Princess Alice of Battenberg
Encyclopedia
Princess Alice of Battenberg, later Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
, and mother-in-law of Elizabeth II.
She was congenitally deaf
, and grew up in Germany
, England
and the Mediterranean
. After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
in 1903, she lived in Greece
until the exile of most of the Greek royal family
in 1917. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and the family were once again forced into exile until the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935
.
In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia
and committed to a sanatorium; thereafter, she lived separately from her husband. After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. She stayed in Athens
during the Second World War, sheltering Jewish refugees, for which she is recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations
" at Yad Vashem
. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded an Orthodox
nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.
After the fall of King Constantine II of Greece
and the imposition of military rule in Greece in 1967, she was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at Buckingham Palace
in London
, where she died two years later.
was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle
in Berkshire
in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse
, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
through his morganatic marriage
to Countess Julia von Hauke
. Her three younger siblings, Louise
, George
, and Louis
, later became Queen of Sweden, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.
She was christened in Darmstadt
on 25 April 1885. She had six godparents: her three surviving grandparents the Grand Duke of Hesse
, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, and Julia, Princess of Battenberg; her aunts Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia
and Princess Marie of Erbach-Schönberg; and her great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
Princess Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta
(where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed). Her mother noticed that she was slow in learning to talk, and became concerned by her indistinct pronunciation. Eventually, Princess Alice was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist. With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English
and German
. Educated privately, she studied French
, and later, after her engagement, she learned Greek
. Her early years were spent in the company of her royal relatives, and she was a bridesmaid
at the marriage of George, Duke of York (later King George V)
and Mary of Teck
in 1893. A few weeks before her sixteenth birthday she attended the funeral of Queen Victoria in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and shortly afterward she was confirmed in the Anglican faith.
and Queen Olga, at King Edward VII
's coronation in 1902. They married in a civil ceremony on 6 October 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day, there were two religious marriage ceremonies; one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and one Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. Thereafter, Alice was known by English-speakers as "Princess Andrew". The bride and groom were closely related to the ruling houses of Great Britain, Prussia
/Germany, Russia
, Denmark
, Greece, Hesse
, and Schleswig-Holstein
; their wedding was one of the great gatherings of the descendants of Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark
held before World War I
.
Prince and Princess Andrew had five children:
All of Prince and Princess Andrew's children later had children of their own.
After their marriage, Prince Andrew continued his career in the military and Princess Andrew became involved in charity work. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of Grand Duchess Marie of Russia
and Prince William of Sweden. While there, she talked with her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
, who was formulating plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses. Princess Andrew attended the laying of the foundation stone for her aunt's new church. Later in the year, the Grand Duchess began giving away all her possessions in preparation for a more spiritual life. On their return to Greece, Prince and Princess Andrew found the political situation worsening, as the Athens
government had refused to support the Cretan
parliament, which had called for the union of Crete (still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire
) with the Greek mainland. A group of dissatisfied officers formed a Greek nationalist Military League that eventually led to Prince Andrew's resignation from the army and the rise to power of Eleftherios Venizelos
.
, Prince Andrew was reinstated to the army and Princess Andrew acted as a nurse, assisting at operations and setting up field hospitals, for which work George V of the United Kingdom
awarded her the Royal Red Cross
in 1913. During World War I
, her brother-in-law, King Constantine of Greece
, followed a neutrality policy despite the democratically elected government of Venizelos supporting the Allies
. Princess Andrew and her children were forced to shelter in the palace cellars during the French bombardment of Athens
on 1 December 1916. By June 1917, the King's neutrality policy had become so untenable that she and other members of the Greek royal family were forced into exile when her brother-in-law abdicated. For the next few years most of the Greek royal family lived in Switzerland
.
The global war effectively ended much of the political power of Europe's dynasties. The naval career of her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had collapsed at the beginning of the war in the face of anti-German sentiment in Britain. At the request of King George V, on 14 July 1917, he relinquished the title Prince of Battenberg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the style Serene Highness
, and Anglicized the family name to Mountbatten. The following day, the King created him Marquess of Milford Haven
in the peerage
of the United Kingdom. The following year, two of her aunts, Alix, Tsarina of Russia, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
were murdered by Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution
. At the end of the war the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires had fallen, and Princess Andrew's uncle, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
, was deposed.
On King Constantine's restoration in 1920, they briefly returned to Greece, taking up residence at Mon Repos on Corfu
. But after the defeat of the Hellenic Army
in the Greco-Turkish War
, a Revolutionary Committee under the leadership of Colonels Nikolaos Plastiras
and Stylianos Gonatas
seized power and forced King Constantine into exile once again. Prince Andrew, who had served as commander of the Second Army Corps during the war, was arrested. Several former ministers and generals arrested
at the same time were shot, and British diplomats assumed that Prince Andrew was also in mortal danger. After a show trial he was sentenced to banishment, and Prince and Princess Andrew and their children fled Greece aboard a British cruiser, HMS Calypso
, under the protection of the British naval attaché, Commander Gerald Talbot
.
The family settled in a small house loaned to them by Princess George of Greece
at Saint-Cloud
, on the outskirts of Paris
, where Princess Andrew helped in a charity shop for Greek refugees. She became deeply religious, and on 20 October 1928 entered the Greek Orthodox Church
. That winter, she translated her husband's defence of his actions during the Greco-Turkish War into English. Soon afterward, she began claiming that she was receiving divine messages, and that she had healing powers. In 1930, after suffering a severe nervous breakdown, Princess Andrew was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia
at Dr Ernst Simmel's sanatorium at Tegel
, Berlin
. She was forcibly removed from her family and placed in Dr Ludwig Binswanger
's sanatorium in Kreuzlingen
, Switzerland. It was a famous and well-respected institution with several celebrity patients, including Vaslav Nijinsky
, the ballet dancer and choreographer, who was there at the same time as Princess Andrew.
During Princess Andrew's long convalescence, she and Prince Andrew drifted apart, her daughters all married German princes in 1930 and 1931 (she did not attend any of the weddings), and Prince Philip
went to England to stay with his uncles, Lord Louis Mountbatten
and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
, and his grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.
Princess Andrew remained at Kreuzlingen for two years, but after a brief stay at a clinic in Meran, was released and began an itinerant, incognito existence in Central Europe. She maintained contact with her mother, but broke off ties to the rest of her family until the end of 1936. In 1937, her daughter Cécile, son-in-law and two of her grandchildren were killed in an air accident at Ostend
; she and Prince Andrew met for the first time in six years at the funeral (Prince Philip, Lord Louis Mountbatten and Hermann Göring
also attended). Thereafter, she remained in contact with her family, and returned to Athens alone to work with the poor in 1938, living in a two-bedroomed flat near the Benaki Museum
. She attempted to resume maternal responsibility toward her teenaged son, welcomed his visit to Athens and explained to her brother why she felt Philip should now repatriate to Greece, apparently oblivious to the fact that Louis had already introduced Philip to the British royal family and was steering him toward a future in Britain's service.
, Princess Andrew was in the difficult situation of having sons-in-law fighting on the German side and a son in the British Royal Navy
. Her cousin, Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg, was the German ambassador in Greece until the occupation of Athens by Axis
forces in April 1941. She and her sister-in-law, Princess Nicholas of Greece
(the mother of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
), lived in Athens for the duration of the war, while most of the Greek royal family remained in exile in South Africa
. She moved out of her small flat and into her brother-in-law George
's three-storey house in the centre of Athens. She worked for the Red Cross organization, helped organize soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden
to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Louise
, who was married to the Crown Prince
. She organised two shelters for orphaned and stray children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighbourhoods.
The occupying forces apparently presumed Princess Andrew was pro-German, as one of her sons-in-law, Prince Christoph of Hesse, was a member of the NSDAP and the Waffen-SS
, and another, Berthold, Margrave of Baden
, had been invalided out of the German army in 1940 after an injury in France
. Nonetheless, when visited by a German general who asked her, "Is there anything I can do for you?", she replied, "You can take your troops out of my country."
After the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
in September 1943, the German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of Greek Jews had sought refuge. The majority (about 60,000 out of a total population of 75,000) were deported to Nazi concentration camps
, where all but 2,000 died. During this period, Princess Andrew hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who sought to evade the Gestapo
and deportation to the death camps. Rachel's husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece
in 1913. In return, King George had offered him any service that he could perform, should Cohen ever need it. Cohen's son remembered this during the Nazi
threat, and appealed to Princess Andrew, who with Princess Nicholas was one of only two remaining members of the Royal Family left in Greece. She honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family.
When Athens was liberated in October 1944, Harold Macmillan
visited Princess Andrew and described her as "living in humble, not to say somewhat squalid conditions". In a letter to her son, she admitted that in the last week before liberation she had had no food except bread and butter, and no meat for several months. By early December the situation in Athens had far from improved; Communist guerillas (ELAS) were fighting the British for control of the capital. As the fighting continued, Princess Andrew was informed that her husband had died, just as hopes of a post-war reunion of the couple were rising. They had not seen each other since 1939. During the fighting, to the dismay of the British, she insisted on walking the streets distributing rations to policemen and children in contravention of the curfew order. When told that she might have been shot by a stray bullet, she replied "they tell me that you don't hear the shot that kills you and in any case I am deaf. So, why worry about that?"
, that November. She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth's engagement ring. For the wedding ceremony, she sat at the head of her family on the north side of Westminster Abbey
, opposite the King, Queen Elizabeth
and Queen Mary
. It was decided not to invite Princess Andrew's daughters to the wedding because of the depth of anti-German sentiment in Britain following World War II.
In January 1949, the princess founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled after the convent that her aunt, the martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, had founded in Russia in 1909. She trained on the Greek island of Tinos
, established a home for the order in a hamlet north of Athens, and undertook two tours of the United States
in 1950 and 1952 in an effort to raise funds. Her mother was baffled by her actions, "What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays canasta
?", she said. After her daughter-in-law inherited the throne, Princess Andrew attended the coronation
of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953 wearing a dress in the style of her nun's habit: a conservative two-tone grey long dress and a flowing nun-like head-dress. However, the order eventually failed through a lack of suitable applicants.
In 1960, she visited India
at the invitation of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
, who had been impressed by Princess Andrew's interest in Indian religious thought, and for her own spiritual quest. The trip was cut short when she unexpectedly took ill, and her sister-in-law, Edwina Mountbatten, who happened to be passing through Delhi
on her own tour, had to smooth things with the Indian hosts who were taken aback at Princess Andrew's sudden change of plans. She later claimed she had had an out-of-body experience
. Edwina continued her own tour, and died the following month.
Increasingly deaf and in failing health through incessant smoking, Princess Andrew left Greece for the last time following the 21 April 1967 Colonels' Coup. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh invited Princess Andrew to reside permanently in Great Britain at Buckingham Palace. King Constantine II of Greece
and Queen Anne-Marie
went into exile that December after a failed royalist counter-coup.
in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives
in Jerusalem (near to her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, a Russian Orthodox saint). When her daughter, Princess George of Hanover
, complained that it would be too far away for them to visit her grave, Princess Andrew jested, "Nonsense, there's a perfectly good bus service!" Her wish was finally realised on 3 August 1988 when her remains were transferred to her final resting place in a crypt below the church.
On 31 October 1994, Princess Andrew's two surviving children, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess George of Hanover, went to Yad Vashem
(the Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem to witness a ceremony honouring her as "Righteous among the Nations
" for having hidden the Cohens in her house in Athens during the Second World War. Prince Philip said of his mother's sheltering of persecuted Jews, "I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress." In 2010, the Princess was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust
by the British Government.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
, and mother-in-law of Elizabeth II.
She was congenitally deaf
Congenital hearing loss
Congenital hearing loss implies that the hearing loss is present at birth. It can include hereditary hearing loss or hearing loss due to other factors present either in utero or at the time of birth.- Genetic factors :...
, and grew up in Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
. After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. He was a grandson of Christian IX of Denmark.He began military training at an early age, and was...
in 1903, she lived in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
until the exile of most of the Greek royal family
Greek Royal Family
The Greek Royal Family was a branch of the House of Glücksburg that reigned in Greece from 1863 to 1924 and again from 1935 to 1973. Its first monarch was George I. He and his successors styled themselves "Kings of the Hellenes"...
in 1917. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and the family were once again forced into exile until the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935
Greek plebiscite, 1935
The Greek plebiscite of 1935 was held to decide whether the monarchy should be restored.In 1935, prime minister Georgios Kondylis, a former pro-Venizelos military officer, became the most powerful political figure in Greece. He compelled Panagis Tsaldaris to resign as prime minister and took over...
.
In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
and committed to a sanatorium; thereafter, she lived separately from her husband. After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. She stayed in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
during the Second World War, sheltering Jewish refugees, for which she is recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
" at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded an Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.
After the fall of King Constantine II of Greece
Constantine II of Greece
|align=right|Constantine II was King of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, the sixth and last monarch of the Greek Royal Family....
and the imposition of military rule in Greece in 1967, she was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where she died two years later.
Early life
Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of BattenbergBattenberg family
The Battenberg family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, rulers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Germany. The first member was Julia Hauke, whose brother-in-law Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse created her Countess of Battenberg with the style Illustrious Highness in 1851, at her...
was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven was the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and his first wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom .Her mother died while her brother and sisters...
. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
The Princess Alice was a member of the British royal family, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.Alice's education was devised by Albert's close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar...
, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Alexander Ludwig Georg Friedrich Emil of Hesse, GCB was the third son and fourth child of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Wilhelmina of Baden.-Questioned parentage:...
through his morganatic marriage
Morganatic marriage
In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...
to Countess Julia von Hauke
Julia von Hauke
Princess Julia of Battenberg was the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, the mother of Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, and ancestress to the current generations of the British and the Spanish royal families.-Life:Julie Therese Salomea Hauke was born in Warsaw, in Congress Poland, then...
. Her three younger siblings, Louise
Louise Mountbatten
Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten became Queen consort of Sweden in 1950 and served as such until her death in 1965...
, George
George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven , styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was born the son of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine at Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany...
, and Louis
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, later became Queen of Sweden, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.
She was christened in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
on 25 April 1885. She had six godparents: her three surviving grandparents the Grand Duke of Hesse
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
Louis IV , was the fourth Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, reigning from 13 June 1877 until his death...
, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, and Julia, Princess of Battenberg; her aunts Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia canonized as St. Elizabeth Romanova was a German princess of the House of Hesse, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine...
and Princess Marie of Erbach-Schönberg; and her great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
Princess Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
(where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed). Her mother noticed that she was slow in learning to talk, and became concerned by her indistinct pronunciation. Eventually, Princess Alice was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist. With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Educated privately, she studied French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and later, after her engagement, she learned Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. Her early years were spent in the company of her royal relatives, and she was a bridesmaid
Bridesmaid
The bridesmaids are members of the bride's wedding party in a wedding. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman, and often a close friend or sister. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony...
at the marriage of George, Duke of York (later King George V)
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
in 1893. A few weeks before her sixteenth birthday she attended the funeral of Queen Victoria in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and shortly afterward she was confirmed in the Anglican faith.
Marriage
Princess Alice met and fell in love with Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (known as Andrea within the family), the fourth son of King George I of the HellenesGeorge I of Greece
George I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
and Queen Olga, at King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
's coronation in 1902. They married in a civil ceremony on 6 October 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day, there were two religious marriage ceremonies; one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and one Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. Thereafter, Alice was known by English-speakers as "Princess Andrew". The bride and groom were closely related to the ruling houses of Great Britain, Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
/Germany, Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Greece, Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
, and Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
; their wedding was one of the great gatherings of the descendants of Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 16 November 1863 to 29 January 1906.Growing up as a prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg which had ruled Denmark since 1448, Christian was originally not in the immediate line of succession to the Danish...
held before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Prince and Princess Andrew had five children:
- Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark (18 April 1905 – 24 April 1981), who married Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-LangenburgHohenlohe-LangenburgHohenlohe-Langenburg was a German county of northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located around Langenburg. Hohenlohe-Neuenstein was partitioned into it, Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and Hohenlohe-Kirchberg in 1701...
(24 March 1897 – 11 May 1960); - Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (30 May 1906 – 16 October 1969), who married Prince Berthold, Margrave of Baden (24 February 1906 – 27 October 1963);
- Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (22 June 1911 – 16 November 1937), who married Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of HesseGeorg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of HesseGeorg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse was the first child of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich....
(8 November 1906 – 16 November 1937); - Princess Sophie of Greece and DenmarkPrincess Sophie of Greece and DenmarkPrincess Sophie of Greece and Denmark was the fourth child and youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, making her the elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
(26 June 1914 – 24 November 2001), who married firstly Prince Christoph of Hesse (14 May 1901 – 7 October 1943) and secondly Prince George William of Hanover (25 March 1915 – 8 January 2006); and - Prince Philip of Greece and DenmarkPrince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
(born 10 June 1921), who married Elizabeth II.
All of Prince and Princess Andrew's children later had children of their own.
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890-1958)
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, known as "Maria Pavlovna the Younger" was the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Alexandra Georgievna of Greece by marriage Princess of Sweden...
and Prince William of Sweden. While there, she talked with her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia canonized as St. Elizabeth Romanova was a German princess of the House of Hesse, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine...
, who was formulating plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses. Princess Andrew attended the laying of the foundation stone for her aunt's new church. Later in the year, the Grand Duchess began giving away all her possessions in preparation for a more spiritual life. On their return to Greece, Prince and Princess Andrew found the political situation worsening, as the Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
government had refused to support the Cretan
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
parliament, which had called for the union of Crete (still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
) with the Greek mainland. A group of dissatisfied officers formed a Greek nationalist Military League that eventually led to Prince Andrew's resignation from the army and the rise to power of Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
.
Successive life crises
With the advent of the Balkan WarsBalkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, Prince Andrew was reinstated to the army and Princess Andrew acted as a nurse, assisting at operations and setting up field hospitals, for which work George V of the United Kingdom
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
awarded her the Royal Red Cross
Royal Red Cross
The Royal Red Cross is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing.The award was established on 27 April 1883 by Queen Victoria, with a single class of Member...
in 1913. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, her brother-in-law, King Constantine of Greece
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
, followed a neutrality policy despite the democratically elected government of Venizelos supporting the Allies
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. Princess Andrew and her children were forced to shelter in the palace cellars during the French bombardment of Athens
Greece during World War I
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Kingdom of Greece remained a neutral nation. Despite being neutral, in October 1914, Greek forces moved in and occupied the areas of southern Albania that it claimed at a time when the new Principality of Albania was in turmoil...
on 1 December 1916. By June 1917, the King's neutrality policy had become so untenable that she and other members of the Greek royal family were forced into exile when her brother-in-law abdicated. For the next few years most of the Greek royal family lived in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
The global war effectively ended much of the political power of Europe's dynasties. The naval career of her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had collapsed at the beginning of the war in the face of anti-German sentiment in Britain. At the request of King George V, on 14 July 1917, he relinquished the title Prince of Battenberg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the style Serene Highness
Serene Highness
His/Her Serene Highness is a style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein and Monaco. It also preceded the princely titles of members of some German ruling and mediatised dynasties as well as some non-ruling but princely German noble families until 1918...
, and Anglicized the family name to Mountbatten. The following day, the King created him Marquess of Milford Haven
Marquess of Milford Haven
Marquess of Milford Haven is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1917 for Prince Louis of Battenberg, the former First Sea Lord, and a relation to the British Royal family, who amidst the anti-German sentiments of the First World War abandoned the use of his German...
in the peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
of the United Kingdom. The following year, two of her aunts, Alix, Tsarina of Russia, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia canonized as St. Elizabeth Romanova was a German princess of the House of Hesse, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine...
were murdered by Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
. At the end of the war the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires had fallen, and Princess Andrew's uncle, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis Charles Albert William , was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918...
, was deposed.
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
. But after the defeat of the Hellenic Army
Hellenic Army
The Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...
in the Greco-Turkish War
Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
The Greco–Turkish War of 1919–1922, known as the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey and the Asia Minor Campaign or the Asia Minor Catastrophe in Greece, was a series of military events occurring during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May...
, a Revolutionary Committee under the leadership of Colonels Nikolaos Plastiras
Nikolaos Plastiras
Nikolaos Plastiras was a Greek general and politician, who served thrice as Prime Minister of Greece. A distinguished soldier and known for his personal bravery, he was known as "O Mavros Kavalaris" during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922...
and Stylianos Gonatas
Stylianos Gonatas
Stylianos Gonatas was a Greek military officer and Venizelist politician and Prime Minister of Greece between 1922 and 1924.- Early life and military career :...
seized power and forced King Constantine into exile once again. Prince Andrew, who had served as commander of the Second Army Corps during the war, was arrested. Several former ministers and generals arrested
Trial of the Six
The Trial of the Six or the Execution of the Six was the trial for treason, in late 1922, of the officials held responsible for the Greek military defeat in Asia Minor...
at the same time were shot, and British diplomats assumed that Prince Andrew was also in mortal danger. After a show trial he was sentenced to banishment, and Prince and Princess Andrew and their children fled Greece aboard a British cruiser, HMS Calypso
HMS Calypso (D61)
HMS Calypso was a C class cruiser of the Caledon sub-class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1917 and sunk in 1940 by the Italian submarine Bagnolini.HMS Calypso was built by Hawthorn Leslie and Company...
, under the protection of the British naval attaché, Commander Gerald Talbot
Gerald Talbot
Gerald E. Talbot is a former state legislator in Maine. In 1972, Talbot became the first African American member of the Maine House of Representatives when he was elected to represent part of Portland, Maine as a Democrat. He was a member of the legislature until 1978. In 1980, Governor Joseph...
.
The family settled in a small house loaned to them by Princess George of Greece
Princess Marie Bonaparte
Princess Marie Bonaparte was a French author and psychoanalyst, closely linked with Sigmund Freud. Her wealth contributed to the popularity of psychoanalysis, and enabled Freud's escape from Nazi Germany....
at Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...
, on the outskirts of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where Princess Andrew helped in a charity shop for Greek refugees. She became deeply religious, and on 20 October 1928 entered the Greek Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
. That winter, she translated her husband's defence of his actions during the Greco-Turkish War into English. Soon afterward, she began claiming that she was receiving divine messages, and that she had healing powers. In 1930, after suffering a severe nervous breakdown, Princess Andrew was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
at Dr Ernst Simmel's sanatorium at Tegel
Tegel
Tegel is a locality in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area of the 95 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of Saatwinkel.-History:...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. She was forcibly removed from her family and placed in Dr Ludwig Binswanger
Ludwig Binswanger
Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology...
's sanatorium in Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of over 18,000...
, Switzerland. It was a famous and well-respected institution with several celebrity patients, including Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations...
, the ballet dancer and choreographer, who was there at the same time as Princess Andrew.
During Princess Andrew's long convalescence, she and Prince Andrew drifted apart, her daughters all married German princes in 1930 and 1931 (she did not attend any of the weddings), and Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
went to England to stay with his uncles, Lord Louis Mountbatten
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven , styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was born the son of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine at Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany...
, and his grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.
Princess Andrew remained at Kreuzlingen for two years, but after a brief stay at a clinic in Meran, was released and began an itinerant, incognito existence in Central Europe. She maintained contact with her mother, but broke off ties to the rest of her family until the end of 1936. In 1937, her daughter Cécile, son-in-law and two of her grandchildren were killed in an air accident at Ostend
Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash
Sabena OO-AUB was a Junkers Ju 52 airliner owned by Belgian airline Sabena, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Cologne, Germany, to London, United Kingdom, which crashed near Ostend, Belgium on . The flight was scheduled to stop at Brussels, but bad weather forced the pilot...
; she and Prince Andrew met for the first time in six years at the funeral (Prince Philip, Lord Louis Mountbatten and Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
also attended). Thereafter, she remained in contact with her family, and returned to Athens alone to work with the poor in 1938, living in a two-bedroomed flat near the Benaki Museum
Benaki Museum
The Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece...
. She attempted to resume maternal responsibility toward her teenaged son, welcomed his visit to Athens and explained to her brother why she felt Philip should now repatriate to Greece, apparently oblivious to the fact that Louis had already introduced Philip to the British royal family and was steering him toward a future in Britain's service.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Princess Andrew was in the difficult situation of having sons-in-law fighting on the German side and a son in the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. Her cousin, Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg, was the German ambassador in Greece until the occupation of Athens by Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
forces in April 1941. She and her sister-in-law, Princess Nicholas of Greece
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia 17 January 1882 – 13 March 1957, sometimes known as Helen, Helena, Helene, Ellen, Yelena, Hélène, or Eleni, was a Russian grand duchess as the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin...
(the mother of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, née Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark was a member of the British Royal Family; the wife of Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck....
), lived in Athens for the duration of the war, while most of the Greek royal family remained in exile in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. She moved out of her small flat and into her brother-in-law George
Prince George of Greece and Denmark
align=right| Prince George of Greece and Denmark was the second son of King George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga, and is remembered chiefly for having saved the life of a future Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II...
's three-storey house in the centre of Athens. She worked for the Red Cross organization, helped organize soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Louise
Louise Mountbatten
Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten became Queen consort of Sweden in 1950 and served as such until her death in 1965...
, who was married to the Crown Prince
Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
Gustaf VI Adolf - Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf - was King of Sweden from October 29, 1950 until his death. His official title was King of Sweden, of the Goths and of the Wends. He was the eldest son of King Gustaf V and his wife Victoria of Baden...
. She organised two shelters for orphaned and stray children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighbourhoods.
The occupying forces apparently presumed Princess Andrew was pro-German, as one of her sons-in-law, Prince Christoph of Hesse, was a member of the NSDAP and the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
, and another, Berthold, Margrave of Baden
Berthold, Margrave of Baden
Berthold Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst August Heinrich Karl, Margrave of Baden was born on 24 February 1906 in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He was the son of Prince Maximilian, Margrave of Baden and Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland. He died on 27 October 1963 in Spaichingen,...
, had been invalided out of the German army in 1940 after an injury in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Nonetheless, when visited by a German general who asked her, "Is there anything I can do for you?", she replied, "You can take your troops out of my country."
After the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
in September 1943, the German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of Greek Jews had sought refuge. The majority (about 60,000 out of a total population of 75,000) were deported to Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
, where all but 2,000 died. During this period, Princess Andrew hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who sought to evade the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and deportation to the death camps. Rachel's husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece
George I of Greece
George I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
in 1913. In return, King George had offered him any service that he could perform, should Cohen ever need it. Cohen's son remembered this during the Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
threat, and appealed to Princess Andrew, who with Princess Nicholas was one of only two remaining members of the Royal Family left in Greece. She honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family.
When Athens was liberated in October 1944, Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
visited Princess Andrew and described her as "living in humble, not to say somewhat squalid conditions". In a letter to her son, she admitted that in the last week before liberation she had had no food except bread and butter, and no meat for several months. By early December the situation in Athens had far from improved; Communist guerillas (ELAS) were fighting the British for control of the capital. As the fighting continued, Princess Andrew was informed that her husband had died, just as hopes of a post-war reunion of the couple were rising. They had not seen each other since 1939. During the fighting, to the dismay of the British, she insisted on walking the streets distributing rations to policemen and children in contravention of the curfew order. When told that she might have been shot by a stray bullet, she replied "they tell me that you don't hear the shot that kills you and in any case I am deaf. So, why worry about that?"
Widowhood
Princess Andrew returned to Great Britain in April 1947 to attend the wedding of her only son, now styled Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten R.N., to The Princess Elizabeth, the elder daughter and heiress presumptive of King George VIGeorge VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
, that November. She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth's engagement ring. For the wedding ceremony, she sat at the head of her family on the north side of Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, opposite the King, Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. It was decided not to invite Princess Andrew's daughters to the wedding because of the depth of anti-German sentiment in Britain following World War II.
In January 1949, the princess founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled after the convent that her aunt, the martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, had founded in Russia in 1909. She trained on the Greek island of Tinos
Tinos
Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...
, established a home for the order in a hamlet north of Athens, and undertook two tours of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1950 and 1952 in an effort to raise funds. Her mother was baffled by her actions, "What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays canasta
Canasta
Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for 2, 3, 5 or 6 players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of 7 cards of the same rank and...
?", she said. After her daughter-in-law inherited the throne, Princess Andrew attended the coronation
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953 wearing a dress in the style of her nun's habit: a conservative two-tone grey long dress and a flowing nun-like head-dress. However, the order eventually failed through a lack of suitable applicants.
In 1960, she visited India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
at the invitation of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
Dame Rajkumari Amrit Kaur DStJ was the health minister in the Indian Cabinet for ten years after India's independence from the British Raj in 1947. She was an eminent Gandhian, a freedom fighter, and a social activist....
, who had been impressed by Princess Andrew's interest in Indian religious thought, and for her own spiritual quest. The trip was cut short when she unexpectedly took ill, and her sister-in-law, Edwina Mountbatten, who happened to be passing through Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
on her own tour, had to smooth things with the Indian hosts who were taken aback at Princess Andrew's sudden change of plans. She later claimed she had had an out-of-body experience
Out-of-body experience
An out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
. Edwina continued her own tour, and died the following month.
Increasingly deaf and in failing health through incessant smoking, Princess Andrew left Greece for the last time following the 21 April 1967 Colonels' Coup. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh invited Princess Andrew to reside permanently in Great Britain at Buckingham Palace. King Constantine II of Greece
Constantine II of Greece
|align=right|Constantine II was King of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, the sixth and last monarch of the Greek Royal Family....
and Queen Anne-Marie
Queen Anne-Marie of Greece
Queen Anne-Marie of Greece is the wife of former King Constantine II of Greece, who was deposed in referendums in 1973 and in 1974. Her title "Queen of Greece" is not recognized under the terms of the republican Constitution of Greece...
went into exile that December after a failed royalist counter-coup.
Death and burial
Despite suggestions of senility in later life, Princess Andrew remained lucid but physically frail. She died at Buckingham Palace on 5 December 1969. She left no possessions, having given everything away. Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary MagdaleneChurch of Maria Magdalene
The Church of Mary Magdalene is a Russian Orthodox church located on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, Israel.-History:...
in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
in Jerusalem (near to her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, a Russian Orthodox saint). When her daughter, Princess George of Hanover
Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark
Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark was the fourth child and youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, making her the elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, complained that it would be too far away for them to visit her grave, Princess Andrew jested, "Nonsense, there's a perfectly good bus service!" Her wish was finally realised on 3 August 1988 when her remains were transferred to her final resting place in a crypt below the church.
On 31 October 1994, Princess Andrew's two surviving children, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess George of Hanover, went to Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
(the Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem to witness a ceremony honouring her as "Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
" for having hidden the Cohens in her house in Athens during the Second World War. Prince Philip said of his mother's sheltering of persecuted Jews, "I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress." In 2010, the Princess was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust
British Hero of the Holocaust
The British Hero of the Holocaust award is a special national award given by the UK government in recognition of British citizens who assisted in rescuing victims of the Holocaust. On 9 March 2010 it was awarded to 25 individuals posthumously, and to two living people, Sir Nicholas Winton aged 100,...
by the British Government.
Titles and honours
- Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885–1903)
- Her Royal Highness Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1903–1969)
- From 1949 sometimes known as Mother Superior Alice-Elizabeth