"Whispers of Love Amidst Mourning: The Intimate Union of Princess Alice and Prince Ludwig"🥀💗🖤
When that ill-fated year of 1861 came and the first misfortune for British royal family was the death of the Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria’s mother, Prince Albert asked his Daughter Princess Alice to console her poor mother.
Then he himself felt so bad, suffering from stomach pains, and after he fell ill, Alice surrounded him with care and attention. But the prince still hoped to take part in the upcoming family holiday. After all, Alice now had a fiancé.💍🖇💗
The task of finding her future husband was once assigned to Her Older Sister Vicky, who had recently become the wife of the heir to the Prussian throne, actively got down to business.
The first candidate she selected was the Prince of Orange, the future king of Holland. The prospect of becoming a Dutch queen looked very tempting, but Princess Alice didn't like the proposed gentleman with lemon-yellow teeth.🤮🤢 The next contenders were two Hessian princes, Ludwig and Heinrich, who were invited to Windsor under the pretext of visiting the famous Ascot races.😍
The Princess immediately took a liking to the eldest of them, Ludwig, a pleasant and modest young man with a handsome appearance and while some of the spectators carefully watched the horses and riders fighting for the Royal Cup, and others assessed the outfits of the society ladies with no less interest, Alice and Ludwig cast meaningful glances at each other.
Before leaving, the prince asked Alice for a photograph as a souvenir, and she willingly gave it, trying with all her might to express her interest... Albert liked Ludwig too. Queen Victoria hesitated for some time. Still, the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt was a real backwater even by the standards of patchwork Germany.
But the German prince was so charming, so pleasant. He blushed so sweetly at every mention of Alice that the queen Victoria finally ceased to doubt the future happiness of her daughter.
Soon, together with her husband, Alice went to Coburg, Prince Albert’s homeland, stopping on the way to Darmstadt, where the princess was able to see and communicate with Ludwig again. The following spring, the young people got engaged. The plans were almost dashed by Albert's death on December 14, 1861... But Queen Victoria became unshakable in everything that concerned the wishes of her dear husband, and there was no question of postponing the marriage ceremony.
On July 1, Alice and Ludwig appeared before the altar erected in the banquet hall of Osborne House. There was nothing in the celebration that resembled the wedding of a royal daughter.
Alice remembered how her sister Vicky got married four years ago - a cortege of thirty carriages, seventeen representatives of the ruling houses of Germany, a luxurious ball in the Bikingham courtyard, where she pranced and sparkled, a whole thousand invited guests, a solemn service in St. James's Church, a rich dowry... Yeah, she was deprived of all this, but happiness lies in something completely different.
The bridesmaids struggled to put on a semblance of smiles... Heavy sighs were periodically heard from all sides... The Queen appeared in a black widow's outfit and almost immediately sank into a chair... She couldn't stand...
Next to her were her two sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, who tried to remain calm, and Alfred, who could not hold back his tears during the entire ceremony...💔💔💔🖤🖤🖤 "POOR AFFIE"
Alice entered arm in arm with her Paternal Uncle, Ernest of Saxe-Coburg, who acted as father of the bride... The embarrassed groom was afraid to look up. The altar was located under a large painting by F. Winterhalter depicting the royal family.
On the canvas at the feet of the happy parents, Victoria and Albert, their four children romped and played. An irrevocable past... The spiritual chants finally broke the queen’s self-control, and she burst into loud sobs.
Queen Victoria would later say that the day of this strange ceremony, which was more reminiscent of a funeral than a wedding, became one of the saddest in her life. However, neither she nor anyone else present could imagine what a truly ominous omen those gloomy circumstances would turn out to be for the fate of Alice and her offspring.💔
The “celebratory” dinner took place in the presence of only the newlyweds, the Queen and her youngest daughter Beatrice.
Ludwig received the highest English honor, the Order of the Garter.
Alice received as a gift from her mother a Bible, a gold bracelet with diamonds and pearls, and a dowry of 30 thousand pounds, hard-won through the Prime Minister.💎
In the evening she said that, having become Ludwig’s wife, she felt proud and happy.
“It’s like a dagger stabbed into my heart,” Queen Victoria comments on these words in a letter to her eldest daughter Vicky.😑
The newlyweds spent their honeymoon, which lasted only a week, nearby, on the same Isle of Wight, after which they went to Darmstadt, the capital of a small German duchy, where from now on they were to build a family life.
From the very border of Germany they were warmly greeted by local residents, and the meeting arranged in Darmstadt exceeded all expectations - Alice had never seen such enthusiasm and such cordiality addressed to her. Then everyday life began, dramatically changing the picture. Ludwig returned to military service, and his wife began to settle into her new surroundings. She soon noticed that, despite the initial delight, the residents of Darmstadt were very wary of her.
In her new homeland, Alice immediately became a stranger.
Englishwoman! Those around her showed distrust of the princess from such a distant, unusual and incomprehensible country, sometimes they grumbled and distorted her strange name in every possible way.
The tension was aggravated by the fact that persistent demands came from London to create suitable living conditions for the queen’s daughter.
But Ludwig's uncle, Grand Duke Ludwig III, did not have sufficient funds for such expenses.
And his nephew settled with his wife in the old parental home, in the mansion of Prince Charles.
Uncomfortable and overlooking a noisy street, it wasn't at suitable for creating a family “nest,” and Alice was very glad to leave on the eve of her first birth to England under the pretext of participating in the wedding of her older brother, the Prince of Wales.🤍
There, at Windsor Castle, on April 5, 1863, her daughter was born, named Victoria, in honor of her crowned grandmother... The girl was born on Easter Sunday, which added joy and gave hope for the final completion of all the recent sorrows that darkened the beginning of Alice’s independent life.✨️✨️✨️
Now the question of their own home for the young ducal family has become especially acute. Alice had no choice but to sacrifice almost her entire dowry for the construction of a new palace in Darmstadt, the construction of which would take two years. The project was based on the princess’s favorite castle in Osborne, the home of her happy childhood, the home of her bright memories. In the meantime, the addition of the family became the reason for the forced gift from the Grand Duke. Ludwig III gave his nephew Kranichstein one of his hunting houses six kilometers from the city.
Alice will rebuild the modest estate, loudly called a castle, to her own taste, ultimately obtaining a long-awaited corner for a quiet family life. From now on, the young Duke’s family will spend the warm season here. The house was just being settled when the owners had to receive guests of the highest level...🌺
Russian Emperor Alexander II came to Darmstadt with his wife and younger children. This was not surprising - Empress Maria Alexandrovna was a born Hessian princess and often visited her homeland. Ludwig III and Prince Charles were her siblings, whom she was always glad to meet...
This time, the Empress decided to visit her nephew Ludwig to get to know his own family, for which the Royal Family went to Kranichstein, where a real fuss arose in connection with this.
Princess Alice, who always remembered that she was the daughter of the Queen of England, didn't want to lose face and worked with all her might.❤️🔥
From the words of her husband, who visited Moscow for the coronation of Alexander II, she knew about the unheard-of luxury that surrounded the Russian Tsar and about the strictest etiquette imphis presence.❤️🇷🇺
There was a lot to worry about, but to the surprise of the hosts, the distinguished guests turned out to be nice and kind people... Instead of stiffness, they showed kindness and ease; instead of Asian barbarism, they showed great intelligence and subtle taste.
And how charming their children are! Smart, well-mannered. especially admired Grand Duke Sergei, in whom even little Victoria felt something good and attractive. She constantly smiled at this boy, asked to see him and did not want to part with him.
It's said that Alice, who was then in the last months of a new pregnancy, let Little Grand Duke Sergei listen to how the heart of the expected child was beating inside her. A touching story💗💗💗 and the Grand Duke in such an unusual way “met” (who would have thought!) with his future wife even before her birth!💗💗💗
