Hugo VickersAlice: Princess Andrew of Greece

“Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece” brought home to me how widespread and tenacious the various European royal families are. There are so many of them – princesses, princes, kings, queens, and other people of supposedly noble birth. They have descended from the dictators of Europe and it is a marvelous achievement of modern democracy that they are no long able to wield their tyrannical powers but have to smile and smile and smile to keep us convinced to keep them on the pay roll.However it is still puzzling as to why we do so. They have various survival tricks, some of which are displayed in this book. One is that they will adapt and change. All the royal families are very interrelated but during the World Wars, it became clear to the British royal family that their German surname was a public relations problem so they simply renamed themselves “Windsor”. Problem solved! There was another issue in that some of Europe’s royalty included SS soldiers in Germany and others were fighting for Britain but they seemed to be able to live this down after the war.Another survival mechanism is that they somehow manage to convince us that they are entitled to their wealth and privilege. The combination of ritual and glamour seems to intoxicate the crowds. The royals apparently have an extraordinary existence that is different from our everyday hum drum lives and people seem willing to observe this largely without envy or resentment. Occasionally a “commoner” breaks into their exclusive world and this creates particular interest – an interest which became an obsession in the case of Princess Diana.And on a slightly more worrying note, there is the fact that they are captives. Few of them dare to escape the world that they are familiar with. They belong to us and, at any time, we can lift the roofs off the dolls’ houses in which they live and peer at them, discussing their lives and exclaiming at their stress over their lack of privacy. It could be argued that their lives resemble those of wealthy slaves in that we don’t recognize their basic human rights to freedom of religion and freedom as to where they live or what career they will choose etc. Johann Hari has written about this very convincingly in his book, “God save the Queen?”This book shows an aspect of this situation. The Greeks were very ambivalent about their royalty and eventually kicked out Princess Alice and her husband, Prince Andrew (Andrea), after first chewing over the idea of killing him.Both Alice and Andrew were extremely traumatized by this, a clear demonstration of how much loss of identity there may be for royals who lose that role in life. Their marriage moved into difficulties as evidenced by the fact that Alice fell very in love with someone else. They largely abandoned their son, Philip, who was cared for by various English relatives. Andrea drifted aimlessly through the rest of his life without doing being able to find a new direction.Alice showed her stress by having a breakdown. The delusions that she instinctively chose showed what was lacking in her life. She saw herself as the only woman that Jesus really loved – thus replacing her former marital happiness and also giving herself a strong sense of identity to replace the one smashed by her loss of role within Greece.It shows her remarkable inner strength and also the loyalty of her mother and other family members that she eventually recovered most of her mental health. She then found a new sense of identity by committing herself to help those who were suffering dreadful poverty as a result of World War II. Her son married Princess Elizabeth, soon to become the Queen of Britain, and Alice was able to find a place within that new arrangement but still maintain her independence of it though her new found work.

Princess Alice of Greece is one of the most fascinating of all the royals, but unfortunately, the least known. Perhaps the British Royal Family has kept the lid on this biography because of embarrassment? But Hugo Vickers tells this long repressed story in Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece.Alice was born when royalty was at its zenith, and she was surrounded by some of the most important personalities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her great-grandmother was Queen Victoria. Her father was Louis of Battenberg, First Sea Lord and her brother was Dickie Mountbatten, Last Viceroy of India. Alice's sister Louise became Queen of Sweden, and her mother's sister was Tsarina Alexandra. Alice's youngest child and only son is Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth II.Alice topped an idyllic childhood by marrying Prince Andrew of Greece. In a day when most marriages were arranged, this was a love match. There was no familial opposition as Alice was from a morganatic marriage and her groom the 4th son of King George I of Greece. Unfortunately, her married life was marred by sadness, heartbreak and tragedy. The Greek monarchy and the Greek government were as unstable as the weather. On numerous occasions, Alice had to flee Greece with her family for extended periods of time. She lived through two world wars where a good many of her relatives were on the German (enemy) side including her sons-in-law. Her father-in-law was assassinated by a disgruntled Greek, and dozens of Russian relatives, including aunt Tsarina Alexandra and her entire family, were murdered during the Russian Revolution. A plane crash in England in 1937 took the lives of one daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a Hessian aunt. Perhaps as a result of these many setbacks, Alice succumbed to schizophrenia and had to be institutionalized for a good many years. The story of Alice's subsequent recovery, her conversion to orthodoxy, her becoming a nun and establishing a religious order make for a fascinating saga.Unfortunately, this book is not without some major flaws. First, Vickers writing style leaves a lot to be desired and his run-on sentences are a big distraction. One example can be found on page 77: "Presently the whole party moved to Buckingham Palace, attending a ball at the Russian Embassy and the King's Birthday Parade, in which Andrea [Andrew] rode to Horseguards Parade in the procession directly behind the King, little realizing that this would one day be the annual duty of his yet unborn son." The many footnotes (sometimes 3 or 4 per page) are very tiresome and provide more information than we really need. I have no clue how someone could read this book for a book-on-tape. Also, the author could do a better job identifying Russian Royalty. Most Russians are identified by their first name, followed by a patronymic (their father's name followed by "ovich"). For instance, the tsar's name was Nicholas Alexandrovich (Nicholas, son of Alexander). Vickers doesn't follow this rule and when he names a Grand Duke Michael, it is often difficult to know which of the dozen or so Grand Duke Michael's he is referring to.Still, Alice is an interesting book and it was not an easy story to write, as Alice destroyed most of her papers and letters throughout her lifetime. It also includes many never before seen photos of Alice and her extended family, including a poignant photo of her processing in her nun's habit for the coronation of her daughter-in-law. So for readers interested in royalty, suffer through the poor writing and discover the real story underneath.

Princess Alice, mother of the duke of Edinburgh of royal blood herself was a fascinating woman. A child of the Victorian age, married into the Greek royal family. She witnessed war first hand as a frontline nurse tending to the wounded, exile when her husband prince Andrew was sentenced to death, The German occupation in WW2 where she alone among the royals remained in Greece feeding the poor and sheltering Jews. She continued to tend to the poor throughout her life. She was deeply religious founded a monastic order in a poor area of athens tending to orphans and the destitute. Mother Theresa like. After the 1967 military coup in Greece which ended the monarchy by plebiscite in 1974, her son convinced her to move to Buckingham palace where she died, penniless. She had a history of mental illness and was treated rather barbarically having had her ovaries “burned” by x-rays as her doctors (including Freud) sought to cure her. . What disappointed me about this book was the focus on the social life of European royalty and her relations and on her mental illness. The details are excruciating. Not enough on her spirituality, her devotion to the poor, to her adopted country, her resilience, her humility and her deep humanity. She was a remarkable woman and in many ways a modern woman. A fascinating life that has so far not been well documented.

A fascinating story, very well told. I knew nothing about Princess Alice before reading this book, didn't know that she even existed. Not that I thought Prince Philip had arrived in the world via spontaneous combustion,I just had never given any thought to his family before. The traumatic story explains a lot about the reported character of the Duke of Edinburgh. Princess Alice had a tragic life in many respects, a very determined and intelligent lady. Stone deaf from birth she taught herself to lip read in several languages. For someone born a Princess she had a very hard life, her physical survival in WW2 was by no means guaranteed. At Yad Vashem if they know you are from the UK her tree is pointed out in the Avenue of the Righteous.

Hugo Vickers did a fantastic job of writing this book.it is very complicated to read as there is so much going on and he had to work from so many different sources, letters and medical reports as most of Alices papers were destroyed.her life spanned so much of early 20th century history.granddaughter of Queen Victoria so connected to most of the European families.married into the Greek royal family.born deaf could lip read in several languages.had a major breakdown in mid life was sectioned for many years.she said she was the true wife of Christ.she set up hospitals in the 1st war and worked tirelessly with the wounded soldiers.stayed in Greece to help the poor and shelter Jews in the 2nd, while Greece was under German occupation.was in a difficult situation as her daughters were married to SS menand her son was in the Royal navy. because of her illness missed most of Philips growing up.her 3rd daughter and family were killed in a plane crash.her relations the Romanov's were all killed.she was definitely Bi Polar, but had a fantastic mind she suggested to her brother Dickie Mountbatton that there should be a united Europe (like we have now) well before the 2 war. no one would listen to her.she finally set up her own religious sect and continued to do good.a lady to be admired as well as pitied.

Brave woman and unlike the rest of the royals. She was sublime.

A superbly researched biography of a royal member too often kept in the shadows, the queen's mother-in-law!