
The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse
The curious destinies of Queen Victoria's granddaughters
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Narrated by:
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Jilly Bond
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By:
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Frances Welch
About this listen
Named one of The Telegraph's 'Best Biographies of the Year 2024'
Queen Victoria had forty-two grandchildren but the four Princesses of Hesse were held in her particular favour. After the sudden death of her daughter Alice, Queen Victoria took an obsessive interest in the marriage prospects of the four girls their mother had left behind, hoping this might secure for them a happy future. And each of the young women did indeed marry into a European dynasty: the Romanovs and the Hohenzollerns of Germany. However no one could have foreseen how the maelstrom of the twentieth century would bring tragedy and heartache to each one of them in turn.
Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen letters from the sisters as well as from their grandmother Queen Victoria, The Princesses of Hesse takes us on a sweeping journey across the tumultuous landscape of the turn of the century - from the dramas of the Russian Court to the Russian Revolution, and through both World Wars in which the sisters often found themselves on opposing sides.
Both intimate and epic in scope, Frances Welch's biography sheds new light on the four sisters' lives, illuminating a remarkable period of history in the process.
'full of passions, royal peculiarities and misspelt letters...compellingly told' Christopher Howse, The Daily Telegraph
'Welch does a wonderful job of marshalling the different strands of this story, drawing on the sisters' chatty, gossipy correspondence, some of which has never been published. It grips you until the very last page' The Mail on Sunday
'Frances Welch's elegant and intimate group biography returns us to the start of the 20th century, when Queen Victoria's favourite grand-daughters were scattered between Germany, England and Russia' Frances Wilson, The Daily Telegraph
'eye-opening' and 'harrowing' The Daily Mail
'Welch brings the four princesses vividly to life' and 'will delight those who enjoy reading about the lives of royals' The Times
'brings them vividly to life...a tonic...a gripping read' Hugo Vickers, The Oldie
'Frances Welch has a gift for bringing royal figures to life, making us care about them and showing us how their stories interweave...this is both a deeply affecting story of four sisters and an informative bit of history' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Spectator
'splendid', 'a fascinating family portrait', 'Welch creates a tenderly intimate portrait of the last, doomed Tsarina and her three German-born sisters' Miranda Seymour, Literary Review©2024 Frances Welch (P)2024 Octopus Publishing Group
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Story
Perhaps one of the best known of the English monarchs, Queen Victoria forever shaped a chapter of English history, bequeathing her name to the Victorian age. In Queen Victoria, Lucy Worsley introduces this iconic woman in a new light. Going beyond an exploration of the queen merely as a monarch, Worsley considers Victoria as a woman leading a truly extraordinary life in a unique time period.
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Gloriana!
- By Karen on 01-21-19
By: Lucy Worsley
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The Sphinx
- The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough
- By: Hugo Vickers
- Narrated by: Hugo Vickers
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled as much as she puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, she suffered a traumatic childhood after her father shot her mother's lover dead. Educated in America, she returned to Europe, where she captivated and inspired some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Époque.
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Lovely and compelling.
- By Gudrun D Whitehead on 03-25-20
By: Hugo Vickers
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The Last Days of the Romanovs
- Tragedy at Ekaterinburg
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Helen Rappaport, an expert in the field of Russian history, brings you the riveting day-by-day account of the last 14 days of the Russian Imperial family, in this first of two books about the Romanovs. The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.
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GREAT
- By courtney on 08-31-17
By: Helen Rappaport
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The Tragic Empress
- The Authorized Biography of Alexandra Romanov
- By: Sophie Buxhoeveden
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Empress Alexandra Romanov – the last empress of Russia, wife of Tsar Nicholas II, and now a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church – chose Countess Sophie Buxhoeveden, one of her ladies-in-waiting, to be her authorized biographer, opening up to her about her closest relationships and giving her access to copies of her private correspondence. Additionally, as a lady-in-waiting, Countess Buxhoeveden attended on the Empress for much of the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, only leaving her side when the Imperial Family was removed to Tobolsk after the Tsar’s abdication in 1917. Thereafter, she ...
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Learn from history…
- By Aytuna Tosunoglu on 05-19-25
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The Rebel Romanov
- Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip—not to mention her brute of a husband. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so.
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Another poor royal sacrificed by her money hungry parents all for the sake of keeping up with the status quo.
- By Kim on 05-22-25
By: Helen Rappaport
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The Quest for Queen Mary
- By: James Pope-Hennessy, Hugo Vickers - editor
- Narrated by: Tim Bentinck, Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The highly acclaimed unexpurgated notes taken by James Pope-Hennessy for his official biography of Queen Mary, the present Queen's grandmother. Published in full for the first time and edited by much-admired royal biographer Hugo Vickers. When James Pope-Hennessy began his work on Queen Mary's official biography, it opened the door to meetings with royalty, court members and retainers around Europe. The series of candid observations, secrets and indiscretions contained in his notes were to be kept private for 50 years....
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obscure but poor gold
- By Dr. A. on 11-20-18
By: James Pope-Hennessy, and others
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Once a Grand Duchess
- Xenia, Sister of Nicolas II
- By: John Van der Kiste, Coryne Hall
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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This biography of Xenia, sister of Nicholas II gives a new angle on the Romanov story and provides new information on relationships within the family after the Revolution.
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Interesting read
- By teri on 05-15-25
By: John Van der Kiste, and others
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The Last Tsar
- The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs
- By: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest. Though Nicholas’s life is often described as tragic, it was not fate that doomed the Romanovs—it was poor leadership and a blinkered faith in autocracy. Based on a trove of new archival discoveries, The Last Tsar narrates how Nicholas’s resistance to reform doomed the monarchy.
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A deep dive into Russian history with limited appeal to most listeners
- By Dan M on 05-17-25
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George VI and Elizabeth
- The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy
- By: Sally Bedell Smith
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A revelatory account of how the loving marriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth saved the monarchy during World War II, and how they raised their daughter to become Queen Elizabeth II, based on exclusive access to the Royal Archives—from the bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen and Prince Charles.
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Great telling of their lives
- By Nancy on 04-15-23
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The Scapegoat
- The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
- By: Lucy Hughes-Hallett
- Narrated by: Lucy Hughes-Hallett
- Length: 25 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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As King James I’s favorite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, advisor and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and mentor. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. He became one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic Englishmen at the heart of seventeenth-century royal and political life.
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Perfect
- By Greg Murphy on 03-13-25
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Daughters of the Winter Queen
- Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Laura Kirman
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Elizabeth Stuart was thrust into a life of wealth and splendor when her godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, died and her father, James I, ascended to the illustrious throne of England. At 16 she was married to a dashing German count far below her rank, with the understanding that James would help her husband achieve the crown of Bohemia. Her father's terrible betrayal of this promise would ruin "the Winter Queen", as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for 30 years.
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Misnamed but Wonderful
- By Anonymous User on 05-16-18
By: Nancy Goldstone
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Princess Mary
- The First Modern Princess
- By: Elisabeth Basford, Hugo Vickers - foreword
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Princess Diana is seen as the first member of the British royal family to tear up the rulebook, and the duchess of Cambridge is modernizing the monarchy in strides. But before them was another who paved the way: Princess Mary.
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So many things I didn't know
- By Etoile NEOhio on 01-28-22
By: Elisabeth Basford, and others
Fascinating
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