Princess Helen of Waldeckfyrmont

Britain's princess. He is the 5th daughter and 6th of 6 sons of Georg Victor, Marquis of Waldeckfirmont and Princess Helen of Nassau .

Born in Arolzen, the capital of the German Valdeck Permont. He was the sister of Friedrich, the last prince of Valdeck Permont.

In 1882, she married Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria 's fourth son . Before that, in 1881, Princess Helena of England visited England with her husband Christian and his nephews . At this time, there was talk about Leopold's marriage to Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein, one of Christian's nieces . However, it was canceled due to opposition from those around him due to Leopold's hemophilia.[4]

Feeling sorry for her youngest son, Queen Victoria eagerly searched for a daughter-in-law. One day, the Queen learned that she had five daughters from the Marquis of Waldeck, Marquis de Pyrmont . Among them, the above three have already been married.[5] Helene was 20 years old, and there was no marriage talk yet. Queen Victoria immediately arranged a meeting between Leopold and Helen.

Along with her second sister, Pauline, and third sister, Emma, ​​Helen was a candidate for second queen consort to her distant cousin Willem III of the Netherlands. She later met Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria's youngest son, at the suggestion of her mother Helen of Nassau, and the two became engaged in November 1881.

Leopold proposed to Helene two months after they met, and they married at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on April 27, 1882. After the wedding, she moved to Claremont House, and ten months later, on February 25, 1883, she gave birth to her eldest child, Princess Alice of Albany .

In 1884, when she had her second child, Leopold was suffering from joint pain. Doctors recommended that Leopold recuperate in warm southern France . Leopold left the pregnant Helen at home and headed to Cannes , France . While staying in Cannes, Leopold fell down the stairs, injured his knees and head, and died suddenly the next day from a cerebral hemorrhage .[6]

At the time of his death, Leopold was 30 years old and the second of Queen Victoria's children to die.[7] Helen was pregnant at the time of Leopold's death . Her child was born about four months later, Carl Eduard , her successor .

According to the memoirs of Helen's daughter, Alice, Countess of Athlone, Helen was very intelligent, had a strong sense of duty, and had a genuine love for welfare work. Queen Victoria initially worried that Helen might be a typical princess of a distant German principality, and in a letter to her eldest daughter, Princess Royal Victoria, she said that Helen 'loved to be among the people'. Queen Victoria soon came to treat Helen with great respect and affection, but was initially concerned when she heard that Helen was "intellectual."

Before her marriage, Helene's father made her superintendent of an infant school in the duchy of Waldeckfirmont, and in this position the princess designed the students' educational curriculum. Helen especially enjoyed solving math problems and reading philosophy. During their brief two-year marriage, Prince Leopold proudly introduced his wife to the academics he had befriended at Oxford University. Helen maintained this friendship for the rest of her life.

In 1894, Helene was one of the founders of the Deptford Fund, which led many projects to help Deptford's community. In 1899, Helen opened the Albany Institute. This later expanded into a community/performance center combined with a theater venue known as the Albany Empire. The Empire and Institute building, a center of anti-fascist activity and Racism Against Racism in the 1970s, was destroyed in an arson attack in 1978. The new Albany Theater was opened by Alexandra, Princess of Wales in 1982.

Helene was also involved with several hospital charities and organizations dedicated to ending human trafficking. During World War I, she, along with her sister-in-law, Princess Beatrice, Princess Heinrich of Battenberg , and her husband's niece, Princess Marie-Louise , organized many charitable activities, helping to keep the royal family's war projects from clashing (and sometimes misdirecting). ) problem was avoided.

After Leopold's death, Helene and her two children, Alice and Charles Edward, continued to reside at Claremont House. After the death of her progenitor, Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1899, Helen's 16-year-old son Charles Edward inherited the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, took on the German name Karl Eduard , and resided there. As a result, I became separated from my mother and older sister.[8]

14 years later, when World War I broke out, Karleduart found that he was fighting in the German army. As a result, Karleduart was deprived of the British title in 1917 under parliamentary laws. In contrast to this, Helena's daughter Alice remained in England and married Confucius Alexander in 1904, the younger brother of Mary Tech , Queen Tech.

Helene died of a heart attack on September 1 , 1922, while visiting her beloved son , Karl Eduard, in Hinterriss, Tyrol, Austria. Later, when World War I ended with the defeat of Germany and other allies , Karl Eduard, who joined the German Empire , was deposed from the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.[9] , through his daughter Sibylla, Duchess of Westerbotten, granddaughter of Helen.[10] Her descendants continued into the Swedish royal family, and the current King of Sweden , Carl XVI Gustaf, is Helen's maternal great-grandson. At the time of her death, her estate in Helena was valued at £177,312.[11]

Chiswick Street, Waldeck Way and Pyrmont Road, are named in her honour.