Queen Victoria considered this marriage her greatest victory. In 1894 she forced her granddaughter Victoria Melita to marry her first cousin the Grand Duke of Hesse Ernest Louis. But for the young princess this union turned into a real hell on earth. Ernest and Victoria were absolutely unsuited for each other. The palace became a battlefield of endless conflicts. The Princess adored fun and noisy parties while her husband was immersed in art and as court gossips whispered had completely different romantic interests. When Victoria Melita caught her spouse in the arms of a young male servant her patience snapped. However her domineering grandmother strictly forbade a divorce.
The only ray of light in this darkness was their daughter Princess Elisabeth. The girl was born in 1895 and became the absolute center of the universe for her father. Ernest madly loved the little one and Elisabeth herself gravitated more toward him than toward her mother. After the death of Queen Victoria the couple finally received their long awaited divorce in 1901 but the little princess became a hostage between two warring parents.
The finale of this story turned out to be frighteningly cruel. In 1903 the girl at the age of 8 went to visit her aunt the Russian Empress at a Polish estate. There the child suddenly contracted a severe form of typhoid fever. The doctors proved powerless and the girl faded away in just a few days. The death of Elisabeth forever destroyed the last thread that connected Victoria and Ernest. Overwhelmed with grief the parents wept at the coffin of their only child realizing that their forced union brought them nothing but endless pain and the most terrible loss in life.
#history #royalfamily #victoriamelita #ernestlouis #princesselisabeth #royalhistory
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