Early Life
As a young woman Marie became pregnant by a palace servant. The servant, a married man named Hecht, was responsible for turning off the gas-lights in the bedrooms of the grand ducal children. Several of Marie's cousins, including the future King George V of the United Kingdom and William II, German Emperor, thought that Marie had been "hypnotised", while Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom thought that Marie had been "drugged". Hecht was dismissed from service on the charge of stealing; his subsequent law-suit against the grand ducal family made the details of the story public. The story made radical newspaper headlines in its day.
A daughter was born to Marie in 1898; she was raised under the protection of Marie's grandmother, Grand Duchess Augusta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (born Princess Augusta of Cambridge).
Read more about this topic: Duchess Marie Of Mecklenburg
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