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

[Teddy]

Maybe she did...but burned it with the correspondence. 

Maybe, but most unlikely. Because the receivers own the letters written by Irene.

[Eric_Lowe]

True...although if the person was deceased before Irene's death, they usually sent the letters she wrote back to her. So those will be gone. The only other place that had a correspondence that had not been touched is Sweden. The correspondence between Irene and her cousin Daisy Connaught (Crown Princess of Sweden) and those to her niece Louise Mountbatten (Queen of Sweden). Ilana told me that she was refused permission to research those documents for her book on VMH. So there may still exist a sourse to Irene...

[grandduchessella]

So Irene had correrspondence with Daisy? Was it just during the war years and immediately afterwards as a conduit between relatives on different sides of the war?

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed ! Daisy was tireless working for her relatives in both sides for news and casulties. Irene only got to know the news from her relatives through her. It was tragic that Daisy died so young. 

[Elizaveta]

How come that Irene was so neglected by her family (not that kind of neglection, such as starving her of love! I am sure that Ludwig and Alice loved Irene as much as they had loved their other children. But I mean why there were more mentions of Victoria, Ella, Ernie, Alix, and May compared to Irene)?

[Eric_Lowe]

Irene was a good girl, but unfortunately not brillliant nor a problem child. Those tend to be ignored a bit. 

[grandduchessella]

We also don't know that she was ignored at the time--she's been ignored in modern times as people write about her siblings--all of whom had more forceful personalities and/or interesting lives. There could be plenty of mentions of her in letters, diaries, etc... that are just never quoted.

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...Irene did not feature much in Alice's letters to her mother (unlike VMH, Ella, Alicky & may and...Fritte). 

[Elizaveta]

Exactly. It's totally understandable that historians didn't mention Irene much, but when it came down on how often Alice and other relatives mentioned Irene in letters...it's somewhat intriguing that Irene's name didn't come up often. Perhaps it was just another classic case of a middle child being ignored in the large family.

[Elizaveta]

Definitely a good girl. I wondered how she felt about all this thing of being "forgotten" by others and that her sisters, both older and younger, overshadowed her. Hey...I used to think that Victoria and Ella were the Hessian Big Pair and Irene and Alix were the Hessian Little Pair, but it was before I started reading books about their family and their relatives. So I was wrong then! Am I correct that Alix was closer to Ella than Irene, especially after her marriage to Nicholas?

[Eric_Lowe]

I thionk Alicky was close to Irene as a near age sister, while Ella & VMH were big sisters. She actually became closer to Irene when their children both had haemophelia. 

[Elizaveta]

Oh really? I don't know...it just seemed that Alicky was closer to Ella because they're living in the same country and have Russian princes as husbands.

[Eric_Lowe]

With both sisters having children with haemophila , it created a bond with them (not to mention they are neaer in age than VMH & Ella). There are some lovely pics of the sisters in a book called the "Jewel album" . 

[Elizaveta]

Gotcha!  But if Alix and Irene were close, then why wasn't their bond mentioned in some books I've read? It did make sense that since they had haemophilic sons and their close age, they should be closer compared to Alix and Ella.

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed...I am afraid that was because both sisters destroyed their correspondence with each other during WWI. But think about it...When Anna Anderson appeared who was among the first to see if she was geniune ? Irene !