| Princess Victoria Louise | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Victoria Louisec. 1910 | |||||
| Duchess consort of Brunswick | |||||
| Tenure | 1 November 1913 – 8 November 1918 | ||||
| Born | (1892-09-13)13 September 1892 Marble Palace,Potsdam,German Empire | ||||
| Died | 11 December 1980(1980-12-11) (aged 88) Hanover,West Germany | ||||
| Burial | 20 December 1980 Berggarten Mausoleum, Hanover | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue |
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| House | Hohenzollern | ||||
| Father | Wilhelm II, German Emperor | ||||
| Mother | Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein | ||||
| Prussian Royalty |
| House of Hohenzollern |
|---|
 |
| Wilhelm II |
Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia (German:Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte; 13 September 1892 – 11 December 1980) was the only daughter and youngest child ofWilhelm II, German Emperor, andAugusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Through her father, Victoria Louise was a great-granddaughter ofQueen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Victoria Louise's 1913 wedding toPrince Ernest Augustus of Hanover was the largest gathering of reigning monarchs in Germany sinceGerman unification in 1871, and one of the last great social events of European royalty before theFirst World War began fourteen months later. Upon marriage, she became theDuchess of Brunswick.
Victoria Louise was born on 13 September 1892 at theMarmorpalais inPotsdam, the seventh child and only daughter ofGerman Emperor Wilhelm II andEmpress Augusta Victoria.[1] "After six sons, God has given us our seventh child, a small but very strong little daughter," the empress wrote in her diary soon after the birth.[2] The princess wasbaptised in theMarble Gallery of theNew Palace in Potsdam on 22 October, the birthday of the empress.[1][3] She was named Victoria after her paternal great-grandmother,Queen Victoria, and Louise after her paternal great-great-grandmother,Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.[4] Known officially as Victoria Louise, she was nicknamed "Sissy" by her family.[5]
Historian Justin C. Vovk writes that Victoria Louise was intelligent like her paternal grandmotherEmpress Frederick, stately and dignified like her mother, but imperious and willful like her father. She enjoyed being the center of attention[6] and was her father's favorite.[7][8] According to her eldest brotherCrown Prince Wilhelm, Victoria Louise was "the only one of us who succeeded in her childhood in gaining a snug place" in their father's heart.[9] In 1902, her English governess, Anne Topham, observed in their first meeting that the nine-year-old princess was friendly, energetic, and always quarreling with her next eldest brother,Prince Joachim.[10] Anne later noted that the "warlike" emperor "unbends to a considerable extent when in the bosom of his family," and is the "dominating force of his daughter's life. His ideas, his opinions on men and things are persistently quoted by her."[11]
The family resided atHomburg Castle,[12] and Victoria Louise and Joachim would often visit their cousins – the children of the Prussian princessesMargaret andSophia – at nearbyKronberg Castle.[13] In 1905, the princess studied music with concert pianistSandra Droucker. For one week in May 1911, Victoria Louise traveled to England aboard the royal yachtHohenzollern with her parents, where they visited their cousinGeorge V, for the unveiling ofa statue of Queen Victoria in front ofBuckingham Palace.[14] The princess'sconfirmation took place atFriedenskirche in Potsdam on 18 October 1909.[15]
In 1912,Ernest Augustus, the wealthy heir-apparent to the title ofDuke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, came to the Berlin court to thank Emperor Wilhelm for havingCrown Prince Wilhelm andPrince Eitel Friedrich attend the funeral of his brother,Prince George William. At the time, theHouse of Hanover lived in exile atGmunden, Austria. While in Berlin, Ernest Augustus met Victoria Louise and the two became smitten with each other.[9] However, any discussions of marriage were prolonged for months due to political concerns;[16] Ernest Augustus was also the heir to theKingdom of Hanover, which theKingdom of Prussia annexed following the 1866Austro-Prussian War. The Prussian crown prince was displeased with the match and wished that Ernest Augustus would abdicate his rights to Hanover; in a compromise, it was decided that, in exchange, he would succeed to the smallerduchy of Brunswick, of which his father was the lawful heir. The family had been barred from the succession to Brunswick due to their claims towards the Hanoverian kingdom.[17]
Ernest and Victoria became engaged inKarlsruhe on 11 February 1913.[18] Their extravagant wedding took place on 24 May 1913 in Berlin.[19] It was hailed in the press as the end of the rift between theHouse of Hanover andHouse of Hohenzollern that had existed since the 1866 annexation.[20]The Times described the union as akin toRomeo and Juliet, albeit with a happier ending.[21] Despite press fixation on the union as a love match, whether the match was one of love or politics remains unclear;[21] historian Eva Giloi believes that the marriage was more likely the result of Prussia's desire to end the rift,[22] though Victoria Louise described it as a "love match” in one of her letters.[21]
In a diplomatic gesture,Emperor Wilhelm invited almost all of his extended family.[23] He also pardoned and released two imprisoned British spies, CaptainBertrand Stewart and CaptainBernard Frederick Trench, as a present to the United Kingdom.[24] The wedding became the largest gathering of reigning monarchs in Germany sinceGerman unification in 1871, and one of the last great social events of European royalty beforeWorld War I began fourteen months later.[25] Attendees included Wilhelm's cousinsGeorge V andTsar Nicholas II, who were also cousins of Ernest Augustus through their mothers. The wedding feast included 1,200 guests.[26]Empress Augusta Victoria took the separation from her only daughter badly and wept.[26] In a 2003 documentary,Constantine II of Greece, a grandson of the couple, recounted that their wedding was "the last time all the heads of state of Europe met" before the start ofWorld War I.[27]
The new duke and duchess of Brunswick moved intoBrunswick Palace in the capital ofBrunswick and began their family with the birth of their eldest son,Prince Ernest Augustus (1914–1987), less than a year after their wedding.[28] They had four further children:Prince George William (1915–2006),Princess Frederica (1917–1981), Prince Christian Oscar (1919–1981), and Prince Welf Henry (1923–1997). Through Frederica, Victoria Louise was a great-grandmother ofFelipe VI of Spain.
On 8 November 1918, her husband was forced to abdicate his throne along with the other German kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes, and the duchy of Brunswick was subsequentlyabolished. The next year, he was deprived of his British peerages under theTitles Deprivation Act 1917 as a result of his service in the German army during the war.[29] Thus, when his father died in 1923, Ernest Augustus did not succeed to his father's British title of Duke of Cumberland.
For the next thirty years, Ernest Augustus remained the head of the House of Hanover, living in retirement on his various estates with his family, mainlyBlankenburg Castle in Germany andCumberland Castle in Gmunden, Austria. He also ownedMarienburg Castle near Hanover; however, the couple rarely lived there until 1945.
Several of Victoria Louise's brothers were early members of theNazi party, including formerCrown Prince Wilhelm andPrince August Wilhelm.[30] While Ernest Augustus never officially joined the party, he donated funds and was close to several leaders.[31]
As a former British prince, Ernest Augustus as well as Victoria Louise desired arapprochement between the United Kingdom and Germany. Ostensibly desiring to pursue an alliance with the UK, in the mid-1930s,Adolf Hitler took advantage of their sentiment by asking the couple to arrange a match between their daughter Princess Frederica and thePrince of Wales. The Duke and Duchess of Brunswick refused, believing that the age difference was too great; Princess Frederica would have been around 18 years of age while Edward was over 22 years older.[32] Following his brief reign asKing Edward VIII in 1936 Edward, now Duke of Windsor, and his wifeWallis visited "the Cumberlands" at Cumberland Castle in Gmunden, Austria.[33] Instead, in 1938Princess Frederica married her second cousin, the future KingPaul of Greece.[34]
In May 1941, her father fell ill from an intestinal blockage, and Victoria Louise traveled toDoorn to visit him, as did several of her brothers. Wilhelm recovered enough for them to feel able to depart, but soon relapsed. Victoria Louise returned in time to be at her father's bedside, along with nephewLouis Ferdinand and stepmotherHermine, when he died on 4 June 1941 of apulmonary embolism.[35] By the time of the war's ending in Europe in April 1945, Victoria Louise was living with her husband atBlankenburg Castle.[36] A few days before Blankenburg was handed over to theRed Army by British and U.S. forces in late 1945, to become part ofEast Germany, the family was able to move toMarienburg Castle, at the time located in theBritish Occupation Zone, with all their furniture, transported by British Army trucks, on the order ofGeorge VI.[37]
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After the war, Victoria Louise spent much of her time attending public events inLower Saxony, supporting palace restoration projects, high-society parties, hunting, and the showing of horses. She also spent time helping with philanthropic causes, for instance supporting a holiday estate for low-income children.[38] Her husband died at Marienburg on 30 January 1953. When her eldest son made Marienburg a museum in 1954 and moved himself to Calenberg Estate nearby, she became at odds with him, although he had offered her several other manor houses to move into. There was also a rivalry between them about her popularity and public appearances. Instead, she moved back to Brunswick, occupying a house which had been offered to her by a wealthy industrialist and a circle of fans called "Braunschweiger Freundeskreis" (circle of Brunswick friends). She lived there until her death.[citation needed]
In 1965 she published her autobiographyLife as Daughter of the Emperor, and thereafter several other books, including biographies of her mother and of her sister-in-lawCecilie, the last crown princess of Germany. It is however believed that her publisher Leonhard Schlüter served as herghostwriter.[39]
She is buried next to her husband in front of the Royal Mausoleum in the Berggarten atHerrenhausen Gardens in Hanover, which is the burial chapel ofErnest Augustus, King of Hanover, and his wife[40] and, since his reburial after World War II, also ofGeorge I of Great Britain.
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Approximate translations of the titles into English are given in parentheses.
David Jones records in his prose-poemIn Parenthesis a fragment of song from theWestern Front – "I want Big Willie's luv-ly daughter" – implying (as Jones notes) "that the object of theBritish Expedition into France was to enjoy the charms of the Emperor's daughter".[41]
A number of vessels were named after the princess:
Knight of theOrder of the Black Eagle (Kingdom of Prussia)[45]
Dame, 1st Class, of theOrder of Louise (Kingdom of Prussia)[45][46]
Dame of theRoyal Order of Saint George (Hanoverian Royal Family)[45]
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of Saints Olga and Sophia (Kingdom of Greece)[45]
Dame of theOrder of Queen Maria Luisa,24 May 1913 (Spain)[45][47]
Order of the Medjidie, Special Class for Ladies (Ottoman Empire)[45]_ribbon_bar.svg)
Dame Grand Cordon of theOrder of Charity (Ottoman Empire)[48]
Dame Grand Cross of the Imperial AustrianOrder of Elizabeth,1911 (Austria-Hungary)[49]| Name[51] | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Ernest Augustus | 18 March 1914 | 9 December 1987(1987-12-09) (aged 73) | married first 1951, Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg; had issue. married second 1981,Countess Monika zu Solms-Laubach; no issue. |
| Prince George William | 25 March 1915 | 8 January 2006(2006-01-08) (aged 90) | married 1946,Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark; had issue. |
| Frederica, Queen of the Hellenes | 18 April 1917 | 6 February 1981(1981-02-06) (aged 63) | married 1938,Paul of Greece; had issue. |
| Prince Christian Oscar | 1 September 1919 | 10 December 1981(1981-12-10) (aged 62) | married 1963, Mireille Dutry (b. 10 January 1946); divorced 1976; had issue. |
| Prince Welf Henry [fr] | 11 March 1923 | 12 July 1997(1997-07-12) (aged 74) | married 1960,Princess Alexandra of Ysenburg and Büdingen; no issue. |
Their Lordships do humbly report to Your Majesty that the persons hereinafter named have adhered to Your Majesty's enemies during the present war: —His Royal Highness Leopold Charles, Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow; His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh; His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus (Duke of Brunswick), Prince of Great Britain and Ireland; Henry, Viscount Taaffe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote."
victoria louise.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia Born: 13 September 1892 Died: 11 December 1980 | ||
| Royal titles | ||
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| Vacant Title last held by Princess Marie of Badenas Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel | Duchess consort of Brunswick 1 November 1913 – 8 November 1918 | German Revolution |
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