View source for Princess Alice of Battenberg

{{short description|Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1885–1969)}}
{{redirect|Princess Andrew}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Alice of Battenberg
| title        = Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->
| image        = Alice de Battenberg.jpg
| caption      = 1903 photograph
| alt          = 
| full name    = Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie
| spouse       = {{marriage|[[Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark]]|6 October 1903|3 December 1944|end=d.}}
| issue        = {{Plainlist|
* [[Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark|Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg]]
* [[Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906–1969)|Theodora, Margravine of Baden]]
* [[Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark|Cecilie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse]]
* [[Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark|Sophie, Princess George of Hanover]]
* [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]]}}
| house        = [[Battenberg family|Battenberg]]<!--Do not add a royal house or dynasty unless you have an official source. People are born into dynasties of ruling families. Whether or not a person is confirmed to belong to a dynasty by marriage requires a source that proves that fact. -->
| father       = [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven]]
| mother       = [[Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine]]
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1885|2|25|df=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Windsor Castle]], Berkshire, United Kingdom
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1969|12|5|1885|2|25|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Buckingham Palace]], London, United Kingdom
| burial_date  = 10 December 1969
| burial_place = [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]] <br/> 3 August 1988<br/>[[Church of Mary Magdalene]], Gethsemane, Jerusalem
| religion     = {{Plainlist|
*[[Protestant]] (until 1928)
*[[Greek Orthodox]] (from 1928)}}
| signature    = PrincessAliceOfBattenbergSignature.svg
}}

'''Princess Alice of Battenberg''' (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969) was the mother of [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]], mother-in-law of Queen [[Elizabeth II]], and paternal grandmother of King [[Charles III]]. After marrying [[Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark]] in 1903, she adopted the style of her husband, becoming '''Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark'''<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->.

A great-granddaughter of [[Queen Victoria]], Alice was born in [[Windsor Castle]] and grew up in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]], [[German Empire|Germany]] and [[Crown Colony of Malta|Malta]]. A [[Grand Duchy of Hesse|Hessian]] princess by birth, she was a member of the [[Battenberg family]], a [[Morganatic marriage|morganatic]] branch of the [[House of Hesse-Darmstadt]]. She was [[Congenital hearing loss|congenitally deaf]]. She lived in [[Greece]] until the exile of most of the [[Greek royal family]] in 1917. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the country's defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)]], and the family was once again forced into exile until the [[1935 Greek monarchy referendum|restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935]].

In 1930, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> was diagnosed with [[schizophrenia]] and committed to a sanatorium in [[Switzerland]]; thereafter, she lived separately from her husband. After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. She stayed in [[Athens]] during the [[Second World War]], sheltering [[Jewish]] refugees, for which she is recognised as "[[Righteous Among the Nations]]" by [[Israel]]'s [[Holocaust]] memorial institution, [[Yad Vashem]]. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded a [[Greek Orthodox]] nursing order of [[Nun#Eastern Orthodox|nuns]] known as the [[Christian]] Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.

After the fall of [[King Constantine II of Greece]] and the [[Greek military junta of 1967–1974|imposition of military rule in Greece]] in 1967, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at [[Buckingham Palace]] in London, where she died two years later. In 1988, her remains were transferred from a vault in her birthplace, Windsor Castle, to the [[Church of Mary Magdalene]] at the [[Russian Orthodox]] convent of the same name on the [[Mount of Olives]] in [[Jerusalem]].

==Early life==
Alice was born on 25 February 1885 at 4:40&nbsp;pm in the Tapestry Room at [[Windsor Castle]], Berkshire, in the presence of her great-grandmother [[Queen Victoria]].<ref name=":0">Vickers, pp. 2–3</ref> She was the eldest child of [[Prince Louis of Battenberg]] and his wife, [[Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine]]. Her mother was the eldest daughter of [[Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse]], and [[Princess Alice of the United Kingdom]], the Queen's second daughter. Her father was the eldest son of [[Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine]] through his [[morganatic marriage]] to [[Countess Julia Hauke]], who was created Princess of Battenberg in 1858 by [[Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse]]. Her three younger siblings, [[Louise Mountbatten|Louise]], [[George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven|George]], and [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Louis]], later became [[List of Swedish consorts|Queen of Sweden]], [[Marquess of Milford Haven]], and [[Earl Mountbatten of Burma]], respectively.

Alice was christened Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie in [[Darmstadt]] on 25 April 1885. She had six godparents: her three surviving grandparents, Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, and Julia, Princess of Battenberg; her maternal aunt [[Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia]]; her paternal aunt [[Princess Marie of Erbach-Schönberg]]; and her maternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria.<ref>Vickers, p. 19</ref>

Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, [[Jugenheim]], and [[Crown Colony of Malta|Malta]] (where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed).<ref name="dnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Hugo |last=Vickers|title=Alice, Princess (1885–1969)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66337 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66337|access-date=8 May 2009}} {{Subscription required}}</ref> Her mother noticed that she was slow in learning to talk, and became concerned by her indistinct pronunciation. Eventually, she was diagnosed with [[congenital deafness]] after her grandmother, the Princess of Battenberg, identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist. With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English and German.<ref>Vickers, pp. 24–26</ref> Educated privately, she studied French,<ref>Vickers, p. 57</ref> and after her engagement she learned Greek.<ref>Vickers, pp. 57, 71</ref> Her early years were spent in the company of her royal relatives, and she was a [[bridesmaid]] at the [[wedding of Prince George, Duke of York, and Princess Mary of Teck]] (later [[King George V]] and [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]]) in 1893.<ref>Vickers, pp. 29–48</ref> A few weeks before her 16th birthday, she attended [[Queen Victoria's funeral]] in [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]], and shortly afterward she was [[Confirmation#Anglican Communion|confirmed]] in the [[Anglican]] faith.<ref>Vickers, p. 51</ref>

==Marriage==
[[File:Princess Alice of Battenberg with children.jpg|thumb|right|Princess Andrew with her first two children, Margarita and Theodora, {{circa|1910}}]]
Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (known as Andrea within the family), the fourth son of King [[George I of Greece]] and [[Olga Constantinovna of Russia]], while in London for [[King Edward VII's coronation]] in 1902.<ref>Vickers, p. 52</ref> They married in a [[civil ceremony]] on 6 October 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day, there were two religious marriage ceremonies; one [[Lutheran]] in the Evangelical Castle Church, and one [[Greek Orthodox]] in the [[Russian Chapel in Darmstadt|Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe]].<ref>The Russian Chapel was the personal possession of [[Nicholas II of Russia]] and his wife, [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Alexandra]], Alice's maternal aunt. It was constructed between 1897 and 1899 at the personal expense of the Russian imperial couple for use during family visits to Darmstadt. Source: {{citation|title=Die Russische Orthodoxe Kirche der Hl. Maria Magdalena auf der Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt|first=Georg|last=Seide|location=Munich|publisher=Russische Orthodoxe Kirche im Ausland|year=1997|isbn=3-926165-73-1|language=de|page=2}}</ref> She adopted the style of her husband, becoming "Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->".<ref>Eilers, p. 181</ref> The bride and groom were closely related to the ruling houses of the United Kingdom, Germany, [[Russian Empire|Russia]], Denmark, and Greece, and their wedding was one of the great gatherings of the [[descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX]] held before [[World War I]].<ref name="dnb" /> Prince and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> had five children: [[Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark|Margarita]], [[Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906–1969)|Theodora]], [[Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark|Cecilie]], [[Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark|Sophie]], and [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|Philip]].<ref>Vickers, pp. 73, 75, 91, 110, 153.</ref>

[[File:Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937) - Princess Andrew of Greece (1885-1969) - RCIN 405970 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|left|''Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece and Denmark'' by [[Philip de László]], 1907. Private collection of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.]]

After their wedding, Prince Andrew continued his career in the military and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> became involved in charity work. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of [[Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958)|Grand Duchess Marie of Russia]] and [[Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland|Prince William of Sweden]]. While there, she talked with her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was formulating plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses. Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> attended the laying of the foundation stone for her aunt's [[Marfo-Mariinsky Convent|new church]]. Later in the year, Elizabeth began giving away all her possessions in preparation for a more spiritual life.<ref>Vickers, pp. 82–83</ref> On their return to Greece, Prince and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> found the political situation worsening, as the [[Athens]] government had refused to support the [[Cretan State|Cretan]] parliament, which had called for the union of Crete (still nominally part of the [[Ottoman Empire]]) with the Greek mainland. A group of dissatisfied officers formed a [[Greek nationalist]] [[Military League]] that eventually led to Prince Andrew's resignation from the army and the rise to power of [[Eleftherios Venizelos]].<ref>Clogg, pp. 97–99</ref>

==Successive life crises==
With the advent of the [[Balkan Wars]], Prince Andrew was reinstated in the army, and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> acted as a nurse, assisting at operations and setting up field hospitals, work for which King George V awarded her the [[Royal Red Cross]] in 1913.<ref name="dnb" /> During World War I, her brother-in-law [[King Constantine I of Greece]] followed a neutrality policy despite the democratically elected government of Venizelos supporting the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]]. Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> and her children were forced to shelter in the palace cellars during the [[Greece during World War I|French bombardment of Athens]] on 1 December 1916.<ref>Vickers, p. 121</ref> By June 1917, the King's neutrality policy had become so untenable that she and other members of the Greek royal family were forced into exile when King Constantine abdicated. For the next few years, most of the Greek royal family lived in Switzerland.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 96 ff.</ref>

The global war effectively ended much of the political power of Europe's dynasties. The naval career of Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had collapsed at the beginning of the war in the face of [[Anti-German sentiment#First World War|anti-German sentiment in Britain]]. At the request of King George V, he relinquished the [[Grand Duchy of Hesse|Hessian]] title Prince of Battenberg and the style of [[Serene Highness]] on 14 July 1917, and anglicized the family name to [[Mountbatten]]. The following day, the King created him Marquess of Milford Haven in the [[peerage of the United Kingdom]].<ref>Princess Alice of Battenberg never used the Mountbatten surname nor did she assume the [[courtesy title]] as a daughter of a British marquess, since she had married into the Royal House of Greece in 1903.</ref> The following year, two of Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s aunts, [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia]] and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, were murdered by [[Bolsheviks]] after the [[Russian Revolution]]. At the end of the war the Russian, German and [[Austro-Hungarian empire]]s had fallen, and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s uncle [[Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse]], was deposed.<ref>Vickers, pp. 137–138</ref>

[[File:Laszlo - Princess Andrew of Greece.jpg|thumb|right|''Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece and Denmark'' by [[Philip de László]], 1922. Private collection of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.]]

On Constantine's restoration in 1920, Prince and Princess Andrew briefly returned to Greece, taking up residence on [[Corfu]] at [[Mon Repos, Corfu|Mon Repos]] (inherited by Prince Andrew on his father's assassination in 1913). But after the defeat of the [[Hellenic Army]] in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish War]], a [[11 September 1922 Revolution|Revolutionary Committee]] under the leadership of Colonels [[Nikolaos Plastiras]] and [[Stylianos Gonatas]] seized power and forced King Constantine into exile once again.<ref>Vickers, p. 162</ref> Prince Andrew, who had served as commander of the [[II Army Corps (Greece)|Second Army Corps]] during the war, was arrested. Several former ministers and generals arrested at the same time were shot following a [[Trial of the Six|brief trial]], and British diplomats assumed that Prince Andrew was also in mortal danger. After a show trial, he was sentenced to banishment, and Prince and Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> and their children fled Greece aboard a British cruiser, {{HMS|Calypso|D61|6}}, under the protection of the British naval attaché, Commander Gerald Talbot.<ref>Vickers, p. 171</ref>

==Illness==
The family settled in a small house loaned to them by [[Princess George of Greece and Denmark]] at [[Saint-Cloud]], on the outskirts of Paris, where Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> helped in a charity shop for Greek refugees.<ref>Vickers, pp. 176–178</ref> She became deeply religious and, in October 1928, converted to the [[Greek Orthodox Church]].<ref name="dnb"/> That winter, she translated into English her husband's defence of his actions during the Greco-Turkish War.<ref>{{citation|last=Greece|first=H.R.H. Prince Andrew of|author-link=Prince Andrew of Greece|others=Translated and Preface by H.R.H. Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece|title=Towards Disaster: The Greek Army in Asia Minor in 1921|publisher=John Murray|location=London|year=1930}}</ref><ref>Vickers, pp. 198–199</ref> Soon afterward, she began claiming that she was receiving divine messages and that she had healing powers.<ref>Vickers, p. 200</ref>

In 1930, her behaviour became increasingly erratic, and she asserted that she was in communication with the Buddha and Christ. She was diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]], first by Thomas Ross, a psychiatrist specialising in the treatment of [[shell shock]], and subsequently by Sir [[Maurice Craig (psychiatrist)|Maurice Craig]], who had treated the future [[King George VI]] before he had speech therapy.<ref name=Cohen>Cohen, D. (2013), "[https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-26/edition-6/looking-back-freud-and-british-royal-family#:~:text=In%20the%20early%201930s%20Freud,born%20on%20Corfu%20in%201920.&text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,2012b%3B%20Eade%2C%202011). Freud and the British Royal Family"], ''The Psychologist'', Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 462–463</ref> The diagnosis was confirmed at [[Ernst Simmel]]'s sanatorium at [[Tegel]], Berlin.<ref>Vickers, p. 205</ref> She was forcibly removed from her family and placed in [[Ludwig Binswanger]]'s sanatorium in [[Kreuzlingen]], Switzerland.<ref>Vickers, p. 209</ref> It was a famous and well-respected institution with several celebrity patients, including [[Vaslav Nijinsky]], the ballet dancer and choreographer, who was there at the same time as the princess.<ref>Vickers, p. 213</ref> Binswanger also diagnosed her with schizophrenia. Both he and Simmel sought advice from [[Sigmund Freud]], who concluded that the delusions derived from sexual frustration and suggested "[[X-ray]]ing her ovaries in order to kill off her libido." She continued to assert her sanity and made repeated efforts to leave the sanatorium.<ref name=Cohen/>

During Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s long convalescence, she and Prince Andrew drifted apart, her daughters all married German princes in 1930 and 1931 (she did not attend any of the weddings), and Prince Philip went to the United Kingdom to stay with his maternal uncles, Lord Louis Mountbatten and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and his maternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven.<ref>Ziegler, p. 101</ref>

Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> remained at Kreuzlingen for two years, but after a brief stay at a clinic in [[Merano]] in northern Italy, was released and began an itinerant, incognito existence in Central Europe. She maintained contact with her mother but broke off ties to the rest of her family until the end of 1936.<ref>Vickers, pp. 245–256</ref> In 1937, her daughter Cecilie, her son-in-law [[Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse|Georg]], and two of her grandchildren were killed in an [[Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash|air accident at Ostend]]; she and Prince Andrew met for the first time in six years at the funeral. (Prince Philip and Lord Louis Mountbatten also attended.)<ref>Vickers, p. 273</ref> She resumed contact with her family, and in 1938 returned to Athens alone to work with the poor, while living in a two-bedroom flat near the [[Benaki Museum]].<ref>Vickers, pp. 281, 291</ref>

==World War II==
During [[World War II]], Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> was in the difficult situation of having sons-in-law fighting on the German side and a son in the British [[Royal Navy]]. Her cousin, [[:de:Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg|Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg]],<ref>The son of Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s godmother and aunt, [[Princess Marie of Battenberg]], who had married into the Erbach-Schönberg family.</ref> was the German ambassador in Greece until the occupation of Athens by [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces in April 1941. She and her sister-in-law, [[Princess Nicholas of Greece]], lived in Athens for the duration of the war, while most of the Greek royal family remained in exile in South Africa.<ref>Vickers, p. 292</ref><ref name="times">{{citation|title=Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->, Mother of the Duke of Edinburgh|newspaper=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=6 December 1969|page=8 col. E}}</ref> She moved out of her small flat and into her brother-in-law [[Prince George of Greece and Denmark|George]]'s three-storey house in the centre of Athens. She worked for the Red Cross, helped organise soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Crown Princess Louise.<ref name="vickers">Vickers, pp. 293–295</ref> She organised two shelters for orphaned and lost children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighbourhoods.<ref>Vickers, p. 297</ref>

The occupying forces apparently presumed Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> was pro-German, as one of her sons-in-law, [[Prince Christoph of Hesse]], was a member of the [[NSDAP]] and the [[Waffen-SS]], and another, [[Berthold, Margrave of Baden]], had been invalided out of the German army in 1940 after an injury in France. Nonetheless, when visited by a German general who asked her if there was anything he could do for her, she replied, "You can take your troops out of my country".<ref name="vickers" />

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-521-2142-29, Athen, Panzer IV.jpg|thumb|right|German tanks roll through [[Athens]], 1943]]
After the [[Fall of Mussolini|fall]] of Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] in September 1943, the German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of [[Greek Jew]]s had sought refuge. The majority (about 60,000 out of a total population of 75,000) were deported to [[Nazi concentration camps]], where all but 2,000 died.<ref>{{citation|last=Bowman |first=Stephen |contribution=Jews |editor-last=Clogg|editor-first=Richard|title=Minorities in Greece |publisher=Hurst & Co.|location=London|pages=64–80 |isbn=1-85065-706-8 |year=2002 }}</ref> During this period, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who sought to evade the [[Gestapo]] and deportation to the death camps.<ref name="vickers2">Vickers, pp. 298–299</ref> In 1913, Rachel's husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece. In return, King George had offered him any service that he could perform should Cohen ever need it. Years later, during the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] threat, Cohen's son remembered this, and appealed to Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->, who, with Princess Nicholas, was one of only two remaining members of the royal family left in Greece. Princess Andrew honoured the promise and saved the Cohen family.<ref name="vickers2" />

When Athens was liberated in October 1944, [[Harold Macmillan]] visited Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> and described her as "living in humble, not to say somewhat squalid conditions".<ref>Macmillan, pp. 558–559</ref> In a letter to her son, she admitted that in the last week before liberation she had had no food except bread and butter, and no meat for several months.<ref>Vickers, p. 306</ref> By early December, the situation in Athens was far from improved; Communist guerrillas ([[ELAS]]) were [[Dekemvriana|fighting the British]] for control of the capital. As the fighting continued, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> was informed that her husband had died, just as hopes of a post-war reunion of the couple were rising.<ref name="times" /> They had not seen each other since 1939. During the fighting, to the dismay of the British, she insisted on walking the streets distributing rations to policemen and children in contravention of the curfew order. When warned that she was in danger of being struck by a stray bullet, she replied, "They tell me that you don't hear the shot that kills you and in any case I am deaf. So, why worry about that?"<ref>Vickers, p. 311</ref>

==Widowhood==
Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> returned to the United Kingdom in April 1947 to attend the [[Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten|November wedding]] of her only son, Philip, to [[Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]], the elder daughter and [[heir presumptive]] of King George VI. She had some of her remaining jewels used in Princess Elizabeth's engagement ring.<ref>Vickers, p. 326</ref> On the day of the wedding, her son was created [[Duke of Edinburgh]] by George VI. For the wedding ceremony, Princess Andrew sat at the head of her family on the north side of [[Westminster Abbey]], opposite the King, [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Elizabeth]] and Queen Mary. Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s daughters were not invited to the wedding because of anti-German sentiment in Britain following World War II.<ref>Bradford, p. 424</ref>

In January 1949, the princess founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled after the convent that her aunt, the martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, had founded in Russia in 1909. She trained on the Greek island of [[Tinos]], established a home for the order in a hamlet north of Athens, and undertook two tours of the United States in 1950 and 1952 in an effort to raise funds. Her mother was baffled by her actions, "What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays [[canasta]]?", she said.<ref>Vickers, p. 336</ref> Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s daughter-in-law became queen of the [[Commonwealth realm]]s in 1952, and the princess attended [[coronation of Queen Elizabeth II|the new queen's coronation]] in June 1953 wearing a two-tone grey dress and wimple in the style of a nun's habit. The order eventually failed through a lack of suitable applicants.<ref name="nyt">{{citation|title=Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece, 84, Mother of Prince Philip, Dead|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=6 December 1969|page=37 col. 2}}</ref>

In 1960, she visited India at the invitation of [[Rajkumari Amrit Kaur]], who had been impressed by Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s interest in Indian religious thought, and for her own spiritual quest. The trip was cut short when she unexpectedly took ill, and her sister-in-law, [[Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma]], who happened to be passing through Delhi on her own tour, had to smooth things with the Indian hosts who were taken aback at Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s sudden change of plans. She later claimed she had had an [[out-of-body experience]].<ref>Vickers, pp. 364–366</ref> Edwina continued her own tour, and died the following month.

Increasingly deaf and in failing health, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> left Greece for the last time following the [[Greek military junta of 1967–1974|21 April 1967 Colonels' Coup]]. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip invited Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> to reside permanently at [[Buckingham Palace]] in London.<ref name="dnb" /> [[King Constantine II]] and [[Queen Anne-Marie of Greece]] went into exile that December after a failed royalist counter-coup.<ref>Clogg, pp. 188–189</ref><ref>Woodhouse, p. 293</ref>

==Death and burial==
[[File:Church of Mary Magdalene1.jpg|thumb|[[Church of Mary Magdalene]], Alice's burial place in [[Jerusalem]]]]
Despite suggestions of senility in later life, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> remained lucid but physically frail.<ref>Vickers, p. 392</ref> She died at Buckingham Palace on 5 December 1969. She left no possessions, having given everything away. Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in [[St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle]] on 10 December 1969,<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/royal-connection/royal-burials/royal-burials-chapel-since-1805/|title=Royal Burials in the Chapel since 1805|publisher=College of St George, Windsor Castle|access-date=24 August 2020}}</ref> but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the [[Church of Mary Magdalene|Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene]] in [[Gethsemane]] on the [[Mount of Olives]] in [[Jerusalem]] (near her aunt Grand Duchess [[Elizabeth Feodorovna]]). When her daughter [[Princess George William of Hanover]] complained that it would be too far away for them to visit her grave, Princess Andrew jested, "Nonsense, there's a perfectly good bus service!"<ref>Vickers, p. 396</ref> Her wish was realised on 3 August 1988 when her remains were transferred to a crypt below the church.<ref name="dnb" /><ref>{{citation|url=http://www.jerusalem-mission.org/convent_magdalene.html|title=Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene – The Garden of Gethsemane|publisher=Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem|access-date=8 May 2009|archive-date=25 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725054058/http://www.jerusalem-mission.org/convent_magdalene.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
On 31 October 1994, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew-->'s two surviving children, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess George of Hanover, went to [[Yad Vashem]] (the Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem to witness a ceremony honouring her as "[[Righteous Among the Nations]]" for having hidden the Cohens in her house in Athens during the Second World War.<ref>Vickers, p. 398.</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Duke pays homage to Holocaust millions|first=Christopher|last=Walker|newspaper=The Times|location=London|date=1 November 1994|page=12}}</ref> Prince Philip said of his mother's sheltering of persecuted Jews, "I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She was a person with a deep religious faith, and she would have considered it to be a perfectly natural human reaction to fellow beings in distress."<ref>{{citation| last=Brozan|first=Nadine|title=Chronicle|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1 November 1994}}</ref> In 2010, the princess was posthumously named a [[Hero of the Holocaust]] by the British Government.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/7402443/Britons-honoured-for-holocaust-heroism.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918024934/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/7402443/Britons-honoured-for-holocaust-heroism.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 September 2016|title=Britons honoured for holocaust heroism |work=The Daily Telegraph|date=9 March 2010|access-date=4 July 2016}}</ref>

==Titles and styles==
* 25 February 1885 – 6 October 1903: ''Her Serene Highness'' Princess Alice of Battenberg<ref name="ruv">Ruvigny, p. 71</ref>
* 6 October 1903 – 5 December 1969: ''Her Royal Highness'' Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece and Denmark<ref name="ruv" />
*From 1949 until her death, she was sometimes known as Mother Superior Alice-Elizabeth<ref name="nyt" />

==Honours==
* {{flagicon|Grand Duchy of Hesse}} Dame of the [[House Order of the Golden Lion (Hesse)|Order of the Golden Lion]], 7 October 1903<ref name="ordensliste">{{citation|title=Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste|chapter=Goldener Löwen-orden|page=3|language=German|location=Darmstadt|year=1914|publisher=Staatsverlag}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece}} Dame Grand Cross of the [[Order of Saints Olga and Sophia]]<ref>{{citation|editor-link=Hugh Massingberd|editor-last=Montgomery-Massingberd|editor-first=Hugh|year=1977|title=Burke's Royal Families of the World'', 1st edition''|location=London|publisher=Burke's Peerage|isbn=0-85011-023-8|page=214}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Royal Red Cross]], 1913
* {{flagicon|Restoration (Spain)}} Dame of the [[Order of Queen Maria Luisa]], 9 April 1928<ref>{{citation|chapter-url=http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/issue.vm?id=0001067117&search=&lang=es|title=Guía Oficial de España|publisher=Sucesores de Rivadeneyra|year=1930|chapter=Real Orden de la Reina Maria Luisa: Damas extranjeras|location=Madrid|page=238|language=es}}</ref>

'''Posthumous:'''
* {{flagicon|Israel}} [[Righteous Among the Nations]], 1993
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[British Hero of the Holocaust]], 2010

==Issue==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="col" | Name
! rowspan="2" scope="col" | Birth
! rowspan="2" scope="col" | Death
! colspan="2" scope="col" | Marriage
! rowspan="2" scope="col" | Their children
|-
! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" | Spouse
|-
! scope="row" | [[Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark|Princess Margarita]]
| 18 April 1905
| 24 April 1981 (aged&nbsp;76)
| 20 April 1931<br /><small>Widowed 11 May 1960</small>
| [[Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg]]
| {{plainlist|
* Kraft, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
* [[Princess Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg]]
* Prince Georg of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
* Prince Rupprecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
* Prince Albrecht of Hohenlohe-Langenburg}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906–1969)|Princess Theodora]]
| 30 May 1906
| 16 October 1969 (aged&nbsp;63)
| 17 August 1931<br /><small>Widowed 27 October 1963</small>
| [[Berthold, Margrave of Baden]]
| {{plainlist|
* [[Princess Margarita of Baden]]
* [[Maximilian, Margrave of Baden]]
* Prince Ludwig of Baden}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Princess Cecilie]]
| 22 June 1911
| 16 November 1937 (aged&nbsp;26)
| 2 February 1931
| [[Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse]]
| {{plainlist|
* Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine
* Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
* Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine}}
|-
! rowspan=2 scope="row" | [[Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark|Princess Sophie]]
| rowspan=2 | 26 June 1914
| rowspan=2 | 24 November 2001 (aged&nbsp;87)
| 15 December 1930<br /><small>Widowed 7 October 1943</small>
| [[Prince Christoph of Hesse]]
| {{plainlist|
* [[Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse]]
* Princess Dorothea of Hesse
* Prince Karl of Hesse
* Prince Rainer of Hesse
* Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse}}
|-
| 23 April 1946
| [[Prince George William of Hanover]]
| {{plainlist|
* Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover
* Prince Georg of Hanover
* Princess Friederike of Hanover}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]]
| 10 June 1921
| 9 April 2021 (aged&nbsp;99)
| 20 November 1947
| [[Elizabeth II]], Queen of the United Kingdom 
| {{plainlist|
* [[Charles III]], King of the United Kingdom
* [[Anne, Princess Royal]]
* [[Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor]]
* [[Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh]]}}
|-
|}

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark'''
|2= 2. [[Prince Louis of Battenberg]]
|3= 3. [[Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine]]
|4= 4. [[Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine]]<ref name="Britannica-Battenberg">{{Britannica|56110|Battenberg family}}</ref>
|5= 5. [[Julia, Princess of Battenberg]]<ref name="Britannica-Battenberg"/>
|6= 6. [[Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine]]<ref name=Weir>{{citation|last=Weir|first=Alison|author-link=Alison Weir|year=1996|title=Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy|edition=Revised|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=0-7126-7448-9|pages=305–307}}</ref>
|7= 7. [[Princess Alice of the United Kingdom]]<ref name=Weir/>
|8= 8. [[Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine]]<ref name="NDB-Alexander">{{NDB|1|192||Alexander|Metnitz, Gustav Adolf|117760951}}</ref>
|9= 9. [[Princess Wilhelmine of Baden]]<ref name="NDB-Alexander"/>
|10= 10. [[Hans Moritz Hauke]]<ref name="Franz">{{citation |last=Franz |first=E. G. |title=Das Haus Hessen: Eine europäische Familie |location=Stuttgart |publisher=[[Kohlhammer Verlag]]|year=2005 |pages=164–170 |isbn=978-3-17-018919-5 |oclc=76873355}}</ref><!--reference copied from [[:pl:Julia Hauke]]-->
|11= 11. Sophie Lafontaine<ref name="Franz"/>
|12= 12. [[Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine]]<ref name="NDB-Ludwig IV">{{NDB|15|398|400|Ludwig IV.|Franz, Eckhart G.|11767026X}}</ref>
|13= 13. [[Princess Elisabeth of Prussia]]<ref name="NDB-Ludwig IV"/>
|14= 14. [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]]<ref name=Weir/>
|15= 15. [[Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom]]<ref name=Weir/>
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Citation|last=Bradford|first=Sarah|title=King George VI|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson|location=London|year=1989|isbn=0-297-79667-4}}
*{{Citation|last=Clogg |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Clogg |title=A Short History of Modern Greece |year=1979 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-22479-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofmo0000clog }}
*{{Citation|last=Eilers|first=Marlene A.|title=Queen Victoria's Descendants|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Co.|location=Baltimore, Maryland|year=1987}}
*{{Citation|last=Macmillan|first=Harold|author-link=Harold Macmillan|title=War Diaries|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|year=1984|isbn=0-333-39404-6}}
*{{Citation|last=Ruvigny|first=Marquis of|title=The Titled Nobility of Europe|publisher=Harrison and Sons|location=London|year=1914}}
*{{Citation|first=John |last=Van der Kiste |author-link=John Van der Kiste|title=Kings of the Hellenes|publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire, England|year=1994|isbn=0-7509-0525-5}}
*{{Citation|last=Vickers|first=Hugo|author-link=Hugo Vickers|title=Alice, Princess Andrew<!--After her marriage she used the style: Princess Andrew--> of Greece|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|location=London|year=2000|isbn=0-241-13686-5}} (The official biography by Vickers is the only English-language book-length biography of Princess Alice.)
*{{Citation|last=Woodhouse |first=C. M. |author-link=Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington |title=The Story of Modern Greece |year=1968 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London}}
*{{Citation|last=Ziegler|first=Philip|author-link=Philip Ziegler|title=Mountbatten|publisher=Collins|location=London|year=1985|isbn=0-00-216543-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mountbattenoffic00phil}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{Portal|Greece}}
*[https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/princess-alice.html Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority]
*{{NPG name}}

{{Righteous footer}}
{{Battenberg family}}
{{Greek princesses by marriage}}
{{Danish princesses by marriage}}
{{Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Featured article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alice Of Battenberg, Princess}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
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[[Category:Princesses of Greece]]
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