Author Topic: Prince Harald & Princess Helena  (Read 45050 times)

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Eric_Lowe

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #45 on: May 11, 2012, 01:46:39 PM »
"Fat Helena" as she was called in the family was quite shockingly pro-German.

Offline Marc

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #46 on: May 12, 2012, 12:38:00 PM »
"Fat Helena" as she was called in the family was quite shockingly pro-German.

I wouldn't say that it was shocking as she was a German Princess who married into ruling family of Denmark...

Eric_Lowe

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #47 on: May 13, 2012, 12:50:46 AM »
True, but when your country is invaded...One has to make a choice. Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, Queen Sophie of Greece and even Queen Mary of Great Britain were German Princesses, but they supported their adopted country. Helena failed in this.

Offline DavidH

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #48 on: February 05, 2013, 11:37:48 AM »
Its a complete nonsense to speak of Queen Mary as a 'German princess'.  She was born in Kensington, raised in Richmond and apart from a couple of years in Florence, lived the whole of her life in the UK. She was proud to be British and was widely viewed in her own lifetime as the epitome of Britishness.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2013, 11:39:20 AM by DavidH »

Offline Marc

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #49 on: February 05, 2013, 01:06:59 PM »
Its a complete nonsense to speak of Queen Mary as a 'German princess'.  She was born in Kensington, raised in Richmond and apart from a couple of years in Florence, lived the whole of her life in the UK. She was proud to be British and was widely viewed in her own lifetime as the epitome of Britishness.

Technically,she was a German Princess as her title Princess von Teck was a German one...

The other thing is how she intimately felt about the country she was born and raised in...One could also say that Kaiser Wilhelm II was also viewed as an epitome of Britishness,yet it didn't help before WWI...Other example is Queen Alexandra was also born as a German Princess without any drop of Danish blood,but always had that subjective feeling about her Danishness and kept it until her death...

So,Helena was another kind of example,who always favored the country of her birth...

Eric_Lowe

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #50 on: February 05, 2013, 05:35:30 PM »
Every situation is different. Helena was born a German princess and also a niece of Kaiserin Augusta Viktoria ("Dona"), it is natural for her to be German. However the Danish Royal Family was fiercely anti-German. She should have hidden her sympathies but instead she showed it off in every opportunity. Pretty tactless !

Queen Mary was born in England of a German Royal Family (Teck, which is the morganetic branch of the Wurttemberg Royal Family). She could never forget her Germaness (one of the few things she passed on to her eldest son David with devastating results). She also corresponded with her Aunt Augusta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz through out WWI (which could almost be termed as treasonable). She also personally liked Kaiser Wilhelm II, unlike her husband George V.

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #51 on: February 05, 2013, 09:37:56 PM »
Helena seems to have done all right until she starting spouting off about how great the Nazis were. However, I think her German-ness in the early years would've paled beside the fact that she was a Schleswig-Holstein princess in particular with all the baggage that brought along vis a vis the Danes.
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Eric_Lowe

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Re: Prince Harald & Princess Helena
« Reply #52 on: February 05, 2013, 09:54:24 PM »
That I agree. However her mother was the level headed Calma, who was much mire tactful than her Aunt Dona. Also she was also related to her cousins Mary Loo & Thora, who did not advertise her connections.