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Princess Victoria Melita

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n 1894, in a little duchy in Germany, there was a wedding between two cousins. Anyone who was anyone in European royalty descended on the small, charming city of Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The groom was handsome and young, of artistic sensibilities, and a grandchild of the Queen-Empress, Victoria of England. The bride was also a grandchild of the Queen, beautiful and a bit stern, without the merriment of her older sister Marie. Overjoyed at arranging the marriage of two of her grandchildren, the Queen had great promise for this union.

John van der Kiste's biography, Princess Victoria Melita, tells the story of the bride at the wedding. He starts with the story of her parents, the second son of the Queen, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and her mother, the only daughter of Tsar Alexander II, Marie Alexandrovna. The marriage was certainly an odd one, and Marie did not settle in well with her English in laws. Queen Victoria did not apprieciate the fact that Marie had a better jewelry collection than she did, that Marie remained a Russian Orthodox in religious matters, and that Marie regarded being born a Grand Duchess of Russia far better than she did marrying into the English royal family. Alfred, for his part, was rumored to have married Marie for her enormous dowry, and the fact that he was getting a bit older to continue being a single man -- still, despite the obstacles, they did manage to produce four daughters and a son to continue the family line.

The daughters were all considered to be attractive, and the eldest, Marie -- or 'Missy' -- was the most beautiful, and would eventually become the Queen of Romania. In constrast to Missy's blonde and blue eyed prettiness, the second daughter, Victoria Melita -- who was refered to as 'Ducky' in the family for her long neck -- was dark, serious and more solemn than her sister. When it was proposed that she marry the young Grand Duke of Hesse, Ducky put up hardly a murmur of protest, after all, her grandmother and mother were in favor of the match and she would have to marry someone someday.

Ernst of Hesse, was attractive, and Ducky would become a reigning duchess in the sprawling German Empire. His sisters had all married brilliantly, except for Alix, who acted as his hostess. He was interested in poetry and the arts, and if there were a few whispers about his rather ambiguous sexuality, no one really said anything -- after all, marriage would settle him down and he and his bride would soon start producing a crop of little princes and princesses.

The wedding was attended by most of Europe's monarchs, in the bride's home of Coburg in Germany, but in fact was overshadowed by another couple -- the proposal of the Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia to the groom's youngest sister, Alix. Nothing is recorded of Ducky's reaction to being more or less ignored at her own wedding, but it would provide a premonition of what the future would hold.

The marriage failed, spectacularly. They only had a daughter, Elizabeth, who would die in childhood of typhoid, and Ducky vented her frustrations in travel and horseback riding. In 1896, she went to Russia for the coronation of her in-laws, Nicholas and Alix, and met a Romanov cousin for the first time. He was Cyril Vladimirovich, young and handsome, and certainly interested in Ducky. The marriage between Ducky and Ernst grew ever more strained, and they would divorce in 1901; Elizabeth would live the rest of her brief life in an ever shifting round between her Romanov relations and her parents. With her loss, Ducky's last tie to Hesse was broken and in a daring move, turned around and married her cousin Cyril.

Both sides of the family were shocked and horrified. Tsar Nicholas banished his cousin and his wife from Russia, stripped Cyril of his income and title of Grand Duke, and his wife, Empress Alexandra, was furious that Ducky would spurn her beloved brother Ernie. Despite these obstacles, the marriage started off as a very happy one. There would be two daughters born soon afterwards, Marie and Kira, and eventually, Cyril would have his title and wealth restored. Known as the Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, Ducky entered St. Petersburg society, and gloried in the splendour and social life of pre-war Russia. When the Revolution struck, Cyril and Ducky fled with their children to Finland, and later to France.

Cyril in exile declared himself Emperor of Russia, a title that no one really took seriously, and Ducky battled ill-health and strained finances. It was a terrible blow for her pride and ego, and later photographs show a gaunt, haggard woman. While she had a beloved son who was born in 1917, Ducky prefered a quiet life, and a last betrayal by a husband for whom she had sacrificed everything was the final torment for her.

Van der Kiste does a sympathetic and interesting biography of a princess who dared enough to break the rules of Victorian propriety. While the writing style does get rather heavy at times, he's wise enough to use contemporary letters and accounts to show how a divorce was regarded, and what was expected of those living in a spotlight. Along with sources, notes and a bibliography, genealogical charts and an insert of black and white photographs give a well-rounded survey of two minor royals.

Recommended.

Queen Victoria had some very interesting relatives! This is the biography of one of her namesake granddaughters; the second daughter of Victoria's son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh-Coburg, and sister to Queen Marie of Roumania. It's a well written biography, and what a life she had. A very tragic life, really; Victoria Melita married twice (both marriages ended badly, though she stayed married to her second husband until her death); she lost her little daughter by the Grand Duke of Hesse (who was another grandson of Queen Victoria's), and the Russian Revolution swept away everything else... I enjoyed this biography very much. I thought Van der Kiste's writing was stronger here than in "Once a Grand Duchess".

This was a book that needed to be written, and it needed more flesh to make it seem less skinny. I say that, because Princess (later Grand Duchess) Victoria Melita was far from a skinny person in terms of her character. She was strong and stubborn, the perfect (or diasterous) mix of both her parents, only without the looks of her elder sister, the Queen Marie of Roumania. What sets Princess Victoria Melita apart from her female cousins is, she has the strength of will equal to her ruling remale cousins (Queen Marie of Roumania, Empress Alexandra of Russia, Queen Ena of Spain, Queen Sophie of Greece, & too a lesser extent, Queen Maud of Norway) but she herself was never to rule. Her 1st husband she had the nerve & courage to divorce, she faced family censure and anger, then remarried and face the fury of her mighty cousins, Tsar Nicholas & Empress Alexandra (who were previously also her in-laws!!) by marrying her cousin against the wishes of the Tsar. She is 2nd best because her life was so colorful and dramatic, and yet, she never became a Queen/Empress herself. Needed more flesh, but otherwise, a good book to build up your library...like anyother Van der Kiste book.

Victoria (Ducky) Melita, strong-willed, artistic and fascinating in her own right, lived her life in the middle of the tangled family tree of European royalty at a pivotal time in the history of monarchy. Her father was Prince Alfred, the brother of King Edward and the younger son of Queen Victoria. Her mother was the sister of Tsar Alexander III, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II and the aunt of Russia's final Tsar, Nicolas II.

Ducky's first, unhappy marriage was to Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, who like her was a grandchild of Queen Victoria and so was Ducky's first cousin. It caused a scandal when she divorced him, and it particularly angered his adoring sister Alexandra, who was Tsar Nicolas II's wife. This became a problem because Ducky had fallen in love with Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, another of her first cousins though this time on her mother's side of the family, and Cyril needed the permission of his cousin Tsar Nicolas to marry. Cyril was an officer in the Russian navy and Tsar Nicolas kept sending him off on distant, time-consuming missions that kept the lovers apart for months and years. After a particularly harrowing naval episode at sea Ducky and Cyril married without permission thinking that any punishment they'd receive would be a slap on the wrist. Instead Cyril was expelled from Russia and lost his imperial income, his position in the navy and his titles. The couple lived in Germany and then France until the death of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich meant that Cyril was third in line to the Russian throne. They were invited back to Russia where they lived until the communist revolution.

As young, relatively liberal intellectuals the couple had difficult choices to make during Russia's time of upheaval. They were among the few members of the imperial family to survive, fleeing Russia for Finland with their two young daughters while Ducky was heavily pregnant with their son. Queen Marie of Romania, one of Ducky's sisters, helped support them financially, while Cyril tried to establish himself as the Tsar in exile.

It's a breathtaking, heartbreaking, illuminating story, providing a different angle on a transitional time in European history, from the era of Belle Époque until the lead up to WWII.