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The story of her husband's ancestress, St. Elisabeth of Hungary, left a deep impression on Princess Alice of Great Britain, who was married to Prince Louis of Hesse Darmstadt. On November 1st., 1864, Alice gave birh to her second child, a girl to whom she gave her first name after the Saint. Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice was the newborn's complete name, but she was called just Ella. Alice did't know that the life of this girl would be very similar to that of St. Elisabeth.
Elisabeth had a secure and carefree childhood, together with her elder sister Victoria to whom she was very attached. On 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War, Princess Alice sent Victoria and Ella to Windsor where she tought they would be safetier under the care of their grandmother, Queen Victoria. The girls spent seven weeks in England and when the war ended they returned home. Ella was delighted to see her mother again and she found she had a new little sister, Irene, who had been born while her sisters were in England.
Of the three girls, Ella had the prettiest face and was more docile than Victoria.
An usual visitor to Darmstadt was Empress Marie of Russia, who was Ella's great-aunt, being the sister of her grandfather, Prince Charles of Hesse. Empress Marie was married to Tsar Alexander II and when she came to Darmstadt she usually brought with her her two younger sons, Serge and Paul, a pair of years older than Elisabeth. Serge and Elisabeth became very attached to each other since they met.
In 1870, another war devasted Europe, the Franco-Prussian War. This was the first time Elisabeth saw the reality of war. Princess Alice spent her time nursing the wounded soldiers so Ella was in direct contact with suffering.
Among the Hessian children, the eldest, Victoria, was the one who led her siblings. She was a bit tomboy while Elisabeth, in the other hand was more feminine. As she grew up she began to rebel against Victoria's rule and both sisters began to share authority. On November, 1878, all the Hessian children, except Ella, fell ill with diphteria. Ella, accompanied by her governess, Margaret Hardcastle Jackson, was sent to her paternal grandmother's house to prevent her from getting ill. Grand Duke Louis got ill too. Princess Alice nursed the family and at last she contracted the disease. The younger sister, May, died on November 16 and Princess Alice died on December 14. The rest of the family recovered.
When Elisabeth at last could see her family she wrote: "It was a terribly sad meeting, no one darring to speak of what was uppermost in their thoughts. Poor Papa looked dreadfully miserable -Ernie, very pale, but otherwise calm, he does not realised it, as none of us can do yet It seems like a horrible dream- would that it were" (Mager). From then on, Queen Victoria looked after her orphan grandchildren as a mother had done.
As she grew into teenage, Elisabeth began to be atractive to men; she was becoming a beauty. There was an Arrmy Cramming School in Darmsatdt and soon many young Englishmen began to visit the Hessian girls. The first man who set his eyes on Elisabeth was Lord Charles Montague, son of the Duchess of Manchester, who was Princess Alice's friend, who was in Dramstadft to study German. Another Englishman, Henry Wilson, who later would became a distinguish soldier wrote about Elisabeth: "She was the most beautiful creature of God I have ever seen" (Mager).
In 1879, Elisabeth caught the attention of her cousin, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (the future Kaiser Wilhelm II). Wilhelm was a constant visitor to Dramsatdt, and during his visits, the Hessians siblings had to tolerate his arrogant manners. He felt deeply in love with Elisabeth; he wanted her to be always with him, sitting besides him, playing with him or listening to him. He even wrote her love poetry which he sent regularly from Bonn where he was studying. But all his efforts were in vain because Ella felt no attraction towards him. She found him so arogant and prepotent that she actually disliked him, and besides she didn't feel enthusiastic about the idea of becoming Empress of Germany. She desliked the militarism and formality of the Prussian court. So she politely refused Wilhelm. Eventhough, he kept Ella's photograph in his desk for a long time. Four months later he married Augusta of Schleswig Holstein, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria's half sister Feodora, and refused to meet Elisabeth again. If Elisabeth had married Wilhelm, Europe's destiny would maybe had been different; she had a strong belief in his grandfather Prince Albert's liberal ideas, just as her aunt Vicky (Wilhelm's mother). As Vicky did with her husband, Ella could have influenced Wilhelm to turn his policy in favour and not against Great Britain and World War I could have been avoided.