Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires (2 page)

Family Trees
 

Illustrations
 

1. The Hessian children with Queen Victoria in mourning for their mother, 1879.
Left to right
: Ella, Victoria, Queen Victoria, Ernie, Irene, and Alix.

2. Princess May with her mother, the Duchess of Teck, and her brothers Dolly, Frank, and Alge, c. 1880.

3. Princess May of Teck, 1893.

4. Princess Alix and Tsarevitch Nicholas in a formal engagement photograph, 1894.

5. The Prussian royal family in 1896.
Standing left to right:
Crown Prince Willy, Victoria Louise, Dona, and Adalbert.
Seated, left to right:
Augustus Wilhelm, Joachim, Wilhelm II (with Oscar seated in front), and Eitel-Frederick.

6. The Hessian princesses, 1906.
Left to right
: Alexandra, Victoria, Ella, and Irene.

7. Dona and Wilhelm looking stately and dignified in a formal portrait, 1910.

8. Tsarina Alexandra in formal Russian court regalia.

9. Dona and her daughter, Princess Victoria Louise, riding through the streets of Berlin, 1911.

10. Zita and Charles on their wedding day, October 21, 1911.

11. The Russian imperial family in 1913.
Left to right
: Marie, Alexandra (with Alexei seated in front of her), Olga, Tatiana, Nicholas II, and Anastasia.

12. Mary, queen of England and empress of India, c. 1913.

13. Augusta Victoria, German empress and queen of Prussia, 1913.

14. Tsar Nicholas II and King George V, 1913.

15. Queen Mary with her daughter, Princess Mary, as a nurse during World War I.

16. Zita in her coronation robes as queen of Hungary, 1916.

17. Emperor Charles I of Austria, king of Hungary, 1917.

18. Dona in exile at Amerongen, 1921.

19. Queen Mary, c. 1930.

The author and publisher would like to thank the Library of Congress, the Deutches Bundesarchiv, and the WikiMedia Foundation for permission to reproduce the illustrations contained herein. From the Library of Congress, illustrations are taken from the George Grantham Bain Collection. All illustrations are used under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Main Protagonists
 

Alexandra (1872-1918). Tsarina of Russia, 1894-1917, wife of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Born on June 6, 1872, in Darmstadt, Hesse, she was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain and Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt (later Grand Duke Louis IV). At the time of her birth, her full name was HGDH Princess Victoria
Alix
Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt. She married Nicholas on November 14, 1894, in Saint Petersburg and took the Russian names Alexandra Feodorovna.

Children:

1. Olga (1895-1918)

2. Tatiana (1897-1918)

3. Marie (1899-1918)

4. Anastasia (1901-18)

5. Alexei (1904-18)

Augusta Victoria (1858-1921). Empress and queen consort, 1888-1918, of Wilhelm II, German emperor and king of Prussia. More commonly known in her family as “Dona,” she was born at Dolzig Palace, Brandenburg, on October 22, 1858, and given the names Augusta Victoria Friederike Louise Feodora Jenny. She was the second child and first daughter of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Princess Adelaide of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. On February 22, 1881, she was married in Berlin to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (Emperor Wilhelm II after 1888).

Children:

1. Wilhelm (1882-1951), German crown prince; married HH Cecilie, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886-1954); 6 children

2. Eitel-Frederick (1883-1942); married HH Sophie-Charlotte, Duchess of Oldenburg (1879-1964); divorced, 1926

3. Adalbert (1884-1948); married HH Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1891-1971); 2 children

4. Augustus Wilhelm (1887-1949); married HH Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1887-1957); divorced, 1920; 1 child

5. Oscar (1888-1958); married Countess Ina von Bassewitz-Levetzow (1888-1973); 4 children

6. Joachim (1890-1920); married HH Princess Marie-Augusta of Anhalt (1898-1983); divorced, 1920; 1 child

7. Victoria Louise (1892-1980), Duchess of Brunswick; married HRH Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick (1887-1953); 5 children

Charles I (1887-1922). Emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, 1916-18. The first son of Archduke Otto of Austria and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, he was born on August 17, 1887, at Persenbeug Castle in Lower Austria and given the names Charles Franz Joseph Louis Hubert George Otto Marie. In 1914, after the assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Charles was designated the new heir apparent by his great-uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph. Charles married HRH Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma on October 21, 1911, at Schwarzau Castle. He became emperor on December 16, 1916.
See
Zita.

George V (1865-1936). King of Great Britain and emperor of India, 1910-36. Born on June 3, 1865, at Marlborough House in London, HRH Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert was the second son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Alexandra of Denmark. Known from 1892-1901 as the Duke of York, he married HSH Princess May of Teck on July 6, 1893. After his father’s accession in 1901, he was styled as Prince of Wales. He ascended the throne upon the death of his father in 1910.
See
Mary
.

Mary (1867-1953). Queen and empress consort, 1910-36, of King George V of Great Britain, emperor of India. Born at Kensington Palace, London, on May 26, 1867, she was christened Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes, although she was known simply as “May.” At the time of her birth, Mary was the eldest daughter and child of HSH Francis, Duke of Teck, and HRH Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. She married HRH Prince George, Duke of York, on July 6, 1893, at the Chapel Royal, Saint James’s Palace, in London. Upon her husband’s accession to the throne, she formally became known as Mary.

Children:

1. Edward VIII (1894-1972), King of Great Britain (later Duke of Windsor); married Wallis Simpson (1896-1986)

2. George VI (1895-1952), King of Great Britain (1936-52); married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002); 2 children

3. Mary (1897-1965), Princess Royal; married Henry Lascelles, Sixth Earl of Harewood (1882-1947); 2 children

4. Henry (1900-74), Duke of Gloucester; married Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott (1901-2004); 2 children

5. George (1902-42), Duke of Kent; married HRH Princess Marina of Greece (1906-68); 3 children

6. John (1905-19)

Nicholas II (1868-1918). Tsar of Russia, 1894-1917. Born at Tsarskoe Selo on May 6, 1868, as HIH Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, he became tsarevitch of Russia when his father ascended the throne in 1881. His parents were Tsar Alexander III and Princess Dagmar (Marie Feodorovna) of Denmark. Nicholas, commonly known as “Nicky,” ascended the throne upon his father’s death in 1894. He later married HGDH Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt.
See
Alexandra.

Wilhelm II (1859-1941). German emperor and king of Prussia, 1888-1918. HRH Prince Frederick
Wilhelm
Victor Albrecht of Prussia was born on January 27, 1859, in Berlin. Wilhelm was the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia (Emperor Frederick III in 1888) and Princess Vicky of Great Britain, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Wilhelm’s father became the German crown prince after the formation of the German Empire in 1871. On February 27, 1881, he married HSH Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in Berlin. He succeeded his father as emperor on June 15, 1888.
See
Augusta Victoria
.

Zita (1892-1989). Empress and queen consort, 1916-18, of Emperor Charles I of Austria, king of Hungary. Born at Villa Pianore, Tuscany, on May 9, 1892, she was the ninth daughter and seventeenth child of Robert I, Duke of Parma, and Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal. Christened Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese, she married HI and RH Archduke Charles of Austria (later Emperor Charles I) on October 21, 1911.

Children:

1. Otto (1912-2011), Crown prince of Austria; married HH Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen (1925-2010); 7 children

2. Adelhaid (1914-71)

3. Robert (1915-96), Archduke of Austria-Este; married HRH Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta (1930-); 5 children

4. Felix (1916-2011); married HSH Anna-Eugénie, princess and duchess of Arenberg (1925-97); 7 children

5. Carl Ludwig (1918-2007); married HH Princess Yolande de Ligne (1923-); 4 children

6. Rudolf (1919-2010); married [1] Countess Xenia Besobrasova (1929-68); 3 children; and [2] Princess Anna von Wrede (1940-); 1 child

7. Charlotte (1921-89), Duchess of Mecklenburg; married HH Georg, Duke of Mecklenburg (1899-1962)

8. Elisabeth (1922-93), Princess of Liechtenstein; married HSH Prince Heinrich of Liechtenstein (1916-91); 5 children