Alice was different. Most people look at Queen Victoria’s nine children and see a blur of lace and stiff portraits, but Alice—the second daughter—was the one who actually got her hands dirty. She was the family’s heart. When her father, Prince Albert, was dying of typhoid, she was the one nursing him, whispering to him, and then filtering the news to her devastated mother. But her own story, specifically the lives of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom’s children, is where the real drama (and tragedy) of the Victorian era actually sits.
It’s a heavy history. Honestly, if you’re looking for a fairy tale, you’ve come to the wrong branch of the family tree. Her children’s lives were a messy mix of royal duty, groundbreaking nursing work, and some of the most horrific political assassinations of the 20th century.
The Seven Children of Alice and Louis
Alice married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and moved to Darmstadt. It wasn’t a wealthy or particularly grand court compared to London. They had seven kids: Victoria, Elizabeth, Irene, Ernest Louis, Friedrich, Alix, and Marie.
Their upbringing was weirdly "normal" for royals. Alice, influenced by her father’s progressive ideas, insisted on them making their own beds and eating plain food. She wanted them to understand the world. But the world, as it turned out, wasn't always kind back to them.
Victoria and Elizabeth: The Eldest Sisters
Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine was the firstborn. She stayed relatively grounded, eventually marrying Prince Louis of Battenberg. You might recognize her descendants—she was the grandmother of Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh. She was tough. She had to be.
Then there was "Ella"—Elizabeth. She was widely considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe. Seriously, the accounts from the time make her sound almost ethereal. She married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia. Her life took a sharp turn toward the ascetic after her husband was assassinated by a bomb-throwing revolutionary. She sold everything. She founded a convent. She became a nun. And yet, the Bolsheviks still came for her. They threw her down a mine shaft in Alapayevsk in 1918. It’s a brutal, haunting end for a woman who spent her final years feeding the poor.
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The Hemophilia Shadow and the Loss of "Frittie"
You can't talk about Princess Alice of the United Kingdom’s children without talking about the "Royal Malady." Alice was a carrier of hemophilia. In the 1870s, this was a terrifying mystery.
Friedrich, known affectionately as "Frittie," was the first to suffer. He was a vibrant, sweet little boy who bumped his knee and bled for days. Then, in 1873, the nightmare happened. He was playing with his brother, Ernest, in Alice’s bedroom. He fell through an open window. A normal child might have survived the fall—it was only about 20 feet—but Frittie had hemophilia. He died of a brain hemorrhage later that evening. Alice never really got over it. It changed her. She became more obsessed with death and the spiritual world, something that seemed to trickle down to her other children.
The 1878 Diphtheria Outbreak
Death wasn't done with them. In 1878, diphtheria ripped through the household. It started with Victoria and spread like wildfire. Alice nursed them all herself. She was warned not to kiss them. But when her youngest, "May" (Marie), died at age four, Alice couldn't help it. She broke the "no contact" rule to comfort her son Ernest, who was devastated by his sister's death. She kissed him.
She caught the disease.
Alice died on the anniversary of her father’s death, December 14, 1878. She was only 35. Her children were left motherless, and the youngest, May, was already gone. This left a permanent scar on the survivors, especially Alix.
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Alix: The Empress Who Changed History
If you’ve heard of the Romanovs, you know Alix. She became Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Empress of Russia. Most historians agree she was shy, obsessed with religion, and deeply misunderstood.
She inherited her mother’s carrier gene for hemophilia.
When her son, Alexei, was born with the "bleeding disease," Alix’s desperation led her to the monk Rasputin. You could argue that the health of one of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom’s children (and her grandson) literally contributed to the fall of the Russian Empire. Alix was executed alongside her husband and five children in a basement in Yekaterinburg. It’s the ultimate tragedy of Alice’s lineage.
Ernest Louis and Irene
Ernest Louis, the only surviving son, became the last Grand Duke of Hesse. He was a patron of the arts and tried to modernize his small state, but he lost his throne after World War I. His life was marked by more tragedy—his daughter died young, and most of his family perished in a 1937 plane crash.
Irene married Prince Henry of Prussia. Like her sister Alix, she was a carrier of hemophilia. Two of her three sons had the disease. It’s a recurring theme: these children were pawns in a genetic and political game they never asked to play.
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Why This History Matters Today
Tracing the lives of these seven individuals gives you a map of 20th-century Europe. You see the rise of nursing (Alice was a pioneer there), the terrors of genetic diseases, and the violent end of old-world monarchies.
They weren't just names in a book. They were a family that dealt with grief in a very public way. If you’re looking to understand the modern British Royal family or the fall of the Tsar, you basically have to start with Alice’s nursery in Darmstadt.
Actionable Steps for History Enthusiasts
If you want to dig deeper into the lives of Alice’s children, don't just stick to Wikipedia.
- Visit the Schlossmuseum in Darmstadt. It holds personal artifacts from the Hessian family that provide a much more intimate look than any London museum.
- Read "Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece" by Hugo Vickers. While it focuses on Alice's granddaughter, it gives incredible context on how the "Hesse trait" of resilience and tragedy passed down.
- Check out the letters. Queen Victoria’s correspondence with Alice is published and shows the raw, unedited anxiety of a mother watching her children get sick.
- Analyze the Hemophilia Lineage. Look at the genetic charts of the European houses. It explains why certain marriages were encouraged and why others were viewed with absolute horror.
The story of Alice's children is a reminder that even the highest status doesn't protect a family from the basic, brutal realities of biology and politics. It’s a heavy legacy, but one that shaped the world we live in now.