Grandchildren of Victoria and Albert

Overview

Victoria and Albert had 20 grandsons and 22 granddaughters, of whom two (the youngest sons of Prince Alfred and Princess Helena) were stillborn, and two more (Prince Alexander John of Wales and Prince Harald of Schleswig-Holstein) died shortly after birth. Their first grandchild was the future German Emperor Wilhelm II, who was born to their eldest child, Victoria, on 27 January 1859; the youngest was Prince Maurice of Battenberg, born on 3 October 1891 to Princess Beatrice (1857–1944), who was herself the last child born to Victoria and Albert and the last child to die. The last of Victoria and Albert's grandchildren to die (almost exactly 80 years after Queen Victoria herself) was Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (25 February 1883 - 3 January 1981).

Just as Victoria and Albert shared one grandfather (Duke Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld) and one grandmother (Countess Augusta Reuss) in common, two pairs of their grandchildren married each other. In 1888, Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, whose mother was Queen Victoria's daughter Alice, married Prince Henry of Prussia, a son of Victoria's daughter Victoria. Another of Alice's children, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse, married Princess Victoria Melita, a daughter of Alice's brother Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1894, but divorced in 1901.

Prince Albert, the Prince Consort (26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861), lived long enough to see only one of his children (the Princess Royal) married and two of his grandchildren born (Wilhelm II, 1859–1941, and his sister Princess Charlotte of Prussia, 1860–1919), while Queen Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) lived long enough to see not only all her grandchildren, but many of her 87 great-grandchildren as well. (Two of Victoria's 56 great-grandsons were stillborn, two more died shortly after birth, and one of her 31 great-granddaughters was born out of wedlock.)

Victoria, the Princess Royal and first child of Victoria and Albert (21 November 1840 – 5 August 1901), known as "Vicky", was not only mother to their first grandchild, Wilhelm II, she was also the first of Victoria and Albert's children to become a grandparent, with the birth in 1879 of Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, who was the daughter of Princess Charlotte (Queen Victoria's first granddaughter). She was also the grandmother of the last of Victoria and Albert's great-granddaughters to die, Lady Katherine Brandram (4 May 1913 – 2 October 2007), daughter of Vicky's fourth daughter, Queen Sophia of Greece. After Lady Katherine's death in 2007, the only surviving great-grandchild of Queen Victoria was Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg (31 October 1916 – 5 May 2012), born to Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, daughter of Victoria and Albert's third son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

The death of Count Carl Johan Bernadotte marked the end of a generation of royalty that began in 1879 with the birth of Princess Feodora and included the British Kings Edward VIII and George VI, the Norwegian King Olav V, the Romanian King Carol II and the Greek Kings George II, Alexander I and Paul—as well as six uncrowned victims of political assassination, Earl Mountbatten of Burma (last Viceroy of India), Tsarevich Alexei of Russia and Alexei's sisters the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

Queen Victoria's own death in January 1901 was preceded by the deaths of three of her own children (Princess Alice in December 1878, Prince Leopold in March 1884, and Prince Alfred in July 1900) and soon followed by the Princess Royal's death in August 1901. Aside from the four boys who died as infants, Queen Victoria had survived seven of her grandchildren:

Ancestors of Victoria and Albert

Victoria and Albert had one pair of grandparents in common, Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf, who were parents both of Albert's father Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Victoria's mother (and Ernest I's sister), Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

Duke Francis & Countess Augusta → Duke Ernest I → Prince Albert
Duke Francis & Countess Augusta → Princess Victoria → Queen Victoria

Another of Victoria's (but not Albert's) grandfathers was King George III, father of Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, and his brothers King George IV and King William IV.

Marriage of Victoria and Albert

Queen Victoria (who had ascended to the throne on 20 June 1837 and been crowned on 28 June 1838) was married to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840 by William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace in Westminster (London). (Albert died fourteen-and-a-half years before Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 May 1876.)

Children of Victoria and Albert

Queen Victoria, at times, had contentious relations with her children. She had trouble relating to her children when they were young, some of this possibly owing to her own isolated childhood. She also, occasionally, resented that they interfered with time that she would prefer to spend with Albert. Both Victoria and Albert weren't above playing favourites with their children, and unfortunately did little to hide their favouritism. Both Vicky and Alfred were the favorites of Albert, and Arthur enjoyed the favouritism of both his parents. Victoria initially was jealous of the time that Albert had been spent with Vicky, but in her widowhood Victoria made Vicky something of her confidante, and for her part, Vicky had accrued hundreds of letters from her mother, to the point that shortly before her death, she had them smuggled out of Germany by her brother's secretary, Sir Frederick Ponsonby. Of her sons, Victoria had the most trouble with her eldest, the Prince of Wales, and her youngest, Leopold. Among her daughters, Victoria clashed often with Louise. She also had an awkward relationship with her second eldest daughter, Alice, who the queen, despite praising her thoughtfulness, also criticized her as being too melancholy and self-absorbed. In her widowhood, Victoria expected Beatrice, who was only four when her father died, to remain at home with her, and only permitted to marry on the condition that she and her husband remain in England.

Victoria, the Princess Royal

The eldest child of Victoria and Albert, Princess Victoria (the Princess Royal), called "Vicky" was born on 21 November 1840 and died on 5 August 1901, seven months after her mother's death in January. On 25 January 1858 she married Prince Frederick of Prussia (1831–1888; Crown Prince from 1861, German Emperor March–June 1888). They had eight children and twenty-three grandchildren.

Not only was the Princess Royal the first child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, she also gave them their first grandchild (the future Emperor Wilhelm II, 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) and was grandmother to both the first of their 87 great-grandchildren to be born, Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen (19 May 1879 – 26 August 1945), daughter of Princess Charlotte, and to the last of their 29 great-granddaughters to die, Lady Katherine Brandram (4 May 1913 – 2 October 2007), daughter of Princess Sophie.

Both the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the British King-Emperor George V (son of the Princess Royal's younger brother Edward VII) were grandchildren of Queen Victoria, as was Alexandra, daughter of Princess Alice and wife of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

Queen Victoria → Princess Victoria → German Emperor William II
Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → King George V
Queen Victoria → Princess Alice → Empress Alexandra

Children of the Princess Royal and Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia

The portrait below shows the Princess Royal with her husband Frederick and with Victoria and Albert's first two grandchildren, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941) and Princess Charlotte (1860–1919), who were the only grandchildren born during Albert's lifetime.

Edward VII

Prince Albert Edward (1841–1910), then the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844–1925), later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, on 10 March 1863. They had 3 sons (one of whom died within a day), 3 daughters, 7 grandsons (one stillborn) and 3 granddaughters. The Prince of Wales became King Edward VII and Emperor of India at the death of his mother Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901.

Edward's and Alexandra's son King George V (reigned 1910–1936) was the father of Kings Edward VIII (reigned 1936) and George VI (1936–1952), and the grandfather of the present Queen Elizabeth II (acceded to the throne February 1952) and her sister Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930–2002). As the only children of George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother, 1900–2002), Elizabeth and Margaret were thus great-granddaughters of Edward VII, great-great-granddaughters of Queen Victoria, and great-great-great-great-granddaughters of Victoria's grandfather, King George III.

George III → Edward, Duke of Kent → Queen Victoria → Edward VII → George V → George VI → Elizabeth II

Edward's and Alexandra's daughter Princess Maud of Wales became Queen of Norway when her husband, Prince Carl of Denmark, became King Haakon VII (1905–1957) upon the dissolution of Norway's union with Sweden in 1905. Their son, and Edward's grandson, became King Olav V (1957–1991); and Olav's children, King Harald V (since 1991), Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid, are thus great-grandchildren of Edward VII and great-great-grandchildren of Victoria and Albert.

Queen Victoria → King Edward VII → Princess Maud of Wales → King Olav V → King Harald V

Princess Alice

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843–1878) married Prince Ludwig of Hesse (1837–1892), later Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, on 1 July 1862. They had 2 sons (one of which, "Frittie", Prince Friedrich of Hesse, was a haemophiliac and died from bleeding out after a fall out of his mother's bedroom window), 5 daughters (one of whom died of diphtheria) and 15 grandchildren (two of whom died at a young age). Prince Ludwig succeeded to the Grand Duchy of Hesse as Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, and Princess Alice as the Grand Duchess of Hesse, on 13 July 1877.

Alice and Louis's daughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, married Prince Louis of Battenberg, and was the mother of Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885–1969), who became Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark when she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark on 6 October 1903. Princess Alice was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh the current prince consort of the United Kingdom as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Victoria was also the mother of Queen Louise of Sweden.

Queen Victoria → Princess Alice → Princess Victoria of Hesse → Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark → Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Alice and Louis's second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, married, in 1884, the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna, and younger brother of the then reigning Tsar Alexander III. They had no children. Following Sergei's assassination in 1905, she eventually became a nun and was killed by the Bolsheviks on July 18, 1918. She was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981 and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Prince Ernest Louis became Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse upon his father's death in 1892. He married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1894 and had one daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse who died of typhoid fever, aged eight. The couple were divorced 21 December 1901. The Grand Duke married for a second time to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1871–1947), and had two sons: Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse who married Princess Cecilie of Greece, a sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and had issue, and Prince Louis of Hesse and by Rhine.

Princess Alix of Hesse, the youngest surviving child of the Grand Ducal pair, became the Last Empress of All the Russias through her marriage to Nicholas II of Russia in 1894. They had 5 children, 4 girls, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and one boy, the Tsarevich Alexei, who was a haemophiliac. The Russian Imperial Family was executed on 17 July 1918 by a detachment of Bolsheviks in the basement of Ipatiev House. The entire family was canonized by the Russian Orthodox church in 2000.

Queen Victoria → Princess Alice → Princess Alix, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Alfred (1844–1900) married the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1853–1920), the only surviving daughter of Tsar Alexander II and his first wife, Empress Marie Alexandrovna, on 23 January 1874 at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. They had 2 sons (one stillborn), 4 daughters, 10 grandsons (8 of whom survived their first week of life) and 9 granddaughters. In June 1893, Prince Alfred achieved the Royal Navy rank of Admiral of the Fleet, shortly before succeeding his uncle, Ernest II, as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in August 1893.

Prince Alfred's daughter (and Queen Victoria's granddaughter) Princess Marie of Edinburgh became Queen of Romania in 1914 after marrying the future King Ferdinand in 1893.

Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Queen Marie of Romania → King Carol II → King Michael
Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Queen Marie of Romania → Queen Elisabeth of the Hellenes
Queen Victoria → Prince Alfred → Queen Marie of Romania → Queen Marie of Yugoslavia → King Peter II

Princess Helena

Princess Helena (1846–1923) married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1831–1917) in Windsor Castle's private chapel on 5 July 1866. Two sons and two daughters survived childhood; two other sons died within ten days of their birth. Princess Helena and Prince Christian had no legitimate grandchildren and one natural granddaughter who died without having issue of her own. Like other British royal holders of German titles (such as Admiral Louis Battenberg), Princess Helena, Prince Christian, and their two daughters gave up their titles to Schleswig-Holstein in 1917 when the British and German Empires were at war.

Princess Louise

Princess Louise (1848–1939), who married John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll (1845–1914) in 1871, was the only one of Victoria's nine children who was childless. She was the first British monarch's child since 1515 to marry a subject rather than someone of royal blood.

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught

Prince Arthur (1850–1942) married Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (1860–1917) on 13 March 1879 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. They had 2 daughters and 1 son.

In March 1911, the Duke of Connaught's nephew, King George V (son of the Duke's recently deceased brother King Edward VII) appointed his uncle to represent him as Governor General of Canada. He thus became the first, and so far only, Governor General of Canada to be of the Blood Royal, although he had been preceded in this office from 1878 to 1883 by the Marquess of Lorne, the non-royal husband of his sister Princess Louise (see above). [King George's son, the Duke of Gloucester, was later Governor-General of Australia, and the Duke of Connaught's own son was later Governor-General of South Africa. See above and below.]

Prince Arthur's elder daughter (and Queen Victoria's granddaughter) Princess Margaret of Connaught became Crown Princess of Sweden in 1907 after marrying the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1905 (however, Margaret died before Gustav became king).

Queen Victoria → Prince Arthur → Princess Margaret → Prince Gustav Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten → King Carl XVI Gustav
Queen Victoria → Prince Arthur → Princess Margaret → Princess Ingrid → Danish Queen Margrethe II & Greek Queen Anne-Marie
Queen Victoria → Prince Arthur → Princess Margaret → Count Carl Johan Bernadotte

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

Prince Leopold (1853–1884) married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1861–1922) on 27 April 1882 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. They had 1 daughter and 1 son. He inherited the disease of haemophilia from his mother, Queen Victoria, and spent most of his life as a semi-invalid.

His daughter, Princess Alice of Albany married Prince Alexander of Teck, the younger brother of Queen Mary, in 1904 and became Countess of Athlone when her husband was created Earl of Athlone in June 1917. She has so far been the longest-lived Princess of the Blood Royal of Britain and was the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria.

Prince Charles Edward, Prince Leopold's posthumous son, succeeded him at birth as 2nd Duke of Albany. In 1900, Charles Edward succeeded his uncle Alfred as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha but was forced to abdicate his ducal throne during the German Revolution of 1918, later gaining high positions in and through the Nazi movement. Because of his support for Germany in World War I, he lost his English knighthood in the Order of the Garter in 1915 and his British royal titles, peerages and honours in 1919. He is the grandfather of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden through his elder daughter, Princess Sibylla.

Queen Victoria → Prince Leopold → Prince Charles Edward → Princess Sibylla → King Carl XVI Gustav

Princess Beatrice

Princess Beatrice (1857–1944) married Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896) on 23 July 1885 in St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight. They had 3 sons, 1 daughter (the future Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain), 5 grandsons (1 stillborn) and 3 granddaughters. The present King Felipe VI of Spain, as a great-grandson of Victoria Eugenie, is a great-great-grandson of Princess Beatrice and thus a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria → Princess Beatrice → Queen Victoria Eugenia → Don Juan, Count of Barcelona → King Juan Carlos I of Spain → King Felipe VI

Due to anti-German feeling during the First World War, the members of the Battenberg family who were British citizens relinquished their titles of Prince and Princess of Battenberg and the styles of Highness and Serene Highness. Under Royal Warrant, they instead took the surname Mountbatten, an Anglicised form of Battenberg.