The Christenings of the Children of Princess Alice (1843-1878)

by Kevin R. Brady

The first child of Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and her husband Prince Louis of Hesse and by Rhine, was born in the home of her grandmother, Windsor Castle, on Easter Sunday 1863. At a quarter to 5 on the morning of 6 April after a labour of about 8 hours, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine was brought in to the world.  The young father was in the room to witness the birth, but he was not alone, as Queen Victoria was also there and in the next room Viscount Sydney, the Lord Chamberlain; Sir George Grey, Secretary of State for the Home Department; and Baron de Ricon, Head of the Household of his Royal Highness Prince Charles of Hesse.

The emotion was at times too much for the Queen, who could only think, “It seemed a strange dream and as if it must be me and dearest Papa – instead of Alice and Louis!”[1]. This feeling was deepened since Alice was wearing the same night shift that the Queen had worn for the birth of all of her children, and was also in the same bed. Sir Charles Locock, the Queen’s accoucheur, and Mrs Lilley, the Queen’s monthly nurse, were also reminders of the past for the Queen, “Then to see Mrs Lilley and Sir C Locock both there seemed the same thing over again!” [2]. But in the end it was a natural birth, and Princess Alice “sleeps like a top” and “is very calm and quiet” [3].

The Queen had the doctor write to her eldest daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia, all the details of the labour and confinement immediately after the birth, but two days later she herself wrote say that the baby “is very like Alice, has a long nose and beautiful, long fingers” [4]. The Queen had arranged for a wet nurse for the child, and she informed her daughter that “She had hardly any clothes and we are dressing her and had to wash her!  She is just the right nurse – very dark and thin and plenty of milk” [5].

On April 27 the Green Drawing Room of Windsor Castle was prepared for the Lutheran Christening ceremony of the young Princess.  The Grand Duke had sent over his Court Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Bender, to officiate at the German ceremony; “it was not so dreadful as a wedding and fortunately different to ours – though the Lutheran Service is almost the same,” Queen Victoria wrote to her eldest daughter [6]. Just before 1 o’clock in the afternoon the Queen and the other godparents (Prince Alexander of Hesse, representing the absent Grand Duke; the Prince of Wales, Alice’s brother; Mary of Cambridge; and Louis’s brother Henry) entered the room and took their places on seats situated on the south side of the room.  There were a number of other godparents who also were unable to attend the ceremony, including Louis’s parents back in Darmstadt; the Empress of Russia, Louis’s aunt; the Queen of Bavaria, sister to Princess Charles of Hesse; Queen Marie Amalie of France; Alice’s sister Vicky, the Crown Princess of Prussia; old King Leopold of the Belgians, Queen Victoria’s uncle; Prince Albert’s brother, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; and the Landgrave Ferdinand of Hesse-Homburg and his sister Auguste, Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  The last two, Princess Charles’s aunt and uncle on her mother’s side, were well into their eighties.

The same silver font that had been used at Princess Alice’s christening, as well as those of her brothers and sisters, was in place and was filled with water from the River Jordan that the Prince of Wales had brought back to England the previous year.  The Queen held her granddaughter during the ceremony, “so long that I thought I should drop it” [7], before handing her to the Reverend, and naming the child Victoria Alberta Elizabeth Mathilde Marie.  The boys from the St. George’s Chapel choir then sung the Martin Luther hymn “A sure stronghold our God is He” before the ceremony concluded and the register was signed in the White Room of the Castle.  The christening cake had the arms of Hesse and was decorated with bouquets of flowers & rows of pearls.

On 1 November 1864 a second daughter was born to Alice and Louis.  “The little daughter was but a momentary disappointment to us, which we have quite got over,”  the Princess wrote to her mother six days after the birth, “We console ourselves with the idea that the little pair will look very pretty together” [8]. Queen Victoria had sent a English doctor, Dr. Priestly, over to Darmstadt to attend the confinement, and on 12 November he was back at Windsor Castle reporting every detail to Her Majesty.  One of the details that the Queen found particularly distressing was that Alice was breast feeding this baby.  Alice’s sister Vicky had recently given birth to her fourth child and had decided to breast feed the child herself rather than using a wet nurse.  Now Alice, in the relative safety of Germany, was going to do the same, but the Queen could not understand why her daughters would do such a thing.   “You said you only did it for your health,” the Queen wrote, but she was more concerned about the health of her newborn grandchildren, “a Child can never be as well nursed by a lady of rank & nervous & refined temperament – for the less feeling & the more like an animal the wet nurse is, the better for the child” [9].

The name of this baby had been decided without any input from Queen Victoria.  She was to be called Elisabeth after the ancestress of the House of Hesse, St. Elisabeth.  Elisabeth was also the name of the baby’s other grandmother, Princess Charles of Hesse, but Alice was quick to inform her mother, “it is customary here to ask some one of the name of the child is to receive to stand on the occasion” [10]. The Queen could hardly refuse, considering she had stood as Godmother for little Victoria Alberta!

The christening was held on 28 November.  Princess Charles held the baby throughout the ceremony, but the newly named Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice “screamed a good deal,” unlike her elder sister Victoria, who had “behaved much better” [11] at her christening.  The little 19-month-old Victoria also attended the ceremony, standing beside her mother.  “Victoria stood with us and was very good, only kneeling down and tumbling over the footstool every two minutes,” [12] Alice informed her mother.  Also among the baby’s godparents was Alice’s brother Alfred, who had been visiting Darmstadt a few days previously, enjoying the hunting with his brother-in-law, Louis.  The other godparents were the Emperor of Russia, Louis’ uncle; Alice’s sister Helena and Louis’ sister Anna, who had recently married the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Sherwin; Louis’ brother Henry; his uncle Alexander; Alice’s sister-in-law Alexandra, the Princess of Wales; her brother-in-law, the Crown Prince of Prussia; and Louise, the Grand Duchess of Baden, who had become a close friend of Alice’s since her arrival in Germany.

The third child of Louis and Alice arrived during the Austro-Prussian war of 1866.  Louis was away at the head of the Hessian Cavalry Brigade, and Victoria and Elisabeth (known in the family as Ella) had had been bustled off to visit their Grandma in England.  But Louis was able to return to Darmstadt from the fighting in northern Hesse to be by Alice’s side when in the early hours of 11 July she gave birth to another daughter.  The longed-for heir to the Hesse dynasty had not arrived, but as Alice wrote to her mother, “The time she came at prevented a thought of disappointment at her being a girl” [13]. Three days later, Louis returned to his men in the field and Alice recovered in bed listening to the sound of the distant guns, which could be clearly heard in Darmstadt.

Alice and Louis wished to name the child Irène, which means peace, but with the war still raging they decided to put off making a firm decision: “We shall not call baby ‘Irène, unless all seems really peaceful, and at this moment it does not look promising” [14]. The choice of godparents also reflected the conditions that Louis and Alice were experiencing.  When Louis bade farewell to the cavalry brigade he had led into battle, he asked the regiment to stand as godfathers to the young Princess – the honour was well received, though, as Alice wrote to her mother, “they are delighted, but wish the child to have one of their names!”[15]. With the troops still out in the fields, the christening was put off until they were stationed back in Darmstadt, so that they could participate in the ceremony.

Finally, on Louis’ birthday, 12 September, with Prussian soldiers still stationed in Darmstadt, little Irène Louise Marie Anna was christened. “Tired of constantly putting off and waiting, we settled yesterday to have Baby christened to-morrow, as it is Louis’ birthday,” the Princess wrote to her mother, “Though the Prussians are still there, some of the godfathers are coming over, otherwise it will be quite quiet” [16].  Apart from the Hessian Cavalry Brigade the other godparents were the King and Queen of Portugal, Alice’s sister Louise, and Marie, the Princess of Leiningen, all of whom were unable to attend.

The longed for heir arrived on 25 November 1868. At twelve o’clock, a 101-gun salute announced the birth of a son to Louis and Alice.  “It is a most joyful event. God bless our little Prince of Hesse, and grant he may ascend the old ancestral throne of his fathers” [17]. Marie Battenberg, a cousin of Louis’, took particular interest in the new young heir. The young family was overjoyed with the birth of a son, but Louis’ concerns for his wife at first outweighed the excitement of a boy. “Darling Louis was too overcome and taken up with me at first to be half pleased enough,” Alice reported to her mother, “The girls are delighted with their brother, though Victoria was sorry it was not a sister” [18].

Alice received visits from her Hessian family; the Princess of Battenberg, wife of Louis’ Uncle Alexander, visited her on the day after the birth, and it was shortly thereafter that the Grand Duke announced his wish that the young prince should be called Ernst Ludwig, after the Landgrave who had died in 1825.  The prince in part resembled his mother’s family, as Marie Battenberg recorded in her diary, “I was allowed to go to the palace to see the little cousin.  He had on a long white robe with short sleeves.  His face is very small, and red, with pretty features.  His little mouth has already the shape of the mouth of all Queen Victoria’s children” [19].

The christening was organised for 28 December in the Schloss.  The event was a full gala affair, with Princess Charles decked out in a dress embroidered with silver and wearing a diamond coronet, and the Prince Hohenzollern representing the King of Prussia.  The royal guests had to pass first through the great dining-room where the general company was waiting, then through the second drawing room, where the ladies and gentlemen in waiting were placed, before entering the yellow rococo room.  Here an altar had been set up and covered with a gold cloth; on the altar stood the silver baptismal chalice, filled with water from the river Jordan.  Apart from the King of Prussia, the other godparents were Queen Victoria, the Grand Duchess of Baden, Alice’s brother Arthur, and the baby’s grandfather, Prince Charles of Hesse.  The baby was only just a month old, but as his mother noted, “in every way like a child of two months, looked about him quite wisely” [20].

The young prince’s sisters also attended the ceremony, Ella and Irene sitting each side of their mother to the left of the altar, while Victoria stood proudly beside her papa.  They watched as Mrs Clarke, sent over from England by Grandma Queen to take care of the nursery, walked into the room carrying their brother, as she followed the Marshal of the Court.  On reaching the altar she handed the babe over to his grandmother, Princess Charles, who was standing proxy for the other grandmother.  The prayers were led by Pastor Strack and were so moving that young Marie Battenberg commented, “with especial earnestness for our dear Grand Duke, and I felt my eyes fill with tears” [21]. The party had tea after the ceremony, and as young Irène sat there thinking of what she had just witnessed, she turned to her cousin Marie and said, “Those people have done something to baby” [22].

Like his older sister Irène, Alice and Louis’ second son was born during a war.  Frederick William, or Frittie to his mother, arrived on 7 October 1870 at the Neue Palais, Darmstadt.  Frittie’s father was off at the Franco-Prussian War commanding a division of troops at Gravelotte. They were waiting there for the French to attack from Metz, when Louis received the telegram informing him of the birth of a son.

“Poor Baby can’t be christened yet, as my parents-in-law think Louis would not like it during his absence,” [23] so the Princess had to reluctantly wait, she informed her mother on 12 November.  But she did have one favour to ask of the Queen, and that was to have her brother Leopold as a godfather to the new born baby, “Will you kindly tell him in Louis’ name and mine …… that we beg him to stand godfather to our little son?”

Little Frittie was finally christened on 11 February 1871.  His father was still away, but Alice felt she could put it off no longer.  His full name was to be Frederick William Augustus Victor, but on the day of the christening the name Leopold was added because, as she informed her mother, “as his sad life [her brother’s], and the anxiety his health has so often caused us all, endear him particularly, and we hoped it would give him pleasure” [24].

While Queen Victoria was on her annual visit to Balmoral in June 1872, she received the news that Princess Alice had given birth to a fourth daughter on the 6th.  A few days later, Princess Alice wrote to her mother thanking her for her letter and kind wishes and informing the Queen that the new baby was “a nice little thing, like Ella, only smaller and with finer features, though the nose promises to be long” [25].

The Queen had sent Dr. Hofmeister and Mrs Clarke over to Darmstadt to attend the birth.  Mrs Clarke was well known to the young family, and Dr. Hofmeister had attended Princess Alice at the birth of Frittie, “Kind Dr. Hofmeister was most attentive; and of course having him was far pleasanter than not, and we owe you great thanks for having sent him. Mrs Clarke has been all one could wish” [26].

The parents had decided to name the baby Alix Helena Louise Beatrice.  They preferred to have called her Alice, but as the Princess explained to her mother, “Alice they pronounce too dreadfully in German” [27]. But the Queen had other ideas, and Princess Alice duly replied on 24 June, “I will add Vicky’s name to Baby’s others, as you propose; and ‘Alix’ we gave for ‘Alice,’ as they murder my name here: ‘Aliicé’ they pronounce it, so we thought ‘Alix’ could not easily be spoilt” [28].

The christening ceremony was set down for 1 July, the 10th wedding anniversary of the Prince and Princess.  Princess Beatrice, Alice’s youngest sister, had been asked, along with the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Tsarevitch and Tsarevna of Russia. The Tsarevitch was Louis’ cousin, and the Tsarevna was the younger sister of the Princess of Wales, Alice’s sister-in-law.  Also invited to be godparents were the Landgrave of Hesse and the Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Victoria’s one remaining aunt.  On the night of the christening, Queen Victoria invited the Duchess of Cambridge to Windsor Castle for a celebratory dinner, along with Alice’s sister Helena, her husband Christian, and Leopold, Alice’s brother.  Unfortunately Princess Beatrice was still considered too young to attend this celebratory dinner.

At 11.30 on the morning of 24 May 1874, Princess Alice gave birth to a fifth daughter, her last child.  It was her mother Queen Victoria’s 55th birthday. It was also Whit Sunday, and the previous year Alice had buried her second son Frittie’s on Whit Sunday. “The day (Whitsunday, and dear Frittie’s burial-day) of Baby’s birth would have been too sad, had not the fact of its being your birthday given a double significance,” [29] Alice wrote to her mother on 5 June.  Within a week, Alice and Louis had asked Queen Victoria to be their new baby’s godmother, to which the Queen gladly agreed, “Many thanks for being Baby’s godmother! It gives us great pleasure” [30].

Once again Queen Victoria voiced her disapproval over Alice breast feeding her newest child, but as Alice informed her mother, “Having no cow, or country place to keep one, in this tremendous heat where one can’t keep milk, and dysentery carries off so many babies, it would not be fair to deprive the poor little thing of its natural and safest nourishment.” But it would take more than a disapproving letter from her mother to discourage Princess Alice from what she thought was, “the best course to take for our children” [31].

During the later part of the month of June Alice had written to her brother Leopold, asking if he would stand as godfather to little May, as she was called.  Leopold replied by the end of the month. “I shall be delighted to stand Godfather to the infant, & to feel again that I have a share in one of your children” [32]. Leopold had thought much of his sister on the anniversary of his nephew Frittie’s death.

The christening took place on July 11 at Schloss Heiligenberg, outside of Darmstadt.  Alice’s brother Alfred and his new Russian bride Marie were staying with Alice and Louis, and Marie as godmother held the baby during the ceremony, announcing the names to be given to the baby, Maria Victoria Feodore Leopoldine.  Princess Charles stood as proxy for the Queen, and Alice was particularly proud of her older daughters, “My three older girls looked very nice, I thought, in lavender silk (your Christmas present).” she wrote to her mother, “and ‘Sunny,’ in pink, was immensely admired” [33]. But Alice still was thinking of Frittie, “I was glad it was another place, in different circumstances from the last christening.  As it was, it moved me much.”  Little Marie’s other godparents were the Countess of Flanders, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the Prince and Princess of Waldeck-Pyrmont.

Thus the last child of Alice and Louis was christened, and the now complete family took off to Blankenberghe on the Belgian coast for a month’s holiday, carefree and unaware of what lay ahead of them.

First published in Royalty Digest December 2003. Reprinted with author’s permission. All rights reserved.

REFERENCES

[1] Dearest Mama: Letters between Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia, 1861-1864, Roger Fulford (ed.), Holt Reinhart and Winston, 1968 – page 193
[2] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 193
[3] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 192
[4] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 192
[5] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 194
[6] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 205
[7] Dearest Mama, 1968 – page 205
[8] Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland: Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 77
[9] An Uncommon Woman, 1996 – page 215
[10] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 78
[11] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 79
[12] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 78
[13] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 139
[14] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 143
[15] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 145
[16] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 149
[17] Reminiscences, Princess Marie zu Erbach-Schönberg, Allen & Unwin, 1925 – page 116
[18] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 205
[19] Reminiscences, 1925 – page 116
[20] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 207
[21] Reminiscences, 1925 – page 117
[22] Reminiscences, 1925 – page 118
[23] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 252
[24] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 264
[25] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 279
[26] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 279
[27] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 279
[28] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 279
[29] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 322
[30] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 323
[31] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 322
[32] Prince Leopold – The Untold Story of Queen Victoria’s Youngest Son,  Charlotte Zeepvat, Sutton Publishing, 1999 – page 10
[33] Alice – Biographical Sketch and Letters, 1884 – page 323

PHOTO CREDITS

All photos are in the public domain.