Princess Beatrice

One of Queen Victoria's youngest granddaughters was Princess Beatrice Leopoldine Victoria of Edinburgh, later Saxe-Coburg-Gotha upon her father's inheritance of the title. She was born in 1884 and died in 1966. She was the youngest daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and his wife, HIH Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, the only surviving daughter of Tsar Alexander II and his consort, Princess Marie of Hesse. Unlike her sisters who married as teens, Beatrice was 25 when she married and she was also able to marry in a love match. After an aborted relationship with her cousin Grand Duke Michael of Russia which ended in heartbreak for Beatrice, and rumors linking her (often with no validity) to such personages as King Manuel of Portugal and King Alfonso of  Spain, she finally married Infante Alfonso of Orleans, the son of the infamous Infanta Eulalia of Spain. The road to true love was a rocky one, with the engagement speculated about for 2 years before the marriage actually came off. Then, because Beatrice wasn't Catholic, the Infante was temporarily expelled from Spain before being allowed to return in 1912. They would have 3 sons. For decades, even afer their respective deaths, rumors abounded that, upon her return to Spain, Beatrice carried on an affair with Alfonso XIII, by then married to her cousin Victoria Eugenie 'Ena' of Spain. Eventually, history would clear her of these charges and it is now accepted she was a staunch ally of her cousin, unhappily married herself. Following the collapse of the Spanish monarchy, Beatrice and her husband 'Ali' settled into exile once more though they would eventually be allowed to reclaim their estate, where Beatrice would die in 1966. Her middle son, Alfonso, had been killed in the Spanish Civil War.

Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein

While so many of Queen Victoria's grandchildren, male and female, wore crowns and are known even today, I've always been especially drawn to the 'lesser knowns' of the family. One of those granddaughters, who was a real 'character' as they  might say, was Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the daughter of Princess Helena of Great Britain and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Despite her German last name, she was brought up in the English court. In 1891, she married Prince Aribert of Anhalt. The marriage was not a success and in 1901 Princess Marie Louise returned to England to live. She never remarried and she and her ex-husband had no children. Princess Marie Louise loved to travel and visited places from the United States to the continent of Africa (which she wrote about). Throughout her long life, living to see the reign of the current Queen, Elizabeth II (granddaughter of her cousin George V), she remained a vital member of the Royal Family. Throughout the reigns of her uncle, her cousin and both her cousin's sons (Edward VIII and George VI) she carried out numerous public engagements each year. Like her mother, she took an especial interest in nursing. By the end of her life, she was known simply as "Princess Marie Louise", the Schleswig-Holstein having been dropped in the name purge of 1917. In this photo she is seen on an engagement to one of England's shops. As my scanner improves, so will the quality of photos, I promise!