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79. Princess Alice of Battenberg · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
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  Speaker 2: Hi everybody, and welcome to Hooded What Now the history
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: podcast That's not your history class with me, your host,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Katie Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books. If you
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: are new here, welcome and consider this your warning. I
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: have been known to use what's some mother refer to
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  Speaker 2: as colorful language on this podcast. And if you are
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  Speaker 2: afraid or you know, just not super into expletives because
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I talk the way I talk and if you don't
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: like that, you might want to exit stage left. Okay,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: now that that's done, everybody else, welcome back. How's it going.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Have you had a good time? I have had a
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: relatively calm weekend, like I'm currently so busy, but uh yeah,
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  Speaker 2: relatively uneventful weekend considering because I'm doing renovations and I
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: am now sorting through all the clothes. But we had
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  Speaker 2: fucking heat wave, right, We had a heat wave in
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  Speaker 2: Ireland and there was a heat warning, so it hit
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  Speaker 2: like twenty eight degrees in some places it was hitting
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  Speaker 2: thirty and that's celsius. That's like h that's like eighty
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  Speaker 2: to like ninety fairenheit or whatever. And we had humidity.
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  Speaker 2: As it turns out, that was the same as Florida.
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  Speaker 2: And this isn't an area that is about to retain heat,
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  Speaker 2: Like that's the whole thing. In UK and Ireland, everything
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  Speaker 2: is about keeping in as much heat as possible. So
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  Speaker 2: like twenty eight degrees right in Spain because like twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight degrees twenty eight degrees, and you know Italy twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight degrees right, twenty degrees, twenty eight degrees, and Argentina
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight degrees, but twenty eight degrees in a temperate
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  Speaker 2: zone somehow feels like your skin is melting off. Like
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  Speaker 2: it was so humid, Like I felt like I could
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  Speaker 2: bite the air. It was like walking through soup. It
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  Speaker 2: was unpleasant. And people were like, well, don't come to
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  Speaker 2: Texas and don't come to Florida. And I was like,
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't planning to, like, no, not in this level
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  Speaker 2: of humidity. I will do winter tears, thank you, but no.
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  Speaker 2: I ended up messaging Ben Brainard and if you know
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  Speaker 2: me's this the States guy on on TikTok and we
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  Speaker 2: were just like chatting for a couple hours about well
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  Speaker 2: the heat because he was like gonna make fun of me,
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  Speaker 2: and then he realized that like we don't have AC,
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  Speaker 2: there's no air con here, you know, it's just deal
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  Speaker 2: with the heat. And then everything sort of multiplied because
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  Speaker 2: everything is designed and built to hold in that heat
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  Speaker 2: and keep that heat and to try and amplify that heat.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's not the best of things. And then
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  Speaker 2: we spoke about hash burns because it was two am
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  Speaker 2: and I couldn't sleep because it was too humid. So
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  Speaker 2: thanks Ben, I really appreciate you help me out because
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  Speaker 2: that was just it was helpful. It was helpful, and
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  Speaker 2: I did get to make a Shrek joke, so it
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  Speaker 2: was all fun. But yeah, I don't know if you
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  Speaker 2: know this if you listened to the previous episodes you might.
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  Speaker 2: But I have applied for the Irish Podcast Awards and
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  Speaker 2: the listener's vote is open. I'm gonna put the link
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  Speaker 2: in who did what now because that's me, and you
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  Speaker 2: vote for me because I'm I'm it, and that'll be great.
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  Speaker 2: Like you don't have to be from Ireland, I'm just saying,
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  Speaker 2: but you do have to like put in your email
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  Speaker 2: address and then click then that's in your email, and
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  Speaker 2: vote for me because I'm awesome and you love me. Please.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like so conceded. That's very conceited. Also, I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to the Murdermost Irish Live show. So I met the
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  Speaker 2: two girls and Colin at the Irish Podcast Awards last
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  Speaker 2: year and I was struggling to find somebody to stay,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: like I was freaking out. I couldn't find anything under
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  Speaker 2: brook was playing in Dublin. Garth brook No, Garth Brooks
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  Speaker 2: was playing in Dublin, and so everything was just like
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  Speaker 2: Mega Choka Phil. But I managed to get one hotel
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  Speaker 2: on Temple Bar for like two hundred and fifty quid.
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  Speaker 2: So it was a really really good deal because you
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  Speaker 2: know it's Dublin on a Friday night when everything's sold out,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: so I get this deal. But like anyway, I am
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  Speaker 2: at the awards and we're having like the after party
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  Speaker 2: bit and automatically like Sarah Jans just like you know,
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  Speaker 2: not to be weird, but if you didn't find anywhere
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  Speaker 2: to stay, you can come stay with us, like we
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  Speaker 2: promise like we're not gonna kill you. Ah, And I'm like,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: you host a murder podcast. I feel like you could,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: but no, I'd already everything sorted. But like off their
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  Speaker 2: back straight away. We're just so kind. And if you
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  Speaker 2: don't vote for me, vote for them because they're amazing.
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  Speaker 2: But I'd say they're gonna be in the true crime category,
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  Speaker 2: and I hope that I'm in the history category because
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  Speaker 2: they're they're announced on They're announced on Thursday, So that's
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the short list for like the actual categories. I really
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  Speaker 2: hope to be in it. Like I just have this
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: weird like feeling because of my accent that people are
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: just gonna be like, she's not in Ireland. It's come
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  Speaker 2: from Donny gall But anyway, I've been talking for too long,
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  Speaker 2: so I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, quit your
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  Speaker 2: jibber jabber in fact me, In fact you I will.
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  Speaker 2: But first we've got to get our source on. Our
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  Speaker 2: sources are Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers,
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  Speaker 2: A Short History of Modern Greece by Richard Clogg, Mount
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  Speaker 2: Matton by Philip Ziegler, History dot Com, Biography dot Com,
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  Speaker 2: and Deafhistory dot EU. Are you sitting comfortably good? Then
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  Speaker 2: let's begin. On the twenty fifth of February eighteen eighty five,
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  Speaker 2: Princess Alice was born in the Tapestry Room in Windsor
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  Speaker 2: Castle in the UK. Alice was the first of four
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  Speaker 2: children by Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Hesse and by Ryn. And you will never guess who
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  Speaker 2: was in attendance, none other than her great grandmother, Queen
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  Speaker 2: Victoria herself now Queen Victoria, who was a massive fan
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: of you know ether, which would become gascinator like it's
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: the starting point of it, because you know, she was like, yeah,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I've given birth load's time. This is fantastic. Everyone should
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: use it. Yeah, but anyway, that's just a sidebar. But
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: this is the thing. This is a bugbear of mine
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  Speaker 2: and annoys me so much, and it makes things very
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: confusing because when you want to talk about like, especially
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: people in history, is really fucking tough when everybody's got
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the same name or at least similar names or oh yeah,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: especially when it comes to like older like texts, because
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: you find out stuff and then you have to cross
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: reference at so many times to make sure it is
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: the specific person that you're thinking about. Anyway. And also,
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  Speaker 2: I have said this before and I will say it again.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Your family tree should not be a wreath. And to
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: add on to that, tack on to the end of this.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: If your family tree does happen to be a wreath,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: give people different names. It's just an option. I just
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  Speaker 2: feel like you need some variation there somewhere. So Princess Alice,
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  Speaker 2: her mother is Princess Victoria, whose mother is Princess Alice.
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  Speaker 2: His mother is Queen Victoria. Henry Stephen Henry Stephen Henry,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Richard John Oy, Yeah, yeah, so many, so many. Wait
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: did I get the beginning of the monarchs. I'm wrong,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: maybe I did, but anyway, it's like Victoria, Alice, Victoria Alice.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Let's let's let's not. Maybe maybe let's not, But anyway, Alice,
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  Speaker 2: like many royals, has a fuck ton of names because
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know reasons. Have you ever had to see
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: someone sidebar write out like many many names. Ivan Auntie
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: has like five names, so like for four name, middle name,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: middle name, middle name, middle name, and then surname. And
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: so she was trying to like legally her wedding certificate,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: and she had to do your name like super tiny
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: to fit them all in. It's like maybe consider less,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Like anyone who is about to have kids just think
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: about the length of their name when filling out forms.
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  Speaker 2: It's just an idea. So Alice she gets christened on
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  Speaker 2: the twenty fifth of April eighteen eighty five, and this
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  Speaker 2: is in Damstadt, and she she has the names, the name,
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  Speaker 2: so many names, okay, so Victoria, Alice, Elizabeth, Julia, Marie Battenberg. Right,
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  Speaker 2: that's that's she has so many titles, so many names. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: So she has all these names, and she has like
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: a bunch of god parents, like sex of them or something.
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  Speaker 2: That's a lot. There's more than there should be, but
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: they just you know why, I don't know, because like
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: there should be two and just be done with. But
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know royals, I guess. So she ends up
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: having three younger siblings, so Louise, George, and Louis again
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: again Louise, just just pick some other names, anything like
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you're from all these different countries, pick a name. So anyway,
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  Speaker 2: her three siblings, Louise becomes the Queen of Sweden. George
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  Speaker 2: is the Marquess of Milford Haven and Louis becomes Earl
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Mount Baden of Burma. But back to Alice. So Alice
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  Speaker 2: spends the majority of her childhood between like London, Euggenheim, Darmstadt,
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  Speaker 2: and Malta. And her dad's also like a naval officer,
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  Speaker 2: even though he wasn't supposed to be because he failed
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: the medical but they let him in anyway because they
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: didn't want to offend Queen Victoria anyway. So she's not
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  Speaker 2: doing well growing up because her mom is very worried
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: because she noticed that her pronunciation it isn't distinct, it
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: isn't definite, and she thinks something's wrong. Is she They
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: kind of put this, They basically say she's slow, like
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  Speaker 2: that is the term they use. And it's actually her grandmother, right,
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  Speaker 2: Princess Battenberg, who identifies the issue, and so she takes
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  Speaker 2: Alice to see an air specialist, and it's this point
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  Speaker 2: where she's diagnosed with congenital deafness. So she was born
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: deaf right or at the very least hard of hearing,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: so she's at least partially deaf, and so her mother
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  Speaker 2: Victoria decides that in order for Alice to to grow
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: and learn and this is a little bit of tough love,
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  Speaker 2: and I get where it's coming from, but also, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it just feels a bit ralph. She told people that
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  Speaker 2: if they said anything around Alice to not repeat it,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: to sort of force Alice to learn to lip read effectively.
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  Speaker 2: And so she manages to learn to lip read in
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  Speaker 2: both English and German because like, those are the two
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  Speaker 2: languages really spoken, you know, in the royal household, and
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  Speaker 2: she is fluent in this. She is fluent in lip
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  Speaker 2: reading and speaking English and German by the age of eight.
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  Speaker 2: And so at some point as well, she privately studies
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: French so she can do it in French as well.
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  Speaker 2: And then later on I'm skipping a bit, but later on,
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  Speaker 2: when she gets married, she also learns Greek, like because
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: she's awesome. So she really grows up like surrounded by royals,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: because you know, she is one. Like before she's even ten,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: she's a bridesmaid for the Duke of York and Mary
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: of Tech, who are going to be like King George
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: and Queen Mary, you know, the alone down the line.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: So when she's just shy of sixteen, I think it
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: is Queen Victoria dies and so everybody moves up one
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: in the line of succession. So yes, nineteen oh one,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: two major things happen for Alice. One, her great grandmother,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the Queen of England, she dies, and two she is
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: confirmed into the Anglican faith, so she has her confirmation right.
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  Speaker 2: So with Victoria passed away, her eldest son, Edward Albert
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Edward becomes Edward the seventh. He is now king, but
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  Speaker 2: his coronation doesn't happen until the following year when Alice
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  Speaker 2: is seventeen. So here, here's the thing about coronations is
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: it tends to bring a lot of royals out. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: there's a big royal family at this point. They're all interconnected,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: mainly through Victoria again the read situation, So a lot
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: of them come in and who happens to show up
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: at this coronation but Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: So he's like the fourth son of King George the
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: First of Greece and Olga Constantinova of Russia. I don't
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: know why did that. I can't help myself. When you know,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: when you learn names and then you learn it from
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: people who speak those languages, and then you end up
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: like copying that phrasing. I think it's an ADHD thing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Don't quote me on it. How do you know she's
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: got ADHD? Have you listened to her podcast? She can't
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: keep a single train of thought going. There are civil
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: trains going at once, some arestalled at stations, some have
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: somehow created their own tracks. Why, we don't know. That's
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: just how it goes here. So she falls absolutely head
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: over heels in love with Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: and so they get engaged and they get married in
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: October nineteen oh three. So they end up having like
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: three ceremonies all in all, because I have one wedding
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: when you can have three, says the person who's been
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: engaged thrice and still is unwed. That says more about me,
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  Speaker 2: I guess. So yes, they are married on the sixth
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  Speaker 2: of October in nineteen oh three in a civil ceremony
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: at Darmstadt, so like the next day, they have two
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  Speaker 2: religious ceremonies. The first is in the Evangelical Castle Church
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: and it's a Lutheran one, and the next one is
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: in the Russian Chapel on the Madilden Hall, which is
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: a Greek Orthodox. Because she's Church of England and he's
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Greek Orthodox, so you know, ticking all the boxes for everybody.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: So they have this. So they get married and lo
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  Speaker 2: and behold Princess Alice. She moves to Greece, so she's
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice of Battenberg. But she's also styled Princess Andrew
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: of Denmark and Grace. So like sometimes when you're reading
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: about Princess Alice of Battenberg, it will just call her
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Princess Andrew. Like it's not confusing. It's a little bit confusing,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: but it's just weird, I think for me. But anyway,
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  Speaker 2: so she is really well loved by the people of Greece,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Like the people of Greece fucking love her. So she's
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: loved by the Greeks. She's loved by Constantine the King
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: like he thinks she's fucking fantastic. And Andrew and her,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: they are very much in love, like or at least
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: she's very much in love with him. The two of
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: them are just very very well connected. And they go
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: on to have five children all in all, who then
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: go on to have more. It's a whole thing. But
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: yet after the wedding, Andrew basically leaps back into his
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: naval career because he's the fourth son. Like he's not
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: getting much so he needs to do something in One
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: of the things you know are your options is going
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: into the military. Somehow, the Navy, for some reason, it's
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: deemed just more respectable than other sort of factions of
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: the military. I don't know particularly why. Maybe someone else
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: can explain to me why being on a boat is
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: more impressive than flying a plane or I don't know. Anyway,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: they're there and she ends up having Margharita in nineteen
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: oh five, her daughter, not the pizza. I'm not saying
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice try to Margaerite a pizza for the first
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: time in nineteen oh five. I mean, for all I know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: she could have. Maybe she visited Italy. I don't know
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: if she was there or if she tried a pizza.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like it's entirely relevant either. But anyway,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: her daughter, Margarita is born in nineteen oh five, followed
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: by Theodora in nineteen oh Sex like boom boom, one
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: after the other. The Royals were really pushing it because
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: here's the thing. If you have a wom you are
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: only fertile for a small period of time, and you know,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: there was a very limited time after having children that
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: you can become pregnant again, Like there has to be
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: like a waiting period, you know what I mean. Usually
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: there's like a space because your body tends to heal
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: itself a little before, you know, So do you have
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: children pretty soon after each other, especially when pregnancy it
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: is close to ten months than it is to nine.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Just saying, you know, they were having a ball. She
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: has Margharita, then Theodora, and then she doesn't have kids
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: for a wee while. So being a royal, she's generally
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: expected to do royal things like attend royal weddings, and
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: so she does. She goes to the wedding of Prince
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: William of Sweden and the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: so her aunt, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna. She is of
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the mindset kind of like Countess Markovitch. Actually she has
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: this idea of sort of giving away her worldly goods.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: So what she wants to do is create a foundation
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: for an order of nurses, which are a religious order
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: of Nasi's, you know, and this is going to lay
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: the foundation for stuff that's going to happen later on.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: So in nineteen eleven, her third daughter was born, Cecily,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and political tensions are rising in Greece and it's becoming
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: quite apparent. Then in nineteen twelve, the Balkan War start
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and they last until nineteen thirteen. And Andrew, being a
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: naval officer, he has to go do his thing, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Alice does something that's really unexpected, and that she goes
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: out on the front lines and starts establishing field hospitals
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: and runs them like she's not just doing nothing. She's
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: not just like cutting a ribbit. She's there, hands on,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: organizing the day to day, making sure supplies are going out,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: like she's she's really doing something. She's going out there
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: to help people, like she's nursing, like she's doing all
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: this shit right, and so impressed is the king with
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: this right? So amazingly impressed and all the shit she's doing.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: During the Balkan Wars, King George the Fifth awards her
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: the Royal Red Cross, which is really fucking impressive, Like,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: because to be a princess and to physically get out
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and put yourself in danger to help people is like
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: a weird enough situation to exist Anyway, when you think
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: of how she was raised and the society and the
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: culture in which she as a descendant of Queen Victoria,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: especially you know, the manner in which she grew up,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: that she's going out, especially when she's at a disadvantage
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: because you know, because lest we forget, she can't hear shit,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: or at least not a lot of it. So after
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: the Balkan Wars in nineteen fourteen, Princess Sophie is born
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: and the First World War erupts. So there is this
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: whole issue because the political system within Greece, I mean,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: it's it's very complicated and heavy, but effectively there's a
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: democratically elected government and there's also a monarchy. So the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: government have voted and they want to support the Allies
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: during the Great War. But King Constantine, who's Alice's brother
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: in law, he doesn't want to get involved. He wants
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: to take a neutral stance because he's related very closely
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: to the German nobility, and he's also related very closely
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: to the British nobility. You know, there's a lot of
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: sort of connections either side, and he just does not
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: feel like he should be involved in this. Unfortunately, it
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: gets to the point that this situation is just not
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: feasible and the family's personal safety is really being called
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: into question. Because in nineteen sixteen, Princess Alice and her
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: children are sheltering in the cellars of the palace during
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the French bombardment of nineteen sixteen, and that's like early December.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: But then by early nineteen seventeen, Constantine his neutrality thing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: It's not working. It's buggered up, right, He's absolutely buggered up,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: and they have to go. He has to abdicate. So
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: that's what he does. He abdicates the throne, he relinquishes
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: his title, and then Alice and her family they're exiled
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: from Greece. Like, this is a woman who is just
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: consistently given to a country, and this is a country
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: that in general loved her just kind of the other
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: ones they weren't too quenon, you know, And so they
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: have buggered off to Switzerland, right, and during this time
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: as well, like they have to like get rid of
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: titles and change names, and so they sort of anglicize
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Battenberg and change to the Mount Baton because there's like
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: anti German sentiment. It's like a whole situation and she
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: doesn't change hers though. Alice is like, no, I'm good.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Everyone else is like I'm Mount Baton and I am this,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: and she's like, hmm, now I'm fine. So this is
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: shockingly enough, really fucking stressful, and it's like playing on
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: her and then to add more shit to the dung
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: heap because the world just cannot stop just trying to
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: drown this woman. In nineteen eighteen, during the Russian Revolution,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: two of her aunts, one of which we know she's
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: really close to. So the Empres's alex And Fyodorovna and
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna are murdered by Bolsheviks. And then
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: this is like the fall of all of these dynasties,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: like all over Europe. So all these monarchies and their power,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: they're crumbling, they're falling, they're gone. So you've got the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Austro Hungarian empires and Russian and German. The vote practically dissolved,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: and all people really have at this point is, you know,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: whatever goods they could snatch with them and their titles,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: because labels weirdly seem to be very important, Like I'm
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: fairly certain the same kind of people that get mad
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: about someone referring to themselves as non binary or gender
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: fluid or arrows. Are the same kind of people who
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: would get really mad if you called, you know, Prince
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Volume by something that wasn't his title, Like they'd be like,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: you're not showing respect, neither are you, aursehole, like which
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: our titles are important in this context, but not no
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: on this one. Okay, okay, So skip forward a few
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: years and in nineteen twenty, King Constantine the First is reinstated.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: He's back being King of Greece, right back, and he
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: goes super duper so he's there, and this means that
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Alice in our family can move back to Greece and
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: they're there, and this this is short lived because of
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: the Greek Turkish War, which they lose. And at this point,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice is pregnant with Prince Philip. Can you imagine
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: the stress and strain this woman is under. Not only
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: is she pregnant again, so dealing with all the stress
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: and the hormones and everything dealing with that, but she's
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: in the midst of a very strenuous political situation, like
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: it's tumultuous to say the least, and there's a war
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: going on yet again, and she can't do anything about it,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: partially because she's pregnant and partially because you know, it's
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: happening in Asia minor now I can't remember exactly if
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: you know, Grace is defeated and then she gives birth,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: or she gives birth and then Grace is defeated, but
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: they're very close in the timeline. So Andrew, Prince Andrew
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: being of the military like at the time of the defeat,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: like a lot of other sort of generals, he is
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: arrested and he goes on trial. And see what happens
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: to a lot of these generals and a lot of
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: these military leaders is they are executed, and Constantine yet
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: again has to abdicate his throne. So their protection there
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: is basically gone, like they don't have that buffer anymore.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: And so the British royal family, they are convinced that
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Prince Andrew is in danger like the Keys, at high
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: risk of being executed because all of these other generals
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: have and they had already learned their lesson about the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Czar and Czarina and their children, and so they didn't
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: want that to happen again because they they could have
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: helped them but didn't. I think it's because they weren't
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: aware that it was going to result in their deaths.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: But now they know that's very much a possibility with
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: you know, a revolt, and so they send in the
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: HMS Calypso and there's this show trial the results of
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: what you're him being banished from Greece as opposed to
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: you know, other ministers and generals who were just shot
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: after their trials. Yeah, so it's it's kind of on
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: the edge. People are really worried, like diplomats and so forth.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: They're worried he's going to be executed, and so they're
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: not taking any chances, and Britain arranges for the HMS
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Calypso to take the Prince and Princess and all of
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: their children and get them the heck at a dodge.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: So I've told this story before, but it's like Prince
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Philip was like taking on this cruiser and an orange crate,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: and like, I think I used their frames smuggled because
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: like it's always kind of refer to as smuggled on
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: but they weren't like sneaking away under the cover of night.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: They basically just needed something to put them in and
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: they didn't really have an option to bring a lot
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: of stuff with them because they needed to go, and
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: so they put them in an orange crate because like
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: that's what they had. That'll do for a crib. It's
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: the right size, you know, Yeah, does the job. And
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: it's at this point that Princess Alice and her husband,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Prince Andrew, they become very reliant on their families for
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: you know, finance and protection, and so they end up
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: staying in this small house. I say small house. It's
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: fairly decent sized. I mean I've seen small houses. This
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: is fine. It's in Sant Clude, it's on the outskirts
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: of Paris, and it is owned by Marie Bonapa, who
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: is married to Prince George of Greece. Because yeah, she
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: happens to have a house in France. They can go
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: stay in this house in France. And so while Princess
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Alice is there, what she does is she gets involved
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: in these charity shops. So she starts doing this stuff
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: and starts working in these areas in order to help
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Greek refugees. Like the first thing she does, hands on
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: wants to help now the strain and pressure of everything
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: that has been happening to her. It has been building,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: and in nineteen twenty eight she becomes, i want to say,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: like very religious. Like she starts really leaning into her
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: faith and she ends up converting from Anglicanism to the
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Greek Orthodox Church. And at this point as well, the
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: marriage between Prince Andrew and Princess Alice it is strained,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: to say the least, and over the next two years
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: it deteriorates, kind of like her mental state. So she
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: starts claiming that she is getting messages from the divine
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: like she's getting information from g Jesus and the Buddha,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: and that she is intimate with them. There's no definition
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: as to what this intimate is. Now people have often
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: made their own conclusions from this. Some people have said
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: it's sort of sexual in nature, and some people say
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: that's it's not sexual nature at all, but more of
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: like an emotional intimacy. But either way, it's enough to
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: worry the fuck out of her mother. So Princess Victoria
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: ends up sending Alice to just like a bunch of
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: doctors and they diagnose her with paranoid schizophrenia. Alice is
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: then brought to a sanatorium in Berlin, where this diagnosis
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: is confirmed. You know what's weird to me though, is
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: like I keep feeling this is more of a you know,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: stress related mental deterioration or a psychotic break as opposed
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: to like schizophrenia, because weirdly enough, like even though it
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: says she's receiving messages, it doesn't say how wo because
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: like I couldn't see any documentation of hallucinations, and typically,
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: like the most prominent symptoms for schizophrenia are usually auditory
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: or visual hallucinations, and I mean I'd be surprised if
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: they were auditory, but like, I'm not seeing hallucinations anywhere.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know it's not always the case, but
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: it just feels like like they're they're just like to
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: the side of the mark. It feels like they've almost
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: got it. But it just feels like this diagnosis is
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: more complicated in nw ones than what they're calling it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, granted, though, it is the early twentieth century,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: so pinch a salt, I suppose, And yeah, I mean
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: on top of that, as well as sanatoriums at this
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: point are still pretty new, like it's still a pretty
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: novel concept. But yeah, after this diagnosis is confirmed, she
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: is then sent to Switzerland to the Cruise Liniensatorium run
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: by Ludwig Binswanger, and like the weird thing is is
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: like this particular sanatorium was where like celebrities and royals
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: went like that, there was a few. It's peculiar, but
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: it is. And then ben Swanger also diagnosed toward schizophrenia.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: And what happens to princess Alice in this sanatorium is weird.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: It's really fucking weird. So because boon Swanger, he decides
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: he's going to correspond with none other then Sigmund Freud
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: about princess Alice because he's looking for advice and recommendations
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: and you know, just just floating ideas back and forth
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: and singin. Freud suggests Strung suggests, basically makes happen that
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice should have her ovaries x rayed in order
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: to sort of kickstart menopause. Right. He told a doctor
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: another doctor to radiate a woman's women to force a
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: menopause upon her that her body wasn't ready for because
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: shockingly enough, he believed all of the issues stemmed from
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: her libido. He had decided that Princess Alice of Battenberg
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: was too damn horny, and that's where her issues stemmed from.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: And you know where this all came from. I mean
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: the Jesus stuff and the bit of stuff. No, none
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: of that. It's because one of her ladies in waiting
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: said that when she was working in her charity shop
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: and Greece, it's that she had started this emotional affair
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: with a Frenchman and nothing physical happened, it wasn't acted upon,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: but that this was a trigger for her current mental state,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: and because of this, they decided that they were going
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: to radiate her womb. And just when you think it
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: couldn't get worse, this was done to her without her consent.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Because she was not fully informed of what they were
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: going to do, she didn't have an option to discuss
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: it or to challenge it. This was forced upon her
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and she attempted to flee the sanatorium on several occasions.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: And all the while her husband and her they are
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: becoming estranged, and all of her daughters they marry German
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: princes and she doesn't attend any of their weddings. You know,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: she's in a sanatorium. So at one point she signs
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: herself out of the sanatorium and she goes back to
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: see Philip and she hasn't seen him in years, but
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: her mother, Princess Victoria, decides that she just isn't well enough,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: like she needs to go back to the sanatorium. But
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: here's the thing, Like, this is the woman who tried
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: to leave several times and they wouldn't let her, and
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: this is the time they let her go. They let
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: her sign herself out, but her mother decided that just
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: wasn't good enough. And so Princess Victoria takes Prince Philip
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: out for a picnic, and when he comes back from
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: the picnic, his mother's gone and he doesn't see her
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: again for several years. And during this time as well,
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Philip is sent to England to the Mount Battens, to
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: his uncles. And so after two years of being forcibly
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: radiated in a sanitorium in Switzerland, Princess Alice is finally released. So, yeah,
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: two years, two years. And here's the thing. None of
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: these fucking guys actually knew what they were doing. Like
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: they were physically making her unwill, they were giving her
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: radiation treatment. They could have killed her like very easily.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: They didn't know this was gonna work. They didn't know
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: This was.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Just an idea, and the weirdest thing of all is
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: that it came from Freud. Because Freud, as we know,
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: out of everything, as a talker, he believed in the
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: talking method. That's like what he's famous for. That and
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: the you know, psychosexual stages of maturation.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: But you know, he's all about finding the core root,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: you know, all of this trauma and working from there.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Granted he thinks the core root of your is your
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: fucking libido, but that's neither here nor there. The fact
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: is you're supposed to work through this and figure it out,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: and you know, introspection, not just X ray the womb,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: like what the actual fuck. But yeah, after being effectively
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: tortured for two whole years, and she goes, she's released,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: and off she goes to a life in Europe. Now,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: she talks to her mother and there's some corresponding to
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: the Cecily, but she basically doesn't really communicate with her family.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, she kind of goes incognito. She's just trying
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: to just live her life. And I'm not surprised she
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: isn't talking to some of the people because you know,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: she's been in a sanatorium for two fucking years. And
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Philip did visit her at least once in there, and
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: he was so young at the time. I don't think
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: he'd truly understood what was happening, you know. He didn't
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: really know what it was or what they were doing
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: to her, or how it had affected her because he
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: signed the book Philip of No Fixed Abode, you know.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: And I think it really it must have affected them,
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: like I don't care who you are, like your mother
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: being locked away from you. That can't be good as
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: a kid, you know. But yeah, for the most part,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: she's not really communicating with her family. She's just like
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: laying low. And it's only when her daughter, Cecily dies,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: and so Cecily and her husband and three of her children,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: and then I think there's like a friend as well.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: They all pass away in this airplane crash. There's supposed
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: to be on the way to a wedding, but the
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: plane gets into trouble and it crashes and it just
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: kills everyone on board. Now I do go into this
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: a little bit more in the Prince Philip episode, so
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: if you want to go back and listen there, but
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: I might discuss Cecily or her sister's in a future episode.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, this isn't about them, this is about Alice.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: So yeah, her daughter and her grandkids they're gone. And
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: so she meets members of her family for the first
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: time in years at her daughter's funeral. And it's the
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: first time her and Prince Andrew I've seen each other,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: just in for yonks like, it's the first time she
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: sees Philip in so long, like her youngest. Like that's
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: a big deal for her, and this tragedy it makes
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: her reconnect with her family. She starts communicating with them again.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: And she ends up moving back to Athens in it
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: like two bedroom like apartment, and she's there and she's settled,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and she wants her son Philip to return there and
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: live there with her, but the mount Barons, they think
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: it's best that he stays in the UK, join the
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Navy and give himself a career, an option, a leg up.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: So Princess Alice of Battenberg, she's staying in Athens along
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: with her sister in law, Princess Nicholas of Grace. Like
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: they're not living together, they're just both happen to be there,
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: the two of them there in Athens, and the majority
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: of the Greek royal family. They're in like South Africa,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: just like exiled away, not duchy and notucchy, and it's
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: where they are when World War two breaks out. And
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice she's already been there. She's been working with
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: the poor. Now she does move out of her like
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: little like flat by the museum, and she ends up
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: moving into a three story house owned by I think
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: it's her brother in law, George. So she moves in
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: there and she starts working with the Red Cross bits
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: on the ground, organizing soup kitchens. But wait, there's more.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: So because her sister is the Queen of Sweden, and
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: because you know, and her sister in law is in Greece,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: she has a perfectly viable and reasonable reason to travel,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: and so that's what she does. She goes to Sweden,
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: collects supplies and food and all this other stuff, brings
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: it back to Greece and just keeps doing this back
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: and forth. And Princess Alice isn't really bothered too much,
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: mainly because of the fact it's assumed that she's pro German,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: so it's really funny for her. So she's got one
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: son who is fighting for the Allies, and then she
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: has was it two son in law, three three sudden
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: laws who are like German princes and who did Nazis
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: They end up being Nazis, So yeah, bitweelds. But it
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: also gives her this sort of element of power. So
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: the Axis forces they have been in Athens since nineteen
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: forty one, and when Mussolini falls in forty three, that's
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: when German troops really just come in and seize control.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: So at one point, this is really funny. I love
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: this fucking story. At one point, this German general comes
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: up to her because he assumes that she's on their side,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: because you know, like one sudden laws in the waffen Ss,
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: like you know what I mean? And he's like you, yeah,
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: what is there anything anything I can do for you?
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: And she's like, she's a chainsmoker. So I like the
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: idea of her just like watching this man in just
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: taking this long puff of a cigarette, like you can
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: take your tropes out of my country. I also like
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: to imagine that she blows smoke directly into his face
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: and then puts the cigarette ash out on his shoulder,
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: like tap tap onto his shoes, like I just yeah,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: I'd like to imagine it that way, like she did say,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: like you can take your trips out of my country.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: I just love that sidebar. If I'm ever gonna be
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: haunted by a royal ghost, I want it to be
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice because one she's a badass and two she
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: makes exceedingly good cakes. I'm kidding. I'm sorry. I couldn't
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: help myself with that one. No, because like I just
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: want a chain smoking like Canastas, playing like non nurse
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: princess to just be really sarcastic. Just ah, what's that.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: It's the smell of a marble light. Princess Alice's here,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: She's going to judge you. So in nineteen forty three,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: the Nazis they're just occupying Athens at this point, and
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: previous to this there was like sixty thousand Greek Jews
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: sort of like in refuge there, and the majority of them,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: I think all but two thousand, so like fifty eight
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: thousand give or take, are murdered by Nazis. They're sent
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: to concentration camps and they're murdered. And during this time,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: a widow, Sophie Cohen, is in Athens with two of
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: her five children and Princess Alice, her maid actually sees
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: Rachel like walking in the street. They were looking for her.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: They knew she was in Athens, but they didn't know where.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: So when her maid says her, she's like, we were
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: looking for you, Come the fuck with us. And so
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice actively chose to hide three Jewish people in
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: her house, so Rachel and two of our kids, and
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: she keeps them there until, you know, at the end
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: of the war. And like it's actually really funny. So
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: when she's being like pressed by you know, Nazis, they're
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: coming in, they're trying to interrogate her and threaten her
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: and stuff and so on and so forth, and she's
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: she's deaf, like she's hard of hearing, and people know
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: that she's deaf and heard of hearing, but she just
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: like really plays up. I love. I love it's the
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: thing that older people do. It's like it's like they
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: really lean into it. They're like, I'm sorry, what, oh,
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: I can't hear you because I don't want to. And
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I love that. I love that. It's like out of
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: right a hearing heid. And she would just like turn
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: it off when she didn't want to listen to people,
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: what's my favorite thing. I was like, ah, like I understand,
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: you know, having to have a hearing aid is you know,
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's good because you can hear, but it's
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: bad because you know you need a hearing aid. But
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: to be able to just like sweach off and not
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: have to listen to people just seems like a really
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: cool thing, just and off. But anyway, and digressing. When
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Athens is liberated in nineteen forty four, it is discovered
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: that Princess Alice has not been loving in the best
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: of conditions, Like she's been eating like leave it, bread
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: and butter, but she hasn't eaten any meat in months.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Like she's like she's taken care of others before she
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: takes care of herself, and she is living in difficult,
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: difficult conditions. And it's not long after this that Prince Andrew,
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: her husband, passes away. Now I've seen like discussions of
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: reconciliation and reconnection like post war, like it's the kind
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: of thing that happens when you have struggled, Like you
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: try and reconnect with people in your life that you've lost,
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: but they weren't really like together anymore, and they were
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: estranged and I think if they reconnected, it was be
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: more of a cathartic like platonic situation as opposed to,
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: you know, a reconnection of a great romantic love story,
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: you know. But that's just my opinion. But yeah, World
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: War two has ended and things haven't improved much in
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Athens for Princess Alice, because there's a wee bit of
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: gorilla warfare going on between communists and British forces because
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: they're trying to take control of Athens, and there's a
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: curfew in Playace basically tell people like stay inside, don't
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: go out, do this, you know, and Princess Alice says,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: fuck this for a game of soldiers. And what does
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: she do. She breaks curfew, She defies British forces and
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: she goes out and she hands rations and food and
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: other supplies to police officers, children, just anybody who needs it.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: And so, like she gets asked if she's worried about
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: being hit by astray bullet, and again I like to
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: imagine she's taking a smoke if she does this, like
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: dressed in her kind of nonish clothes, because like she's
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: trying to like re establish the order of like nurse
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: nuns that her murdered aunt was planning on doing. So
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: she's really kind of like feeling this. So I like
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: to imagine she's there with a wee wimple on and
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: she's taking a smoke because direct quote, I must add,
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: a fucking love her so much. They tell me that
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: you don't hear this shot that kills you. And in
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: any case, I am so I worry about that. She's
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: a fucking queen of lover so much. But yeah, so
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: she's out just doing her thing. And she actually returns
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: to the UK for the first time in a damn
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: age to attend the wedding of her only son, Prince Philip.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: So she actually heads to the UK in April and
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: stays there all the way till November. And see, although
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice didn't have much in the way of belongings,
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: she had kept a hold of some of her jewels
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: were then set in a ring for Princess Elizabeth or
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Queen Elizabeth as she would become. So like through all
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: of this she had saved these and then she had
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: gifted them to her daughter in law. Like that means something,
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: don't tell that doesn't mean something. So like she's at
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: the wedding, and I think she's like the main person
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: on Philip's side, and then on the other side you've
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: got like the king and Queen and you know Margaret,
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: who's probably just taken away shot of whiskey from the side.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: And none of Philip's sisters are invited because there's such
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: an anti German sentiment. They're like, ah, no, you're Nazis,
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: You're not coming. It's just not an option. But after this,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: she heads back to Athens. So in nineteen forty nine
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: she tries to establish this order of Greek Orthodox nuns.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: So they're like a nursing order of nuns, non nurses,
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: nursing nuns say that five times fast. So it's the
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, and it's basically you know,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: like it's based off the idea of her aunt. So like,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: she establishes the order in Athens and decides she needs
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: to raise funds, so she travels to the US. She
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: does two tours, like in nineteen fifty and nineteen fifty
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: two to try and raise money for this order. Her mom,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: like Princess Victoria, like her mom is just like baffled
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: by this, and she's like what the actual fucking bullshit
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: is this nonsense? Like you're a nun who smokes and
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: plays Canasta, like, as far as I know, was like
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: a term of a type of like gin rummy, like
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: it's a card game. Oh look, it's Princess Alice of Badassenburg,
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: the card playing, chain smoking, nursing. None. It just sounds
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: like someone just like threw a bunch of random attributes
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: together for like dandy, it's a nurse who's also a
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: nun and uh under, oh wait, chain smoking okay, and
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: it loves playing cards. Great, good good deck guys. Good job.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: But in nineteen fifty two, his daughter in law, Elizabeth
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: becomes Queen of England. And in nineteen fifty three there's
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: a coronation which Princess Alice attends. Like it's really funny
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: for of the photos because like she's there and everyone
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: else is in like regalia and there she is in
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: like this grade dress and we have it looks like
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: a whimple, Like it's it's so funny. It's like it's
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: such a juxtaposition. It's wild. But as pair she shows
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: up now unfortunately for Alice, her order, her Greek Orthodox order.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: It's kind of more adjacent Greek Orthodox than being all
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: of it, because the order fails because she doesn't get
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: enough applicants, like she doesn't get enough nursing nuns, and
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: so that just kind of like fades away. So she's
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: kind of doing her thing anyway, but just not officially.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: So Alice being surprisingly enough incredibly spiritual, like, she ends
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: up making a connection with Raskuemar a weak core because
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: he's impressed of princesses Alice's like understanding and interest in
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Indian religious well like considerations, and so he invites her
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: to India, and so she goes because well she's interested.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: So when she goes there, she ends up doing like
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: a short tour, but she's not well, Like she just
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: becomes unwell and she has to like leave, and her
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: sister in law, who like just happens to be there,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: she's just in there and by the time and so
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: she you know basically takes over the tour and kind
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: of has to put this like takes her place because
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: like they don't want offend like all of these sort
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: of like people who had invited her over, like they
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: don't want to cause offense and insult, and they have
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: to do the sort of royal diplomacy. So the sister
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: in law when she's out doing this for Alice, like
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: she dies a month later, like she does the way
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: too and then gone. Now after this, Princess Alice is
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: back in Greece just doing her thing, helping the power.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Just she's in this I don't want to say house,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: but kind of house, and the ceiling is leaking. It's
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: not the most structurally sound of buildings. And she's not
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: doing great, like her health is getting worse. She's getting
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: more and more deaf, like everything is deteriorating, which gets
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: worse you know when Yeah, another dangerous thing happens in Greece.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: So the Colonel's coup of sixty seven, right, it makes
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: royal family like genuinely worry for like Princess Alice. So
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: they extend an official invitation, and by official invitation they
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: make her go. Effectively, there's an invitation. None, no, you're going,
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: like she's gone. So she is invited back to Buckingham Palace,
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: which you know, ultimately is better than being excelled. Because
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: King Constantine the second that he was in and he
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: tried to do like a counter coup and then him
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: and his wife get excelled. It's again, it's a whole thing.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: But Princess Alice of Battenberg, she's in Buckingham Palace, she's
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: in London, and that's where she stays for the next
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: two years. And then on the fifth of December nineteen
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: sixty nine, at the age of eighty four years old,
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice of Denmark passes away. Now there's there's you know,
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: kind of rumors that would go around saying that she
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: was going seeniw but she was just physically frail, like
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: she was old, and she had gone through a lot
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: and one the act by going through the menopause early,
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: it can increase risks of things like osteoporosis. So again
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: they radiated her and just fucked up her body even worse.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, but yeah, she was lucid like she
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: was with it. She just her body was weakening, like
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: that's it. And so when she passes away, she is
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: initially interred in the Royal Equipped at Saint George's Chapel
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: in Winsor Castle. But here's the thing. Before she passed away,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: like she like let everyone know that she wanted to
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Mandlann on
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: the Mount of all of Us in Jerusalem, because she
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: wanted to be buried near her aunt, and so she
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: told her family this, She let them know her wishes,
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: and Princess Sophie was like, it's too far to travel
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: to visit you. And again, oh God, Princess Alice, I
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: assume yet again taking a chalk Just it's like nonsense.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: There's a pepally good bus service putting the ash out
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: on her, just like on your shoulds. But no, So
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine Saint George's Chapel and Windsor, which is
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: kind of weird because she was born in Windsor Castle
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: and she's interred there. It's just like a full circle.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: But yeah, in nineteen eighty eight they decide that they're
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: going to honor her wishes and they transfer her remains
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: to the crypt beneath Saint Mary Magdalene Church. So finally, posthumously,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: Princess Alice receives two honors, one from Israel at the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: Yadfisham in Jerusalem. There's this ceremony honoring her as righteous
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: among the nations, because you know, she put herself at
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: great risk sheltering Jewish people from Nazis and then like
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: just over a decade ago, she is honored as a
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: hero of the Holocaust by the British government. But like,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: there were so few books about Princess Alice that are
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: written in English, So I really need to get some
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: more translations because I feel like there's more information out there.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: I just haven't been able to get it because I
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: don't I don't know, read Greek or whatever. But she's
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: so fascinating and so interesting, and I feel there's so
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: much more there. Not that she didn't do a funck tone,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: she absolutely did, but I just think we need to
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: know more about her because like her information, her story
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: is barely out there, and I think she really did
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: something with her life, and I think we deserve to
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: talk about her and to know about her more. Fuck
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: Henry eighth, She's more interested something. So if you liked
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: my retelling of the story of Princess Alice of bad Assenberg,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: I can't help myself. She's just too cool. Feel free
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: to write interview five stars, say nice things, say mediocre things.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: Just give five stars, and you know, put some positivity
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: in your life, Like just be positive about something to somebody,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Like I'm aggressively positive, but that's a completely different thing entirely.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: But don't forget. You can follow me on all of
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: the social medias. I am on x, I guess Twitter,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: ex twitter x, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, so on and
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: so forth. I don't have threads yet because it's not
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: legal in my country, but I am waiting, and I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: have a Patreon and a tip jar. If you want
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: to help support, if you just share stuff even on
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: social media, like that makes all the difference. And also
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: if you like share the podcast amongst your friends, that
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: would be totally cool to you. Guys are the best.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: I'm doing a lot of like elongated noises today and
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: I have no idea why. I do know why. Actually
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: it's because my wee girl is an arsol and she
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: does it all the time, and now I'm copying her.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: But recommendation time, recommendation time. So for watching, I'm gonna
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: recommend only Murders in the Building because I love a
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: cozy mystery, and also Selena Gomez because she's so cool,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: and Martin Short is just fucking awesome. Steve Martin's fine, fine,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: everyone with Martin. Somebody's gonna tell him. I diad this,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: but it's fine. It's fine, he'll get over it, so
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: biit wise, I am going to recommend profit By, said
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: Blushe and Helen McDonald and for lessening. Did I recommend
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: the murder Most Irish podcast last time? I don't know
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: if I did. But if I didn't, or even if
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: I did, go listen to them. They are victim first,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: they are fabulous, They're awesome, so go listen to them.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: And yeah, with that, I am going to say good evening,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: and I shall bid you farewell adios or revoir of
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: it is in my friends. Ah bye bye