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| Princess Helena Victoria was happy with her unmarried life. |
Helena Victoria accepted her fate of single blessedness. She devoted her time looking after her brothers, her parents, her grandmother and in supporting her mother’s charitable causes.
Despite the absence of romantic pursuits, she was never stifled. In fact, her intelligence and open-mindedness gave her the freedom to become a voracious traveler, visiting her cousins in Germany and Russia. Her two brothers also remained single and, though both Christian Victor, who served in the British Army, and Albert who served in Germany, were far from one another due to active duty, the family remained very close. In fact, the Christians enjoyed the most blissful domestic life
among Queen Victoria’s children.
Helena Victoria also became the queen’s secretary and companion. She saw her almost daily and joined the queen in her annual trips to Osborne, Balmoral and Windsor. As she lived close to the queen, Helena Victoria was a fixture in state dinners where she had the chance to converse with politicians and statesmen. Eventually, she developed her own firm views about politics and world affairs. At times, she even got into conflict with her equally politically-minded mother.
“[Helena Victoria] talked just as we do about the Government,” wrote Queen Victoria’s lady-in-waiting, Marie Mallett, “…but she only dares to talk openly to me and a few others as Princess Christian is furious with her and everyone else unless they ‘lard’ the Government with fulsome praise.”
Unlike her cousin, Princess Victoria of Wales, who was also unmarried, Helena Victoria was content with her lot, justifying the Queen’s claim that:
“Unmarried people are often very happy, certainly more so than married people who don’t live happily together of which there are so many instances.” This, the queen stated after seeing many of her granddaughters trapped in desperately unhappy marriages. Helena Victoria’s sister, Marie Louise, did not escape this fate.
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