ALICE MAUD MARY, Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darm stadt (1843-1878), second daughter and third child of Queen Victoria, was born at Buckingham Palace on April 25 1843. In the summer of 186o, at Windsor Castle, Princess Alice first met her future husband, Prince Louis of Hesse. In the following year, the House of Commons unanimously voted a dowry of f 3o,000 on her marriage and an annuity of £6,000 to the princess. In Dec. 1861, Princess Alice nursed her father with the utmost care during his short illness, and after his death devoted herself to comforting her mother. Her marriage took place at Osborne, on July 1, 1862.
The princess unconsciously wrote her own biography from this period in her constant letters to Queen Victoria, a selection of which, edited by Dr. Carl Sell, were printed in 1883. These letters give a complete picture of the daily life of the duke and duchess, and they also show the intense love of the latter for her husband, her mother and her native land. She visited England every year, and it was at her special request that when she died her husband, who succeeded to the throne of the duchy in laid an English flag upon her coffin. In Nov. 1878 her children and her husband contracted diphtheria, and one of the chil dren died. The duchess, worn with sorrow and anxiety herself contracted the disease after the others had recovered, and died on Dec. 14. She left one son and four daughters: Ernest Louis, late reigning Grand Duke of Hesse (abdicated 1918) ; Victoria Alice, married Prince Louis of Battenberg, marquis of Milford Haven; Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Sergius of Russia, assassinated Sept. 1918; Irene, Princess Henry of Prussia; Alexandra Fcodorovna, tsaritsa of Russia, killed July 16, 1918. See Carl Sell, Alice: Mittheilungen aus ihrem Leben and Briefen, etc. (Darmstadt, 1883), with English translation by the Princess Christian, Alice: biographical sketch and letters (1884).