Sorry I'm late!!! This week's Heroine is Queen Alexandra, who died on November 20, 1925...
Born December 1, 1844 in Copenhagen, she had a surprisingly humble start in life! One of 6 children to Prince Christian of Schelswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, she was of a cadet branch of the Danish royal family. With only a small income, the family lived a small-scale but very happy family life at their Yellow Palace grace-and-favor home. The girls made their own clothes, and Alix shared a room with her sister Dagmar (future Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia). They were very close, and loved games and family dinners, which showed in her future desire to build just such a close family for herself.
In 1861, after a "scandal" involving a music-hall actress, Prince Albert Edward turned 20 and his parents decided it was high time he got married and settled down. With the help of eldest daughter Princess Vicky, Crown Princess of Prussia, Victoria scoured the Almanach Gotha for suitable German princess, but they all had one problem--they were not pretty. And "pretty" was the number one requirement for the prince. The undisputed loveliest princess of them all was Alix of Denmark, "the only one to be chosen". Victoria reluctantly agreed, and the young couple "accidentally" met while touring the cathedral at Speyer on September 24, 1862.
In March 1863, Alix traveled to England with her family, and was married on March 10 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. It was a controversial choice of venue--not close to London, small, not much room for a grand guest list, not many suitable places to stay (only her immediate family was there from Denmark, and Queen Victoria, widowed, watched and wept from a balcony). At the end of 1864, her father became King of Denmark, and Prussia invaded the Danish territory of Holstein, instilling a lifelong hatred of Germany in Princess (now) Alexandra and creating a source of fiction between her and Queen Victoria.
Her first child, Prince Albert Victor, was born prematurely in early 1864, starting Alexandra on a devoted (not always happily) motherhood. Eventually she would have 6 children--"Eddie" was joined by George, Louise, Victoria, Maud, and a boy who died soon after birth. "She was in her glory when she could run up the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds." But the birth of her third child in 1867 left her with rheumatic fever, resulting in a permanent limp and exacerbating her deafness. It also meant she couldn't keep up with her husband's constant whirl of social life as much, and she started to retreat into her own world of family and dogs, her own friends and charity work, at their homes of Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in the country.
Her marriage, though a success in many ways (Alexandra was a very popular princess and queen, and they worked well in partnership) was also marred by Edward's constant and blatant infidelities and Alexandra's hearing loss. But her appeal for the public never waned, she was always considered beautiful and charming, and devoted to her charitable works, especially her interest in nursing and healthcare (Alexandra Rose Day is still an ongoing fundraiser).
in 1901, she finally became Queen! She increased her charities, but otherwise continued as she had been, doting on her grandchildren. In 1910, she traveled to Corfu (she often visited her family around the Continent, and her brother was now King of Greece; she had also purchased a holiday home in Denmark with her sister, where Empress Marie lived after the Russian Revolution), but was quickly summoned back to London when her husband collapsed. After his death, she wrote "I feel as if I have been turned to stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all." She moved from Buckingham Palace back to Marlborough House.
She suffered from ill health for the last few years of her life, and died of a heart attack at Sandringham. She was buried at St. George's, site of her "inconvenient" wedding, with her husband.
Sources:
Georgina Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra (1969)
David Duff, Alexandra, Princess and Queen (1980)
Richard Hough, Edward and Alexandra (1998)
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