Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine

Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (Friedrich Wilhelm August Victor Leopold Ludwig; 7 October 1870 – 29 May 1873) was a son of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, and was the grandson of Queen Victoria. He was the maternal granduncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, through his eldest sister, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

Life


Friedrich was born on 7 October, 1870 at New Palace in Darmstadt. He was the second son and fifth child of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse và Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, then Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse and by Rhine. Though his mother, Friedrich was a maternal grandchild of Queen Victoria và Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

His siblings included Viktoria, Elisabeth, Irene, Ernst Ludwig, Alix and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. Through his eldest sister Viktoria, Friedrich was maternal grand-uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and through his younger sister Alix, he was maternal uncle of the last four Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.

Friedrich, called "Frittie" by his family, was a cheerful and lively child.

"Leopold" was added as one of his names in honour of his maternal uncle, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. Prince Leopold, who was Friedrich's godfather, had the blood disorder haemophilia.

In February 1873, while toddling around, he was diagnosed with haemophilia when he fell and cut his ear and it bled for three days. Bandages could not stanch the flow of blood.

Death
On 29 May 1873, Friedrich and his older brother, Ernst, were playing together in their mother's bedroom. Ernst ran to another room, which was set at right angles to Alice's bedroom and peered through the window at his younger brother. Alice ran to get Ernst away from the window. When she was out of the room, Friedrich climbed onto a chair next to an open window in his mother's bedroom to get a closer look at his brother. The chair tipped over and Friedrich tumbled through the window, falling 20 ft to the balustrade below. He survived the fall and might have lived had he not had haemophilia. He died hours later of a brain hemorrhage.

Aftermath
Following Friedrich's death, his distraught mother often prayed at his grave and marked anniversaries of small events in his life. His brother, Ernst, told his mother that he wanted all of the family to die together, not alone "like Frittie". Two of Friedrich's sisters, Irene and Alix, also had sons with haemophilia.