Figure 1.--. |
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His father was Louis I of, Grand Duke of Hesse (1753- ). His mother was Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt (1761).
Louis was born in 1877.
Louis married Princess Wilhelmina of Baden in 1804. It does not appear to have been a happy marriage.
Louis and Wilhemina had five children: Louis III (1806- ), Prince Charles (1809- ), Prince Alexander of the Rhine, (1823- ), and Princess Marie (1824- ). There were many rumors about the children. Many wispered that Alexander and his is sister Marie were actually the children of the Baron Augustus Senarxlens, the Grand Duchess' chamberlain. [Vickers, p. 8.]
The eldest, Louis, mairred mairred twice to Princess Mathilde of Wittelsbach (1833) and ,
Baroness Magdalen of Hochstadten (1868) but had no children. He was succeded by the son of his younger brother Charles.
Charles died before his brother and thus a son succeded Louis III upon his death as Louis IV.
Prince Alexander was Louis II's third son and a Godson to the Russian Tsar. After his sister Marie mairred the Tsarevich in 1841, Alexander decided that his future lay with Russia. He followed the martial tradition of Hesse and served with distinction in Russia. He had a regiment of lancers named after him and was awarded the Cross of St. George. The Tsar considered him as a huband for his niece. Prince Alexander appeared to have a secure future in Russia. This changed abruptly when he fell in love with one of his sister's ladies in waiting--a Polish Countess Julie von Hauke. The Tsar forbid the mairrage. Alexander after a brief trip to England in the end contaracted a marganatic mairrage. He returned to Hesse where is older brother was also outraged by the lowly dynastic status of his brother's Polish wife. Alexander was allowed to retain his rank of Prince, and the Countess was given the defunct title of Princess of Battenburg. (Battenburg is a towmn in the north of Hesse where they unitially lived. Their children would have no claim to the throne of Hesse. The Countess' rank was gradually risen as time passed and they eventually returned to Darmstadt. There was always, however, a slight hint of scandal associated wth the Battenburg's because of the Countesses origins. (Both Emperess Augusta and Prince Wilhelm's wife Donna objected to the Countess' non-royal origins. Actually Donna herself had humble origins.) Another son, Alexander--Sandro (1857- ) was appointed soverign prince of Bulgaria in 1879. He had wanted to marry a Princess Vivoria of Prussiam but her brother Prince Wilhelm objected, in part because of his non-royal orgins and in part because of the unstable Bulgarian throne. Prince Alexander was in fact forced to abdicate largely because he objected to Bulgaria's democratic constitution and attempted to institute arbitrary royal authority. They had four children. Prince Alexander was Lord Mountbatten's grandfather. Another son. Henry (1858- ), mairred Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughter. The mairrage was criticised both in England and Prussia.
Marie the youngest child and only daughter married the Russian Tsarevitch (future Alexander II) in 1841.
Louis acceded to the throne in 1830. He died in 1848 as revolution swept Europe.
Vickers, Hugo. Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece (St. Martin's Press: New York, 2000), 477p.
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