russia. She outlived all her siblings and buried her last brother, Prince Oskar in 1958. In her later years, she wrote several books, including her own memoirs.

She died on 11 December 1980 at the age of 88 and was buried beside her husband in the Berggarten at Herrenhausen in Hanover. Victoria Louise was the last of Emperor Wilhelm II’s children to die, for her final two surviving brothers, Crown Prince Wilhelm and Prince Oskar had died in 1951 and 1958 respectively.

Victoria Louise lived to see the births of all of her grandchildren. Having seen her daughter Frederica become the Queen of Greece in 1947 when Frederica’s husband, Paul, ascended to the throne as well, she lived to see Frederica became the mother of King Constantine II of Greece and Queen Sofía of Spain.

In many ways her legacy to the present royal houses in Europe is considerable.