page_title: Princess Helena of the United Kingdom
section_title: Married life
hierarchical_section_title: Princess Helena of the United Kingdom / Marriage / Married life
caption_attribution_description: English: Princess Helena in her wedding dress, 1866
context_page_description: Princess Helena of the United Kingdom VA CI GCVO GBE RRC was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
  Helena was educated by private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. Her childhood was spent with her parents, travelling between a variety of royal residences in Britain. The intimate atmosphere of the royal court came to an end on 14 December 1861, when her father died and her mother entered a period of intense mourning. Afterwards, in the early 1860s, Helena began a flirtation with Prince Albert's German librarian, Carl Ruland. Although the nature of the relationship is largely unknown, Helena's romantic letters to Ruland survive. After the Queen found out in 1863, she dismissed Ruland, who returned to his native Germany. Three years later, on 5 July 1866, Helena married the impoverished Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. The couple remained in Britain, in calling distance of the Queen, who liked to have her daughters nearby. Helena, along with her youngest sister, Princess Beatrice, became the Queen's unofficial secretary.
context_section_description: Helena and Christian were devoted to each other, and led a quiet life in comparison to Helena's sisters. Following their marriage, they took up residence at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the traditional residence of the Ranger of Windsor Great Park, the honorary position bestowed on Christian by the Queen. When staying in London, they lived at the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace. The couple had six children: Christian Victor in 1867, Albert in 1869, and Helena Victoria and Marie Louise in 1870 and 1872 respectively. Their last two sons died early; Harald died eight days after his birth in 1876, and an unnamed son was stillborn in 1877. Princess Louise, Helena's sister, commissioned the French sculptor Jules Dalou to sculpt a memorial to Helena's dead infants.
  The Christians were granted a parliamentary annuity of £6,000 a year, which the Queen requested in person. In addition, a dowry of £30,000 was settled upon, and the Queen gave the couple £100,000, which yielded an income of about £4,000 a year. As well as that of Ranger of Windsor Park, Christian was given the honorary position of High Steward of Windsor, and was made a Royal Commissioner for the Great Exhibition of 1851. However, he was often an absentee figurehead at the meetings, instead passing his time playing with his dog Corrie, feeding his numerous pigeons, and embarking on hunting excursions.
  Helena, as promised, lived close to the Queen, and both she and Beatrice performed duties for her. Beatrice, whom Victoria had groomed for the main role at her side, carried out the more important duties, and Helena took on the more minor matters that Beatrice did not have time to do. In later years, Helena was assisted by her unmarried daughter, Helena Victoria, to whom the Queen dictated her journal in the last months of her life.
  Helena's health was not robust, and she was addicted to the drugs opium and laudanum. However, the Queen did not believe that Helena was really ill, accusing her of hypochondria encouraged by an indulgent husband. Queen Victoria wrote to her daughter the Crown Princess of Prussia, complaining that Helena was inclined to "coddle herself (and Christian too) and to give way in everything that the great object of her doctors and nurse is to rouse her and make her think less of herself and of her confinement". Not all of her health scares were brought on by hypochondria; in 1869, she had to cancel her trip to Balmoral Castle when she became ill at the railway station. In 1870, she was suffering from severe rheumatism and problems with her joints. In July 1871, she suffered from congestion in her lungs, an illness severe enough to appear in the Court Circular, which announced that her illness caused "much anxiety to members of the royal family". In 1873, she was forced to recuperate in France as a result of illness, and in the 1880s she travelled to Germany to see an oculist.
caption: Princess Helena in her wedding dress, 5 July 1866.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:27 11:41:00"}