Princess Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein: 1846-1923
Helena, called “Lenchen,” was born the fifth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort. If any of Queen Victoria’s nine children took on the unfortunate role of the “middle child” it was Lenchen. She was constantly overshadowed by her four elder siblings in her early years, and later her four younger siblings. She was especially close to her brother Alfred, Victoria’s second son. Lenchen was, in her childhood, what would now be referred to as a tom boy. Among her favorite hobbies were boating and horseback riding. She tended to be closer to her brothers than her sisters, and would often respond to brotherly teasing with punches and slaps to the face. Like her father, Lenchen had a keen interest in technology and engineering, but this was never encouraged due to it being considered an unsuitable interest for a young lady. One of her more “acceptable” hobbies was needlework, mainly embroidery. When Prince Albert died in 1861 Lenchen was devastated. She cried very often, and because of this Victoria did not rely on her for secretarial work as she did with Princess Alice, or use her as an emotional crutch as she did with Princess Beatrice.
As a young woman, Lenchen developed an attraction to Carl Ruland, a former librarian to Prince Albert and German tutor to the Prince of Wales. When Victoria discovered the attachment between the two, she had Ruland sent back to his native Germany and began a frantic search for a suitable husband for Lenchen. In 1865 a match was found with Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, who was not only fifteen years older than Lenchen but also prince of a land that was actively being fought over by Prussia and Denmark. This created a rift in the royal family due to the Princess of Wales being a former princess of Denmark and her opposition to the marriage being supported by the Prince of Wales and Princess Alice. But Lenchen was satisfied with the match and married Prince Christian in 1866. They would have five children.
Lenchen and her husband lived in England at Queen Victoria’s insistence. But once she was free from her overbearing mother, she became the most active member of the royal family. She did an enormous amount of charity work and shared her sister Alice’s interest in nursing. Lenchen became the president of the British Nurses’ Association in 1887. She was one of the founders of the Red Cross and pushed for the official registration of nurses. In 1876 she established the Royal School of Needlework in order to give women a suitable livlihood. Along with charity work, Lenchen also did several German to English translations of books, including the first biography of her father. By the time of her death in 1923, Helena had become one of the most popular royals of the time.
