TRH Louis and Alice Grand Duke and Grand Duchess

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (baptised Victoria Alberta Elisabeth Mathilde Marie; 5 April 1863 – 24 September 1950), was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837–1892) and his first wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1843–1878).Her mother died while her brother and sisters were still young, which placed her in an early position of responsibility over her siblings. She married her father's first cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg, an officer in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, in a love match and lived most of her married life in various parts of Europe at her husband's naval posts and visiting her many royal relations.During World War I she and her husband abandoned their German titles and adopted the British-sounding surname of Mountbatten, and two of her sisters who had married into the Russian royal family were murdered by communist revolutionaries. She was perceived by her family as liberal in outlook, straightforward, practical and bright.She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is the consort of Queen Elizabeth II.HIH The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia (Elizabeth Fyodorovna Romanova Russian: Елизавета Фëдоровна Романова), (1 November 1864 - 18 July 1918) was a German princess of the House of Hesse, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, fifth son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine. An older sister of Alexandra Fyodorovna, the last Russian empress, Elizabeth became famous in Russian society for her beauty, charm and good works among the poor.Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (Irene Luise Marie Anna) (11 July 1866 – 11 November 1953) was the third child and third daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Elizabeth of Prussia. She was the wife of Prince Albert Wilhelm Heinrich of Prussia, her first cousin. Like her sister Alix, Irene was a carrier of the haemophilia gene. Two of her three sons were haemophiliacs.Her younger sister, Alix, become the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of their paternal second cousin Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and her younger brother Ernst became Grand Duke of Hesse. Her eldest sister Victoria married their father's morganatic first cousin Prince Louis of Battenberg, later Marchioness and Marquis of Milford Haven, and another sister Elizabeth, (later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as St.Elizabeth the Martyr) married their father's first cousin Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich of Russia.Ernest Louis Charles Albert William (de: Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm), (25 November 1868-9 October 1937) was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918. His nickname was Ernie.Ernest Louis was the fourth child and eldest son of Grand Duke Louis IV and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was an older brother to Alexandra of Hesse, Empress Consort of Nicholas II of Russia.Ernest Louis's early life was shrouded with death. When he was five, his younger brother Friedrich died. The two boys had been playing a game in their mother's bedroom when the younger boy fell through an unlatched window onto the balcony twenty feet below. It was not a great distance, and at first, Friedrich seemed only shaken. However, he suffered from hemophilia, and had begun bleeding on the brain. He lapsed into unconsciousness that afternoon and died. Ernest Louis was inconsolable. "When I die, you must die too, and all the others. Why can't we all die together? I don't want to die alone, like Frittie." He told his nurse. To his mother he said, "I dreamt that I was dead and was gone up to Heaven, and there I asked God to let me have Frittie again and he came to me and took my hand." The younger child's grave became a place of regular pilgrimage for the family, causing Ernest Louis to become obsessed with thoughts of death and dying alone.In 1878, an epidemic of diphtheria swept through Darmstadt. All of the children (except Princess Elisabeth, who was sent to stay with relatives) and their father fell ill. Princess Alice cared for her sick husband and children, but on November 15, the youngest of them, Princess May, died. Alice kept the news from her family for several weeks, until Ernest Louis, who was devoted to little May, asked for his sister. Ernest Louis was overcome with grief when his mother revealed May's death. In an effort to comfort her grieving son, Alice kissed him, and within a week, fell ill and soon died, on December 14. Her death was a burden that Ernest Louis bore for the rest of his life.In 1892 Ernest Louis succeeded his father as Grand Duke.In 1894, Ernest Louis married his first cousin, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ("Ducky") on 19 April 1894, on the encouragement of their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, but the marriage was not a happy one. They had two children, a daughter, Elisabeth, born in 1895, who died of typhoid fever at age eight, and a stillborn son, in 1900. The couple became estranged and the two were divorced December 21, 1901, on the grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy" by a special verdict of the Supreme Court of Hesse.Ernest Louis remarried in 1905 to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, with whom he had two sons:* George Donatus of Hesse (1906-1937), who married Princess Cecilie of Greece (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), and had issue. * Louis of Hesse (1908-1968). Married Margaret Campbell Geddes, no issue. He adopted Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse as heir.Throughout his life, Ernest Louis was a patron of the arts, founding the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, and was himself an author of poems, plays, essays, and piano compositions. Ernest Louis served in the German military during World War I, and was asked to abdicate during the revolution of 1918 but never did. He lost his throne as it was simply abolished.In October 1937, Ernest Louis died at Schloß Wolfsgarten, near Darmstadt in Hesse. Although he had not reigned in Hesse for nearly twenty years he received what amounted to a State funeral on November 16, 1937. He was buried in the Rosenhohe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family.Even after his death, however, his childhood wish to not die alone echoed into the next generation. Shortly after his father's death, Prince Louis was to marry the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes in England. His older brother, the Hereditary Grand Duke George Donatus, and the rest of the family planned to take a plane from Hesse to England. However, the plane never reached its destination. George Donatus, along with his wife, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, their two young sons, Louis and Alexander, his mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, the children's nurse and a family friend died in an accident when their plane crashed near Ostend on their way to his brother's marriage. Cecilie was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the stillborn infant was found among the remains. Their youngest child, Johanna, who was not on the plane, was adopted by her uncle Louis, who was to remain childless. The little girl survived her parents and brothers by eighteen months, dying in 1939 of meningitis.Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (Friedrich Wilhelm August Victor Leopold Ludwig), (October 7, 1870 - May 29, 1873), was the haemophiliac second son of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, thus he is a grandson of Queen Victoria. He died at the age of two and a half.Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia (Alexandra Fyodorovna Romanova (Russian: Императрица Александра Фёдоровна Романова), born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (German: Viktoria Alix Helena Luise Beatrice Prinzessin von Hessen und bei Rhein) 7 June 1872 – 17 July 1918, was Empress consort of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of the Russian Empire. Born a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was given the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, which canonised her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer in 2000.Alexandra is best remembered as the last Tsaritsa of Russia, as one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease, as well as for her support of autocratic control over the country. Her notorious friendship with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was also an important factor in her life.Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (Marie Victoria Feodore Leopoldine), (24 May 1874 - 16 November 1878), was the youngest daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, the Grand Duke of Hesse. Her mother was the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She died of diphtheria at the age of four and was buried with her mother, who died a few weeks later of the same disease.