Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863–1950) was the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and his first wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg, her father's first cousin and an officer in the UK's Royal Navy, in a love match and lived most of her married life in various parts of Europe at her husband's naval posts and visiting her many royal relations. She was perceived by her family as liberal in outlook, straightforward, practical and bright. During World War I, two of her sisters who had married into the Russian imperial family were murdered by communist revolutionaries, and she and her husband abandoned their German titles and adopted the British-sounding surname of Mountbatten, which was simply a translation into English of the German "Battenberg". She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II. (Full article...)
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