The Tragedy of Hesse

[LouisFerdinand]

The Hessian Royalty seemed to suffer one tragedy after another. Was there a Curse of Hesse?   
 

:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :gotchya: :gotchya: :gotchya: :random38: :random38: :random38:

[Curryong]

There was supposed to have been some gypsy curse put on the family centuries ago, and when you examine the history, especially from the time princess Alice married Louis to the terrible air crash in the 1930s, you do have to wonder.

[LouisFerdinand]

In 1886 Alexander of Hesse (Battenberg), who had reigned as the sovereign Prince of Bulgaria since 1879, was forced off the throne.         
In 1873 Prince Friedrich of Hesse fell from the balcony of a palace window. He bled to death.

[Curryong]

Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, believed herself to be the bearer of bad luck to things she was associated with, however. She was deeply upset when the SS 'Princess Alice', (a ship named in her honour in 1865) a steam paddle steamer plying the Thames collided in September 1878 with a coal collier on the river. It was full of passengers out for a day up the Thames and over 650 people lost their lives. This remains the greatest loss of life of any inland water shipping disaster on an inland waterway. This happened only a couple of months before Alice herself and her daughter Marie (May) died when typhoid attacked her husband and children in November 1878. 

[LouisFerdinand]

In 1896 Prince Henry of Battenberg, the spouse of Princess Beatrice of England, died after contracting malaria during the Ashanti War in Africa.