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

[CyrilVladisla]

H.R.H. The Duchess of Edinburgh 1874 Artist: Faustin
http://www.alamy.com/hrh-the-duchess-of-edinburgh-1874-image262788918.html

 

[Blog Real]

Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred Ernest Albert, Sydney, ca. 1868, by Montagu Scott.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ed_Ernest_Albert,_ca._1868,_Montagu_Scott.jpg

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia in her youth.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Maria_Alexandrovna_of_Russia_in_her_youth.png

 

[SirGyamfi1]

Grand Duchess Maria made British aristocratic women and even Queen Victoria jealous of her dowry and jewels.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Hand-coloured albumen photographic print of The Duchess of Kent and Prince Alfred
http://www.rct.uk/collection/search...55/the-duchess-of-kent-and-prince-alfred-1860

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Prince Alfred Alexander of Edinburgh in 1876
http://www.rct.uk/collection/290306...in-portraits-of-royal-children-vol-21-1875-77

 

[SirGyamfi1]

Really a marriage of convenience on both ends, Marie wanted to leave her family after her father’s affair with his mistress and was more in love with Alfred than he was with her and on Alfred’s part, Marie’s dowry paid off his debts and gave a good private income.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Prince Alfred ~ Engagement to a Russian Grand Duchess

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The childhood and adulthood of Prince Alfred Alexander

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In Queen Victoria's Matchmaking Deborah Cadbury wrote:
When Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Marie resided in England, her boots were ordcered from St. Petersburg, both feet identical since the Duchess of Edinburgh did not agree with the British custom of a distinct left and right shoe.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The Wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and Prince Alfred at the Palace chapel of the Winter Palace on the 23rd of January 1874.

The artist is unkown

 

[Minister of Court]

In Queen Victoria's Matchmaking Deborah Cadbury wrote:
When Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Marie resided in England, her boots were ordcered from St. Petersburg, both feet identical since the Duchess of Edinburgh did not agree with the British custom of a distinct left and right shoe.

I have never heard or read anything likeable about the Duchess of Edinburgh.

 

[An Ard Ri]

I have never heard or read anything likeable about the Duchess of Edinburgh.

Yes and the Grand Duchess sided with Germany during the War and following the Russian Revolution lost a major part of her fortune.Because of her support for Germany she lost her British income too.
Her brother Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia was murdered in January 1919 by the Bolsheviks.

 

[JR76]

[emoji38] I have never heard or read anything likeable about the Duchess of Edinburgh.

Princess Marie of Erbach-Schönberg had only good things to say about her first-cousin in her memoirs. She considered Duchess Maria to be her dearest and closest childhood friend.

 

[Prinsara]

I have never heard or read anything likeable about the Duchess of Edinburgh.

Julia Gelardi's From Splendor to Revolution portrays her far more sympathetically.

Less (or more?) surprisingly, Ana Sagrera's Ena & Bee is relatively positive about both her and Affie.

 

[JR76]

Julia Gelardi's From Splendor to Revolution portrays her far more sympathetically.

Less (or more?) surprisingly, Ana Sagrera's Ena & Bee is relatively positive about both her and Affie.

Good books? I've had Ana Sagrera on my to buy list for ages, but still haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[Prinsara]

Good books? I've had Ana Sagrera on my to buy list for ages, but still haven't gotten to it yet.

Gelardi was quite interesting generally about Minny, Miechen, and Olga, but specifically just for a different view of Marie (I had never read anything portraying her at all positively, either). I liked it more than her 'five consorts' one.

Sagrera I have only read the preview, but it seems worth the read, although I haven't decided if it will be when it's on sale or when I can obtain a library copy. She may be a bit biased the other way due to working with the family, but for instance she says Marie did love Affie (at least for quite a while) and felt as though she was an abandoned wife every time he went back to sea — and so she had another daughter after every time he came home...

I'm surprised Marie would allow herself to be best friends with a morganaut, though! Even if she did love her cousin.

 

[JR76]

Gelardi was quite interesting generally about Minny, Miechen, and Olga, but specifically just for a different view of Marie (I had never read anything portraying her at all positively, either). I liked it more than her 'five consorts' one.

Sagrera I have only read the preview, but it seems worth the read, although I haven't decided if it will be when it's sale or when I can obtain a library copy. She may be a bit biased the other way due to working with the family, but for instance she says Marie did love Affie (at least for quite a while) and felt as though she was an abandoned wife every time he went back to sea — and so she had another daughter after every time he came home...

I'm surprised Marie would allow herself to be best friends with a morganaut, though! Even if she did love her cousin.

The Battenbergs were very close to both their Hessian relatives and the Russian relatives. The part of Princess Marie's memoirs about her childhood summers at Heiligenberg is basically one long love letter to her imperial aunt and her family.

 

[Prinsara]

The Battenbergs were very close to both their Hessian relatives and the Russian relatives. The part of Princess Marie's memoirs about her childhood summers at Heiligenberg is basically one long love letter to her imperial aunt and her family.

I don't doubt for a minute that Marie's affection for her Battenberg cousins was sincere, but when you would never dream of allowing your children to marry someone with a similar background, what does that say?

She was a lady with multidirectional loyalties. It seems to have made her a bit complicated, or at least before it finally coalesced as Anglophobia.

Gelardi also mentions how her once-and still-obscenely privileged life in Russia became so difficult with her mother's health and her father's infidelity that she may have married Alfred at least partly hoping to escape the situation.

 

[Stefanie]

I read elsewhere that he blamed her for their sons suicide..
Little Affie was almost dead but she still wanted to celebrate their silver wedding aniversary and kept him hidden in some Sanatorium.

 

[Prinsara]

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

But isn't "Royal Prince Alfred" considered redundant? Why not just "Prince Alfred" or "Royal Alfred"?

Affie seems to have been very lucky with surviving and recovering, but I wonder if getting shot didn't end up affecting his health later. I didn't realize the attempt was so serious.

 

[Stefanie]

He didn' t recover but died. He was in love with a commoner who he even secretely married but his family of course did not accept and it was to be anulled shortly afterwards. During the silver wedding celebrations he was already dead sick and his mother kept him hidden in a hospital where he died a few hours later.

 

[Prinsara]

He didn' t recover but died. He was in love with a commoner who he even secretely married but his family of course did not accept and it was to be anulled shortly afterwards. During the silver wedding celebrations he was already dead sick and his mother kept him hidden in a hospital where he died a few hours later.

You're mistaking Affie who was indeed shot in Australia (see the hospital above named for the event) for his son Young Alfred who shot himself.

You might say the bullet passed through the generations.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Marie Alexandrovna, waltz by Charles Godfrey, dedicated to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/XE152161