Who married Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom?

Princess Beatrice (Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore; 14 April 1857 – 26 October 1944), later known as Princess Henry of Battenberg, was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was also the last surviving child of Queen Victoria, dying nearly 66 years after the first to die, her elder sister Princess Alice.

Beatrice's childhood was shaped by her mother's grief following the death of Prince Albert on 14 December 1861. As her elder sisters married and left the royal household, the Queen became increasingly dependent on the companionship of her youngest daughter, whom she affectionately called "Baby" well into adulthood. Beatrice was raised with the expectation that she would remain constantly at her mother's side, a role she gradually accepted as her duty.

Queen Victoria was opposed to Beatrice's marriage and initially refused even to discuss the prospect. Nevertheless, several potential suitors were considered, including Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial, the only son of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III of France, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, the widower of Beatrice's elder sister Alice. Beatrice was particularly drawn to the Prince Imperial, and a possible engagement was widely discussed, but his death during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879 brought an end to those plans. Beatrice eventually fell in love with Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia von Hauke, and the brother-in-law of her niece Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. After a year of sustained persuasion, Queen Victoria—whose approval was required under the Royal Marriages Act 1772—reluctantly consented to the union. The marriage took place on 23 July 1885 at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, on the strict condition that the couple reside with the Queen and that Beatrice continue to serve as her mother's unofficial secretary.

Henry and Beatrice had four children. However, their marriage was cut short when he died of malaria on 20 January 1896 on active service during the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War. Beatrice thereafter remained devoted to her mother, staying at her side until her death on 22 January 1901. In the decades that followed, Beatrice devoted herself to editing and preserving her mother's journals as the Queen's appointed literary executor, a task that occupied much of the final 30 years of her life. She continued to undertake public duties and make official appearances. Beatrice died in 1944 at the age of 87.

Henri Maurice de Battenberg (en allemand : Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg et en anglais : Prince Henry of Battenberg), prince de Battenberg, est né le 5 octobre 1858 à Milan, dans le royaume lombardo-vénitien, et mort le 20 janvier 1896 sur le HMS Blonde, près des côtes de Sierra Leone. Issu d'une branche morganatique de la maison de Hesse, c'est un militaire germano-anglais. Il est également gouverneur de l'île de Wight de 1889 à 1896