Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine
Irene Luise Maria Anna Princess of Hesse and by Rhine VA ( born July 11, 1866 in Darmstadt, † November 11, 1953 in Hemmelmark ) was the wife of the Prussian princes and emperors brother Henry of Prussia and sister of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
She grew up as a princess of Hesse and by Rhine. Her father was His Royal Highness Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine, her mother, Her Royal Highness Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, the second eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Her mother had died in Irene's childhood in 1878 of diphtheria, as well as their little sister Marie Viktoria, called "May". Her brother, Friedrich Wilhelm (1870-1873), called " Frittie ", suffered from hemophilia and died after falling from a window to internal bleeding. By the early death of his mother Irene grew up with her siblings largely up with her British grandmother.
The daughter of a British princess, she had close contact with the related Hohenzollern family, her aunt and later in-law was the German Empress Victoria, her cousin and future brother in law was Kaiser Wilhelm II. Visiting the common grandmother Queen Victoria Irene became engaged to her cousin Henry. The wedding took place in the chapel of Charlottenburg Palace on May 24, 1888. The couple lived a long time in Kiel.
As a companion to the Empress Auguste Viktoria, her sister, Princess Irene was charity work. He died in 1929 her husband Henry on the estate Hemmelmark at Eckernförde. Irene lived as a widow in Berlin, Potsdam and Hemmelmark. The daughter of the imperial treasurer of sell in their reported memories of frequent visits to the former princess of the 1930s and 1940s in his parent's villa in Berlin - Dahlem.
Progeny
The couple had three sons together. Irene was, like her mother to be a carrier ( Konduktorin ) of hemophilia ( hemophilia), they inherited the disease in two of her sons. The son Henry died of the consequences at the age of four years. The son Waldemar died of it shortly before the end of the Second World War, when no blood products were available.
- Waldemar (1889-1945)
- Sigismund (1896-1978)
- Heinrich Viktor Ludwig Friedrich (1900-1904)