Princess Elisabeth of Hesse (1895-1903)

The main aim of this site is people to get to know Elisabeth better and to love her as much as I do. Here I share everything I read and find about her. I will also share my cabinet card and postcard collection. You are free to use photographs from my collection WITH THE WATERMARK AND CREDITING THE SOURCE.

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1899

THE GENTLWOMAN. June 10, 1899

The Queen is glad to be back quietly at Balmoral after the fatigues she has undergone of late. (...) In the Grand Duchess of Hesse the Queen finds a companion after her own heart, and grandmother and granddaughter may often be seen laughing and talking together as merrily as possible. As for the little Grand Duchess Elizabeth, she has become the pet and plaything of everybody at Court, with her quaint sayings and her fairy-like prettiness. The Grand Duchess of Hesse is the most accomplished of all the Duke of Coburg's daughters, and she plays the piano as well as any professional, to the gratification of the Queen, who often asks to hear her.

source: source: britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Image: Les Romanov by Perraud

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1900 Easter postcards from the postcard album of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, where she kept postcards from relatives and friends.

source: Hessisches Landesarchiv 

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Princess Elisabeth of Hesse in winter 1895-1896.

source: my collection. Restored with AI

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Princess Elisabeth of Hesse in 1896 by  J.S. Schroder.

source: Youtube, restored with AI.

I deleted the previous version I had of this photo because it was enhanced with Remini and Elisabeth's beautiful features were distorted.

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Private photograph depicting Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with her German cousins, Prince Gottfried and Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. I would date the photograph as 1903, because Elisabeth looks quite grown up. She is wearing a bridal gown and a veil surmounted by a star.

Close up of Elisabeth. Notice the gap between her front teeth, something her Russian cousins and her own father also had as children:

source: latest addition to my collection

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Cabinet photograph by Hugo Thiele depicting Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with her mother Victoria Melita in about 1897.

source: eBay.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA! 🎂

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Cabinet photograph depicting Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg with her only son, Prince Gottfried, in 1897.

As soon as I saw it, this cabinet card looked rather familiar to me, and after some minutes, I realized the photograph was taken on the same day and place as the cabinet card of Elisabeth with her Romanian cousins that I had bought before:

I had my doubts about bidding on it at first, until I read this excerpt from one of Diana Mandache's books:

Letter from Maria Alexandrovna to Marie of Romania:

Rosenau, 25 September 1897

Your little chicks (Carol and Elisabeta) are most jolly here and look well and happy and eat tremendously; Ducky's little girl is still here and an excellent thing for her to get used to other children. Sandra's little boy produced a tooth yesterday; I am going to keep him when they leave on Monday.

These two photographs were definitely taken during Elisabeth's and her cousins and aunt's stay, which Maria Alexandrovna's mentions in her letter. The surprise came when I received Alexandra's cabinet card, which was unexpectedly huge:

source: my collection

[princesselisabethofhesse]

1903

Watercolour of a tie-pin from Tsar Nicholas II’s personal jewelry album:

Tie-pin with white enamelled double initials E of angular shape (Elisabeth’s monogram?) decorated with a central diamond. This was given to Tsar Nicholas II by his brother-in-law, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig at Christmas 1903. The initial E is that of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, who had died of typhoid at the early age of eight years at Skierniewice near the Imperial hunting lodge in Poland in of November that year.

Detail of the page where the tie-pin appears:

N 253. From Ernie. Christmas.

It is interesting to note that the same tie-pin appears in the private jewellery book of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, still kept in the archive at Wolfsgarten, formerly the Grand Ducal summer residence. This is similar to the Tsar’s album filled with watercolour designs but dates from a later period, probably around 1925. Here the note to the tie-pin records: “Geschenk der Grossfürstin Elisabeth, 5. Dezember 1903, zur Erinnerung an Prinzessin Elisabeth” (Present from Grand Duchess Elisabeth, 5 December 1903, in memory of Princess Elisabeth).

In order to remember a dear person who had died memorial jewellery was made, usually with black decoration in stone or enamel similar to mourning jewellery.

source: The Jewel Album of Tsar Nicholas II

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1896

Fabergé column picture frame

Fabergé, 1896 Gold, bowenite Height: 13.3 cm. Width: 5.6 cm. With a written dedication on original box: “For Darling Ernie from Nicky + Alix Xmas 1896.” Master: Fabergé; Workmaster: Michael Perchin. Saint Petersburg before 1899, 56 Zolotnik.

Bowenite column on a gold base with braided ribbon and stylized acanthus. Two crossed Thyrsus wands and two crossed arrows with a laurel wreath are applied to the column.

The frame is made of sliced gold with a ribbon and a torch on top. The oval photograph depicts Princess Elisabeth (1895-1903), daughter of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig.

The photograph (taken in 1902) must have been changed years later the frame was given, because Princess Elisabeth was only a year old in 1896 Christmas. Elisabeth’s father probably reused  the frame after his daughter’s early death.

source: Fabergé – Geschenke der Zarenfamilie

Original text in German translated and adapted by me.

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Princess Elisabeth of Hesse standing between her father, Ernst Ludwig, and her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. She poses with her paternal aunts and cousins. Photograph taken in Kiel (Germany) at Christmas 1902.

source: Mountbatten, eight years in pictures

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Oil painting depicting Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with a dog and a doll in about 1896.

source: Schlossmuseum Darmstadt

Thank you Thomas for sharing this with me!

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1903

Letter from Ernst Ludwig to Nicholas II

Darmstadt, 28 November 1903

My Darling Nicky,

Just a few words to tell you how I think of you & bless you for all your love to me. Your dear letter was such a comfort to me & never will it go out of my heart what you have been to me during my misery.

source: I can’t remember the source, but I’m sure it was one of my books.

[princesselisabethofhesse]

1903

Über Land und Meer. Nr. 10

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse ✞

Deep sorrow has entered the Hessian residence, the lonely palace of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, due to the sudden, far-from-home death of the lovely little Princess Elisabeth, which aroused sincere sympathy everywhere. Only a few weeks ago, the Grand Ducal House had been granted the opportunity to celebrate a joyful family festival, to which a large circle of high-ranking princely relatives had gathered in Darmstadt; No one could have imagined that so soon afterward, most of the guests of that time would stand, filled with pain, around a small coffin to lay to eternal rest the dearest thing that Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig could call his on earth.

Princess Elisabeth, the daughter of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and his wife Viktoria Melitta, née Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was born on March 11, 1895, in Darmstadt. Her childhood was soon cast under a deep shadow when rifts arose between her parents, which repeatedly led to lengthy separations between the spouses and ultimately to the divorce pronounced by the Grand Ducal Higher Regional Court on December 21, 1901. From then on, the little princess lived, as a result of an amicable agreement, alternately with her father in Darmstadt and with her mother and grandmother, Duchess Marie, in Coburg or while traveling.

She had never been seriously ill and gave the impression of a healthy, cheerful, and happy child; in Darmstadt, in particular, she was everyone's favorite. With her father, she accompanied the Tsar's family on their return journey from Darmstadt to Russia. She died suddenly of abdominal typhus in Skierniewice in Russian Poland on November 16.

source: my collection

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1903

Telegram from Princess Victoria Melita to Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and her husband. Coburg, 26 November 1903.

Thank you both for all your kindness in these dreadful days your Brockhaus stood on my table reminded me of the happy light hearted days we so shortly ago spent together love to you both.

Ducky.

source: Landesarchiv Baden-Württenberg.

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1903

Letter from Princess Marie of Romania to Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Coburg, 26 November 1903.

My dear Sandy,

(...) Here all has been so beyond description sad, that I really have not the courage to talk about it all.

For the moment, Ducky keeps up wonderfully. I think Kirill is a great help to her, I am so afraid of her heading down when he has gone. Poor poor Ducky, and dear little lively impudent cousin Ella!

I assure you, none of us really realise it yet. Erny will have told you about that most tragic of funerals and of how Ducky took off her order and laid it on the coffin before she left the chapel, it was so tragic – and all done in Ducky's quiet cold manner! – Here the days drag on somehow I hardly know how, we have started wood carving and that saves us, because it absorbs and interests, Kirill and Ducky carve also, Kirill has even developed a real talent and carves with pleasure.

Perhaps I shall remain here a little longer, there is even a chance that I should remain for Christmas because I cannot bear to leave Ducky and Mama all alone, but it is not quite decided yet– will be decided these days, then I shall go for a week to Sigmaringen and return here, if it does not arrange itself...

A loving kiss, Maddi.

source: Landesarchiv Baden-Württenberg.

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1903

Telegram from Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna to Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Coburg, 23 November 1903.

How are you feeling and getting on expect a letter think so much of you. Ducky continues resigned and calm but it is all unbearably sad. Marie.