Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain

[Ssyentz]

It's interesting to note the similarities in the husbands...Louis, Fritz, and later, Nicholas.  Each of the wives spur their husbands on. urging them to make themselves heard, respected, and, when appropriate, obeyed.  Much, IMO, can be seen in Alice's letter to Louis 10/3/76 in which she clearly sees the differences between her needs as a person and Louis' needs as a husband.  Her statement that she will attempt to be the wife Louis needs seems revealing.  Perhaps that particular point of view was one that also what Alix felt, although she never stated such.  Probably, V & F found a stronger meeting of minds and needs.  The role of nourishing wife, however, certainly seems to run through each of these women.

[grandduchessella]

That's a really interesting point.

Fritz was probably the strongest of the 3 but he was prone to depression and indecisiveness. Vicky was there to 'buck him up' as needed. Louis wasn't so much 'weak' as non-intellectual and would probably have just plodded on dutifully but with Alice Darmstadt became much more.

[Ssyentz]

When I read Alice's letters to Louis, I am reminded of Alixs letters to N...so much about being strong, making oneself felt.  V certainly said the same kinds of things to F, but hers were, obviously, ones of reinforcement!    It's so interesting to see shades of parents on their kids....Albert supporting V. and at the same time asserting himself!  tHE SPOUSAL RELATIONSHIPS ARE ABSOLUTELY INTRIGUING!

[bluetoria]

 It seems Vicki and Alice were similar, the dominant half of their marriages.  Do we attribute this to Albert rather than the Queen's influence???

I think that Prince Albert inspired in them such a sense of responsibility that came with their position that both of them were driven to work for the good of their people. Perhaps their husbands, while also wishing the good of the people, had not been raised in quite such a spirit of altruism. I think that this was the driving force behind both Vicky & Alice but, whereas Alice managed to achieve so much in a short time, Vicky's efforts were often thwarted. Many of Vicky's wonderful philanthropic schemes (her establishment of hospitals, her plans for the unemployed & rehabilitation of prisoners etc.) are often overlooked.

Louis & Fritz, without a doubt, also wanted to work to improve the conditions of their people, but I do not believe they had quite the same force behind it, as had been instilled into Vicky & Alice by their father.

Rosamund, that is a beautiful quotation about the 'fineness' of Alice's heart. Thank you for posting it.  :)The Queen's near collapse during Albert's illness, and the more so after his death, must have thrust Alice very quickly from girlhood into adulthood and she rose to her responsibilities with such selflessness. It is such a great pity that several years later, QV seemed almost to have forgotten this in her disputes with poor Alice, who always seemed to take the blame for everything!!  

[BobAtchison]

Does anyone think Louis was 'driven away' a bit by Alice?  He must have felt so dependent on Alice and her mother's money and influence.  Didn't Victoria pay for the New Palace?

[Ssyentz]

Louis doesn't seem, in the letters I've read, to be aware enough to have been driven away.  He doesn't seem dismissive, exactly...he merely seems to note that she's upset and wants to be sure that she doesn't feel that he intentionally harmed her.  His pursuits, as far as his family was concerned, appear to be centered around "not rocking the boat."

[Prince_Christopher]

Yes, I've read that Queen Victoria paid for the New Palace.

[rita]

Of course she had paid for the palace because Hessen- Darmstadt was a little poor country

[bluetoria]

I understood that a large per centage of Alice's £30,000 dowry was spent on it. This led to a deal of contention with Lenchen who not only received the same dowry, but also a 'free' home and an extra £6,000 annuity.

[Finelly]

Yep, Alice paid for it with her own dowry, which led to a lot of financial discomfort.  They had to go to cheap seaside places on vacation and needed help from Victoria just to get to England to visit her.

[Ssyentz]

In regard to Alice's spiritual quest:  

Alice seems to have certainly inherited her father's sense of introspection.  Additionally, she was most familiar with her mother's preference for the "simplicity" of Lutheranism, especially as opposed to the formality of Anglicanism.  Those two propensities alone would give rise to her need to question.

The Strauss influence appears IMO to be a path of assurance for her rather than one of confusion.  Quite simply put, her doubts were attached to organized religion, with its intrinsic "statutes" of every version, and not to faith itself.  That romantic (in the literary sense)  journey seems to have provided her with a well-grounded and, importantly, self-determined sense of faith.  Gerard Noel cites her words from Kenyon's book:
"THE WHOLE EDIFICE OF PHILOSOPHICAL CONCLUSIONS WHICH I HAD BUILT FOR MYSELF, I FIND TO HAVE NO FOUNDATION WHATSOEVER; NOTHING OF IT IS LEFT, IT HAS CRUMBLED AWAY LIKE DUST.  WHAT SHOULD WE BE?  WHAT WOULD BECOME OF US IF WE DID NOT BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A GOD WHO RULES THE WORLD AND EACH OF US?"

These words seem a solid truth, the result of a long personal quest, culminating in her acceptance of Frittie's death.   At some point, (citation I cannot locate right now), she stated that she felt the need to pray.  Her conclusion, then, seems to be one that is based on a faith in God, who can be reached individually.

In an age of questioning and discovery, her solitary journey seems to reflect a personal assessment  constituting a balance derived not only from a consideration of science- and philosophy-based uncertainty but also of a personal need to understand her role in her world, if not the role of each individual in her or his own world.  There's a newly-spun (chronologically, for her in her time) Wordsworthian certainty about the harmony she creates in her own mind.    

[bluetoria]

Ssyentz, I LOVE your post!!! You have expressed it so beautifully!  

In regard to Alice's spiritual quest:  

Alice seems to have certainly inherited her father's sense of introspection.  Additionally, she was most familiar with her mother's preference for the "simplicity" of Lutheranism, especially as opposed to the formality of Anglicanism.  Those two propensities alone would give rise to her need to question.
 

I couldn't agree with you more - but I think her father's influence was the stronger of the two. I think she & Prince Albert were such kindred spirits, though I doubt Prince Albert would have gone so far as she did in her spiritual quest.

The Strauss influence appears IMO to be a path of assurance for her rather than one of confusion.  Quite simply put, her doubts were attached to organized religion, with its intrinsic "statutes" of every version, and not to faith itself.  That romantic (in the literary sense)  journey seems to have provided her with a well-grounded and, importantly, self-determined sense of faith.      

I am not so sure that her path wasn't one of confusion, though. I do believe that for a time, she was thrown into great spiritual turmoil, which was never fully resolved. After Frittie's death, she seems to have withdrawn from her search, & taken refuge in her former beliefs. To her family this seemed like an 'upward' move, but I wonder whether it was more a matter of despair and resignation, than following her heart.

In regard to Alice's spiritual quest:  

In an age of questioning and discovery, her solitary journey seems to reflect a personal assessment  constituting a balance derived not only from a consideration of science- and philosophy-based uncertainty but also of a personal need to understand her role in her world, if not the role of each individual in her or his own world.  There's a newly-spun (chronologically, for her in her time) Wordsworthian certainty about the harmony she creates in her own mind.    

Absolutely!!! What a brilliant post!!   I think the Wordsworthian expression is so perfect because her aesthetic appreciation seems so connected to her spirituality. Thank you for writing this!!

(But...isn't it sad that she didn't continue her quest in the same way after Frittie's death. I find it so, so ironic that the superficial Queen Augusta accused her of atheism!!!!!!)

[Finelly]

One of the things I admire most about Alice is that she was constantly mindful of her spiritual life.  THe ability to continue to explore and question and ACT is to be commended.  The great danger, imho, of spiritual faith is that one can tend to rest on it rather than attempt to deepen it thru knowledge and thinking.

[bluetoria]

Yes, Finelly, I agree with you, too! Alice was such an excellent example of someone who not only sought to deepen her knowledge and understanding, but acted upon it for the good of people around her. A quality that Ella surely inherited! Had Alice been in the same situation as Ella, she might well have followed the same course, wouldn't you think?

[Ssyentz]

Thanks for your responses!

Turmoil IS a much more appropriate term!  Seems possible that at the time of her statement which I quoted earlier, she wan't aware of the impact that her path toward reaching that acceptance had in itself.  Her responses after the deaths of her children seem all the more genuine because she appears to recognize them as her own set of beliefs, formed only in her mind by herself.  

She was a woman surrounded by eqocentric people.  Louis responds to her outpourings by both denying (in couched terms) any responsibility for her state of mind and, most revealing, is one of QV's 1st responses to Alice's death, "THE FIRST TO BREAK IN MY CIRCLE OF CHILDREN."