Figure 1.--Here we see the Princess of Wales with her four surviving children. Alex wasa doting mother at a time when upper-class mothers tend to give more attentionto he social swirl than raising cjildren. Jenny Chuchill was a good example. This photoggraph would have been taken about 1871, probably in Sandringham. Notice the boys are wearing matching Scottish kilt outfits.

Alexandra is said to have been a very good mother. She was an easy going, and loving mother. Motherhood was Alix's principal interest. Alexandra showed what was at the time was unusual devotion to her children. Mrs. Blackburn, the head nurse, descrines how, "She was in her glory when she could run up to the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds." 【Duff, p. 115.】 While genrrally permissive with the children, there were two matters she insisted upon. First, she did not allow the children to fight and quarrel. Second, she raised them to be simple and without the arrogance that also accompanys great wealth and social position. Even the Queen complimented her on this account. 【Battiscombe, p. 122.】 Unfortunately she contracted rheumatic fever resulting in a limp in her leg when the joint swelled. While only a little deaf at the time of Eddy's birth, the problem became more severe after the fever. The result was that she retreated from social life into her family, devoting all her time to her children and to her charities. She lavished affection on her children. Even as teenagers, she was distressed by even the shortest separation from them. She even continued to treat them like they were little children after they had grown up. After the death of her youngest son Pince John, she devoted even more affection on the other children, but had no more. Prince Eddy was a great concern for her as she realized that he did not have many of the attributes one might want as the Prince of Wales. Eddy if he had lived might well have doomed the monarchy. Alexandra was severely affected by Eddy's death in 1892. We have not found any specific information on her relationsjip with Prince George.

Sources

Battiscombe, Georgina. Queen Alexandra (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1969).

Duff, David. Alexandra, Princess and Queen (London: Collins, 1980).

Created: 5:17 AM 12/2/2025
Last updated: 5:17 AM 12/2/2025