Prince Philip’s Sisters: The Darkest Royal Secret Ever Kept – HT
The third daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenburg, Cecilia was born at Tatatoy Palace near Athens on 22nd June 1911. Baptized on 10th of July, her godparents were King George V of the United Kingdom, Ernest Louie, Grand Duke of Hessa, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, and Grand Duchess Vera Constantin of Russia.
Considered by her maternal grandmother, the Daaja Martianess of Milford Haven, as the prettiest of the four daughters of Andrew and Alice, Cecilia made her debut in the United Kingdom during the summer of 1928. Aged 17, she took part in her first ball at the Earl and Countess of Ellismir’s Bridgewater House before attending the cow’s week and then being invited by King George V to stay a few days in Balmoral, Scotland.
Although her two elder sisters were still single and the relative poverty of her parents was not unrelated to this situation, Cecilia’s family did not give up on finding a good match for her. Now Princess of Sweden, her aunt Louise was planning to betro her to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, but the plan did not succeed.
It was finally from Germany that a suitor for the young girl arrived. Since her childhood, Cecilia had in fact been in contact with her cousins Princes Gayorgdonatus and Louis of Hessa whom she first met in 1919 while she was living in exile in Switzerland. The relationship between the princess and Gayorgdonatus turned into a romance during the year 1929 and the two were unofficially engaged in early 1930.
At that time, Cecilia was just 18 years old and Gayorg Donatus, the pretender to the throne of Hessa, was 23. With her sister Sophie having become engaged almost at the same time as her to another member of the house of Hessa, Prince Kristoff of Hessa, Cecilia made the preparations for her wedding in the company of her younger sister, aged 16.
The two princesses thus went to London in the spring of 1930 in order to obtain new clothes. Shortly after they returned to Paris to put together their trouso and buy their wedding dresses. The nuptils of Sophie and Kristoff were celebrated at Schllo Hotel Kroberg in Kroberg in town 15th of December 1930. The wedding of Cecilia and Gayorg Donatus took place at the Neua Pal in Dharmstad on 2nd February 1931 to the surprise of the foreign guests who expected a much colder welcome from a population that had dethroned Grand Duke Ernest Louie in
- The wedding aroused the enthusiasm of the people who gathered in droves to attend the event and cheer their former princely family. The couple were married in a double religious ceremony, both Orthodox and Lutheran. The ceremony brought together some 50 guests from all over Europe, but took place in the absence of the bride’s mother, Princess Alice, who was still hospitalized in Switzerland.
Prince Kristoff of Hessa, Cecilia’s brother-in-law, joined the Nazi party in 1931 and the SS in 1932. For their part, the princes of Hessa kept their distance from the far-right party for a long time because the Grand Duke Ernest Louie had no sympathy for the Furer’s ideas. However, things changed in May 1937.
On that date, Gayorg Donatus and Louie, the two sons of the former sovereign, joined the Nazi party. Following the example of her husband and her brother-in-law, Cecilia joined the party at the same time. Cecilia and her family went to Frankfurt on 16th of November 1937 to get on board a plane of the Belgian company Serbena which was to take them to London via a stopover in Ostend where it was planned to pick up two other passengers.
The small group which consisted of Cecilia 8 months pregnant, Gayorg Donatus, their two sons, Ludvig, aged six, and Alexander aged four, and the Daaja Grand Duchess Eleanor was accompanied by Baron Yoim von Reedel and Alice Han. According to Philip Eid, Cecilia hated taking the plane, and she always dressed in black when she made a trip like this.
The journey started under normal weather conditions, but a thick fog developed as the plane approached the North Sea. Despite the poor visibility, the pilot followed the flight plan and attempted to land at Austinine Airport. However, during the maneuver, the aircraft struck the chimney of a factory, causing the destruction of a wing and an engine of the aircraft.
It then crashed against the roof of a building before being thrown several meters away and catching fire. The accident caused the immediate death of all passengers, including a newborn baby whom Cecilia seemed to have given birth to in the middle of the flight. Prince Philillip, then 16, was particularly close to Cecilele and described being called into his headm’s study at Gordontown to be told of her death as one of the worst moments of his life.
Years later, he wrote, “I have the very clearest recollection of the profound shock with which I heard the news of the crash and the death of my sister and her family. The funeral of Cecilia and her family took place in Dharmstat on 23rd of November 1937. The event gave rise to a mass gathering but also served as a pretext for a large deployment of soldiers in Nazi uniform.
Photos from their funeral shows Prince Phillip flanked by grieving relatives, all wearing distinctive Nazi uniforms. One is clad in the uniform of the brown shirts. Another wears full SS Regalia, the fourth of five children of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenburg. Sophie spent a happy childhood.
In 1927, Sophie met one of her distant cousins, Prince Philillip of Hessa Castle. Shortly after, she met two of his brothers, the twins Kristoff and Richard of Hessa Castle, at the manor of Hemlark, the home of her great aunt Princess Irene of Hessa and by Rin. Despite her being 13 years their junior, the two German princes soon attempted to court her, and it was Kristoff who managed to grab her attention.
Their romance eventually ended in an engagement which was officially celebrated when Sophie turned 16 in 1930. The nuptules of Sophie and Kristoff were celebrated in Kronberg in Townis on 15th of December 1930. They were married in two religious ceremonies with the Orthodox one held at Friedrioff Castle and the Lutheran one at a church in the city.
With their honeymoon over, Sophie and Kristoff moved into an apartment in Berlin’s Shonenberg Quarter. After working for a long time in the Maybach car factory in Friedri’s Haren, the prince had just been hired as a broker by the Victoria Insurance Company. In October 1930, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, son of Kaiser Wilhelm, introduced his cousin Kristoff to the politician Herman Guring.
And it did not take long for the two to form a closer relationship. Under the influence of Guring, the prince and his wife then met Adolf Hitler, who deceived them with his charm and his apparent modesty. Under these conditions, Kristoff joined the Nazi party, first secretly in 1931 and then publicly in 1933.
He also joined the SS in February 1932. However, in his family, Kristoff was not an exceptional case. His older brother, Philillip, had become a member of the Nazi party in 1930. Subsequently, their respective twins, Princess Wolf Gang and Richard of Hessa Castle, joined the party in 1932. Finally, their parents, Frederick Charles, Land Grave of Hessa, and Princess Margaret followed the example of their sons in May 1938.
Unlike her sisters Cecilia and Margarita, who joined the Nazi party at the same time as their husbands in 1937, Sophie never became a member of the Nazi party. Like her sisters-in-law, Princess Mafala and Princess Marie Alexandra, she nevertheless joined the National Socialist Women’s League in 1938.
In fact, Sophie had long shown enthusiasm for Nazi Germany. linked to the elite of the Hitler regime. The princess thus maintained friendly relations with Emmy Sonaman and was one of the guests of honor at the time of her marriage in April 1935 to Herman Guring who notably had Adolf Hitler as a witness. From a financial point of view, the coming to power of Adolf Hitler significantly improved the situation of Kristoff and Sophie.
In 1933, the prince was appointed personal adviser to state secretary to the Prussian state ministry Paul Kerner. Two years later, Guring placed Kristoff in charge of the forongs amped, an intelligence service responsible for spying on the telecommunications of Nazi Germany. At the same time as these events, Sophie and Kristoff’s family grew larger with the successive births of Christina, Doraththa, Carl, and Rhina of Hessa.
The birth of their eldest son was also an opportunity for the couple to underline their support for Nazism since the child received among his names that of Adolf in tribute to the Adolf Hitler. As a means of protection, Kristoff warned Sophie about the need to beware of prying ears and never to speak politics with people other than her sisters and cousins.
Even though he probably moved away from the SS from 1934, the prince nonetheless remained a staunch supporter of the Nazi regime. On 7th October 1943, Prince Kristoff died under mysterious circumstances during a plane crash in the Apenine Mountains near Fori. A few weeks later in November 1943, the princess and her mother-in-law received a visit from Oberupenfura Ziggfrieded Talbert, commissioned by Hinrich Himmler to discreetly spy on the family.
Aware of their vulnerability, the two women then refrained from expressing doubts about the conditions surrounding Kristoff’s death. Widowed since October 1943 and mother to five children, Sophie got close to Prince George William of Hanover, son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and brother of Fred Rica, Queen of the Helens.
Their romance ended in an engagement which was celebrated in January 1946. As her wedding was scheduled for April, Sophie was trying to convince to the American authorities to allow her to use the jewelry she left in Friedrich and wished to wear during the ceremony. Having obtained the necessary permit, the princess and Lan Graven and Margaret went to the castle where they thought they would find the jewelry that Prince Wolf Gang hid in the cellar in 1943.
To their dismay, however, the two women realized that the jewels had been stolen, and an investigation was soon opened to find out what happened to them. It was then established that on 5th of November 1945, Captain Kathleen Nash, Major David Watson, and Colonel Jack Durant had discovered the jewels, whose value was estimated at 2 million at the time, and that they eventually stole them in February 1946.
brought to justice. The three American soldiers were found guilty, but only some of the stolen pieces were found intact, the rest having been dismantled to be more easily sold in Switzerland. In addition, the American government procrastinated for several years around the question of the return of the remaining pieces, which were not given back to their owners until 1st August 1951.
In the end, the family recovered around 10% of the stolen jewelry. Under these conditions, the marriage of Sophie and George William took on a simpler form than expected. Organized at Salem Castle, property of Berthold, Margarave of Bardon, husband of Sophie’s sister Theodora. The event was the occasion for the bride to reunite with her brother, Prince Philillip, whom she had not seen since 1937, and who came to Germany with his arms laden with food and gifts.
With George William having completed his law studies at the University of Gingan in 1948, he was approached by his brother-in-law Bert Hold Margrave of Ben to take over the management of the Salem Castle School, which had since been closed due to the Second World War. Once in Salem, George William and Sophie settled in a large house provided by the Margrave of Baden, and the children of the princess were educated in the institution run by George William.
In fact, the financial situation of Sophie and her husband remained precarious for a long time. For the princess, however, things gradually improved from 1950 when she received a small inheritance from her maternal grandmother, the Daaja Martianess of Milford Haven. The princess spent the last months of her life in a nursing home in Schlesi where she died on 24th November 2001 and was survived by her husband, seven children, 14 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.
Her funeral was held at Wolf’s Garton Castle in the presence of many members of the aristocracy and her remains were buried at the cemetery of St. Martin’s Church in Schlers where she was eventually joined by her second husband in 2006. The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Batenburgg, Margarita spent a happy childhood between Athens and Corfu.
In her youth, however, she witnessed the Balkan Wars followed by the First World War and the Greco Turkish War. For the young princess and her relatives, these conflicts had dramatic consequences and led to their exile in Switzerland, then in France and the United Kingdom. During their exile, Margarita and her family depended on the generosity of their foreign relatives, in particular, Princess George of Greece and Denmark, who offered them accommodation in Sloo, and Lady Louie Mountbatton, who supported them financially. In 1930, Margarita was 25
when she met Gotfrieded Fredel, hereditary prince of Hoenlu Langenburg, who like her descended from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Coming from the house of Henlau, whose states were publicized at the beginning of the 19th century, the prince was heir to a fortune made up of castles, farmland, and forests.
Margarita and Gotfrieded fell in love and married on 20th April 1931. Organized at Langenburgg Castle, their wedding consisted of a double religious ceremony, both Lutheran and Orthodox. Occasion was a large family reunion at which Margarita’s mother Alice was not present. Among the many guests were the Daaja Queen Marie of Romania and Grand Duchess Victoria Fyodorona of Russia, aunts of the groom, as well as Prince George of Greece and Denmark and Louise, Crown Princess of Sweden, uncle and aunt of the bride. Once their marriage was
celebrated, Margarita and Gotfrieded settled at Vikersheim Castle, located not far from the town of Langenburgg. After a still birth in 1933, Margarita gave birth to three children, Craft, Beatatrix, and Gayorg Andreas. Concerned about her mother’s fate, Margarita visited her several times in Kit Lingan, and their reunion was often filled with emotions.
However, Alice was angry with those close to her for having her placed in an asylum and once released from there in 1933. She made known her desire to stay away from her family. Four years passed before she put an end to her voluntary exile. The reconciliation of the princess and her children finally happened in 1937 and Margarita saw her mother for the first time in July.
When she was not taking care of those close to her, Margarita was involved in charitable works which soon earned her the admiration of the inhabitants of the former principality of Hohan Loh Langenburg. Like several members of her entourage, Margarita joined the Nazi party on 1st May 1937 at the same time as her husband.
Thereafter, the couple used their family connections to promote the rupushment of the Nazi regime in the United Kingdom. Enlisted in the Vermacht, Gotfried participated in the Anlus in 1938. The outbreak of the Second World War greatly affected Margarita, whose family found themselves divided by the conflict. While her husband and brothers-in-law, Prince Kristoff of Hessa and Berthold, Margarave of Bardon, joined the German ranks, her brother Philillip, fought in the British Royal Navy.
The defeat of Germany and its occupation by the Allies brought new upheavalss in the life of the former German princely families. When the war ended, Margarita and her family found themselves in the American occupied part of Germany. So their lives were not under threat. After peace was restored, the revelation of the war crimes of the Vermacht and their role in the Holocaust, brought to light during the Nuremberg trials, had serious repercussions on the relationship between the Hoen Lower Langenburggs and their foreign relatives.
For his part, Prince Philip found himself unable to invite his sisters on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom because of anti-German sentiment prevailing in Great Britain after the war. Aware of the difficulties their brother had to face, Margarita, Theodora, and Sophie considered their sidelining wrong and hurtful.
They felt snubbed when they realized that their cousins, the Queen Mother of the Romanians and the Duchess of Aosta, had been invited despite their countries being allies of the Nazi regime during the conflict. In March 1948, Margarita and her three elder children were invited to Athens by Princess Alice, who offered them the trip thanks to the pension that the Countess Mountbatton of Burma continued to pay her.
Invited to stay at the royal palace by King Paul and Queen Frederica, Margarita was delighted to be back in her home country. The Greek royal family was not the only royal house to show its desire to reconnect with the Hoen lower Langenburggs. In 1950, Margarita was allowed to return to the United Kingdom on the occasion of the funeral of her grandmother, the Daaja Martianess of Milford Haven.
A few months later, the princess was chosen to be one of the godmothers of her niece, Princess Anne. Above all, in 1953, Margarita, her sisters, their husbands, and some of their children were invited to the coronation of Elizabeth II. Satisfied not to have been sidelined once again, the princess of Ho and Loha Langenburgg nonetheless noted with sadness the anguish of her brother Philillip, who considered with apprehension his new status as Prince Consort.
Margarita died on 24th April 1981 in a clinic in Bad VC Bavaria 6 days after her 76th birthday. attended by her brother, the Duke of Edinburgh. Her funeral took place in Langenburgg, where she was buried alongside her husband. The second of five children of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenburg, Theodora spent a happy childhood between Athens and Corfu.
In June 1931, Theodora became engaged to Bertold, Margarave of Bardon, son of the last chancellor of the German Empire and titular Grand Duke of Bardon. From November 1929, Bertold was in charge of a substantial fortune. A man of culture, he lived in Salem, where his father had founded a school with the help of his secretary, Kurt Horn, in 1920.
On 17th of August 1931, Theodora and Berthold married in a double religious ceremony, both Lutheran and Orthodox, at the Noisy Schlloths in Bonbarden, which resulted in a large family reunion at which the bride’s mother, Princess Alice, was not present. After the ceremony, the newlyweds went on their honeymoon in Capri, Italy.
Back in Germany, the couple moved to Slem Castle, a former Cistersian abbey transformed into a princely residence after its secularization in 1803. The Margrave and Margravine of Bon had three children. Margarita Maxmleon and Ludvig concerned about her mother’s fate. Theodora visited her several times in Cro Lingan, but Alise did not always receive her daughter warmly.
Aware that her brother had been living a chaotic existence since their mother’s placement in a sanatorium, Theodora got Philillip to go to school in Salem and to come and live with her and her husband in 1933. The rise of Nazism in Germany, however, led her to reverse her decision and send him back to the United Kingdom where he finally enrolled in Gordontown in 1934.
While several of their relatives such as Cecilia and Margarita, Theodora’s sisters, as well as Marie Alexandra, Bertld’s sister gradually joined the Nazi party. The Margrave and Margravine of Bon tried to keep their distance from the Nazi regime. The war brought its share of tragedies for Theodora and her relatives.
In October 1943, her sister Sophie’s husband died in a plane crash while flying over the Aenine Mountains. A few months later, in January 1944, Marie Alexandra, Berthold’s only sister, died in an attack by the US Army Air Forces during an air raid on Frankfurt and Main. Finally, in December 1944, her father, Prince Andrew, died in Monaco without having been able to see his children again.
These events greatly affected Theodora who then went through a period of depression. At the end of the 1940s, Theodora began to suffer from heart problems. Over time, her health deteriorated and she appeared very diminished at the wedding of Prince Juan Carlos and Princess Sophia in 1962.
Her health then alternated between times when she had the greatest difficulty speaking or walking and times when she felt absolutely good. Unable to anticipate her next seizures, she had to move around with a cane at all times. Forced to have all her teeth pulled out, she acquired a strange smile which her mother struggled to get used to.
As his wife’s health deteriorated, Berthold suffered a fatal heart attack while driving with their son Ludvig on 27th October 1963. Upset by the demise of her husband, Theodora then hurriedly returned from Italy where she was on vacation. Theodora’s last years were affected by the establishment of the regime of the colonels in Greece and by the departure into exile of King Constantine II and his family.
Hospitalized at the clinic of Dr.