User:PeterSymonds/Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom

The Princess Beatrice (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore; April 14, 1857 – October 26, 1944) was a member of the British Royal Family, the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Princess Beatrice's childhood coincided with Victoria's profound grief following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, on 14 December 1861. As Beatrice's elder sisters married and left their royal mother, Victoria came to rely heavily on the company of her youngest daughter, whom she called Baby for most of her childhood. Beatrice, who was brought up always to stay with her mother, soon resigned herself to her fate. Victoria was set against her youngest Baby marrying, and refused to discuss the possibility. However, numerous suitors were put forward, including Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, the son of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France; and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, the widow of Beatrice's older sister Alice. Although she was attracted to the Prince Imperial, and there was some talk of a possible marriage, he was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, much to Beatrice's sadness. Happiness finally came when Beatrice fell in love with Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia von Hauke, a commoner. After a year of persuasion, Victoria finally consented to the marriage, which took place at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, on 23 July 1885. Victoria only consented on the condition that Beatrice and Henry make their home permanently with her, and that Beatrice continue her duties as the queen's unofficial secretary. However, tragedy struck Beatrice once again. On 20 January 1896, after just ten years of marriage, Prince Henry (called Liko by the royal family) died of malaria while fighting at war. Beatrice continued her full time role at her mother's side until Victoria died on 22 January 1901, after which Beatrice devoted the next thirty years to editing Victoria's journals. Rarely seen in public after her mother's death, Beatrice died at the age of eighty-seven on 6 November 1944, outliving all of her siblings and several of her children.

Early life
Beatrice was born on 14 April 1857 at Buckingham Palace. She was the fifth daughter, and youngest of the nine children of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, the Prince consort. The birth caused controversy when it was announced that Victoria would seek relief from the pains of pregnancy using chloroform, administered by Doctor John Snow. The use of chloroform was considered dangerous both to mother and child, and was frowned upon by both the Church of England and the medical authorities. However, Victoria, undeterred by public opinion, continued to use “that blessed chloroform” for her last pregnancy. A fortnight later, Victoria reported to her journal, “I was amply rewarded and forgot all I had gone through when I heard dearest Albert say ‘It's a fine child, and a girl!’” Albert and Victoria chose the names Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, and she was christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on 16 June 1857. Her godparents were her maternal grandmother, Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent; her eldest sister Victoria, the Princess Royal, and her fiancée Prince Frederick of Prussia.

From her birth, Beatrice was subjected to favouritism and was spoilt beyond her other siblings, which caused jealousy within her family. The favourite daughter of Prince Albert, the Princess Royal, was soon to take up residence in Germany with her new husband, Frederick (“Fritz”) of Prussia. Beatrice immediately showed promise; Albert wrote to Augusta, Fritz's mother, that “Baby practices her scales like a good prima donna before a performance and has a good voice!” Although Victoria was famous for disliking babies, she liked attractive ones, and this gave Beatrice—who was, according to Victoria, “a pretty, plump and flourishing child...with fine large blue eyes, [a] pretty little mouth and very fine skin” —an advantage over her elder siblings. Her golden, long hair was the focus of paintings commissioned by Victoria, who even enjoyed giving Beatrice her bath, a marked difference to her other children. Beatrice showed intelligence, which further endeared her to the Prince Consort, who was amused by her childhood precociousness. Despite sharing the rigorous education programme designed by Prince Albert and his close adviser Baron Stockmar, Beatrice had a more relaxed infancy than the rest of her siblings as a result for her relationship with her parents.

Victoria's devoted companion
The happiness Beatrice experienced in the first four years of her life came to an end with suddenness in the year 1861. In March, Victoria's mother Victoria, Duchess of Kent, died at Frogmore. The devastated queen broke down in grief, and guilt over their estrangement at the beginning of Victoria's reign. Beatrice attempted to console her mother, who had entered a period of intense mourning, by reminding her of the fact that the Duchess of Kent was “in heaven, but [Beatrice] hopes she will return”. This comfort was significant: Victoria had shut herself from all of her children except the eldest unmarried Princess Alice and Beatrice herself. However, her time of recuperation at White Lodge at Richmond Park, and at Balmoral, counted for nothing, as on 14 December, Albert himself died of typhoid fever.

The depth of the queen's grief over the death of her husband was beyond the imagination of all her family, courtiers, politicians and subjects. As she had done at her mother's death, she shut herself off from her family—most particuarly, the Prince of Wales, whom she blamed for her husband's death —with the exception of Alice and Beatrice. Victoria would often take Beatrice from her cot, hurry to her bed and “lay there sleepless, clapsing to her child, wrapped in the nightclothes of a man who would wear them no more.” As Beatrice's elder sisters married—Alice, in 1862; Helena, in 1866; and Louise, in 1871—Victoria came to rely upon Beatrice, who had declared from an early age: “I don't like weddings at all. I shall never be married. I shall stay with my mother.” As her mother's secretary, she performed duties such as writing on the queen's behalf and helping with political correspondence. These mundane duties mirrored the duties performed in succession by Alice, Helena and Louise were soon upgraded by Victoria, who, during a serious illness of 1871, dictated her journal to Beatrice. Later, in 1876, the queen allowed Beatrice to sort out the music that she and the Prince Consort played, which had been left unused since his death fifteen years earlier. The confidence the queen was showing in Beatrice grew from mundane secretarial tasks to tasks of a very personal nature, such as sorting out the music last played in the queen's happy, forgotten past. The affection and devotion that Beatrice showed to her mother was directly acknowledged in the queen's letters and journals, but her constant need for Beatrice grew stronger. The queen suffered yet another bereavement in 1883, when her highland servant, John Brown, died at Balmoral. Once again, the grief that had shown itself in 1861 came back to the royal court, and Victoria leant heavily on Beatrice for company and support in the wake of her latest loss. Unlike her siblings, Beatrice did not show any open dislike for Brown. Both he and Beatrice were her mother's constant companions, and would have had regular daily dealings with eachother, and therefore it is unlikely that Beatrice would have shown any open animosity towards Brown that would have made their daily lives more difficult. Both had the queen's best interests in mind, and therefore would have worked together to achieve her wishes. However, no record of Beatrice's personal opinion of John Brown has ever surfaced.

Possible suitors
Although the queen was absolutely set against Beatrice marrying anyone, in the expectation that she would always stay at home with her, a number of possible suitors were put forward before her marriage to Prince Henry of Battenberg. One of these was Napoleon Eugene, the French Prince Imperial, son and heir of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France and his wife The Empress Eugénie. After Prussia defeated France, Napoleon was deposed, and moved his family to England in 1870. Following the Emperor's death in 1873, Victoria and Empress Eugénie formed a close attachment, and the newspapers reported the imminent engagement of Beatrice to the Prince Imperial. However, regardless of whether either of them had feelings for eachother, the death of the Prince Imperial in the Anglo-Zulu War, on June 1 1879, ended that possibility. Victoria's journal records their grief: “Dear Beatrice, crying very much as I did too, gave me the telegram...It was dawning and little sleep did I get...Beatrice is so distressed; everyone quite stunned.” Following the death of the Prince Imperial, another candidate for Beatrice's hand was put forward: her sister Alice's widow, Louis IV, the Grand Duke of Hesse, who had lost his wife to diphtheria in 1878. The candidate was put forward by her brother, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, who argued that Beatrice could act as a surrogate mother for Louis's children, and spend most of her time in England looking after her mother. Bertie also argued that the queen could oversee the upbringing of her Hessian grandchildren with greater ease. However, at the time, it was forbidden by law for Beatrice to marry her sister's widow. This was countered by the Prince of Wales, who threw his entire support behind the passage of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, which would remove the obstacle. Despite the popular support for the change in the law from the queen and the Prince of Wales, although it passed in the House of Commons, it was thrown out of the House of Lords as a result of the opposition from the Bishops. Although the queen was disappointed that the bill had failed, she was happy that her daughter was at her side where she belonged.

Other candidates were put forward, but were unsuccessful. Two of Prince Henry's brothers put forward their suitability to be Beatrice's husband, including Prince Alexander (“Sandro”) and Prince Louis of Battenberg. Although Alexander was never formally put forward his suit (merely claiming that he “might even at one time have become engaged to the friend of my childhood, Beatrice of England”), his brother Louis was more interested in marriage, which resulted in Victoria inviting him to dinner, sitting him between herself and Beatrice, who was under the queen's instruction to ignore him in order to discourage his suit. He, not realising the reasons for this until several years later, later married Beatrice's niece Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Although Beatrice's marriage was dealt another blow, while attending Louis's wedding at Darmstadt, she met and fell in love with his brother, Prince Henry, who returned her affections.

Engagement and wedding
After returning from Darmstadt, Beatrice had the unhappy and dangerous task of informing her mother of her intention to marry. Although she had anticipated that her reaction would not be favourable, the queen reacted with frightening silence; although mother and daughter were side by side as always, the queen did not talk to her, instead communicating by note.

Victoria's reaction was unexpected even to her family. However, the thought of losing the daughter she had fought so hard to keep for herself was the reason for her reaction. The queen also saw Beatrice as her “Baby”—her innocent child—and saw the physical sex that marriage would naturally involve as an invasion of that innocence. Subtle persuasions by the Crown Princess of Prussia—who shrewdly reminded her mother of the happiness that Beatrice brought the Prince Consort—and the Princess of Wales ultimately led the queen to resume contact with Beatrice, and give her consent to the marriage with the condition that Henry give up all his German commitments and live permanently with the queen and Beatrice.

With the condition that Beatrice and Henry would always be at the queen's beck and call promised, the wedding date was set, and Beatrice and Liko were married at St. Mildred's Church at Whippingham—a church very near to Osborne, where Beatrice and her siblings were confirmed, on 23 July 1885. Beatrice, who wore her mother's wedding veil of Honiton lace, which none of her other siblings had been permitted to wear, was escorted in by the queen and her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales. The ceremony—which was not attended by the Crown Prince and Princess; William Gladstone (who was not invited; an example of the queen's public distaste for him); and Beatrice's cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck (who was in mourning for her father-in-law) —ended with the couple's departure for their honeymoon at Quarr Abbey House. The queen, taking her leave of them both, “bore up bravely till the departure and then fairly gave way”, as she herself admitted in a letter to the Crown Princess. The devoted daughter was, if only for a short time, free of her mother.

Victoria's last years
Beatrice's short lived freedom from her mother ended after her honeymoon, when they fulfilled their earlier promise and returned to the queen's side. The queen made it clear that she could not cope on her own, and therefore Beatrice and Henry would not be able to travel without her. Although this restriction was relaxed, Beatrice and Henry travelled only to see his family together, and for short durations. Beatrice's love for Liko, like that of the queen's for the Prince Consort, only increased the longer they were married, and whenever Liko travelled without Beatrice, the happiness she had when he returned far outweighed the sadness of his departure.

Despite being married, Beatrice lovingly fulfilled her promise to the queen by continuing as her full-time confidante and secretary. Victoria warmed to Liko, as she often did with other handsome, strong men. However, the queen once again criticised Beatrice over her conduct during her first pregnancy. Beatrice stopped coming to the queen's dinners a week before giving birth, preferring to eat alone in her room, to which the queen wrote angrily to her physician, Dr. James Reid, that, “I [urged the Princess] coming to dinner, and not simply moping in her own room, which is very bad for her. In my case I regularly came to dinner, except when I was really unwell (even when suffering a great deal) up to the very last day.” Beatrice gave birth the following week, to her first son Alexander, with the use of chloroform.

Following the births of her four children, Beatrice took a polite and encouraging interest in social issues, such as conditions in the coal mines. However, this interest did not extend to a determination to change the situation of the poor, like it had done with her brother, the Prince of Wales. Although court entertainments were few and far between, owing to the solemnity of the court following the Prince Consort's death, Beatrice and the queen enjoyed Tableau vivant photography, which was often performed at the many royal residences. Liko, who was increasingly bored by the lack of activity at court, longed for employment, and in response to this, the queen created him Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1889. However, he longed for military participation, and pleaded with his mother-in-law to allow him to join the Ashanti expedition fighting at the Anglo-Asante war. Despite her misgivings, the queen consented, and Liko and Beatrice parted on 6 December 1895. Husband and wife would not meet again. Liko contracted malaria and was sent back home. On 22 January 1896, Beatrice, who was waiting for her husband at Madeira, received a telegram there informing her of Liko's death two days previously. The devastated Beatrice left court for a month's period of mourning, before returning to her ordinary post at her mother's side. The queen's journal recorded that Victoria “[w]ent over to Beatrice's room and sat a while with her. She is so piteous in her misery.” Despite her grief, Beatrice remained her mother's unselfish and faithful companion. As Victoria got older, she relied more heavily on Beatrice for dealing with the queen's correspondence. However, the queen also realised that Beatrice needed a place to call her own, and gave her the apartments at Kensington Palace that were once occupied by the queen and her mother. In response to Beatrice's advanced interest in photography, the queen also installed a dark room at Osborne House. Beatrice's preoccupation with her mother had an impact on her children, who rebelled at school as a result of the lack of attention from their mother.

Later life
Beatrice's life was effectively overturned by the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. As her mother had been the purpose of her existence for so many years, the thought of being without her could not be imagined: she wrote to the principal of the University of Glasgow in March, “...you may imagine what the grief is. I, who had hardly ever been separated from my dear mother, can hardly realise what life will be like without her, who was the centre of everything.” Her public appearances continued, but her position at court was diminished: Beatrice, who was not close to her brother, now King Edward VII, was not included in the king's inner circle, unlike her sister Louise. Nevertheless, their relationship was not strained, except when she noisily dropped her service book from the royal gallery onto the table of gold plate below.

After inheriting Osborne, the king had his mother's personal photographs and belongings removed, and some of them destroyed, especially material relating to John Brown, whom he detested. He held a discussion with his sisters, Beatrice included, about what the fate of the house should be, and Beatrice reacted strongly against the idea that the house should leave the family, citing its strong importance to their mother and father. However, the king was decidedly against keeping the house for himself; he offered it to his heir, Beatrice's nephew George, but cost of the upkeep was too great for him to take it on. Victoria had left two cottages on the estate to Beatrice and Louise—Osborne Cottage and Kent House respectively—but the main house was presented to the nation, with the exception of the private apartments, which were sealed off to everyone but the royal family, who made it a shrine to their mother's memory.

Victoria's journals
Upon Victoria's death, Beatrice began the momentous task of transcribing and editing Victoria's journals, which had been kept since 1831. The hundreds of volumes contained the queen's personal views on the day-to-day business of her life, and included personal and family matters, as well as matters of state.

Victoria had privately given Beatrice the task of editing the journals for publication, which required the removal of passages that had the potential to cause hurt to people still alive, or material that would be inappropriate for the eyes of any third party. Beatrice edited the journals to such a large extent, that the edited journals are only a third of their original length. The destruction of such large passages of Victoria's diaries caused distress to Beatrice's nephew, King George V, and his wife Queen Mary, who were nevertheless powerless to intervene. Beatrice copied a draft from the original, and then copied her draft into a set of blue notebooks. Both the originals and her first drafts were destroyed as Beatrice progressed through the journal. The overwhelming task took thirty years and was finished in 1931. The surviving blue notebooks currently reside in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

Retirement from public life
Beatrice continued to appear in public after her mother's death. The public engagements she often carried out were related to her mother, Queen Victoria, as the public had always associated Beatrice with their lost queen.

The beauty of Beatrice's daughter, Ena, was well known throughout Europe, and, despite her low rank, she was a desirable bride. Her choice of marriage fell to Spanish king Alphonso XIII. However, the marriage caused controversy in Britain, as it was necessary for Ena to convert to Catholicism. This step was greatly opposed by Beatrice's brother, King Edward VII, and the ultra-conservatives in Spain also opposed Alphonso's marriage to a Protestant of low birth. Nevertheless, the marriage went ahead, and Alphonso and Ena were married on 31 May 1906. The marriage, though it started auspiciously, soon became unhappy. Ena became increasingly unpopular in Spain, and her unpopularity further deteriorated when it was discovered that her son, the heir to the throne, suffered from haemophilia. Alphonso blamed Beatrice for the transaction of the royal disease to the Spanish royal house, and never voluntarily spoke to her again.

Beatrice herself remained living at Osborne Cottage and Carisbrooke Castle, the home of the Governor of the Isle of Wight, a position which Beatrice had been created by her mother following Prince Henry's death. However, Beatrice decided to dispense with Osborne Cottage, and, much to her nephew, George V's discomfort, sold it in 1913. She moved into Carisbrooke Castle permanently, with Kensington Palace as her London residence. She was much involved in collecting material for the Carisbrooke Castle museum, which she opened in 1898. Her presence at court further decreased as she got older, and the royal family continued to flourish down her brother's line. Devastated by the death of her favourite son, Maurice at war in 1914, she began to retire from public life. In response to war with Germany, George V changed the royal family surname from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, in attempt to distance himself from his German origins. Beatrice and her family were forced to renounce their German names, so Beatrice's style reverted from HRH The Princess Henry of Battenberg to her birth style, HRH The Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Her surname was also anglicised to Mountbatten. Her sons gave up their courtesy style Prince of Battenberg. Alexander, the eldest, became Sir Alexander Mountbatten, and was later given the title Marquess of Carisbrooke in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Her younger surviving Leopold became Lord Leopold Mountbatten, and was given the rank of a younger son of a Marquess.

Last years
Beatrice continued to correspond with her friends and relatives in her seventies, and made rare public appearances, such as viewing the wreaths after the death of George V in 1936, pushed in a wheelchair. She published her last work of translation, of Queen Victoria's maternal grandmother, Augusta, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld's personal diary, entitled In Napoleonic Days, in 1941. She corresponded with the publisher, John Murray, who greatly approved of the work. She made her last home at Brantridge Park in West Sussex, which was owned by Queen Mary's brother, Alexander Cambridge, the first Earl of Athlone, and his wife, Beatrice's niece Princess Alice of Albany. It was there that Beatrice died on the 6 November 1944, aged eighty-seven. At her death she was the last surviving child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Traditionally interred in the Royal Vault at Windsor Castle, her body was exhumed in August, 1945 and reunited with her husband, Prince Henry, at Whippingham church. Beatrice's final wish, to be buried with her husband on the island she was most familiar with, was finally fulfilled in a private service at Whippingham, attended only by her son, the Marquess of Carisbrooke, and his wife.

Assessment
Beatrice was the shyest of all Victoria's children. However, due to the fact that she accompanied Victoria almost wherever she went, she became the most well known. Despite her shyness, she was an able actor and dancer, and was a keen artist and photographer. Though, she later discovered, she was not naturally maternal, she was devoted to her children, and was concerned when they began to misbehave at school. Music, a passion that was shared by her mother and the Prince Consort, was an area in which Beatrice excelled in, and she played the piano to professional standards. A calm temper and a warm heart, the princess won wide approval when attending royal visits.

Beatrice's life coincided with the death of her mother's beloved husband and companion, Prince Albert. As Victoria's elder daughters married and left their mother, Beatrice, who had been groomed for the role of her mother's personal companion, became increasingly aware that her position would not allow her to marry. Content with this, Beatrice made the most of her time, and enjoyed the utmost confidence of her royal mother. The demands made on Beatrice were high. Despite suffering from rheumatism, Beatrice was forced to share in her mother's love of cold weather. Beatrice's piano playing suffered as her rheumatism got gradually worse, eliminating an enjoyment that she excelled in, but this did not change her view that she had to always cater for her mother's needs.