Princess Helena of the United Kingdom| "Lenchen"

Born in 1846, Princess Helena was the 5th child and 3rd daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and also the middle child. She was called "Lenchen" within the family, a short for the German nickname "Helenchen". As a child, Helena was outspoken and lively, and she was also considered to be somewhat of a tomboy. She loved to run fast - complaining that it was no fun to run against her sisters because they were too slow. When her elder brothers teased her, she would respond very un-ladylike with a punch to the nose, and she couldn't care less about her appearance, something which the Queen was very concerned about. During family plays Helena preferred to play the parts of boys/men as opposed to girls/women. Young Helena liked science and technology, she had a great interest in machinery, (which was considered masculine) and did not enjoy needlework (which was considered feminine). As she grew older she also grew - for the time what was considered as - more feminine in her ways, and needlework became one of her biggest interests.

Since she was little, Helena was looked upon as the least attractive of all her sisters, and along with her masculine interests and her birth order, the Queen was worried that nobody wanted to marry her. Helena was highly aware of that she wasn't considered beautiful but she couldn't care less. However, in 1866 she married Prince Christian of Schleswig and Holstein who was 15 years her senior, but he looked older. The match was proposed by the Queen. Seeing as Prince Christian was a minor Prince he could move to Britain and the couple could live near the Queen, which was something Queen Victoria wanted. This proposal caused a big rift witin the Royal family. Helena's older siblings Alice and Bertie were strongly against the match. Alice even accused the Queen of putting her own convenience before Helena's happiness. Helena, on the other hand, was okay with the match and the wedding took place at Windsor. The couple had 6 children, 4 of which lived to adulthood.

After the marriage, Helena stayed close to the Queen (as the Queen had wished) and assisted her in various tasks together with Helena's youngest sister Beatrice. Helena's health wasn't the best and she was often ill, something the Queen had a hard time to understand and accused Helena of overreacting. During these years Helena got addicted to drugs, such as opium and laudanum.

Her interests as an adult were charity work, nursing, animal right, needlework and writing.

She passed away on June 9th, 1923 at the age of 77.