Ernie and Onor - portraits of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Hesse by de László, 1907

Unfinished variant of the above portrait; the line around the figure suggests that there was thought to reshape the canvas into an oval format.

The very artistic Grand Duke got up in a fancy-dress turban.

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In 1894 Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine had been fairly railroaded into marriage with his first cousin Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by their mutual grandmother Queen Victoria. The union was a disaster almost from the start, and the couple divorced in 1901 on grounds of "invincible mutual antipathy." Four years later, Victoria Melita married another first cousin, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich while, that same year, Ernst Ludwig married Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. Called Ernie and Onor in the family, the pair's first son, Georg Donatus, was born in 1906 and their second, Louis, two years later. The grand ducal couple endured war and political turmoil - and perhaps Ernst Ludwig's homosexual affairs - but lived very happily together until the Grand Duke's death in October of 1937. Only a month later, the dowager Grand Duchess was killed in a horrific plane crash that also claimed the lives of her eldest son, his pregnant wife Cecile - sister of the present Duke of Edinburgh - and their two young sons, Ludwig and Alexander.

Four sisters - photographs of the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh

Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, later Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was the second son of Queen Victoria. The duchess, the former Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, was the only daughter of Alexander II of Russia. The couple's first born, Alfred, died a suicide at the age of twenty-four. But they had four daughters: Marie "Missy" (29 October 1875 - 18 July 1938), later Queen of Romania; Victoria Melita "Ducky" (25 November 1876 - 2 March 1936), later Grand Duchess of Hessen und bei Rhein and, after that, Grand Duchess Kirill of Russia; Alexandra "Sandra" (1 September 1878 - 16 April 1942), later Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenberg; and Beatrice "Baby Bee" (20 April 1884 - 13 July 1966), later Infanta of Spain. The sisters were very close, the first three more so; they were only a year and two years apart in age. Beatrice was six year younger than her closest sibling and doesn't always appear in these group portraits.

Victoria Melita, Alexandra, Marie.

Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra. Though second born, Victoria Melita was always dominant among the sisters.

Alexandra, Victoria Melita, Marie.

Victoria Melita, Alexandra, Marie.

Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra.

Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra.

Beatrice, Victoria Melita, Alexandra, Marie.

Victoria Melita, Marie, Alexandra, Beatrice. Victoria Melita and Marie had by far the closest bond among the four.

Alexandra, Beatrice, Victoria Melita, Marie.

Beatrice, Marie, Alexandra, Victoria Melita. From a portrait by Friedrich August von Kaulbach, circa 1900.

Beatrice, Marie, Victoria Melita.

Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra.

Alexandra, Marie, Beatrice, Victoria Melita.

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Addendum 4/5/2021:

Kaulbach's portrait of the four sisters, seen above in a reproduction from a vintage postcard, originally hung in the dining room of the Edinburgh Palace in Coburg. Unseen for many decades, it was thought that it might actually be lost. Only recently has it been confirmed as being safely held in the private collection of a family descendant.

Hijinks in Darmstadt - Wolfsgarten, Fall 1899

Left to right: Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, Tsar Nicholas II (Nicky), Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

(Alix), Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse (Ernie), Prince Nicholas of Greece (Greek Nicky), Grand

Duchess Victoria Melita of Hesse (Ducky), Grand Dukes Andrei and Boris Vladimirovich.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there was little love lost between the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia and her first cousin* and soon-to-be-former sister-in-law, Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Hesse. But in the early days of their respective marriages, before the ill-considered union of "Ducky" and the Empress' beloved brother Ernie ended in all-but-inevitable divorce, the Russian couple and Hessian couple spent some happy days together in the Empress' "old home", Darmstadt, together with their children and other members of the extended family.

Wolfsgarten.

They were all young adults in October and November of 1899 - Andrei was just 20, Boris 21, Ducky and Kirill 23, Alix and Greek Nicky were 27, Ernie 30, with Nicky the oldest at 31 - and most were living lives that were heavy with responsibility and rigid protocol. But staying at Schloss Wolfsgarten, the Grand Ducal country estate north of Darmstadt, the differences between the two young women which would soon harden into enmity, and the pressures of public life that the group often struggled with, were forgotten in unseasonably sunny and warm, lighthearted days spent with their children and surrounded by family.

There are photographs propped up in front of Nicky; it would be interesting to know of whom they are.

Update, May 2024: It turns out that the photograph on the right is actually of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig taken circa 1893. I have no idea why they're posing with it.

Kirill, Nicky, Greek Nicky.

Ernie and Nicky. (That's probably Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, the Tsar's second daughter, in the foreground.)

Ernie and Greek Nicky.

Same as above.

Nicky and Greek Nicky.

Nicky, Greek Nicky, Boris.

Ducky.

Alix. (Quite a different - rather appalling, actually - image of the famously stiff and unsmiling Empress Alexandra.)

Boris.

Boris, Ernie, Andrei, on top Greek Nicky and Kirill.

Alix taking a photograph of Nicky, Ernie, and Greek Nicky. (The man in the middle of the image is unknown.)

Greek Nicky with Tatiana.

Ernie with Tatiana.

Nicky and Alix's two eldest daughters, Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Olga.

Tatiana and Greek Nicky.

Ernie and Nicky with their daughters, Princess Elisabeth - who would die at the age of eight - and Grand Duchess Olga.

Boris. At left, Nicky and Greek Nicky.

Ducky and Kirill. (Her future second husband.) This decorative - dry - well seemed to inspire a lot of silliness.

Greek Nicky, Boris, Kirill. Princess Elisabeth is in the background.

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Alexandra and Ernst Ludwig (by their mother) and Victoria Melita (by her father) were first cousins. (And grandchildren of Queen Victoria.) Victoria Melita (by her mother), Nicholas II (by his father), and the three Vladimir bothers (by their father), were all first cousins. Nicholas II (by his mother) and Nicholas of Greece (by his father) were first cousins; they were also second cousins via the former's father and the latter's mother, born a Russian Grand Duchess. Nicholas of Greece (by his mother) was second cousins with the Vladimir brothers (by their father). Got all that?

Of course, famously, Victoria Melita divorced one first cousin, Ernst Ludwig, and married another, Kirill. Though unions between first cousins weren't always so frowned upon at the time - as they certainly are today - the Orthodox church did not permit such marriages. This is one of many factors that have always troubled Russian monarchists in respect to the current pretender to the Imperial throne, the granddaughter of Kirill and Victoria Melita.