Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900) and Grand Duchess Marie (1853-1920)

[Zonk]

Mossy was Princess Margaret. Here is a short bio from Wikipedia.

Princess Margaret of Prussia (Margarete Beatrice Feodora) (22 April 1872 – 22 January 1954) was a daughter of Frederick III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal. She married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse. In 1926 they became Landgrave and Landgravine of Hesse. She lost three sons in the two World Wars.

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Some of the Prussian princesses had a somewhat bad reputation from what I have read. No one really wanted to be associated with Wilhem, and I believe another Prussian princess (was it Louise of Sweden) married into another former house and it wasn't a success. Some royal houses weren't interested in trying to wed another one.

 

[jonnydep]

I always heard that she was named 'Melita' for Malta, but how is that since the names are somewhat simular but not the same in Englsih at least.

To my understanding, the Greeks and the Romans called the island Melita !
However the word Malta is derived from the Phoenician word Malat.....
i think all three may had ruled the island at one time or another !

 

[Russophile]

In Queen Marie of Roumania's bio she talked about Georgie, I think there was "something there".
She (Queen Marie) talked extensively about how whenever her mother traveled she had a huge perscription chest that had everything in it. I'll find the link.

Here's an excellent description of Marie of Edinburgh by Queen Marie her daughter. It's in "The story of my life: Chapter 5" I've included the link to the whole site as there may be other things TRF readers are interested in.
Queen Marie - Regina Maria of Romania

 

[Warren]

Thanks Russo. I'll just directly post this part. Queen Marie was quite incisive in the analysis of her mother:

Mama's Contradictory Personality

​

A CURIOUS mixture of tyranny and extraordinary kindness, she could undo at a blow years of patience and tolerance by a sudden hard and often unjustified rebuke, which, one felt, a quite small effort of self-control on her part could have avoided. There was, I think, something of that mysterious Russian irresponsibility in her nature, an elemental exasperation against all things and even against herself, which other nationalities in vain try to understand. There was a fundamental impatience beneath all her virtues, some urge to overthrow, to destroy with open eyes, even what she most appreciated, needed or loved—an impatience quite inexplicable except to those who knew the very basis of her nature, disciplined to the verge of torture by those who brought her up. It was a kind of rending asunder of bonds that were irksome, although, even to herself, she had never admitted that they were.

Mama, more than any other being I have ever known, would cut off her nose to spite her face.
. . . . . . . . . .
Extract from
The Story of My Life Part 5 by Marie, Queen of Romania
The Saturday Evening Post, 13 January 1934

 

[snowflower]

Here's a photo of a very young Marie in a Russian court dress I found on Flickr. She was really cute during her teenage years , although she grew up not to be very attractive. In this picture, I first had mistaken for her cousin Olga Konstantinova, so one can say that Marie looked more Romanov than Hessian.

 

[Russophile]

Here is Winterhalter's portrait of Marie of Hesse that seems to prove your point Snowflower.
Web Gallery of Art, image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1000-1850)

 

[EmpressRouge]

Being Alexander II's only surviving daughter and favorite child, it seemed likely that Maria Alexandrovna could have follow in some of her relatives footsteps and married a royal with few prospects abroad who was willing to live in Russia (on the Tsar's dime). Every generation of Grand Duchesses had one: her great-aunt Catherine Pavlova (Alexander I's favorite sister), her aunt Maria Nikolaevna (Nicholas I's favorite daughter) and her niece Olga Alexandrovna. We know Alexander II was very sad at the prospect of her marrying abroad and Empress Marie did not like Alice of Britain/Hesse's suggestion that GD Marie marry Alice's brother Alfred, probably for the same reason since Marie was her favorite child too. Would Marie have happier in a similar arrangement instead of marrying into the British court? I guess in the end, she managed to become the Duchess consort of Coburg and rule her duchy as she pleased.

 

[CarolinaLandgrave]

Definitely a marriage that was a first for both countries, obviously..... and coming on the coat-tail of the Crimean War - it still amazes me that it was ever allowed to materialize! QV was never found nor trusting of the Russians.

 

[snowflower]

Well , that marriage was always a mystery to me. I mean, they went against the wishes of Queen Victoria and Alexander II in order to get married and they weren't even in love with each other........

 

[IloveCP]

Sad to here that there marriage was not happy.Queen Victoria wanted her children to marry for love.I wonder why they agreed to marry.

 

[EmpressRouge]

Sad to here that there marriage was not happy.Queen Victoria wanted her children to marry for love.I wonder why they agreed to marry.

I've been reading From Splendor to Revolution by Julia P. Gelardi and it gives some insight into why/how the marriage took place. As the spoiled and beloved only surviving daughter of the Tsar, she would have been ensured a large dowry when she married, something not lost on Alfred. But Alexander II did not want her to live outside of Russia and Marie wanted to stay close to her family, so Alfred had pursued Marie for sometime before she agreed to married him. Marie's change of heart probably came from the marital crisis of her parents. By the 1870s, Alexander II had become completely besotted with his mistress, Catherine Dolgorukov. While the Tsar had previous mistresses, this one was particularly intolerable, especially to the Tsar's younger children who were devoted to their mother. Alexander II eventually would move his mistress and their illegitimate children into the Winter Palace and marry her soon after the Tsarina's death, causing great scandal among the family and the court. So Marie might have wanted to escape marry into a foreign court so to escape the escalating family drama.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Prince Alfred was the first royal visitor to Australia.
In 1867 he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Tasmania.
​

And was the victim of an assassination attempt on that tour.

On March 12, 1868 Prince Alfred, during his second visit to Sydney, was attending a fund-raising picnic on the Clontarf beachfront.
He was shot in the back by Henry James O'Farrell.
In April of 1868, O'Farrell was tried and hanged.
​

 

[Iluvbertie]

And was the victim of an assassination attempt on that tour.

 

[Warren]

One lasting outcome of the assassination attempt on Prince Alfred was the establishment of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, now one of Australia's largest.

The Prince was attending a fund-raising picnic for the Sydney Sailors Home at Clontarf Beach [for locals: Middle Harbour, east of the Spit Bridge] when the Irish would-be assassin shot him in the back, just missing his spine. For the following fortnight his recovery was attended to by six nurses who had been trained by Florence Nightingale.

Within two weeks of the events at Clontarf it was decided that a memorial building should be erected, "to raise a permanent and substantial monument in testimony of the heartfelt gratitude of the community at the recovery of HRH". This led to a public subscription which paid for the construction of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

v Crest of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney

 

[An Ard Ri]

In profile : Princess Victoria Melita

In profile: the British princess who scandalised the royal family | History Extra

 

[David Smith]

I corresponded with Frank Fitzgerald-Bush during the 1990's and came to believe the story of his mother's parentage from Prince Alfred of Edinburgh. As tyler123 mentions, it's hard to understand the Bush family's contact with the Mountbatten's, etc. if there wasn't substantial truth to the story.

 

[LadyAlice]

I've got a couple of questions about him as I don't know much other than what I've come across from reading a books about his siblings and parents.

What did make of his grandchildren and did he ever had a relationship with any of them?

I've heard that he had an obsession with princess Alexandra, can anyone tell me anymore informative about this?

What are his known mistressses and scandals of that kind? Ive read that whilst bertie got told off for Nellie, affie got let off

 

[Curryong]

Princess Alexandra enchanted just about everyone, including Alfred, when she first arrived in England and then married Bertie, Prince of Wales. She was only 18, young and beautiful and she and Bertie's lifestyle as a young married couple at Marlborough House was a great deal more exciting than hanging around a bereaved and sorrowful Mama at Osborne and Windsor.

Queen Victoria felt she, the sorrowing widow, should be the centre of attention. She didn't like London Society life anyway, and got herself worked up because Alfred (Affie) got on so well with his lovely sister-in-law. She felt he was spending too much time at Marlborough House and groused to Vicky in Prussia that there were dangers in Affie becoming too close to the young couple.

There was never the slightest chance that Alex would have indulged in an affair with her brother in law, but I think that Victoria felt that, like his brother, Affie was showing signs of being a womaniser!

Alfred was in the Royal Navy so was away at sea a great deal. He had an affair with a young unnamed woman in Malta, (as a young unmarried man) and his mother got to hear of it. As far as she was concerned purity in both sexes was everything, and Alfred, who looked like the Prince Consort and had been her favourite child, blotted his copybook for good with her from then on!

Alfred met his grandchildren of course when they came to Coburg. (He went to Romania alone on one occasion after Carol had been born, and also spent time in the South of France with Marie and her family.) He had been quite an absent father to his children because of his naval career, but Marie of Romania later wrote that her father wept when it was time for her to go to be married in Romania. He wasn't keen on the marriage but Marie his wife ruled where their children were concerned.

Of course in the last years of his life Alfred and Marie's marriage was to completely break down in the wake of their only son's tragic death in 1899, (it had not been going well for many years) and he drank really heavily in later life. He died of the same sort of throat cancer as his brother in law Kaiser Friedrich had suffered, so all in all, I don't think he really had strong relationships with his grandchildren, who were all very young at his death in 1900, though I'm sure he saw little Elizabeth of Hesse (Victoria Melita's daughter) more often than the others.

 

[LadyAlice]

How come affie and Marie never divorced after he retired from the navy? It seemed to me that it was almost over and their children had already grown up

 

[Curryong]

Royals just never divorced in those days. It was very, very rare and considered a complete disgrace.

I think Ducky and Ernie of Hesse's divorce was the first among Victoria's children/grandchildren/family to divorce ever and they waited until after she died. If any of Victoria's children had contemplated divorce they would have faced the wrath of Khan! Anyway, Marie liked being Duchess of Coburg too much. She would never have participated in anything like a divorce.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Upon her marriage to Prince Alfred, Marie had the double style of Her Imperial and Royal Highness. When she resided in England, is this the style she would have been addressed by?

Prince Alfred was a collector of glass and ceramic ware. Upon his demise in 1900, his collection was valued at half a million marks.

 

[Curryong]

There was a huge row about her rank and precedence at Victoria's court between the Queen and the Tsar after the marriage, when Marie found she had to give precedence to Alexandra (from insignificant Denmark!) and some of the Queen's daughters. Queen Victoria said she could be called Her Imperial Highness all she liked, but the Royal (the HRH) styling had to come first!

 

[Denville]

Royals just never divorced in those days. It was very, very rare and considered a complete disgrace.

I think Ducky and Ernie of Hesse's divorce was the first among Victoria's children/grandchildren/family to divorce ever and they waited until after she died. If any of her children had contemplated divorce they would have faced the wrath of Khan! Anyway, Marie liked being Duchess of Coburg too much. She would never have participated in anything like a divorce.

No, thtere was IIRC a divorce of Princess Marie Louise.. she and her husband didn't get on and I beleive the marriage was not consummated becuase he was possibly homosexual? He as a ruling prince coudl "give himself a divorce"..
As far as I can remember Victoria was sympathetic over that, becauase she felt it wasn't ML's fault..
But generally speaking yes of course your're right, divorces just didn't happen. Even among upper class people it was very rare unless there had been a big scandal wtih very public infidelity... or serious cruelty...
Royals and upper class couples who didn't get on, just led separate lives..

 

[Denville]

Princess Alexandra enchanted just about everyone, including Alfred, when she first arrived in England and then married Bertie, Prince of Wales. She was only 18, young and beautiful and she and Bertie's lifestyle as a young married couple at Marlborough House was a great deal more exciting than hanging around a bereaved and sorrowing Mama at Osborne and Windsor.


A than the others.

True that Alix was very charming, but I think that Affie did have a crush on her.. ab it more than just finding her charming like everyone did. BUt I am sure it meant nothing.. He just found her attractive and enjoyed being with her and it was all quite harmless. No way would he have ever indulged in anything with his sister in law and Alix hersef was a religious woman and newly married and in love with Bertie..
But I think that Vic under Albert's influence had become a terrible prude and thought it was more serious than it realy was.

 

[Curryong]

Marie Louise's marriage to Prince Aribert of Anhalt was annulled by her father in law, the Grand Duke. It was done by Royal decree, so it was as if the marriage had never been.

At least Ernie and Duckie of Hesse used the courts of Darmstadt and got a proper divorce decree. However they were both young and wanted to marry again. Aribert wasn't interested (so many rumours about the circumstances surrounding the end of the marriage which apparently wasn't consummated,) and it was against Marie Louise's religious principles to marry again, as she considered her marriage vows binding, poor woman!

 

[Denville]

Marie Louise's marriage to Prince Aribert of Anhalt was annulled by her father in law, the Grand Duke. It was done by Royal decree, so it was as if the marriage had never been.

At least Ernie and Duckie of Hesse used the courts of Darmstadt and got a p!

Well i think that it was still unusual.. even if they didn't marry again, it was still rathter scandalous to get one's marriage ended.. and IIRC it was't a short marriage? But clearly ML still felt it wasnt right for her to remarry, and she was I think afraid of Q Vic's reaction, but the queen was sympathetic..
Vic was capable fo being flexible at times...and I think that mabye without Albert's influence she might have become more tolerant.
As I recall she siad to P Louise that while generaly speaking ti was wrong to live together without marriage, she believed that there were times when it wasnt' possible for a couple to marry but that it wasnt morally wrong...

But Ernest and Duicky had had a proper marriage and had had 2 children, oen still born and one who died in childhood. So I think that an annulment wasnt on.
Perhaps Q Vic might have understood and tolerated a divorce with Ern and VM.. but yes generaly most people just did not get divorces because they were unhappy, only if there was a very serious reason

 

[Jay Bush]

Lady Irene FitzGerald

Hello;
My GrandMum was Lady Irene FitzGerald-Bush.
If you would like any information on her please email me @ jaybushcomposer@laserdog.com.
I will be happy to veryify any information you would like.
Marelenes' comment that it is not true I can verify for.
I welcome your response.
Regards;
Jay Tyler Bush

 

[Jay Bush]

Lady Irene

Hello again.
All the information you stated in your post is accurate.
Again I will confirm & give you all the information you like.
It is true Prince Alfred did have this daughter with Marie FitzGerald.
Regards;
Jay Tyler Bush

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The marriage of Prince Alfred and Marie Alexandrovna

 

[Durham]

The marriage of Prince Alfred and Marie Alexandrovna

Very interesting. The couple had an Anglican service immediately after the Orthodox one of course. Just to keep everyone happy!