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From: "D. Spencer Hines" <>
Subject: Re: QUEEN VICTORIA'S GENE (Was: George Rex)
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 15:37:36 -1000


DEATH OF "FRITTIE" ----- AGE 2

One of the sadder stories of the cruel fates suffered by Queen
Victoria's hemophiliac offspring is that of three-year-old "Frittie."

"Frittie" was Prince Friedrich Wilhelm August Viktor Leopold Ludwig of
Hesse and by Rhine, the older brother of Alexandra [Alix] who married
Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia. It is certainly a long name for such a
small boy. "Frittie" was born 7 Oct 1870 at Darmstadt.

Like most two-year-olds, [he was just over four months shy of his third
birthday] "Frittie" was rambunctious, ebullient and had a high "cuteness
quotient." He was the fifth child of Princess Alice Maud Mary of Great
Britain and Ireland [1843-1878] [Queen Victoria's daughter] and Ludwig
IV Karl, [1837-1892] Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

Just a few months before, "Frittie" bled for three days from a cut on
his ear. On the morning of 29 May 1873, a Thursday, young "Frittie" and
his older brother Ernst, who was 4 1/2, burst into their Mother's room
in a playful and affectionate mood. Princess Alice was still in bed.
The large, European style windows, which reached to the floor, were open
and "Frittie" ---- in his haste and eagerness ---- tumbled through one
--- and fell to the stone terrace, 20 feet below.

At first, "Frittie" seemed relatively unhurt. He had not broken any
bones and seemed only shaken up and bruised. But "Frittie" had cerebral
hemorrhaging --- bleeding in the brain ---- and by nightfall he was
dead.

His Grandmother Queen Victoria's poisoned gene had claimed its first
victim.

May "Frittie" Rest in Peace.

Sources:

"Nicholas and Alexandra, an Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs
and the Fall of Imperial Russia"; Robert K. Massie [Rhodes Scholar];
Atheneum [1967]; p. 142

"Queen Victoria's Descendants"; Marlene A. Eilers; GPC; [1987]; p. 186

Corrections and Additions are Welcome
--

D. Spencer Hines --- "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tuo da
gloriam, propter misericordiam Tuam et veritatem Tuam." Henry V,
[1387-1422] King of England --- Ordered it to be sung by his prelates
and chaplains---after the Battle of Agincourt, 25 Oct 1415, --- while
every able-bodied man in his victorious army knelt, on the ground.
[Psalm CXV, Verse I]

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