Queen Victoria’s third-born child, Alice, was haunted by tragedy

WITH news that William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child, British bookies are taking bets on the name with the most likely being Alice, after another famous third-born royal.

Princess Alice, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria in 1854.

WITH the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child, people are already speculating on what they might name the new addition . According to some reports Alice is the frontrunner for girls names, which, coincidentally, is also the name of the third child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Growing up in the shadow of her older siblings — sister Princess Victoria (known as Vicky), who married a German emperor, and Prince Albert “Bertie” Edward, who later became King Edward VII — Alice had an interesting life. She also married German royalty, her daughter married a Tsar, and she is the great grandmother of Prince Phillip, therefore an ancestor of William and Kate’s children.

Alice Maud Mary was born on April 25, 1843, at Buckingham Palace, the third child and second daughter of the Queen. In the line of succession, Alice was behind both Vicky, who was Victoria’s first born and Prince Bertie, who born second, was first in line because male heirs took precedence.

Queen Victoria's first two daughters, Princess Victoria (left) and her sister Princess Alice in the 1850s.

While Bertie’s education prepared him to rule, Vicky and Alice were equipped with languages and practical skills such as cooking and gardening. A sensitive, artistic child Alice was close to her siblings, looking after the younger ones that followed (Victoria and Albert had nine children) but became distressed when Vicky went away to be married in 1858.

When their father became ill in 1861 Alice helped to nurse him, to allow the Queen to continue with her royal duties. When he died in December 1861 she was there to comfort her mother through her grief.

But even then Alice knew she would soon have to leave the family she loved so dearly. As early as 1860 the Queen had been looking for a husband for Alice. He needed to be a royal of a similar social rank to Alice, but the Queen also insisted that her children marry for love. Having rejected both the prince of Orange and a Prussian prince, the list was narrowed to Prince Louis of Hesse, the nephew of the Duke of Hesse.

Princess Alice and Prince Louis of Hesse on their wedding day in July 1, 1862. Picture: John Jabez Edwin Mayall

Prince Louis had been invited with his brother Henry to come to Windsor Castle in 1860, so that Victoria and Albert could look him over as a marital prospect. The couple were engaged in April 1861 but Prince Albert’s death cast a pall over the wedding which took place in July 1862. Although Alice donned a magnificent white gown for the ceremony, before and after the wedding she was clad in black mourning clothes.

They lived in a run-down house in the poor quarter of the city of Darmstadt, Germany, and Alice soon discovered that she had little in common with Louis. Although they would have a large family she grew increasingly distant from her husband who seemed incapable of intelligent conversation.

She longed for the company of her brothers and sisters. Despite living in another country, Alice remained close to her brother Prince Bertie and even attended his wedding in March 1863 even though she was heavily pregnant. She gave birth to the first of her seven children, Victoria, in April 1863, in the presence of the Queen. Alice’s daughter Victoria would later marry Prince Louis of Battenburg, father of Louis Mountbatten and Princess Alice of Battenburg, mother of Prince Phillip.

Princess Alice of Hesse in the 1860s.

Her second child Princess Elisabeth, born in 1864, married a Russian Grand Duke and was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Her third child Irene, born in 1866, married a Prussian Prince. Her fourth child Ernest Louis, born in 1868, inherited the title Grand Duke of Hesse but his throne was abolished during the revolution in Germany in 1918. Alice’s fifth child, Friedrich or Frittie, born in 1870, was a haemophiliac and died in 1873 after falling through a window and suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Alice’s sixth and most famous child, Alexandra (nicknamed Alix), was born in 1872 and later married Grand Duke Nicholas, later Tsar Nicholas. She was also executed by the communists in 1918.

Alice and Louis’ last child, Princess Marie, was born in 1874, but her life was also tragically short. On November 5, 1878 Alice’s daughter Victoria complained of a stiff neck and the next day was diagnosed with diphtheria. Several days later Alix also contracted the disease, followed by Marie, Ernest and their father Louis.

On November 16 Marie died, but Alice kept the news from her children until weeks later, to allow them time to recover from the illness.

The next month Alice began to display symptoms of the disease and she, too, died on December 14.