Who are the people in this photo?

The photo was taken on 21st April 1894 in Coburg. They were guests at the wedding between Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha which had taken place two days before on 19th April 1894. The bride and bridegroom are not on the photo – directly after the wedding ceremony they had travelled to Darmstadt where they spent their wedding night in the Kranichstein Hunting Lodge.

The people are

  1. Emperor William II, son of (3), grandson of (2) and brother of (15).
  2. Queen Victoria.
  3. The Dowager Empress Victoria of Prussia, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. For just 99 days she was the Empress of Germany in the “Three-Emperors-year” of 1888. She is the daughter of (2) and mother of (1).
  4. The 10-year-old Princess Beatrice (called “Bee”) of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, sister of (6), (14), (36) and of the bride Victoria Melita and daughter of (30) and (13).
  5. The 15-year-old Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen, great-granddaughter of (2), granddaughter of (3), daughter of (15) and niece of (1). She suffered from a hereditary metabolic disorder, spent most of her life in sanatoriums and committed suicide in 1945.
  6. The hereditary prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, grandson of (2), son of (30) and (13), brother of (4), (14), (36) and of the bride Victoria Melita. He was born and brought up in England, but had to move to Germany to prepare for his position as a hereditary German prince. As a member of a Prussian military unit he associated with bad company and died in 1899 under mysterious circumstances, probably suicide after an unhappy love affair.
  7. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, grandson of (2), brother of (30), from 1901, after the death of his mother, King Edward VII of England.
  8. Tsarevitch Nicholas, later Tsar Nicholas II. After the wedding ceremony he had announced his engagement to (9). He was murdered with his family in 1918 after the Russian Revolution.
  9. Princess Alix (“Alicky”) of Hesse and by Rhine, sister of (10), (11), (28), and of the bridegroom Ernst Ludwig. As Tsarina Alexandra she succumbed to the influence of the faith healer Rasputin, and in 1918 after the Russian Revolution she was murdered together with her husband and her five children.
  10. Victoria of Battenberg, a princess of Hessen and by Rhine, born in Darmstadt, wife of (21), granddaughter of (2), sister of (9), (11), (28) and of the bridegroom Ernst Ludwig. The present Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is her grandson.
  11. Princess Irene of Prussia, born in Darmstadt as a Princess of Hesse and by Rhein, granddaughter of (2), sister of (9), (10), (28) and of the bridegroom Ernst Ludwig.
  12. Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, born as Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and wife of (29).
  13. Grand Duchess Marie of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, born as Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Alexander II, wife of (30), sister of (22), (25) and (29), and mother of (4), (6), (14), (26) and of the bride Victoria Melita.
  14. Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, daughter of (13) and (30), sister of (4), (6), (13), (26) and of the bride Victoria Melita.
  15. Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, born as Princess of Prussia, granddaughter of (2), daughter of (3), sister of (1) and mother of (5).
  16. Duchess Louise Margaret of Connaught, born as Princess of Prussia, wife of (17).
  17. Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of (2), brother of (7) and (30), husband of (16).
  18. Princess Beatrice of Battenberg, youngest child of (2), wife of (19).
  19. Prince Henry (called “Liko”) of Battenberg, husband of (18), brother of (21).
  20. Princess Louise Marie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry, born as Princess of Belgium and wife of (23). Her grandfather Leopold I was the first King of Belgium and uncle of (2).
  21. Prince Louis of Battenberg, a Darmstadt-born Admiral of the British Navy, husband of (19) and brother of (19).
  22. Grand Duke Paul of Russia, brother of Tsar Alexander II and uncle of (13).
  23. Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry, husband of (20).
  24. Duke Alphonse of Mensdorff-Pouilly, a cousin of (2)
  25. Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich of Russia, brother of (13) and (29), husband of (28) and Governor of Moscow. He was killed in a bomb attack in Moscow in 1905.
  26. Princess Marie of Romania, born in England as Princess of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, wife of (27), daughter of (13) and (30) and sister of (4), (6), (14) and of the bride Victoria Melita.
  27. The hereditary Prince Ferdinand of Romania, from 1914 King of Romania, husband of (26).
  28. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, a Darmstadt-born Princess Elizabeth (“Ella”) of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of (25), granddaughter of (2) and sister of (9), (10), (11) and of the bridgegroom Ernst Ludwig. After the violent death of her husband (25) in 1905 she sold all her belongings and founded a religious order of nuns in Russia. She was murdered in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, and to this day she is venerated by the Russian-Orthodox Church as martyr and saint.
  29. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovitch, husband of (12) and brother of (13), (22) and (25). The marriage between Victoria Melita and Ernst Ludwig was short-lived and they were divorced in 1901. In 1905 Victoria Melita married the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, the son of this Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.
  30. Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, son of (2), husband of (13) and father of (4), (6), (14), (27) and of the bride Victoria Melita.

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