"Baby": Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
On the 14th of April, 1857, Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha welcomed their ninth and last child. Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore was known within the family as "Baby."
Her
christening on the 6th of June 1857 was held in the private chapel
at Buckingham
Palace. Her
godparents were her eldest sister, Victoria, Princess Royal, her
maternal grandmother, Victoire, Duchess of Kent, and King Friedrich
of Prussia.
The inclusion of Mary as one of her Christian names was a tribute to George III's last surviving child, Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, who died on the 30th of April, 1857. (She has the distinction of being the only child of George III to be photographed). Feodore was in honour of Queen Victoria's half-sister Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, by marriage a princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Prince Albert Dies When Beatrice Is 4 Years Old
Beatrice's eldest sibling Vicky was born on 21st November 1840, so there was a gap of almost seventeen years between the queen and prince consort's first and last children.
Vicky married Prince Friedrich of Prussia (Fritz) in the chapel at St. James' Palace, London, on 25th January 1858. She relocated to Berlin shortly afterwards. Their first two children, Wilhelm (the future Kaiser Wilhelm II) and Charlotte, were born before Beatrice reached her third birthday.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert treated "Baby" differently than her siblings. She was their last child, and she was indulged and complimented more than her four brothers and four sisters, which occasionally caused resentment. Prince Albert claimed that she was "the most amusing baby we ever had."
On 14th December 1861, Beatrice lost her father. Her mother was hysterical, plunged into an all-consuming grief that saw her friend and mistress of the robes, Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland compelled to pull Victoria away from Albert's corpse in his bed.
That same night Victoria carried her four-year-old daughter from the nursery to her bed, and she wrapped her in the bedclothes that bore Albert's scent so that she could pretend that he was still with them.
Prince Henry of Battenburg: The Queen's Not Amused
That first night was an indication of Baby's destiny: She was to be a permanent comfort and companion to the queen in her perpetual mourning. Beatrice's vivacity decreased as her new role shaped her life.
Beatrice was educated according to the lesson plan that Prince Albert created for her and her siblings. She was taught English, French and German; she was noted for her tidy handwriting and good spelling and grammar.
Her four sisters' Vicky, Alice, Helena and Louise married and escaped to their own homes but not from their mother's vice-like grip. She wrote them countless scolding letters. Fifteen-year-old Beatrice became Queen Victoria's personal secretary. She even wrote her mother's dictated words into her journals so that the queen didn't have to complete the inky task herself.
There was one difference between her sisters and Beatrice: There was no younger sister for Beatrice to pass the secretarial duties to.
Queen Victoria was apoplectic when Beatrice asked for permission to marry Prince Henry of Battenberg—"Liko" to his family and close friends. Beatrice and Henry met at her niece Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg's wedding in 1884, and they fell in love. (Princess Victoria was the daughter of Princess Alice, Beatrice's second eldest sister. Louis was Henry's brother).
Queen Victoria Versus Princess Beatrice
The queen refused to talk to Beatrice for over six months in 1884, at a loss as to why Beatrice wanted to desert her. As Beatrice's siblings entreated the queen to permit the marriage, Victoria, feeling betrayed used curt notes to communicate with Beatrice. In November 1884, Victoria realised that "Baby" was not going to submit.
She allowed the marriage on the condition that Beatrice and Henry lived with her. This was agreed, but it was forever an irritation to Henry, who, after their 23rd July 1885 wedding on the Isle of Wight, learned quickly that Victoria still expected utter devotion and compliance from her daughter. He was of secondary importance.
Rumours circulated about Henry's suspiciously close relationship with Beatrice's sister Louise, Duchess of Argyll. Apparently, Louise once sharply told Beatrice that Henry much preferred her to his wife. There was understandable friction at the palace.
Three People in the Royal Marriage
The marriage was happy except for those unsubstantiated rumours and Queen Victoria's reliance on Princess Henry of Battenberg, as she was now formally known and Beatrice's tendency to scurry to her mother every time she called.
Despite the queen's bestowal of numerous honours and roles on Henry, including Governor of Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight and a position on the Privy Council, he yearned to resume his military career. The queen vetoed this.
The couple had four children:
Prince Alexander of Battenberg. From 1917 1st (and last) Marquess of Carisbrooke. (1886-1960).
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, later Queen Eugenie of Spain. (1887-1969).
Prince Leopold of Battenberg, from 1917 Lord Leopold Mountbatten. (1889-1922).
Prince Maurice of Battenberg, killed at Ypres during World War One. (1891-1914).
Malaria Claims Henry in 1896
Henry longed for a break from Queen Victoria's domination, so when the opportunity presented itself he eagerly set out to fight in the Anglo-Ashanti War in Africa. (This time, Queen Victoria allowed him to join the fight for reasons best known to herself).
Within days of his arrival in Africa at Christmas 1895, he fell ill. Malaria killed him on 20th January 1896 when he was being transported back to England. He was thirty-seven years old. When Beatrice received the news, she said, "the life is gone out of me."
Henry was buried in St. Mildred's Church on the Isle of Wight, the same church where he and Beatrice were married.
Beatrice, stoically and dutifully, continued to be her mother's secretary as she raised her children. Queen Victoria increasingly relied on Beatrice, and she rewarded her daughter with the Kensington Palace apartments that she had been raised in. She also made Beatrice the Governor of Carisbrooke Castle and the Governor and Captain-General of the Isle of Wight. Beatrice held these roles until her death.
Queen Victoria's Journals
When Queen Victoria passed away on 22nd January 1901, her son and successor, Edward VII, asked Beatrice to edit their mother's journals. The queen had requested that anything that could cause offence should be removed before the journals were released to the public. All content which was deemed too passionate, too indiscreet or embarrassing for Beatrice and the king's tastes was suppressed.
The journals took Beatrice thirty years to edit. What we have to peruse today is as much as two-thirds less than the original volumes that Victoria wrote between 1831-1901.
As arthritis and age took their inevitable toll on her, Beatrice embarked on another editing project. In Napoleonic Times related Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Beatrice's paternal great-grandmother's reflections on the Napoleonic Wars.
Beatrice Laid to Rest at St. George's and St. Mildred's
Beatrice's sons fought in World War One. Alexander and Leopold returned home, but twenty-three-year-old Maurice was killed in action at Ypres on 27th October 1914.
Alexander married and had one daughter, although it was widely believed that he was homosexual. Victoria Eugenie married Alfonso XIII of Spain. She carried the hemophilia gene, and their eldest son Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, was afflicted with the condition. Her brother Leopold was a hemophiliac and he died during emergency surgery in 1922.
Eighty-seven-year-old Beatrice died on 26th October 1944 at Bantridge Park, the Earl and Countess of Athlone's property in Sussex. On 3rd November, she was initially laid to rest in St. George's Chapel, Windsor and when the Second World War drew to a close, her remains were transported to St. Mildred's Church on the Isle of Wight so that she could rest beside "Liko" the man she'd fought so hard to marry.
Sources:
Princess Beatrice - Queen Victoria's companion - History of Royal Women
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, Princess Henry of Battenberg | Unofficial Royalty
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/carisbrooke-castle/history/princess-beatrice/
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