Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark
Princess Cecilie | |
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Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine | |
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Born | Tatoi Palace, Tatoi, Greece | 22 June 1911
Died | 16 November 1937[1] Ostend, Belgium | (aged 26)
Burial | Rosenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany |
Spouse | |
Issue | Prince Ludwig Prince Alexander Princess Johanna |
House | Glücksburg |
Father | Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark |
Mother | Princess Alice of Battenberg |
Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Πριγκίπισσα Καικιλία της Ελλάδας και Δανίας) (22 June 1911 – 16 November 1937) was the wife of Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse and third eldest sister to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Birth and ancestry
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Cecilie_of_Greece.jpg/220px-Cecilie_of_Greece.jpg)
Cecilie was the third child and daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. She was born on 22 June 1911 at the summer estate of the Greek Royal Family at Tatoi, fifteen kilometres north of Athens. Although her given name was Cecilie, she was known to her family as Cécile.
Cecilie was baptised at Tatoi on 2 July 1911. Her godparents were King George V of the United Kingdom, Grand Duke Ernst Louis of Hesse, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Duchess Vera of Württemberg.
Through her father Cecilie was a grandchild of King George I of Greece and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia (a granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia). Through her mother she was a great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Cecilie had three sisters: Margarita (wife of Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg), Theodora (wife of Berthold, Margrave of Baden) and Sophie (wife firstly of Prince Christoph of Hesse and secondly of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover). Her brother Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1922 Cecilie and her sisters were bridesmaids at the wedding of their maternal uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten (later Earl Mountbatten of Burma) to Edwina Ashley.[2]
Marriage and children
On 2 February 1931 at Darmstadt, Cecilie married Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, her maternal first cousin once removed. They had four children:
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine | 25 October 1931 | 16 November 1937 | Killed in air accident |
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine | 14 April 1933 | ||
Princess Johanna of Hesse and by Rhine | 20 September 1936 | 14 June 1939 | Died from meningitis. |
Unidentified baby | 16 November 1937 | 16 November 1937 | Born on an aircraft mid-flight and killed in air accident[3] |
On 1 May 1937 Cecilie and her husband both joined the Nazi Party.[4]
Death
In October 1937, Cecilie's father-in-law Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse died. A few weeks after the funeral, her brother-in-law Prince Ludwig was due to be married to the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes in London.
On 16 November 1937, Georg Donatus, Cecilie, their two young sons and Georg's mother Grand Duchess Eleonore left Darmstadt for London, where they planned to attend the wedding. The aircraft in which they were travelling crashed in flames after hitting a factory chimney near Ostend, Belgium, killing all on board.[5] Cecilie was eight months pregnant[3] with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the remains of the baby were found in the wreckage; a Belgian official enquiry concluded that Cecilie had given birth mid-flight and the landing attempt was made in bad weather because of this.[6][7]
Cecilie was buried with her husband and three of her children in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family. Cecilie's daughter Johanna was adopted by Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret. However, Johanna died two years later from meningitis and is buried with her parents and siblings. Cecilie was the first of Prince Andrew and Princess Alice's children to die.
In popular culture
The crash figures in the plot of A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, in which Grand Duke Georg has in his possession the jewels of his aunt, the last Tsaritsa of Russia, which the KGB are looking for. There is no evidence in reality that this was the case.[citation needed]
She is depicted in the Netflix series The Crown as Prince Philip's favourite sister. She appears in flashbacks in the ninth episode of the second season, portrayed by German actress Leonie Benesch.[8]
Titles, styles and honours
Titles
- 22 June 1911 – 2 February 1931: Her Royal Highness Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark
- 2 February 1931 – 16 November 1937: Her Royal Highness The Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
Honours
National honours
Greece: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia, 1st Class[9]
House of Hesse: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of the Golden Lion[9]
Foreign honours
United Kingdom: Recipient of the King George VI Coronation Medal[10]
Ancestors
See also
References
- ^ Worldroots.com Archived 2007-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ David Duff, Hessian Tapestry (London: Frederick Muller, 1967), plate facing p. 352.
- ^ a b "Greek Royal Family". Archived from the original on March 17, 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-17.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 382.
- ^ "Germany: Curse of Hesse", Time magazine 29 November 1937.
- ^ Duff, 351-352.
- ^ "Birth of Royal Infant seen as Cause of Crash". the Evening Independent. 23 November 1937. Retrieved 8 May 2018 – via Google Newspapers.
- ^ "The Crown (2016– ): Paterfamilia". IMDb. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
- ^ a b Princess Cecile wearing bow formed Orders
- ^ Media cache
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 1911 births
- 1937 deaths
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Belgium
- People from Athens
- House of Glücksburg (Greece)
- House of Hesse-Darmstadt
- Greek princesses
- Danish princesses
- Burials at the Mausoleum for the Grand Ducal House of Hesse, Rosenhöhe (Darmstadt)
- Nazis from outside Germany
- Royalty in Nazi Party
- Hereditary Grand Duchesses of Hesse
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1937