Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

Who was Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine?

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine was the third child and third daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Elizabeth of Prussia. She was the wife of Prince Albert Wilhelm Heinrich of Prussia, her first cousin. Like her sister Alix, Irene was a carrier of the haemophilia gene. Two of her three sons were haemophiliacs.

Her younger sister, Alix, became the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of their paternal second cousin Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Her younger brother, Ernst, became Grand Duke of Hesse. Her eldest sister Victoria married their father's morganatic first cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg. Another sister, Elizabeth, married their father's first cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia. The SS Prinzessin Irene, a liner of the North German Lloyd was named after her.