Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...the war did change all that. Michen was complaining that she can't talk to Marie Coburg since she became "so German" !

[LenelorMiksi]

I highly doubt that Sandra convinced Marie Coburg to give her the majority of the jewels, or that the grand duchess had lost her backbone.  Sandra was the only one of her daughters on the German side of the war.  She still loved her other daughters, but nonetheless a rift was created, and Marie Coburg felt intensely patriotic to her adopted Germany.  So doesn't it make sense that she would want the majority of her jewels to go to a princely germanic house, and to the daughter who had nursed the German soldiers?  Also, why should Sandra part from the jewels that her mother had left her?  After being the "least interesting" of the sisters her entire life, she finally got to feel like the favorite.  Ducky won favor by converting to Orthodoxy and becoming a Russian Grand Duchess, Missy was a beautiful, popular queen, and Baby Bee was the Benjamina, the only one allowed to wait for a marriage of love rather than rushed into one in her teens.  Really, I don't find it hard to understand that Sandra would be reluctant to part with this physical proof of her mother's love. 

[Eurohistory]

And yet in this "fleecing" committed by Alexandra Ducky still made out of course with rather considerable real estate, the sale of which alowed Kirill and Ducky to purchase Ker Argonid (their Norman villa)11 and a flat in Paris.

[Norbert]

 They found it very difficult to marry "Baby Bee" off...certainly it was not a love match and was regarded as a mis-alliance by her relatives

[Svetabel]

They found it very difficult to marry "Baby Bee" off...certainly it was not a love match and was regarded as a mis-alliance by her relatives

I read in many books and articles that Beatrice-Alfonso marriage was a love match. At least for Alfonso.

[Yseult]

For sure, Svetabel Ali fell in love with Baby Bee at first sight, if the bio written by Ana de Sagrera is well documented De Sagrera states that fifteen minutes after the couple´s first meeting, when they were dancing, Ali asked in loud voice: "Princess, will you marry me?".

[trentk80]

Indeed. Their marriage was a love match.

[grandduchessella]

Was Bee the poorest? Prior to the Spanish Revolution (and Marie died in 1920), I would've thought that she was well off since she was married to the eldest son of the Infanta Eulalia--who, along with her husband, was a prime beneficiary of several large wills.

[Yseult]

Granduchessella, Antonio and Eulalia spent a lot of money, so I don´t know if their sons could receive so much...Antonio had a mistress who always wore fabulous dresses and jewels, spanish people used to named her "la Infantona" ("The Great Infanta" but with disdain). Eulalia was not a woman to be careful with her funds, she was here and there living without a sense of economy...

[LenelorMiksi]

I was reading in Van Der Kiste's biography of Victoria Melita that next to Missy, Sandra was the closest sister to her.  That's probably why Sandra agreed to share the jewels (which were hers legally at this point, it seems).  Perhaps the sisters blamed Sandra for getting more than her fair share of inheritance because they didn't want to believe that Marie Coburg wanted to give her more of her belongings than them.

[trentk80]

Was Bee the poorest? Prior to the Spanish Revolution (and Marie died in 1920), I would've thought that she was well off since she was married to the eldest son of the Infanta Eulalia--who, along with her husband, was a prime beneficiary of several large wills.

Alfonso and Beatrice were well-off before their exile from Spain in 1916, when they had to move to Switzerland. There they lived with financial difficulties until 1923, when they were finally allowed to return to Spain.

[Eric_Lowe]

By the time Ali came into his money, it had been almost completely gone. The only thing left was the house in Bologna and the title of the Duke of Galleria. Bee was given money (one million swiss gold soverigns) as her dowery and income from her mother's trust fund in Russia. When the revolution broke out, the income stopped. So apart from a few real estate, there is not not a lot of money and goods. So Marie Coburg's money would have been eagerly accepted at that time. I agree that Ducky was the one that Sandra was a little in awe of, she bullied Missy and Bee without a second thought. So Ducky's presence at the division of their mother's goods was a comfort to Missy...

[Eurohistory]

This is not correct. The Infante don Alfonso legally intervened his father's mismanagement of the vast Monpensier inheritance. Don Antonio was haphazard at best at managing it and lavished untold riches on his various mistresses. But to say that don Alfonso only received a couple of things around Bologna is factually incorrect at best.

In Andalucia the real estate of the late Duke of Montpensier was divided among his two surviving children: The Countess of Paris and the Infante don Antonio.

The real estate in Villamanrique, along with the casa palacio, went to the Paris'. This remains in the hands of his Orléans-Bragança descendants. Each of the children of the late Countess of Paris (1848-1919) received real estate in Andalucia or France, even the late Countess of Barcelona, may God rest her soul, received real estate from the Montpensier inheritance.

The real estate around Sanlucar de Barrameda (El Botánico) went to don Antonio and his descendants. Alfonso and Beatrice de Orleans lived there until their deaths and this was no small property. In fact, the Borbones Sanluqueños continue to own the property, where the Montpensier Archive is now located.

Arturo Beéche

[trentk80]

Around the time of the Duchess of Coburg's death, Alfonso and Beatrice were not well off and their correspondence with some relatives confirm this. They inherited the large estate at Sanlucar de Barrameda several years later, when they returned to Spain.

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. At the time of Bee's marriage to Ali, she had more money than he did (his father still control the money and spent much of it on his mistress, as Ricardo's article in RD has indicated). Not to mention the fact that the father (Antonio) brided Ali's younger brother Luis to his side during the dispute in the family. It is no secret that Bee got the least jewels from Marie Coburg (only the fringe tiara) compared to the other three...