Prince Henry (Heinrich) of Prussia, his family and descendants , Part 3

This photo finally came up again on ebay--an original postcard version. There seems to be a lot of Henry/Irene memorabilia lately--a lot of postcards written to one or the other of them.

Also there was a postcard (actually a cabinet photo) with a description Prss Irene of Prussia, who in fact is Prince Alfred-jr of Edinburgh and his friends-officers : )

I saw that one but couldn't place who it could be! And that seller is usually really good at IDs and all--I've gotten great stuff from them over the years.

Yes. Me too.

i know these pics are not rare,

but i love these photos!







my favorite!

its wonder me how much they were in love. And it was a spontan pose. She looked surprised.





and what he wrote on the card! "to my own beloved Nin" 

Heinrich's resemmblance to his brother Wilhelm is noticeable.

Ann

He was nicer than Wilhelm to Vicky.

This is true, but Victoria's behaviour towards Wilhelm was pretty grim. Wilhelm did have his good points (maybe not many, but he was far from being a complete monster), but Victoria concentrated on the bad (much as her mother did with her brother), and in addition Wilhelm had all that unpleasant and ineffective treatment for his withered arm. In the circumstances it is hardly surprising that Wilhelm, who, unlike Edward, succeeded while his mother was still alive and so was in a position of power over her, did not get on with her.

It sounds as though Victoria jr could be very hard to live with - Alice of Athlone hints at this. Heinrich was of a much more 'easy' disposition than Wilhelm; he was fully able bodied and he was not the heir - his relations with his mother were always going to be easier.

Ann

The problem with Heinrich was that in Vicky's eyes, he was "stupid". The brilliant creature that was Vicky had no patience with people she deemed not on her level. She expected too much from her children. Irene of Hesse was able to become a bridge between mother and son that Dona was unable & unwilling to do so. I fault Dona much more than Wilhelm in the unkind treatment of Vicky.

so irene was the "angel" who brought vicky and her son henry together. And i did read that vicky liked very much Irene. So she was glad about the match about henry & irene. assecpt QV of course. She planed that irene should someone else. i cant remember who anymore.  He asked irene, but she didnt wanted. I think in this time her heart belongs to henry.

Actually Vicky wasn't happy that Irene (or anyone from that family) is marrying into her family due to the risk of hemophilia. She also did not approve of Ella marrying Willy and glad that Dona did. The result is that Willy got a bunch of strong boys and Heinrich got 2 sickly ones and one normal. Yet, Vicky was glad that Irene played a good influence on her son. 

According to Marlene's blog "Royal Musings" Irene made a trip to China in 1898.

Does, by chance, anybody know more about it as is written in the article published by Marlene? I know from a former entry on Marlene's blog that she
made her way home via the United States and Great Britain, but I would like to know more about it.

As Irene destroyed most of her private papers does anybody know if there are letters existing she wrote to her siblings or other relatives about her trip, possibly in the Hessische Staatsarchiv in Darmstadt?

Or does Ilana Miller wrote about that trip in "The four Graces"?

There was quite a bit about it in the news of the day. Wasn't Irene the first Western royal woman to visit China? I can't remember how much Ilana wrote about her visit.

Hi,

I have read Ilana's "The Four Graces" a couple of years ago and she does mention that Irene accompanied Henry to China.
She writes that Irene needed the Kaiser's permission to travel and that she was quite adament about going with Henry...

Larry

Sounds reasonable. Heinrich's Aunt Louise, Duchess of Connaught also visited Hong Kong during her honeymoon.

I recently found a report my great-grandmother has written about her youth - some sort of memoirs.

She writes that her father, a Doctor in the bath Bad Kreuznach, Germany, treated several Royals including Princess Irene of Prussia and her children. The little princes were accompanied by a very tall footman and they were delighted when my great-great-grandfather allowed them - on a visit to his garden - to eat the fruit from the trees. It seemed as if they were never allowed to do so at Hemmelmark and that they had never eaten cherries before.
She was also aware of little Sigismund's disease and that they had to treat him very carefully (fortunately he never had any bleedings while staying in Kreuznach).
The Princess Irene was described as a most kind person - she obviously regularly invited my gr-gr-great parents for dinner but as she was immensely shy her lady-in-waiting told them that they had to talk to the princess first and were not supposed to wait until she addressed them herself...  which normally would have been strictly against the protocol.

My great-grandmother was very shocked when - decades later - Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig told her that his nephew Sigismund of Prussia now lived the life of an ordinary farmer far away from Germany