The year 1888 saw another wedding in the family, which brought both married sisters back to Germany. The Princess Irene was married to her first cousin, Prince Henry of Prussia, at the palace of Charlottenburg, near Berlin. This was Princess Alix’s first visit to the capital of the German Empire, where she created quite a sensation by her beauty. In the autumn the Princess’s coming-out was celebrated by a ball at the New Palace, for which the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Serge came specially from Russia. The Grand Duchess saw to every detail of her young sister’s appearance. She wore white muslin, with bunches of lilies of the valley on her hair and dress, and contemporary accounts say that she was very much admired.
The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Fyodorovna (Sophie Buxhoeveden)
Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich and his aunt by marriage (and later also his sister-in-law) Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna. The pair, dressed in historical costumes, was photographed at the occassion of am amateur stage performance of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, in which they participated.
Strongly interested in education in general and especially that of her children, Grand Duchess Alice explained her principles in her letters to her mother, Queen Victoria :
‘ It is a fault of the parents to educate daughters just to be married. It shall be my effort to educate my daughters in such a way not to see marriage as the only purpose of their future; life is also meaningful without being married. Marriage just for the sake of being married is one of the greatest mistakes a woman can make. ’ April 15, 1871
{ Her four daughters will have a marriage made of love and active lives in social work }
Most of all I remember the famous Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, the sister of the Empress, one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. They had a striking resemblance to each other, but the Grand Duchess Elizabeth had a thinner oval face, which is why those who knew her said that she surpassed her younger sister in appearance. She had charming manners, a sweet smile and a charming voice. She had amazing taste in clothes, and she was one of those people who create their own atmosphere around themselves. She became the personification of what a princess should be: charming, amiable, finding a kind word for everyone. When someone saw her after a bereavement in the gray clothes of a nun, calm, sweet, serene, she was the embodiment of practical charity, and looking into her eyes, one could feel in them an understanding of all human pain and suffering.
Baroness Sofia Karlovna Buksgevden, “Before the storm”
Group photograph of the Hessian sisters along with Ernest Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, possibly in Darmstadt, 1887.
Photograph of Princesses Elisabeth and Victoria with their maternal cousins, Princesses Margaret, Viktoria and Sophia of Prussia and Charlotte, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, early 1880s.
Photograph of the Hessian sisters with their brother Ernest Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and uncle Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, early 1880s.
