Victoria Eugenie's uncle, King Edward VII, hosted a dinner in Buckingham Palace, in honour of the Spanish king. In 1905, King Alfonso XIII of Spain made an official state visit to the United Kingdom. Victoria Eugenie dressed in Castilian fashion, as painted by Joaquín Sorolla

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Battenbergs moved to London and took up residence in Kensington Palace. Her father died while on active military service after contracting fever in Africa in 1896. '' Queen Victoria wrote that 'I love these darling children so, almost as much as their own parent' and referred to Victoria Eugenie as 'the little treasure.' 'Young woman, a princess should say, 'I think it is time for me to retire. She was very kind but very strict, with old fashioned ideas of how children must be brought up.' When Victoria Eugenie said, 'I think it is time for us to go to bed,' Queen Victoria corrected her. She reflected that 'having been born and brought up in her home, Queen Victoria was like a second mother to us. Victoria Eugenie was close to her grandmother Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria's physicians noticed 'dangerous symptoms', such as 'evident signs of brain pressure, probably a haemorrhage.' Her aunt Victoria, Princess Royal, wrote, 'it is so grievous that cannot take notice or open her eyes.' When she was six, Victoria Eugenie suffered a severe concussion when she was thrown off her pony at Osborne and hit her head on the ground. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousins, the Duke (later King George V) and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893. Therefore, she spent her childhood at Windsor Castle, Balmoral, and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Victoria Eugenie grew up in Queen Victoria's household, as the British monarch had reluctantly allowed Beatrice to marry on the condition that she remain her mother's full-time companion and personal secretary. Her godparents were Empress Eugénie (represented by Princess Frederica of Hanover), the German Crown Princess (her maternal aunt represented by the Duchess of Roxburghe), the Princess of Battenberg (her paternal grandmother represented by the Marchioness of Ely), Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (her maternal aunt represented by the Countess of Erroll), Prince Louis of Battenberg (her paternal uncle represented by the Earl of Hopetoun) and the Duke of Edinburgh (her maternal uncle represented by Sir Henry Ponsonby).

She was baptised in the Drawing Room at Balmoral. She was born in the 50th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, so she was called 'the Jubilee baby'. To her family, and the British general public, she was known by a diminutive of the last of her names, as Ena. She was named for her grandmother Victoria and for her godmother Eugénie de Montijo, the Spanish-born French empress who lived in exile in the United Kingdom. As such, Henry's children would normally have been born with the style ' Serene Highness' however, Queen Victoria had issued a Royal Warrant on 4 December 1886 granting the higher style of ' Highness' to all sons and daughters of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice, thus she was born Her Highness Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. Īs Prince Henry was the product of a morganatic marriage, he took his style of Prince of Battenberg from his mother, who had been created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. Victoria Eugenie was the last grandchild of a British monarch to be born in Scotland until Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle in Angus in 1930.

Her mother, as the youngest child of the lonely queen, was kept 'at home' with the court, which happened to be at Balmoral when she went into labour. Her father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and third son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Hauke, and her mother was Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born on 24 October 1887 at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland.

Queen victoria children