Once their grandmother, Queen Victoria, died in 1901, Ernie and Ducky were finally free to do what everyone sorta kinda understood they should: divorce. But sovereigns don’t divorce, so the situation became a scandal in the Royal Houses of Europe, and in Russia, Ernie’s sister, Empress Alexandra, blamed Ducky for it all. This became a…
Tag: Germany
31. Ernie and Ducky, Part One (Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)
Queen Victoria’s efforts to make suitable matches for her dozens of grandchildren was in no way a flawless endeavor. Take today’s subjects, for instance. First cousins Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (nickname: Ernie) and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (nickname: Ducky), became the subject of intense Royal meddling as…
28. Young Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany
As we continue looking at the lives and times of Queen Victoria’s children and grandchildren, we’re going to keep bumping into people who changed the course of human history, often for the worse. But when it comes to Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria’s first grandchild, events beginning with his breech birth lend a bit…