Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark

Infobox Greek Royalty
name = Princess Cecilie
title = Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse
styles ="HRH" The Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse
"HRH" Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark


caption = Princess Cecilie with her children Princes Alexander and Ludwig and Princess Johanna.
imgw = 200px
royal house = House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
House of Hesse-Darmstadt
date of birth = birth date|1911|6|22
place of birth = Tatoi Palace, Tatoi, Greece
date of death = death date and age|1937|11|16|1911|6|22 [http://worldroots.com/brigitte/famous/v/victoriadescendants3.htm Worldroots.com ] ]
place of death = Ostend, Belgium
father = Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
mother = Princess Alice of Battenberg
spouse = Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse
issue = Prince Ludwig
Prince Alexander
Princess Johanna
Stillborn son

Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (June 22 1911 - November 16 1937) was the wife of Hereditary Grand Duke George Donatus of Hesse and the sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Birth and ancestry

Cecilie was the third child and daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. She was born on 22 June 1911 at the summer estate of the Greek Royal Family at Tatoi, fifteen kilometres north of Athens. Although her given name was indeed Cecilie, she was known to her family as Cécile.

Cecilie was baptised at Tatoi on 2 July 1911. Her godparents were King George V of the United Kingdom, Grand Duke Ernst Louis of Hesse, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Duchess Vera of Württemberg.

Through her father Cecilie was a grandchild of King George I of Greece and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinova of Russia (a granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia). Through her mother she was a great-granddaughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).

Cecilie had three sisters: Margarita (wife of Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg), Theodora (wife of Berthold, Margrave of Baden) and Sophie (wife firstly of Prince Christoph of Hesse and secondly of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover). Her brother Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

In 1922 Cecilie and her sisters were bridesmaids at the wedding of their uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten (later Earl Mountbatten of Burma) to Edwina Ashley. [David Duff, "Hessian Tapestry" (London: Frederick Muller, 1967), plate facing p. 352.]

Marriage and children

On 2 February 1931 at Darmstadt Cecilie married George Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. They had four children:

On May 1 1937 Cecilie and her husband both joined the Nazi Party. [Jonathan Petropoulos, "Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 382.]

Death

In October 1937, Cecilie's father-in-law Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse died. A few weeks after the funeral, her brother-in-law Prince Ludwig was due to be married to the Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes in London.

On 16 November 1937, Georg Donatus, Cecilie, their two young sons, along with Georg's mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, left Darmstadt for London. The aeroplane hit a factory chimney near Ostend and crashed into flames, killing all those on board. Cecilie was eight months pregnant [ [http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_raymond/Greek_Royal_Family.htm#16.22a Greek Royal Family ] ] with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the remains of the fetus were found in the wreckage, indicating that Cecilie had gone into labour. [Duff, 351-352.]

Cecilie was buried with her husband, two sons and the stillborn child in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhe, the traditional burial place of the Hesse family. Cecilie's daughter Johanna was adopted by Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret; she died two years later from meningitis and is buried with her parents and siblings.

This is used in "A Matter of Honour" by Jeffrey Archer. It claims that the Grand duke was actually holding the jewels of his aunt, the last Tsaritsa of Russia, which the KGB are looking for.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

* "Her Royal Highness" Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (1911-1931)
* "Her Royal Highness" The Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (1931-1937)

Ancestors

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1= 1. Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark
2= 2. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
3= 3. Princess Alice of Battenberg
4= 4. George I of Greece
5= 5. Olga Konstantinovna of Russia
6= 6. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven
7= 7. Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
8= 8. Christian IX of Denmark
9= 9. Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
10= 10. Grand Duke Konstantine Nicholaievich of Russia
11= 11. Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg
12= 12. Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
13= 13. Julia von Hauke
14= 14. Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
15= 15. Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
16= 16. Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
17= 17. Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel
18= 18. Prince William of Hesse
19= 19. Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark
20= 20. Nicholas I of Russia
21= 21. Princess Charlotte of Prussia
22= 22. Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
23= 23. Amelia of Württemberg
24= 24. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
25= 25. Princess Wilhelmina of Baden
26= 26. Count Johann Moritz von Hauke
27= 27. Sophie de la Fontaine
28= 28. Prince Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt
29= 29. Princess Elizabeth of Prussia
30= 30. Albert, Prince Consort
31= 31. Victoria of the United Kingdom

ee also

infobox greekroyalty
royal name=Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark
dipstyle=HRH|Her Royal Highness
offstyle=Your Royal Highness
altstyle=Ma'am
*Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash

=References=