Book description
Princess Victoria Melita played a colourful role from her birth in
1876. The second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, she made a
brief and unhappy marriage at the age of 17 to her cousin, Ernest,
Grand Duke of Hesse. In the face of strong opposition from her family
she divorced him seven years later and married another cousin, Grand
Duke Cyril of Russia, resulting in three years of exile. When
revolution toppled the empire in 1917, the Grand Duke and Duchess and
their children escaped to Finland, living in danger for three long
years. Following the atrocities of the Bolsheviks at the time,
including the murder of most of the Romanov family, the Grand Duke
believed he was the senior surviving member of the imperial house, and
proclaimed himself Tsar. However, they were never able to return to
their homeland, and the Grand Duchess died in exile in 1936. Using
previously unpublished correspondence from the Royal Archives and
Astor papers, this is a portrait of the Princess, set against the
imperial courst of the turn of the 20th century and inter-war Europe.
