Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom

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For other people called Princess Beatrice, see Princess Beatrice (disambiguation)

Princess Beatrice
Princess Henry of Battenberg
Image:Coloured Princess Beatrice.jpg
Spouse	Prince Henry of Battenberg
Issue
Alexander Mountbatten, Marquess of Carisbrooke Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain Lord Leopold Mountbatten Prince Maurice of Battenberg
Full name
Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore
Detail Titles
HRH The Princess Beatrice HRH Princess Henry of Battenberg HRH The Princess Beatrice
Royal house	House of Hesse House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Father	Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Mother	Victoria
Born	14 April 1857(1857-04-14) Buckingham Palace, London
Baptised	16 June 1857 Buckingham Palace, London
Died	26 October 1944 (aged 87) Brantridge Park, Sussex
Burial	3 November 1944 St George's Chapel, Windsor; later August 1945 St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham

The Princess Beatrice (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore; 14 April 1857 – 26 October 1944) was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Beatrice's childhood coincided with Victoria's profound grief following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, on 14 December 1861. As Beatrice's elder sisters married and left their royal mother, Victoria came to rely heavily on the company of her youngest daughter, whom she called Baby for most of her childhood. Beatrice, who was brought up always to stay with her mother, soon resigned herself to her fate.^[1] Victoria was set against her youngest daughter marrying, and refused to discuss the possibility.

Nevertheless, numerous suitors were put forward, including Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, the son of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France; and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, the widower of Beatrice's older sister Alice. Although she was attracted to the Prince Imperial, and there was some talk of a possible marriage, he was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.

Beatrice fell in love with Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia von Hauke, a commoner. After a year of persuasion, Victoria finally consented to the marriage, which took place at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, on 23 July 1885. Victoria consented only on the condition that Beatrice and Henry make their home permanently with her, and that Beatrice continue her duties as the queen's unofficial secretary.

After just ten years of marriage, on 20 January 1896 Prince Henry died of malaria while fighting in the Anglo-Asanti War. Beatrice remained at her mother's side until Victoria died on 22 January 1901. Thereafter, Beatrice devoted the next thirty years to editing Victoria's journals. She continued to make public appearances after her mother's death for several years, and died at the age of eighty-seven on 26 October 1944, outliving all her siblings and several of her children.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Victoria's devoted companion 3 Marriage 3.1 Possible suitors 3.2 Engagement and wedding 4 Victoria's last years 5 Later life 5.1 Victoria's journals 5.2 Retirement from public life 5.3 Last years 6 Legacy 7 Titles, styles, honours and arms 7.1 Titles and styles 7.2 Honours 7.3 Arms 8 Ancestors 9 Issue 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Early life

Beatrice was born on 14 April 1857 at Buckingham Palace.^[2] She was the fifth daughter, and youngest of the nine children of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, the Prince Consort. The birth caused controversy when it was announced that Victoria would seek relief from the pains of delivery using chloroform, administered by Doctor John Snow. The use of chloroform was considered dangerous both to mother and child, and was frowned upon by both the Church of England and the medical authorities.^[3] However, Victoria, undeterred by public opinion, continued to use “that blessed chloroform” for her last pregnancy.^[4] A fortnight later, Victoria reported to her journal, “I was amply rewarded and forgot all I had gone through when I heard dearest Albert say ‘It's a fine child, and a girl!’”^[5] Albert and Victoria chose the names Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, and she was christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on 16 June 1857. Her godparents were her maternal grandmother, Princess Victoria, Duchess of Kent; her eldest sister Victoria, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Royal's fiancée Prince Frederick of Prussia.^[6]

From her birth, Beatrice was subjected to favouritism and was spoilt beyond her other siblings.^[7] The favourite daughter of Prince Albert, the Princess Royal, was soon to take up residence in Germany with her new husband, Frederick (“Fritz”) of Prussia. Beatrice immediately showed promise; Albert wrote to Augusta, Fritz's mother, that “Baby practices her scales like a good prima donna before a performance and has a good voice!”^[8] Although Victoria was famous for disliking most babies, she liked Beatrice, whom Victoria considered attractive. This was to provide Beatrice with an advantage over her elder siblings. Victoria once remarked that Beatrice was “a pretty, plump and flourishing child...with fine large blue eyes, [a] pretty little mouth and very fine skin”.^[9] Her golden, long hair was the focus of paintings commissioned by Victoria, who even enjoyed giving Beatrice her bath, a marked difference to her other children.^[7] Beatrice showed intelligence, which further endeared her to the Prince Consort, who was amused by her childhood precociousness.^[7] Despite sharing the rigorous education programme designed by Prince Albert and his close adviser Baron Stockmar, Beatrice had a more relaxed infancy than the rest of her siblings as a result for her relationship with her parents.^[10]

[edit] Victoria's devoted companion

In March 1861, Victoria's mother Victoria, Duchess of Kent, died at Frogmore. The queen broke down in grief and guilt over their estrangement at the beginning of Victoria's reign.^[11] Beatrice attempted to console her mother, who had entered a period of intense mourning, by reminding her of the fact that the Duchess of Kent was “in heaven, but [Beatrice] hopes she will return”.^[12] This comfort was significant: Victoria had shut herself from all of her children except the eldest unmarried Princess Alice and Beatrice herself.^[13] Victoria again leaned heavily on Beatrice and Alice after the death of Albert on 14 December of typhoid fever.^[14]

The depth of the queen's grief over the death of her husband was unexpected by her family, courtiers, politicians and subjects. As she had done at her mother's death, she shut herself off from her family—most particularly, the Prince of Wales, whom she blamed for her husband's death^[15]—with the exception of Alice and Beatrice. Victoria would often take Beatrice from her cot, hurry to her bed and “lay there sleepless, clapsing to her child, wrapped in the nightclothes of a man who would wear them no more.”^[16] After 1871, following the marriages of her elder sisters,^[17] Victoria came to rely upon Beatrice, who had declared from an early age: “I don't like weddings at all. I shall never be married. I shall stay with my mother.”^[18] As her mother's secretary, she performed duties such as writing on the queen's behalf and helping with political correspondence.^[19] These mundane duties mirrored the duties performed in succession by Alice, Helena and Louise.^[20] However, these tasks were upgraded by the queen to more personal tasks. During a serious illness of 1871, the queen dictated her journal to Beatrice.^[20] Later, in 1876, the queen showed increased confidence in Beatrice by allowing her to sort out the music that she and the Prince Consort played, which had been left unused since his death fifteen years earlier.^[20]

The devotion that Beatrice showed to her mother was directly acknowledged in the queen's letters and journals, but her constant need for Beatrice grew stronger.^[21][22] The queen suffered another bereavement in 1883, when her highland servant, John Brown, died at Balmoral.^[23] Once again, the queen plunged into public mourning and leant heavily on Beatrice for company and support in the wake of her latest loss. Unlike her siblings, Beatrice did not show any open dislike for Brown, and the two were frequently in each other's company.^[24] Both had the queen's best interests in mind, and therefore worked together to achieve her wishes.^[24]

[edit] Marriage

[edit] Possible suitors

Although the queen was set against Beatrice marrying anyone, in the expectation that she would always stay at home with her, a number of possible suitors were put forward before her marriage to Prince Henry of Battenberg. One of these was Napoleon Eugene, the French Prince Imperial, son and heir of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France and his wife The Empress Eugénie. After Prussia defeated France, Napoleon was deposed, and moved his family to England in 1870.^[25] Following the Emperor's death in 1873, Victoria and Empress Eugénie formed a close attachment, and the newspapers reported the imminent engagement of Beatrice to the Prince Imperial.^[26] These rumours ended with the death of the Prince Imperial in the Anglo-Zulu War on 1 June 1879. Victoria's journal records their grief: “Dear Beatrice, crying very much as I did too, gave me the telegram... It was dawning and little sleep did I get...Beatrice is so distressed; everyone quite stunned.”^[27]

Following the death of the Prince Imperial, Beatrice's brother, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, suggested that she marry their sister Alice's widower, Louis IV, the Grand Duke of Hesse, who had lost his wife to diphtheria in 1878. Albert Edward argued that Beatrice could act as a replacement mother for Louis's young children and spend most of her time in England looking after her mother.^[28] He further suggested that the queen could oversee the upbringing of her Hessian grandchildren with greater ease.^[29] However, at the time, it was forbidden by law for Beatrice to marry her sister's widower.^[30] This was countered by the Prince of Wales, who vehemently supported the passage of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, which would remove the obstacle, through the Houses of Parliament.^[29] Despite the popular support for the change in the law from the queen and the Prince of Wales, it passed in the House of Commons but was thrown out of the House of Lords as a result of the opposition from the Bishops.^[31] Although the queen was disappointed that the bill had failed, she was happy that her daughter was once again back at her side.^[32]

Other candidates were put forward, but were unsuccessful. Two of Prince Henry's brothers put forward their suitability to be Beatrice's husband, including Prince Alexander (“Sandro”) and Prince Louis of Battenberg. Although Alexander never formally pursued Beatrice (merely claiming that he “might even at one time have become engaged to the friend of my childhood, Beatrice of England”),^[33] his brother Louis was more interested in marriage, which resulted in Victoria inviting him to dinner, sitting him between herself and Beatrice, who was under the queen's instruction to ignore him in order to discourage his suit.^[34] He, not realising the reasons of this silence for several years, instead married Beatrice's niece, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Although the possibility of marriage was dealt another blow, while attending Louis's wedding at Darmstadt, she met and fell in love with his brother, Prince Henry, who returned her affections.^[35]

[edit] Engagement and wedding

After returning from Darmstadt, Beatrice had the dangerous task of informing her mother of her intention to marry. Although she had anticipated that her reaction would not be favourable, the queen reacted with frightening silence; although mother and daughter were side by side as always, the queen did not talk to her for seven months, instead communicating by note.^[36]

Victoria's reaction was unexpected even by her family.^[37] However, it was prompted by the thought of losing the daughter she had tried so hard to keep to herself.^[38] The queen also saw Beatrice as her “Baby”—her innocent child—and saw the physical sex that marriage would naturally involve as an invasion of that innocence.^[39] Subtle persuasions by the Crown Princess of Prussia—who shrewdly reminded her mother of the happiness that Beatrice brought the Prince Consort—and the Princess of Wales ultimately led the queen to resume vocal contact with Beatrice, and give her consent to the marriage with the condition that Henry give up all his German commitments and live permanently with the queen and Beatrice.^[40]

With the condition that Beatrice and Henry would always be at the queen's beck and call promised, the wedding date was set, and Beatrice and Henry were married at St. Mildred's Church at Whippingham, a church very near to Osborne,^[41] on 23 July 1885.^[40] Beatrice, who wore her mother's wedding veil of Honiton lace, was escorted in by the queen and her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales.^[42] The ceremony—which was not attended by the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, William Gladstone,^[43] or Beatrice's cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck^[44][45]—ended with the couple's departure for their honeymoon at Quarr Abbey House, just a few miles from Osborne. The queen, taking her leave of them both, “bore up bravely till the departure and then fairly gave way”, as she later admitted to the Crown Princess.^[46]

[edit] Victoria's last years

Following her short honeymoon, Beatrice and her husband fulfilled their earlier promise and returned to the queen's side. The queen made it clear that she could not cope on her own, and therefore the couple could not travel without her.^[47]

Although the queen relaxed this restriction shortly after the marriage, Beatrice and Henry only travelled to see his family, and for short durations.^[47] Beatrice's love for Henry, like that of the queen's for the Prince Consort, only increased the longer they were married.^[48] Whenever Henry travelled without Beatrice she was happier when he returned.^[48]

Prince Henry brought a new reason for both Beatrice and the queen to look forward, and the court was considerably brighter than it had been following the Prince Consort's death.^[49] However, his determination to leave the court on military campaigns annoyed the queen, who was determined not to risk his participation in life-threatening warfare, despite Beatrice arguing in favour of her husband's wishes.^[50] Conflicts also arose when Henry attended the Ajaccio carnival and kept “low company”.^[51] Beatrice sent a Royal Navy officer to collect him, forcibly removing him from damaging influences and temptation.^[51] On one occasion, he slipped to Corsica with his brother Louis.^[52] The queen sent a warship to bring him back.^[52] Henry was feeling continually oppressed by Victoria's constant need for his and his wife's company.^[53]

Despite being married, Beatrice lovingly fulfilled her promise to the queen by continuing as her full-time confidante and secretary. Victoria warmed to Henry, as she often did with other handsome, strong men.^[54] However, the queen once again criticised Beatrice over her conduct during her first pregnancy. Beatrice stopped coming to the queen's dinners a week before giving birth, preferring to eat alone in her room, to which the queen wrote angrily to her physician, Dr. James Reid, that, “I [urged the Princess] coming to dinner, and not simply moping in her own room, which is very bad for her. In my case I regularly came to dinner, except when I was really unwell (even when suffering a great deal) up to the very last day.”^[55] Beatrice gave birth the following week, to her first son Alexander, with the use of chloroform.^[55]

Following the births of her four children,^[56] Beatrice took a polite and encouraging interest in social issues, such as conditions in the coal mines. However, this interest did not extend to a determination to change the situation of the poor, like it had done with her brother, the Prince of Wales.^[49]

Although court entertainments were few and far between, owing to the solemnity of the court following the Prince Consort's death, Beatrice and the queen enjoyed tableau vivant photography, which was often performed at the many royal residences.^[49] Henry, who was increasingly bored by the lack of activity at court, longed for employment, and in response to this, the queen created him Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1889.^[57] However, he longed for military participation, and pleaded with his mother-in-law to allow him to join the Ashanti expedition fighting at the Anglo-Asante war. Despite her misgivings, the queen consented, and Henry and Beatrice parted on 6 December 1895. Husband and wife would not meet again. Henry contracted malaria and was sent back home. On 22 January 1896, Beatrice, who was waiting for her husband at Madeira, received a telegram there informing her of Henry's death two days previously.^[58] Devastated, she left court for a month's period of mourning, before returning to her ordinary post at her mother's side.^[58] The queen's journal recorded that Victoria “[w]ent over to Beatrice's room and sat a while with her. She is so piteous in her misery.”^[59] Despite her grief, Beatrice remained her mother's unselfish and faithful companion.^[58] As Victoria got older, she relied more heavily on Beatrice for dealing with the queen's correspondence. However, the queen also realised that Beatrice needed a place to call her own, and gave her the apartments at Kensington Palace that were once occupied by the queen and her mother.^[60] In response to Beatrice's advanced interest in photography, the queen also installed a dark room at Osborne House.^[61] Beatrice's preoccupation with her mother had an impact on her children, who rebelled at school as a result of the lack of attention from their mother.^[62]

[edit] Later life

Beatrice's life was effectively overturned by the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. She wrote to the principal of the University of Glasgow in March, “...you may imagine what the grief is. I, who had hardly ever been separated from my dear mother, can hardly realise what life will be like without her, who was the centre of everything.”^[63] Her public appearances continued, but her position at court was diminished: Beatrice, who was not close to her brother, now King Edward VII, was not included in the king's inner circle, unlike her sister Louise.^[64] Nevertheless, though their relationship did not break down completely, it was occasionally strained, for example when she accidentally but noisily dropped her service book from the royal gallery onto the table of gold plate below.^[64]

After inheriting Osborne, the king had his mother's personal photographs and belongings removed, and some of them destroyed, especially material relating to John Brown, whom he detested.^[65] Victoria had intended the house to be a private, secluded residence for her descendents, away from the pomp and ceremony of mainland life.^[66] However, the new king had no need for the house, and consulted his lawyers about the possibility of disposing of it, transforming the main wing into a convalescent home; opening the state apartments to the general public; and constructing a Naval College in the grounds.^[66] The decision received strong disapproval from both Beatrice and Louise; Victoria had bequeathed them houses on the estate, and their secluded privacy, promised to them by their mother, was seriously threatened. Edward therefore held a discussion with them both about what the fate of the house should be, and Beatrice reacted strongly against the idea that the house should leave the family, citing its strong importance to their mother and father, and her threatened privacy.^[66] However, the king was decidedly against keeping the house for himself. He offered it to his heir, Beatrice's nephew George, but he declined, pointing out that the maintenance cost would be too high for him to take it on. Edward therefore extended the grounds of Beatrice's home, Osborne Cottage, in an attempt to compensate her for the inevitable loss of her total seclusion. Shortly afterwards, Edward declared to the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour that the main house would be presented to the nation as a gift, with the exception of the private apartments, which were sealed off to everyone but the royal family, who made it a shrine to their mother's memory.^[67]

[edit] Victoria's journals

Upon Victoria's death, Beatrice began the momentous task of transcribing and editing Victoria's journals, which had been kept since 1831. The hundreds of volumes contained the queen's personal views on the day-to-day business of her life, and included personal and family matters, as well as matters of state.^[68]

Victoria had privately given Beatrice the task of editing the journals for publication, which required the removal of passages that had the potential to cause hurt to people still alive, or material that would be inappropriate for the eyes of any third party. Beatrice edited the journals to such a large extent, that the edited journals are only a third of their original length.^[68] The destruction of such large passages of Victoria's diaries caused distress to Beatrice's nephew, King George V, and his wife Queen Mary, who were nevertheless powerless to intervene.^[69] Beatrice copied a draft from the original, and then copied her draft into a set of blue notebooks. Both the originals and her first drafts were destroyed as Beatrice progressed through the journal.^[69] The overwhelming task took thirty years and was finished in 1931. The surviving blue notebooks currently reside in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.^[70]

[edit] Retirement from public life

Beatrice continued to appear in public after her mother's death. The public engagements she often carried out were related to her mother, Queen Victoria, as the public had always associated Beatrice with their lost queen.^[71]

The beauty of Beatrice's daughter, Ena, was well known throughout Europe, and, despite her low rank, she was a desirable bride.^[72] Her choice of marriage fell to the Spanish king Alphonso XIII. However, the marriage caused controversy in Britain, as it was necessary for Ena to convert to Catholicism.^[73] This step was greatly opposed by Beatrice's brother, King Edward VII, and the ultra-conservatives in Spain also opposed Alphonso's marriage to a Protestant of low birth.^[74][75] Nevertheless, the marriage went ahead, and Alphonso and Ena were married on 31 May 1906. The marriage soon became unhappy. Though close at first, the marriage began inauspiciously after an attempt to bomb the royal couple on their wedding day.^[76] Ena became increasingly unpopular in Spain, and her unpopularity further deteriorated when it was discovered that her son, the heir to the throne, suffered from haemophilia.^[77] Alphonso blamed Beatrice for the transaction of the royal disease to the Spanish royal house, and never voluntarily spoke to her again.^[74]

Beatrice herself remained living at Osborne Cottage and Carisbrooke Castle, the home of the Governor of the Isle of Wight, a position which Beatrice had been given by her mother following Prince Henry's death.^[78] However, Beatrice decided to dispense with Osborne Cottage, and, much to her nephew, George V's discomfort, sold it in 1913.^[79] She moved into Carisbrooke Castle permanently, with an apartment at Kensington Palace as her London residence. She was much involved in collecting material for the Carisbrooke Castle museum, which she opened in 1898.^[80] Her presence at court further decreased as she got older, and the royal family continued to flourish down her brother's line. Devastated by the death of her favourite son, Maurice, at war in 1914, she began to retire from public life.^[81] In response to war with Germany, George V changed the royal family surname from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor, in attempt to distance himself from his German origins. Beatrice and her family were forced to renounce their German names, so Beatrice's style reverted from HRH Princess Henry of Battenberg to her birth style, HRH The Princess Beatrice. Her surname was also anglicised to Mountbatten.^[82] Her sons gave up their courtesy style Prince of Battenberg.^[83] Alexander, the eldest, became Sir Alexander Mountbatten, and was later given the title Marquess of Carisbrooke in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[83] Her younger surviving Leopold became Lord Leopold Mountbatten, and was given the rank of a younger son of a Marquess.^[78]

[edit] Last years

Beatrice continued to correspond with her friends and relatives in her seventies, and made rare public appearances, such as viewing the wreaths after the death of George V in 1936, pushed in a wheelchair.^[84] She published her last work of translation, of Queen Victoria's maternal grandmother, Augusta, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld's personal diary, entitled In Napoleonic Days, in 1941. She corresponded with the publisher, John Murray, who greatly approved of the work.^[85] She made her last home at Brantridge Park in West Sussex, which was owned by Queen Mary's brother, Alexander Cambridge, the first Earl of Athlone, and his wife, Beatrice's niece Princess Alice of Albany.^[86] It was there that Beatrice died peacefully, in her sleep, on 26 October 1944, aged eighty-seven.^[87] Traditionally interred in the Royal Vault at Windsor Castle on 3 November, her body was exhumed in August 1945 and reunited with her husband, Prince Henry, at Whippingham church.^[80] Beatrice's final wish, to be buried with her husband on the island she was most familiar with, was finally fulfilled in a private service at Whippingham, attended only by her son, the Marquess of Carisbrooke, and his wife.^[80]

[edit] Legacy

British Royalty House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Image:UK Royal Coat of Arms.svg Descendants of Victoria & Albert    Victoria, Princess Royal    Edward VII    Princess Alice    Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha    Princess Helena    Princess Louise    Arthur, Duke of Connaught    Leopold, Duke of Albany    Princess Beatrice

Styles of HRH The Princess Beatrice Image:Monarch's Children Coronet.svg Reference style Her Royal Highness Spoken style Your Royal Highness Alternative style Ma'am

Beatrice was the shyest of all Victoria's children. However, due to the fact that she accompanied Victoria almost wherever she went, she became the most well known.^[88] Despite her shyness, she was an able actor and dancer, and was a keen artist and photographer.^[89] Though, she later discovered, she was not naturally maternal, she was devoted to her children, and was concerned when they began to misbehave at school. To those who enjoyed her friendship, she was unfailingly loyal and had an able sense of humour,^[90] and as a public figure she was driven by a strong sense of duty.^[91] Music, a passion that was shared by her mother and the Prince Consort, was an area in which Beatrice excelled, and she played the piano to professional standards.^[92] Like her mother, religion played an important role in her life, and she remained a devout Christian, fascinated by theology, until her death.^[93] With her calm temper and a warm heart, the princess won wide approval when attending royal visits.^[94]

The demands made on Beatrice during her mother's reign were high. Despite suffering from rheumatism, Beatrice was forced to share in her mother's love of cold weather.^[95] Beatrice's piano playing suffered as her rheumatism got gradually worse, eliminating an enjoyment that she excelled in, but this did not change her view that she had to always cater for her mother's needs.^[95] This effort did not go on unnoticed by the British public. In 1886, when she agreed to open the Show of the Royal Horticultural Society of Southampton, the organisers sent her a proclamation of thanks, expressing their “admiration of the affectionate manner in which you have comforted and assisted your widowed mother our Gracious Sovereign the Queen”.^[96] As a wedding present, Sir Moses Montefiore, the rich Jewish banker and philanthropist, presented Beatrice and Henry with a silver tea service inscribed: “Many daughters have acted virtuously, but thou excelleth them all.”^[97] The Times newspaper, shortly before Beatrice's marriage, wrote: “The devotion of your Royal Highness to our beloved Sovereign has won our warmest admiration and our deepest gratitude. May those blessings which it has hitherto been your constant aim to confer on others now be returned in full measure to yourself.”^[98] The sentence was, as far as it dared, criticising the queen's possessive hold over her daughter.^[97]

Many of the buildings Beatrice would have been familiar with still remain. The main royal residences that she regularly occupied, including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral Castle, all remain standing, and Osborne House, her mother's favourite home, is fully accessible to the public.^[99] Her Osborne residences, Osborne and Albert Cottages, remain, though are now in private ownership following their sale by Beatrice in 1912.^[100] Kensington Palace and her death place, Brantridge Park, also remain. At her death, she was the only surviving child of Victoria and Albert, and the future Queen Elizabeth II, Beatrice's great-great-niece, was eighteen years of age.^[101]

[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms

[edit] Titles and styles

• 14 April 1857 – 23 July 1885: Her Royal Highness The Princess Beatrice^[102]
• 23 July 1885 – 14 July 1917: Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Battenberg^[103]
• 14 July 1917 – 26 October 1944: Her Royal Highness The Princess Beatrice

[edit] Honours

• 9 January 1874: Royal Order of Victoria and Albert (1st class)^[104]
• 1 January 1878: Order of the Crown of India^[104]
• 24 May 1885: Royal Red Cross^[104]
• 10 February 1904: Royal Family Order of King Edward VII (2nd class)^[104]
• 3 June 1911: Royal Family Order of King George V (2nd class)^[104]
• 1 January 1919: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire^[104]
• 12 June 1926: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St John^[104]
• 11 May 1937: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.^[104]

[edit] Arms

In 1858, Beatrice and the three younger of her sisters were granted use of the royal arms, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, and differenced by a label argent of three points. On Beatrice's arms, the outer points bore roses gules, and the centre a heart gules. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant from George V.^[105]

[edit] Ancestors

v • d • e British princesses
1st Generation	Sophia, Queen in Prussia
2nd Generation	Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange  · The Princess Amelia Sophia  · The Princess Caroline Elizabeth  · Mary, Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel  · Louise, Queen of Denmark-Norway
3rd Generation	Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick  · Elizabeth Caroline of Wales  · Louisa Anne of Wales  · Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark-Norway
4th Generation	Charlotte, Queen of Württemberg  · The Princess Augusta Sophia  · Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg  · Sophia of Gloucester  · Caroline of Gloucester  · The Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester  · The Princess Sophia  · The Princess Amelia
5th Generation	Charlotte Augusta of Wales  · Frederica of Cumberland  · Charlotte of Clarence  · Victoria of the United Kingdom  · Elizabeth of Clarence  · Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz  · Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck
6th Generation	Victoria, German Empress and Queen of Prussia  · Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine  · Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein  · Frederica of Cumberland  · The Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll  · Marie, Baron Alfons von Pawel-Rammingen  · The Princess Beatrice
7th Generation	Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife  · The Princess Victoria  · Maud, Queen of Norway  · Marie, Queen of Romania  · Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Russia  · Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha · Marie Louise, Princess Maximilian of Baden  · Margaret, Crown Princess of Sweden  · Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin  · Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone  · Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera  · Olga of Hanover  · Patricia of Connaught, Lady Alexander Ramsay
8th Generation	Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife  · Maud of Fife  · Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood  · Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha  · Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha  · Frederika, Queen of Greece
9th Generation	Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom  · The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon  · Alexandra of Kent, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
10th Generation	Anne, Princess Royal
11th Generation	Beatrice of York  · Eugenie of York  · Louise of Wessex

[edit] Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Alexander Mountbatten, Marquess of Carisbrooke	3 November 1886	23 February 1960	married, 1917 Irene Denison (4 July 1890–16 July 1956); had issue
Victoria Eugénie, Queen of Spain	24 October 1887	15 April 1969	married, 1906, King Alfonso XIII of Spain (17 May 1886–28 February 1941); had issue
Lord Leopold Mountbatten	21 May 1889	23 April 1922	Suffered from haemophilia; died unmarried and without issue during a knee operation
Prince Maurice of Battenberg	3 October 1891	27 October 1914	KIA during World War I.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Isle of Wight Beacon on Princess Beatrice
• The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Information about Queen Victoria's journals
• The Royal Archives
• Carisbrooke Castle Museum
• Osborne House
• Regiments page on Princess Beatrice

Other offices
Preceded by Prince Henry of Battenberg	Governor of the Isle of Wight 1896–1944	Succeeded by The Duke of Wellington

bg:Беатрис Батенберг

ca:Beatriu del Regne Unit (princesa de Battenberg) de:Beatrice von Großbritannien und Irland es:Beatriz de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha (1857-1944) fr:Beatrice du Royaume-Uni it:Beatrice di Sassonia-Coburgo-Gotha nl:Beatrice van het Verenigd Koninkrijk ja:ベアトリス (イギリス王女) pl:Beatrycze Koburg pt:Princesa Beatriz do Reino Unido sv:Beatrice av Storbritannien