Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert had 9 children, five girls and four boys.
There were 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and each of the children had
their own qualities and different personalities. But Queen Victoria’s life would be rocked
a number of times throughout her life, and in particular following the death of her Husband
Prince Albert how was in his 40s, she would never be the same. She would spend her days
in mourning clothes, and she would even have her husband’s bedroom made up each day as
if he was still alive. But there was another significant number of heartbreaks that the
Queen of Britain and the Empress of India had to deal with. She would throughout her
life have to deal with the deaths of her children, and there were three that died before the
aged Queen and she was rocked by these. But what is the story of the tragic death of Queen
Victoria’s children?
Prince Alice was the third child and the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert,
and she would be the first of Queen Victoria’s non children to die. Alice spent a large amount
of her childhood with her parents and her siblings in different royal residences, and
she was given a brilliant education. She also was skilled in practical subjects and activities,
however when her father became very ill in December 1861, Alice would nurse Albert until
the day he died. She was close with her parents, and following her father’s death she would
serve for 6 months as Queen Victoria’s secretary. She did marry a minor German prince, Louis
of Hesse and their wedding took place at Osborne House, and the Queen remarked that it was
more of a funeral than a wedding. But Alice who was then living in Germany was rather
unhappy, and she began to have fractious relations with her mother. But she was a woman who was
very interested in nursing and the work of Florence Nightingale, and when Hesse became
involved in the Austro-Prussian war, Alice who was at the time pregnant devoted a lot
of her time to helping manage field hospitals. But Queen Victoria did not like this, and
she was worried about Alice’s work in medicine and the fact a Queen of Britain was doing
this sort of work.
But in 1877, Alice became a Grand Duchess and tragedy would hit her in the years before.
Her youngest son died in 1873 falling from a window, and following this Alice never recovered.
Queen Victoria at this time wasn’t too focussed on her daughter’s well being, but Alice
then following her son’s death devoted more time to her children. She resumed public duties
but her relationship with her husband was becoming strained. She travelled to England
in 1876 as she was treated for a complained caused by a backward curvature of the womb,
and she stayed at Balmoral to recover. She wrote to her husband back home complaining
saying. ‘I longed for real companionship, for apart from that life had nothing to offer me in
Darmstadt...So naturally I am bitterly disappointed with myself when I look back, and see that
in spite of great ambitions, good intentions, and real effort, my hopes have nevertheless
been completely ship-wrecked...You say, darling, that you would never have caused me hardship intentionally...I
only regret the lack of any intention or desire – or rather insight – to be more to me,
and that does not mean spending all your time with me, without wishing to share anything
with me at the same time. But I am wrong to talk of these things. Your letters are so
dear and kind – but so empty and bare – I feel myself through them that I have less
to say to you than any other person. Rain – fine weather – things that have happened
– that is all I ever have to tell you about – so utterly cut off is my real self, my
innermost life, from yours...I have tried again and again to talk to you about more
serious things, when I felt the need to do so – but we never meet each other – we
have developed separately...and that is why I feel true companionship is an impossibility
for us – because our thoughts will never meet...I love you too so very much, my darling
husband, and that is why it is so sad to feel that our life is nevertheless so incomplete...But
you are never intentionally to blame for this – I never think that, never…’
But In November 1878, the household became ill with diphtheria. Alice’s eldest daughter
was the first to get ill, and the disease the spread to the other children before her
husband caught it. Alice was called to her daughter Marie’s bedside, and she choked
to death. Alice was completely distraught, and she kept the news of her daughter’s
death a secret. But she would also get very ill from the disease that she caught from
her son. Her final words were ‘Dear papa,’ and on the 14th December 1878 at 2:30am she
lost consciousness and died 6 hours later. She was the first of Queen Victoria’s children
to die, and Victoria would outlive her by more than 20 years. The Queen noted, ‘This
terrible day come round again, my precious child who stood by me and upheld me 17 years
ago on the same day taken and by such an awful and fearful disease, she had darling papa’s
nature and much of his self sacrificing character and fearless and entire devotion to duty.’
She was just 35 when she died.
The next to die would be the youngest son and eighty child of Victoria and Albert. Prince
Leopold, was created the Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow. He was highly
educated and was considered very intelligent and he would go to Oxford University, however
it became clear that from an early age he suffered from the disease haemophilia and
that he was very delicate. There was some debate as to whether he also had a form of
mild epilepsy. He would not be able to pursue a military career because of his illness and
he was forced to avoid even minor injury as he could have bled out and died. Prince Leopold
was at times coddled by his mother Victoria, and she wanted to keep him at home to prevent
any injury. Due to his haemophilia he had trouble finding a wife, and Victoria following
a number of failed possibilities suggested he met with Princess Helen Frederica the daughter
of the reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont. The pair married at St Georges’ Chapel in
Windsor Castle, and they had a happy but short marriage. Leopold would not live to see the
birth of his son. He had in the past gone to Europe to consult with other doctors, and
he went to Cannes to see a doctor about his joint pain. His wife who was pregnant begged
for him not to go, but he wouldn’t return. On the 27th March 1884, Leopold whilst at
his Cannes Presidence slipped and fell, and he injured his knee and then hit his head.
In the early hours of the next morning he would get a cerebral haemorrhage, and he was
the repatriated back to Britain where he was buried in the Royal Vault. He died six years
after his older sister Alice, but was only 30 when he died. Queen Victoria wrote of his
death, ‘Another awful blow has fallen upon me & all of us today. My beloved Leopold,
that bright, clever son, who had so many times recovered from such fearful illness, & from
various small accidents, has been taken from us! To lose another dear child, far from me,
& one who was so gifted, & such a help to me, is too dreadful!’
Alfred the Duke of Saxe Coburg and second son of Victoria would die shortly before his
mother. He was a brilliant officer in the Royal Navy, and he was a skilled military
commander and man. He would later become the Duke of Edinburgh, and would marry Grand Duchess
Maria of Russia, the second daughter of Emperor Alexander. II. Alfred later became the Duke
of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, and he was a man who was a heavy smoker. But on the 30th July
1900, inside a lodge he was taken very ill and he died of throat cancer. His death would
come shortly before his mother who would die six months later, and she would dedicate a
Celtic cross to him in the grounds of Balmoral that she did get to see made before she died.
These three children of Queen Victoria tragically died before the long reigning Queen of Britain
did. Victoria succumbed to a period of illness where she had a number of strokes on the 22nd
January 1901. In her final months she was aware that her eldest child Vicky the Princess
Royal and German Empress was very ill. She had been suffering for a number of years with
inoperable breast cancer, and Vicky was forced to stay in bed for long periods. The cancer
by the autumn of 1900 had spread to her spine and following her mother’s death the new
King would visit his terminally ill sister in her final days. But Queen Victoria did
not get to send her final farewell to her daughter, who was at the time very ill.
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