Surrounded by Tragedies: A Lesser-Known Victoria

The Hesse sisters: (from left) Irene, Victoria, Elizabeth
and Alix
By Carl Backofen via Wikimedia Commons

When the Bolsheviks wreaked their vengeance on the Romanov Dynasty in 1919 Russia, the Imperial Family was literally decimated. Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses and Princes galore were slaughtered indiscrimanantly. Even the Czar's five children and their pet dog were viciously murdered.

While the surviving Romanovs fled from Russia using any means they could, in faraway England, a princess was deeply aggrieved. Two of her sisters, the famously beautiful Ella and Alix, were among the Romanov carnage. Their big sister Victoria was powerless to save them. 

Born in 1863 at Windsor Castle, Princess Victoria of Hesse was the first child of Queen Victoria's second daughter, Princess Alice, who had married the future Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine just nine months earlier. As the oldest child, Victoria was very caring toward her younger siblings, which eventually included four sisters and two brothers. Her role grew even stronger as tragedies started to impact the happy family. The first occurred when her youngest brother Friedrich died at age two. The toddler fell from a window while playing with his brother. He survived the fall but could not recover from uncontrolled internal bleeding due to the hemophilia he, like so many of his royal cousins, had inherited. The distraught family had managed to move on without little Frittie, as they called him, when a wave of diptheria hit the household. Fifteen-year-old Victoria grew ill first. Each of her siblings sickened one by one, except for Princess Elizabeth, who had been sent to their grandmother.

Princess Alice, who was both a devoted mother and a trained nurse, labored day and night caring for ailing children, always careful not to touch them in order to avoid the disease herself. Within 10 days, four-year-old Princess Marie succumbed, choking to death from the growth in her throat before Alice could get to her. Alice hid her grief in order to keep the traumatic news from her other young patients. When she finally told her son, Prince Ernest, his devastation overwhelmed her. She kissed the sobbing boy to soothe him. In less than two weeks, at the age of 35, Alice became the first of Queen Victoria's children to predecease her. (See my post Kiss of Death.)

Now recovered, Princess Victoria no doubt felt the loss of her mother and her baby sister very deeply, but she was a creature of duty. She took her role as oldest daughter quite seriously and would try her best to guide her younger siblings in the following years. She had to grow up quickly, assuming the role of first lady at her father's court and acting as hostess and taking on official duties. As she would later admit, her childhood ended with her mother's death. She had some help, though, as Grandmother Victoria became determined to mother the Hessian children from afar. Letters constantly flowed from Britain to Germany and back and as frequently as possible, Victoria and her siblings were often with Victoria at her homes in England, Scotland and on the Isle of Wight. In many ways, Princess Victoria was raised more English than German despite her father's role on the Continent despite her main home in Darmstadt, where English nannies led the nursery.

The extensive and intermingled royal families frequently gathered not just in Britain but across Europe for various weddings, births, coronations, and funerals. Victoria undoubtedly encountered the handsome Battenberg princes on many occasions before she decided to marry the oldest one, Prince Louis. Despite being her father's cousin, her father did not approve of the match. The Battenberg princes, you see, had been born of a misalliance. It had been quite a scandal when their father, Prince Alexander of Hesse and By Rhine, eloped with his sister's lady-in-waiting Countess Julia von Hauke, who was a ward of Russian Tsar Nicholas I. The Tsar has planned for Alexander to marry his daughter and forbade the match and kicked Alexander out of the Russian military. The couple escaped to Breslau and married just six months before their first child, Marie, was born. In short order, four boys joined the nursery.

Despite the Tsar's rage, Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Ludwig II, forgave the couple although he would only recognize the match as morganatic. Initially, he granted Julia the title Countess of Battenberg and granted her children rank commiserate with her rather than their princely father. When young Count Louis of Battenberg was four years old, Julia was granted the rank and style Her Serene Highness. Although her children were still barred from the Hessian succession, they also became Serene Highnesses with princely titles.

By Alexander Bassano in the National Portrait Gallery

via Wikimedia Commons

Prince Louis was a favorite of Victoria's mother Princess Alice, who encouraged him to join the British Royal Navy. At age 14, he was admitted to the Navy despite some physical limitations (like a small chest and some less-than-perfect vision) that would have prevented young men with less exalted sponsors from success. By the time he married Victoria, he had sailed in the late Admiral Nelson's flagship, accompanied the Prince and Princess of Wales on a cruise in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, served in the North American and West Indies fleet, accompanied the Prince of Wales to India, and served with the Duke of Edinburgh during the Russo-Turkish War (with his brother Prince Alexander fighting on the other side). After that, he served alongside the Prince of Wales' sons Prince Albert Victor and Prince George on a cruise around the world, with ports in South Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia. Then, he went to Bulgaria, where his brother Alexander has been made the Sovereign Prince, and went with him on a tour of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Land.

It is little wonder that the young and somewhat sheltered Princess Victoria was enamored with the handsome and worldly prince. Victoria's father's objections could not withstand pressure from her grandmother Queen Victoria who had already allowed one of her daughters to marry into the Scottish nobility. If she determined that the Battenbergs were good enough for her granddaughter, Grand Duke Ludwig could hardly raise concerns. Grand Duke Ludwig still managed to cause disruption during Louis and Victoria's wedding celebrations while all of the family, including Queen Victoria, were gathered. He hypocritically married a mere countess, Alexandrine von Hutten-Czapska.

After the wedding, the 21-year-old bride and 30-year-old groom lived primarily in England, where Louis continued to advance up the ranks in his naval career. They immediately started their family. Princess Alice was born at Windsor Castle nine months after the wedding. Princess Louise arrived four years later followed by Prince George three years after her. Their fourth and final child, Prince Louis, was born eight years after George. He was therefore only a toddler when his big sister Alice married into the Greek Royal Family. 

Victoria and Louis on Malta with their two
eldest children, Alice (standing) and Louise
possibly by Richard Ellis via Wikimedia Commons

The family also had a home in Germany and would winter in Malta when the elder Prince Louis was with the Mediterranean fleet. Like her mother before her, Victoria was a hands-on mother. She not only nurtured and cared for her young ones, with help from a nursery staff of course, but also gave them lessons, earning a compliment from her youngest child, who later called her "an encyclopedia." The younger Prince Louis, later known as Earl Mountbatten of Burma, credited her with teaching them hard work and recalled that she was more outspoken than other royals and also said she was free from prejudice. 

As Victoria's siblings married and had children, this meant frequent visits to Germany, where Irene had married Prince Heinrich of Prussia, and to Russia, where Elizabeth had married a Grand Duke and Alix had married the Tsar. In fact, Victoria was on an extended visit to Russia with her daughter Louise in 1914 when the first World War started. The pair hurried from deep within the nation, where they had seen both the school at Alapayevsk and the Ipatiev House, which would have a much darker meaning later. They rushed to St. Petersburg and escaped into Finland. From thence, they went to Sweden and on to Norway where the caught the last ship to Britain.

Back home, Louis had been promoted to First Sea Lord in 1912. As the top commander of the British Navy, he had spent years preparing for a potential war against his homeland. When the war finally came, his four decades of service in the British armed forces, his close connections to the British Royal Family, and his family's residency in England, did nothing to protect him from the anti-German sentiment that stirred across the country. With the start of the war, he was forced into retirement. In 1917, when the British Royal Family changed its name to Windsor to emphasize its Britishness over Germanic roots, the Battenbergs did likewise. Their name was anglicized to Mountbatten and they surrendered their princely titles. Victoria's cousin, King George V, created Louis Marquess of Milford Haven. Their eldest son took on his secondary title of Earl of Medina. Their unmarried children became Lady Louise Mountbatten and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Only their eldest child, Alice, who had married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903 was unaffected by the change.

But, the war was to have a far worse impact on the family the following summer. As Russia withdrew from the war effort to focus on its internal Revolution, Victoria's sisters Elizabeth and Alix (now known as Alexandra) were trapped behind the lines and captured by the Bolsheviks. For two months, Elizabeth and several Romanov relatives were imprisoned at the school in Alapayevsk that Victoria had visited before the war. On July 18, 1918, they were taken to a mine and beaten. They were thrown alive into the mine shaft with grenades thrown after them. After a time, the assassins could hear Elizabeth leading them in signing hymns. Another grenade was thrown in followed by wood that was set alight. 

In the nearby town of Yekaterinburg, a perhaps even more horrifying massacre had taken place at the Ipatiev House, which Victoria had also seen on her last fateful visit to Russia. There, Alexandra, her husband, and their five children aged 13 to 22, together with several trusted supporters and their pet dog were shot down by firing squad and the women were mercilessly bayonetted when the bullets failed to kill them. Their bodies were disposed of in the forest in another mine shaft.

The violent slaughter of two beloved sisters, four nieces, and a young nephew must have been incredibly devastating for Victoria, the big sister who had mothered them after the early death of their mother. It is impossible to even imagine how she must have felt, safe in her English home far from the madness that destroyed so many of her beloved relatives. Alexandra's family would not be found for many years, but Elizabeth's was recovered more quickly. Several years after the way, in 1921, Victoria and Louis accompanied her earthly remains to Jerusalem where she was reburied at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives. Decades later, Elizabeth, Alexandra, Nicholas and the five children were all recognized as saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Closer to home, Victoria's family was thriving. George had married and presented to two grandchildren: Tatiana and David. Alice had given birth to four Princesses of Greece and Denmark: Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie and Sophie before finally being delivered of a son, Prince Philip, in 1921. Young Louis married in 1922 and welcomed two daughters, Patricia and Pamela, in quick succession. Finally, Louise married the widowed Crown Prince of Sweden in 1922 becoming a beloved stepmother to his five children.

By Philip de Laszlo via Wikimedia Commons 

Victoria's growing family was still touched by grief. Late in the summer of 1921, her husband grew ill with influenza and died from heart failure that September. The following year, Alice and her family had to be rescued by the British Navy from yet another uprising in Greece. Within a decade, Alice's husband had taken up residence with his mistress and Alice's behavior grew increasingly disturbing. Among other things, she believed she was receiving divine messages, which led Victoria to have her institutionalized. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Nine-year-old Philip became Victoria's ward. He spent the rest of his childhood shuttled among his sisters (who had all married into German houses soon after their mother's hospitalization), his mother's brothers, and boarding schools. But, he remembered his grandmother very fondly, recalling that she knew how to handle children with a perfect balance of "the rational and the emotional."

In her widowhood, Victoria's cousin, King George V, had granted her Apartment 7 at Kensington Palace. Her close ties to many of Europe's reigning and exiled royal families earned her a place as a wise and respected materfamilias. But, the 1930s brought more heartache. First, the family was touched by scandal when Victoria's daughter-in-law Nadejda Marchioness of Milford Haven and her granddaughter Margarita's husband Gottfried were both named as lovers of Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt in the famous American custody battle over "Little Gloria." Then, in 1937 true tragedy struck when Victoria's granddaughter Cecilie died in a plane crash with her husband, mother-in-law, two young sons, and an infant, whose birth occurred in the crash. A year later, Victoria lost her oldest son George to bone cancer. 

The onset of World War II saw the bombing of Kensington Palace and Victoria joined other members of the British Royal Family at Windsor for a time, while her son Louis and grandsons David and Philip fought in the British Navy against their German cousins. Princess Alice who had recovered enough to be freed from the sanatorium, had returned to Greece and worked for the Red Cross looking after orphans and the poor. Her efforts to protect Greece's Jewish population would later earn her Israel's designation as Righteous Among the Nations. For the time being, however, she had no contact with her family, including her worried mother. Only Louise was safe in neutral Sweden, where she was able to pass letters among family members on either side of the war.

Victoria's children and grandchildren survived the war without further loss and the family emerged into a bright spotlight when her youngest grandson Prince Philip married Princess Elizabeth, the heiress to the British throne. By then in her 80s, Victoria lived long enough to witness the christening of Philip's firstborn child, who now serves as King Charles III. 

A lifelong smoker, Victoria died from bronchitis at Kensington Palace at the age of 87, having survived her husband by nearly 30 years. She left behind only one of her six younger siblings, three surviving children (one of whom, Louis, would be assassinated in 1979), eight surviving grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. She is buried on the Isle of Wight, where, as a motherless young girl, she had spent many holidays with the grandmother for whom she was named.

More About Victoria
Eyewitness Accounts - 1914 Trip to Russia - Victoria Remembers on Alexander Palace Time Machine
The Life of Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine on Queen Victoria's Roses
Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine on Crowns Tiaras and Coronets
Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven on Royal Watcher Blog
Queen Victoria's Journal - The Wedding of Princess Victoria of Hesse and Prince Louis of Battenberg on Queen Victoria's Roses
Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine - Conclusion on European Royal History

The Princess of Downton Abbey

The popular Downton Abbey series of period television shows and movies has been known to feature royals throughout its run. The first film, 2019's simply titled Downton Abbey, built the main storyline around the Crawley family and their servants preparing for a visit from King George V and Queen Mary. The latest film, Downton Abbey: Grand Finale, features a much less well-known royal. In the film, she is referred to only as Princess Arthur of Connaught but in real life, she bore many titles and was positioned at the center of several royal families, not just the British one.

At her birth in 1891, Lady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff was yet another great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. However, she already bore several distinctions. She was the first of Victoria's direct descendants who was not born as a prince or princess. Albeit, she was the first living grandchild of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra; her older brother had been stillborn the year before. She was fifth in line to the throne after her grandfather, her uncle Albert Victor (who would die the next year), her uncle George and her mother.

Baby Alexandra's mother was the oldest daughter of Edward and Alexandra (known as Bertie and Alix in the family), Princess Louise, who would later bear the title Princess Royal. Louise had married a nobleman, Alexander Duff 6th Earl of Fife, who was 18 years older than her and a good friend of her father. Upon the marriage, Queen Victoria elevated the groom to Duke of Fife. The couple's second daughter, Lady Maud, was born two years after Alexandra. The family lived a relatively quiet life adjacent to the more public-facing members of the family. 

After 10 years of marriage, Queen Victoria paid the family a great honor. When she had first created Alexander Duke of Fife, the creation limited the title's descent only to male heirs. By 1900, it was fairly clear that the title would likely become extinct. So, Queen Victoria re-created the title again, this time allowing it to go to a female heir. Thus, seven-year-old Lady Alexandra Duff became one of those rare creatures among the British aristocracy: the heiress of a noble title in her own right.

Alexandra between her parents, Louise
and Alexander, with sister Maud, 1902
By Alexander Corbett via Wikimedia Commons

A few years later, Alexandra and Maud would be elevated even further. Their grandfather had succeeded Queen Victoria in 1901. It seemed to rankle him that any of his grandchildren did not have princely titles. In the modern British Royal Family, titles are only granted to male-line descendants of the monarch. His son and heir George's children had titles and his daughter Maud's newborn son was born a Prince of Denmark, but King Edward's daughter Louise's children were merely ladies. On November 9, 1905, at the same time that he created Louise Princess Royal, he granted her daughters the rank and style of Highness and Princess, with precedence above all others except Royal Highnesses. Thus, 14-year-old Lady Alexandra Duff became Her Highness Princess Alexandra. She and her sister are often referred to as Princess of Fife, but this is not technically correct since their status does not come from their father but from their maternal grandfather. 

The next time Princess Alexandra made headlines was in 1910. Her mother's cousin, the handsome and poetic Prince Christopher of Greece, had spent some time visiting with the wealthy Fife family. The 19-year-old princess and 22-year-old prince apparently developed a passionate affection for each other and may even have become unofficially engaged. The royal romance sparked the rumor mills at home and abroad, even prompting an announcement by The New York Times. However, perhaps under pressure from her disapproving parents, the romance ended. Christopher later shared the young couple was not very heartbroken, having been more in love with love than with each other. The papers found other alleged suitors for Alexandra, including the King of Portugal. Alas, papers of the time often published such romantic nonsense.

The Fife family were tightly knit and spent most of their time away from the court or from Bertie's Marlborough House set. They gave Louise's poor health as the reason for their limited forays into royal duties. When they traveled abroad, it was often for the benefit of her health. Choosing the dry Egyptian climate over the wet winters of England and Scotland. In late 1911, their annual escape to Egypt led to high drama. The family was aboard the SS Delhi when it shipwrecked during a terrible storm off the north African coast. The passengers were rushed into a rescue boat but that boat was overcome by the rough seas and sank. Despite wearing a life vest, Alexandra went under the waves and took in great gulps of water. She likely would have drowned had she not been pulled to safety. Her parents and sister were also dragged from the waves. Once ashore, they had to walk four miles through the storm to find refuge at a lighthouse. They then endured a 10-mile ride on donkeys to the British Legation at Tangier. At first, all seemed well with the family reporting back to Britain and to journalists that they had suffered no lasting harm. However, as they traveled along to Egypt and sailed up the Nile, it became clear that the 71-year-old Duke was not recuperating after all. He had developed pleuriscy. He died in Egypt on January 29, 1912 and Alexandra became the 2nd Duchess of Fife. As such, she was one of the largest landowners in Scotland -- the title came with 250,000 acres and 14 country houses.

Prince and Princess Arthur of
Connaught on their wedding day
from Hans van Marwijk via Wikimedia Commons

The following year, the still grieving family were delighted to welcome a new member when Alexandra married her mother's cousin Prince Arthur of Connaught, only son of Queen Victoria's third son, at Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace. With this, her title and status were raised once again. Despite the fact that she was higher in the line of succession than her husband, he was a male-line descendant. Thus, she became Her Royal Highness Princess Arthur of Connaught. She was usually referred to this way rather than with her own title as Duchess of Fife.

Arthur held a prominent position within the British Royal Family. After the death of King Edward in 1910 and accession of Alexandra's uncle King George V, Arthur and his father, who was also named Arthur, were the only adult royal princes. As his bride, Alexandra took on a much more public role than she had previously held.

The couple's only child Prince Alaistair of Connaught was born 10 months after the wedding, just 12 days after the start of World War I. The war, of course, separated the family, who had taken up residence in Mayfair. Prince Arthur served with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium. Back home, Alexandra followed the same route as many of her female relatives on both sides of the war: she became a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. (From the 1970s, most members of the British Royal Family have been born there.)

The war had a direct impact on the family. Cousin King George V did not agree with the expansion of royal titles that his father had implemented for the Fife girls. The war only excerbated his concerns that the public would grow tired of too many royals, especially as the family's ties to German royals were called into question. In 1917, the King officially changed the House of Saxe-Coburg to the House of Windsor and re-christened his British-dwelling cousins who had Germanic names and titles to British names and titles. The Battenbergs became the Mountbattens. The Tecks became the Cambridges. He also limited princely titles to the children and male-line grandchildren of the monarch. While he did not undo his father's creation of Alexandra and her sister as Princesses, as many other princes and princesses who could be demoted to lower titles, were demoted. This included Alexandra's son, Prince Alastair of Connaught. From then on, he was known by his mother's secondary title as Earl of Macduff.

By Alexander Corbett via Wikimedia Commons

After the war, Alexandra continued her nursing career, specializing in gynecology. She was well-respected in her field. She won a prize for a paper on preeclampsia and earned a certificate of merit. Her nursing career was interrupted from 1920 to 1923 when her husband served as Governor General of South Africa. The family was popular there, especially Alexandra, who found many ways to support nursing, hospitals and childcare there. But, she missed her hands-on work.

When they returned to Britain, Alexandra eagerly returned to her chosen career although with a degree of anonymity. She switched her specialization to the operating theater and became known as Nurse Marjorie, first at University College Hospital and later at Charing Cross Hospital. One patient's father, gave the anonymous royal a sixpence to thank her for helping his daughter. The coin became a treasured keepsake for the princess. In 1925, her uncle King George V honored her with the Royal Red Cross Badge in recognition of her service to nursing.

During the late 1920s, Alexandra's mother Louise Princess Royal became very ill. She suffered for  several years with gastric hemorrhaging and then heart disease. Her death in 1931, with daughters Alexandra and Maud, at her side was seen as a relief by many in the family. She undoubtedly benefited in those final years from Alexandra's expertise as a nurse.

Like his wife, Prince Arthur also took an interest in hospitals, serving the chairman of Middlesex Hospital's Board of Directors. He held several other leadership roles, particularly across Berkshire, where King George appointed him High Steward in 1935. The family attended the coronation of Alexandra's cousin King George VI in 1937 but they had little time left together. Arthur developed stomach cancer and passed away in 1938 at the age of 55. Alexandra was 47 and their son Alastair was 24. Four years later, when Alexandra's father-in-law died, Alastair became the 2nd Duke of Connaught.

Undaunted, Alexandra continued her nursing work. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she was offered the position of matron in a country hospital, but she preferred to be closer to the troops. She accepted a role at the Second British General Hospital, working with the servicemen who were being evacuated from Dunkirk.

Alexandra with baby Alastair
from Bain News Service in the US Library of Congress
via Wikimedia Commons

She then financed and equipped her own nursing home, the Fife Nursing Home, and personally ran it for over a decade. Although she was fully engaged in her passion for nursing and health care, Alexandra was still not exempt from more personal tragedy. Her only child Alastair had graduated Sandhurst in 1935 and entered full-time Army service, including time in Palestine and in Egypt where his maternal grandfather had died three decades earlier. During World War II, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Earl of Athlone, a royal relative serving as Governor General in Canada. On April 26, 1943, Alastair was found dead in or near his room at the Governor General's official residence of Rideau Hall. Reported at the time as death from natural causes, the truth has never been publicly clear. Early reports said he had died of hypothermia from an open window. Later reports agreed that hypothermia had killed him but only because he had fallen from his window after drinking heavily. Whatever actually happened, his mother was almost certainly devastated to lose her only child at the age of 28. Two and a half years later, her only sibling, Maud, passed away from bronchitis.

Throughout the 1940s, Alexandra increasingly suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually left her bedbound. She closed her nursing home and focused on writing in the 1950s. She shared her work privately. One volume focused on her nursing career, while another detailed her family's horrific shipwreck. She passed away in February 1959 at the age of 67. Her titles passed to her sister Maud's only child, James Carnegie, who became the 3rd Duke of Fife. The title is currently held by his son.

Princess Arthur's depiction in Downton Abbey: Grand Finale takes place at a moment when she did have a quite prominent role in the royal family. Set in June 1930, two months before the birth of Princess Margaret, Alexandra was still in the Top Ten of the Line of Succession, which looked like this:

1. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII and then The Duke of Windsor)
2. The Duke of York (later George VI)
3. Princess Elizabeth of York (later Elizabeth II)
4. The Duke of Gloucester
5. The Prince George (later The Duke of Kent)
6. The Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood (later The Princess Royal)
7. Viscount Lascelles
8. The Honourable Gerald Lascelles
9. The Princess Royal
10. Princess Arthur of Connaught

Princess Arthur AKA Princess Alexandra AKA 2nd Duchess of Fife was 17th in line at the time of her death. She lived during six reigns, those of her great-grandmother Victoria, her grandfather Edward VII, her uncle George V, her cousins Edward VIII and George VI, and her first cousin once removed Elizabeth II. 

Through her husband, whose sister Margaret married the future King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, she is a great-aunt to the current Royal Houses of Sweden, Denmark, and Greece. Through her mother, she is cousin once and twice removed (respectively) to the King of Norway and to King Charles III.

More about Alexandra

Alexandra, the Princess Who Might Have Been Queen of Portugal on Royal Musings
Christopher of Greece to Marry Alexandra of Fife on Royal Musings
The Marriage of Prince Arthur of Connaught and the Duchess of Fife on Royal Musings
Princess Alexandra 2nd Duchess of Fife on Alchetron
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife on 1066
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife on Royal Watcher Blog
Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife: A Champion of Nursing on Royal Splendor
Relatively Royal: Meet the Fifes on Esoteric Curiosa
Wedding of Prince Arthur of Connaught and Princess Alexandra Duchess of Fife on Royal Watcher Blog

Farewell Katharine Kent: The Princess from Yorkshire

Katharine Duchess of Kent

from the Queensland State Archives via Wikimedia Commons

Six centuries had passed since a royal wedding was held at York Minster. As five future monarchs and representatives from eight royal families gathered at the church, a shy young local woman arrived on her father's arm to become the first untitled woman to become a British Royal Highness in centuries. Her very grand mother-in-law is said to have disapproved of the love match. Princess Marina, the widowed Duchess of Kent, was the granddaughter of a Greek King and great-granddaughter of a Danish King and Russian Czar. Her late husband was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and the youngest surviving child of King George V. Her new daughter-in-law's grandfathers were mere baronets.

Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley was born in 1933 at her father's ancestral estate of Hovingham Hall in North Yorkshire. The only daughter of Sir William Worsley 4th Baronet and Joyce Brunner, she grew up in the countryside and did not attend school until the age of 10. In the midst of World War II, the lonely young girl was sent to Queen Margaret's School just outside of Kent. There she discovered a love of music that would come to define her life. Her musical talent led her to apply for the Royal Academy of Music but she failed to gain admission. Instead, she went to a finishing school for young ladies, living with her older brothers who were students at nearby Oxford University.

Katharine's parents helped her secure work as a nursery school teacher and she became a fixture on the local social scene, which welcomed a Prince into its midst when The Queen's younger cousin was based at Camp Catterick as part of his Army service.

Born in 1935, Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick was sixth in line to the throne at the time of his birth. He was still in the top ten when he met the blonde beauty who would become his wife. Edward's father, Prince George The Duke of Kent was the last British Prince to marry a royal when he wed Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark in 1934. After Edward, the couple welcomed two more children, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael. Like so many families, the Kents met tragedy in World War II. Prince George was killed in an airplane crash while on active duty in 1942. Six-year-old Prince Edward became the new Duke of Kent. Ten years later, the teenager represented his branch of the family as he walked behind the funeral cortege of his uncle King George VI and a year later paid homage to his cousin Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation.

By the time Edward met Katharine, he had completed his education at the same schools his first cousin twice removed Prince Harry would later attend (Ludgrove, Eton and Sandhurst) and launched what would be a 20-year career in the British Army, eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel. His mother, who is known to have looked down upon her sisters-in-law Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, because they were daughters of a mere earl and duke respectively, initially tried to separate the young couple. Edward was sent to Germany in hopes his ardor would cool. Meanwhile, Katharine and a friend traveled through Mexico by bus. At the end of her journey, a bouquet of flowers from Edward greeted her. Princess Marina finally accepted the inevitable and announced the couple's engagement.

Embed from Getty Images

They were married on June 8, 1961. Katharine became not just Royal Highness but also an Army wife, following her husband to postings in Hong Kong and Germany. Their first child, George Earl of St. Andrews, was born in June 1962. Daughter Lady Helen Windsor arrived in April 1964 as the third of four royal babies born that year. (The others were, in order of birth: James Ogilvy, son of Katharine's sister-in-law Princess Alexandra; Prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh, son of Queen Elizabeth II; and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Princess Margaret.) In 1970, their son Lord Nicholas was born.

The 1970s, however, turned out to be a decade of great sorrow for the quiet Duchess of Kent. She lost her fourth pregnancy in 1975 after contracting rubella. In 1977, her son Patrick was stillborn. These tragedies combined with the deaths of both of her parents heralded a very difficult period in her life. She was hospitalized with "nervous exhaustion" and later became one of the first British royals to publicly discuss her struggles with mental health.

In public, Katharine became well-known for her role at Wimbledon, awarding the Ladies' Singles championship for decades. Her royal patronages focused largely on organizations that helped the young or the elderly. And, she was always a familiar face at royal balcony appearances and royal family celebrations. Privately, she was a well-loved member of the extended British Royal Family, participating in royal Christmas with the Queen until the family became too large to gather together in one palatial estate.

However, Katharine's mental and physical health took its toll. In addition to the depression she had suffered, she also struggled with the Epstein-Barr virus, myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome) and celiac disease. Already introspective, she turned to religion to cope and eventually made the decision to convert to Catholicism in 1994. Under the laws of succession at the time, her husband might have lost his place in the Line of Succession for being married to a Catholic. Queen Elizabeth, in a show of love and support for her cousins, decided that this rule would not apply because Katharine was not Catholic at the time of their marriage. Besides being a cherished family member, the Kents had also proven themselves as excellent "working royals", carrying on royal duties well past the age when other Britons retire. Later, her youngest son and two of her grandchildren also converted and surrendered their places in the Line of Succession, which still bars actual Catholics but not the spouses of Catholics.

By 2002, after 40 years as a royal, Katharine decided to discontinue use of "Her Royal Highness." Always modest, she has already ended the tradition of making Wimbledon competitors genuflect to the royal box. By the time she was in 70s, she had withdrawn from royal duties, appearing only on large ceremonial occasions or public family events.

Instead, she focused on her love of music. Throughout her life, she had continued to pursue her own musical interests, including singing in several choirs. In her "retirement", she became a music teacher at a primary school where only the headmistress knew who "Mrs. Kent" really was. She also opened her own small music studio teaching private lessons. In 2004, she co-founded Future Talent, a private organization that provides instruments, lessons, and other opportunities to children from low-income backgrounds.

Largely absent from public life, Katharine's last royal appearance was as a guest at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. She was one of the few guests invited to Prince Philip's covid-era funeral in 2021. The death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 left Katharine as the oldest living member of the British Royal Family, but she did not attend the funeral nor the coronation of King Charles III that followed. She was last scene seated in a wheelchair outside of the Kent's home at Wren Cottage, Kensington Palace, as her husband received birthday greetings on October 9, 2024.

Katharine Kent, or HRH The Duchess of Kent, passed away peacefully at home at the age of 92 on September 4, 2025. Her funeral will be held at Westminster Cathedral on September 16. It will be the first Catholic funeral in the royal family in centuries. She will then join her husband's parents and other members of the extended royal family in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, Windsor.

In addition to her 89-year-old husband, who is now the oldest living member of the British Royal Family, she is survived by her children, and 10 grandchildren. Born between 1989 and 2014, the grandchildren are Edward Baron Downpatrick (who will eventually succeed to the Kent title after his father and grandfather), Lady Marina Windsor, Lady Amelia Windsor, Cassius Taylor, Columbus Taylor, Eloise Taylor, Estella Taylor, Albert Windsor, Leopold Windsor, and Louis Windsor.

MORE ABOUT KATHARINE DUCHESS OF KENT

Duchess of Kent: Death and Funeral on Gert's Royals
Duchess of Kent Has Died on The Royal Watcher
The Duchess of Kent's Secret Double Life on Royal Central
Fresh Fashion Forever: 90 Years of the Duchess of Kent's Elegant Style on Tatler
The Jewels of the Duchess of Kent on The Royal Watcher
Katharine Duchess of Kent: A Quiet Pearl on Timeless Pearl
The Music Loving Duchess on BBC
A Piece for the Duchess of Kent's 90th Birthday on Maddy Chassar Hesketh
Wedding of Prince Edward Duke of Kent and Katharine Worsley on Unofficial Royalty