Princess Helena And Her Controversial Marriage
Public DomainPrincess Helena was the most active of Queen Victoria’s children when it came to official social engagements.
Princess Helena was born on May 25, 1846, and was the fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Following the death of her father in 1861, she formed a romantic attraction to Albert’s German librarian, Carl Ruland, who was tutoring her brother Edward at the time.
It’s unknown if this relationship ever developed beyond a mere flirtation, but regardless, Queen Victoria did not approve. The monarch fired Ruland and immediately sent him back to Germany.
The scandal also made the queen determined to find Helena a husband. This was complicated by Victoria’s desire for Helena to live nearby, meaning there was little chance of finding a strong political match.
In the end, Helena was married to Germany’s Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. This caused trouble within the family, as Christian’s territories had recently been taken by the Prussians — and some of Helena’s siblings were married to Prussian royalty.
Public DomainHelena devoted most of her life to charity work.
Both Princess Alice and Prince Alfred accused the queen of not keeping Helena’s happiness in mind and prioritizing her needs over her daughter’s. Nonetheless, the marriage went forward, and Helena and Christian had five children together.
Helena would go on to become one of the founding members of the British Red Cross, and she devoted much of her time to charity work. Like her sister Alice, she was interested in nursing, and she became the president of the Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association and the Royal British Nurses’ Association.
She died in 1923 at age 77.
