Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg and family

[HerrKaiser]

Princess Beatrice edited and destroyed huge amounts of Queen Victoria's correspondences with, in particular, Empress Frederick (Vicky). I have read that the correspondence contain much Germanophile leanings that few in England would have enjoyed knowing. What was the conventional wisdom at the time of Beatrice's purging (30s and 40s I believe) and what is the view today as to the contents Beatrice so wanted to be wiped from history?

[Sarai_Porretta]

Interesting question. I have often wondered myself what was the nature of the writings that Beatrice destroyed. For instance, were they mostly of a political nature, as with the "Germanophile leanings" mentioned here, or also of a personal nature, perhaps those dealing with her servant/friend John Brown?

Fortunately, many unpleasant things that the Queen wrote were not all wiped out from history, i.e. those dealing with her attitudes towards sex, babies, and even her own children. I am glad that many of the Queen's writings were saved from destruction, in particular those letters written to relations abroad. Here is a good website listing some of the more controversial and even amusing of the Queen's "not so Victorian" quotes:
http://www.victoriana.com/doors/queenvictoria.htm

[Janet_W.]

I had read "somewhere"   that Beatrice removed  comments about the passionate nature of Victoria's marital life. Perhaps this is true, although certainly enough was left to indicate that Victoria and Albert were not always Victorians in the conventional sense of the term!  

[RomanovFan]

Did Princess Beatrice and Henry of Prussia have any children and grandchildren?

[jehan]

Did Princess Beatrice and Henry of Prussia have any children and grandchildren?

Uh No - But Princess Beatrice and Henry of Battenberg (her husband) did.  They had 3 sons and a daughter.  Alexander, Ena (later Queen of Spain), Maurice and Leopold.  They had several grandchildren through Ena, and a granddaughter  by Alexander,  The 2 youngest died as young men and did not marry.

[Svetabel]

I had read "somewhere"   that Beatrice removed  comments about the passionate nature of Victoria's marital life. Perhaps this is true, although certainly enough was left to indicate that Victoria and Albert were not always Victorians in the conventional sense of the term!  

D.Duff in his "Victoria and Albert" wrote much about it.

[elisa_1872]

I too often wondered why these immensely important papers were "cut" in this way. Some authors suggested it was because some passages the Queen thought unsuitable for preservation, e.g Christopher Hibbert says the following:-

"In fulfillment of a charge imposed upon her by her mother, Princess Beatrice transcribed passages from the journals and burned the originals when she had finished with them. She often went further than this, destroying whole entries which she thought unsuitable for transcription and substantially altering numerous passages which she did transcribe.."

It goes on to say that on the instructions of Edward VII, the letters of Queen Victoria to Lord Granville were destroyed, as well as some to Disraeli. (The ones to Disraeli were "about various members of her family")

(quot. fr."Victoria: a Personal History" - Hibbert.)

I think it was a "daughterly duty" why she did it, and though i've always felt it to be such a literary loss, one can understand she felt bound in honour to the promise she had made to her mother..

[grandduchessella]

Uh No - But Princess Beatrice and Henry of Battenberg (her husband) did.  They had 3 sons and a daughter.  Alexander, Ena (later Queen of Spain), Maurice and Leopold.  They had several grandchildren through Ena, and a granddaughter  by Alexander,  The 2 youngest died as young men and did not marry.

Beatrice was another one afflicted with the hemophilia gene. (She was very close to her Hessian nieces/nephew--I wonder if she and Alix & Irene ever communicated about it). Her 2nd son, Leopold (probably not the best name to pick   ) was afflicted with it. He was a very talented musician and well-loved by various relatives--he seemed to spend a lot of time with GDss Marie (Duchess of Edinburg & Coburg) in Germany. He died in 1922, Lord Leopold Mountbatten, after an operation at Kensington Palace. It garnered a lot of press attention at the time. The youngest son, Maurice, was oft-rumored to be hemophiliac but was apparently not. He served in the army during WW1 and was killed at Ypres where he was buried with his comrades at Pss Beatrice's request. Queen Ena really grieved the loss of this brother during the war and her loss was aggravated by the satisfaction her MIL took at every German victory (the Dowager Queen was Austrian).

[Ilana]

One thing is for sure... Princess Beatrice's handwriting was a lot easier to read...!

[Sarai_Porretta]

I too often wondered why these immensely important papers were "cut" in this way. Some authors suggested it was because some passages the Queen thought unsuitable for preservation, e.g Christopher Hibbert says the following:-

"In fulfillment of a charge imposed upon her by her mother, Princess Beatrice transcribed passages from the journals and burned the originals when she had finished with them. She often went further than this, destroying whole entries which she thought unsuitable for transcription and substantially altering numerous passages which she did transcribe.."

Thank you for posting that passage, Elisa. I now know that this task was something that was appointed to Princess Beatrice by her mother, not something that she did out of her own volition (at least, not entirely, as she did go further than was asked of her).

I think it is such a terrible shame that those documents were destroyed, as they could have been both interesting and invaluable to royal enthusiasts and historians alike. We may never know. However, I can somewhat understand that Beatrice may have been more concerned with destroying her mother's secret or even embarrasing writings to preserve her family's dignity rather than be concerned about keeping them for future historians.

[grandduchessella]

It is hard to get over how much very interesting (and not just in a gossipy way) information was destroyed at Beatrice's hands. It apparently took decades for her to finish so voluminous were her mother's writings (and of course she transcribed everything she kept). At least some was preserved--weren't much of Edward VII's and Queen Alexandra's letters destroyed upon their request? If I'm not incorrect, didn't the fact of Beatrice's complete control and her decisions as to what was/wasn't recorded, caused dissension within the family?

[HerrKaiser]

yes indeed. I recall seeing Queen Elizabeth making a sarcastic remark about how Princess Beatrice's actions. Prince Edward, during his work on and study of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, commented about the tragic loss of history at the hands of Beatrice. This attitude, however, is an easy way for the current family to appear "open" when the reality is that the destroyed information will never be known.

[grandduchessella]

Post Diana & Charles tapes, etc...I bet QEII wishes that a lot of current stuff had been destroyed!  

[Cambria_Coheed]

I've been having a really hard time finding pictures of Princess Beatrice's children and this is the only picture i've been able to find <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e386/mashka1899/230612115wKtkMM_ph.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
i was wondering if anyone know of any other pictures that are out there

Cambria

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

There are a couple in Julia Gelardi's 'Born to Rule', but I don't have a scanner, unfortunately.

If someone else does though, they could scan them in for you!

Rachel
xx