Alice Charlotte von Rothschild was born in 1847 in Frankfurt as the eighth and youngest child of Anselm and Charlotte von Rothschild. She was the sister of another great, nineteenth century collector, Ferdinand von Rothschild. In 1875, Alice von Rothschild acquired the Eythrope estate, close to the Waddesdon Manor of her brother, Ferdinand. When her brother died in 1898, she inherited Waddesdon.