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Born a British royal -

Princess Alice was born at Windsor Castle in 1885. Her father was Prince Louis of Battenberg and her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse.

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The famous Queen Victoria -

Princess Alice was the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria (left), who was actually present at Princess Alice’s birth.

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Overcoming adversity -

Alice was diagnosed as congenitally deaf when she was a child and learned to communicate by lipreading. She spent time in both Greece and Germany while growing up and became fluent in German. She also learned to lipread in multiple languages.

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A fateful day -

In 1902, she attended the coronation of King Edward VII, where she met the love of her life, Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew was the fourth son of the King of Greece.

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Prince Andrew of Greece -

Alice was 17 years old at the time and Andrew was 20. They became a couple and were married within a year in a German ceremony.

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A good haul! -

Their 1903 wedding announcement in the New York Times stated that they received US$750,000 in wedding gifts. Today, that’s closer to $23 million!

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The early years -

They moved to Greece and had five children over the next 12 years. They had four girls and one boy. He was Prince Philip, the future husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

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The family jewels -

Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia gave Princess Alice a diamond tiara as a wedding gift. Prince Philip later used diamonds from the tiara to make an engagement ring for Queen Elizabeth. He also made a bracelet to give to her as a wedding gift.

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Exile for the royals -

Philip was born in 1921 and by 1922 the second Greco-Turkish war had started. The Greek royal family was deposed and fled Greece.

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Prince Philip's escape -

Legend has it that the baby Prince Philip was smuggled out of the country in a crate of oranges!

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Emerging mental illness -

These were very difficult and unstable years for the family, which seemed to have severe consequences for Princess Alice’s mental health.

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Institutionalization in Switzerland -

Alice was sent to an asylum in Switzerland towards the end of the 1920s after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The rest of the family split up as well.

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A family divided -

Prince Philip was sent to boarding schools in England and the UK, and eventually joined the British Royal Navy. Her four daughters all married German nobles, and her husband settled in Monte Carlo.

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Sigmund Freud -

She spent two years in the Swiss sanatorium where the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud took a keen interest in her, due to the nature of her alleged fantasies.

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The ideal patient -

In a 2012 documentary called ‘The Queen’s Mother in Law,’ it’s revealed that Princess Alice was examined and treated by Freud. It’s believed that she had fantasies of a sexual and religious nature that piqued his curiosity.

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Barbaric treatments -

Freud’s analysis concluded that Princess Alice was suffering from “sexual frustration” and unbalanced hormone levels. His prescribed treatment was a series of x-rays of her ovaries that should induce early menopause.

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Needless suffering -

The treatment was carried out despite Alice’s protests. It did not succeed in inducing menopause, however, it did leave her with lifelong health problems. Her niece, Countess Mountbatten, commented that her aunt must have “suffered very much.”

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A new beginning -

Princess Alice left Switzerland and her psychological treatment behind in the mid-1930s. She returned to Greece and devoted herself to a life of charity and religion.

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Devoted to God -

Alice had become deeply spiritual during exile and converted to the Greek Orthodox church. She became a nun when she returned to Greece and spent her time volunteering in soup kitchens and working with the Red Cross.

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A family tragedy -

It was 1937 before she was finally reunited with her family, but unfortunately it was under tragic circumstances. They came together for the funeral of one of her daughters, Princess Cecilie. Cecilie had died in a plane crash along with her husband and two sons.

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World War II -

Alice returned to Greece and carried on with her mission. She was particularly active with the Red Cross when World War II broke out.

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Experience on the front lines -

Alice had prior experience working as a nurse during the Balkan Wars from 1912-1913. As a young woman, she had helped to set up field hospitals and assisted in surgeries on wounded soldiers. This gave her essential skills to help when the violence reached Greece.

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Protector of the persecuted -

Alice even protected a Jewish family when Greece was invaded by the Nazis. The Cohen family were old friends who had helped the Greek royals escape safely when they were exiled in 1922. Alice returned the favor and hid them in her home.

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A clever trick -

The Gestapo reportedly became suspicious and came to question Princess Alice. She used her deafness to avoid their interrogations, pretending she couldn’t understand them. Her ruse succeeded and they left without searching the house.

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The next generation -

In 1947, she flew to England to attend the wedding of her son, Prince Philip, to the future Queen of England, Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s father, George VI, died in 1952, and she was coronated in 1953.

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No airs or graces -

In 1949, Princess Alice founded her own religious order: the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. She arrived wearing her simple gray habit to attend Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.

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Struggling financially -

Alice spent years trying to obtain funding for her convent and their charity work. She is believed to have sold off most of the precious jewelry she owned from her life as a royal.

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The Greek junta -

Sadly, she was exiled from Greece again in 1967 after a far-right authoritarian military came to power. She was 97 years old at the time.

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Her final days -

Princess Alice returned to the UK to live with her son and daughter-in-law at Buckingham Palace. She lived out her final days there, reportedly forming a strong bond with her granddaughter, Princess Anne. She died on December 5, 1969, at the age of 99.

Sources: (Elle) (CNN) (El País)  

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