| Biography | Princess Beatrice (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore; later Princess Henry of Battenberg; 14 April 1857 26 October 1944) was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Juan Carlos, King of Spain, is her great-grandson. Beatrice has the distinction of being the last of Victoria's children to die, 66 years after the first, Beatrice's sister, Princess Alice.
Beatrice's childhood coincided with Victoria's grief following the death of her husband, Albert, Prince Consort, on 14 December 1861. As Beatrice's elder sisters married and left their royal mother, Victoria came to rely on the company of her youngest daughter, whom she called Baby for most of her childhood. Beatrice, who was brought up to stay with her mother always, soon resigned herself to her fate.
Victoria was set against her youngest daughter marrying and refused to discuss the possibility. Nevertheless, many suitors were put forward, including Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial, the son of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, the widower of Beatrice's older sister Alice. She was attracted to the Prince Imperial and there was talk of a possible marriage; however, he was killed in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
Beatrice fell in love with Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia von Hauke. After a year of persuasion, Victoria agreed to the marriage, which took place at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, on 23 July 1885. Victoria consented on condition that Beatrice and Henry make their home with her and that Beatrice continue her duties as the Queen's unofficial secretary.
The Prince and Princess had four children, but ten years into their marriage, on 20 January 1896, Prince Henry died of malaria while fighting in the Anglo-Asante War. Beatrice remained at her mother's side until Victoria died on 22 January 1901. Beatrice devoted the next thirty years to editing Queen Victoria's journals as her designated literary executor. She continued to make public appearances after her mother's death and died at the age of 87, outliving all her siblings and several of her children, nieces and nephews |