May 21, 1801: Birth of Princess Sophie of Sweden. Part II.

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Charles-Friedrich of Baden, Congress of Vienna, Grand Duchy of Baden, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, Leopold of Baden, Louis I of Baden, Louise-Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg, Margrave Charles-Friedrich of Baden, Maximilian of Bavaria

From the Emperor’s Desk: Today’s blog entry on Princess Sophie of Sweden will focus on her husband, Grand Duke Leopold of Baden.

Princess Sophie of Sweden

Leopold (August 29, 1790 – April 24, 1852) succeeded in 1830 as the Grand Duke of Baden, reigning until his death in 1852.

Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden

Although a younger child, Leopold was the first son of Margrave Charles-Friedrich of Baden by his second, morganatic wife, Louise-Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg. Since Louise-Carline was not of equal birth with the Margrave, the marriage was deemed morganatic and the resulting children were perceived as incapable of inheriting their father’s dynastic status or the sovereign rights of the Zähringen House of Baden. Louise-Caroline and her children were given the titles of baron and baroness, in 1796 Count or Countess von Hochberg.

Baden gained territory during the Napoleonic Wars. As a result, Margrave Carl-Friedrich was elevated to the title of Prince-Elector within the Holy Roman Empire. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Carl-Friedrich took the title Grand Duke of Baden.

Hochberg heir

Since the descendants of Charles-Friedrich’s first marriage to Caroline-Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt and Countess Charlotte of Hanau, were at first plentiful, no one expected the Hochberg children of his second wife to be anything except a family of counts with blood ties to the grand ducal family, but lacking dynastic rights.

Charles-Friedrich, Margrave, Elector and later Grand Duke of Baden

Count Leopold von Hochberg was born in Karlsruhe, and with no prospects of advancement in Baden, followed a career as an officer in the French army.

The situation of both the Grand Duchy and the Hochberg children became objects of international interest as it became apparent that the Baden male line descended from Charles-Friedrich first wife was likely to die out. One by one, the males of the House of Baden expired without leaving male descendants. By 1817, there were only two males left, the reigning Grand Duke Charles I, a grandson of Charles-Friedrich, and his childless uncle Prince Ludwig. Both of Charles’s sons died in infancy. Baden’s dynasty seemed to face extinction, casting the country’s future in doubt.

Unbeknownst to those outside of the court at Baden, upon the November 24, 1787 wedding of then-Margrave Charles-Friedrich to Louise-Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg, he and the three sons of his first marriage signed a declaration which reserved decision on the title and any succession rights of sons to be born of the marriage.

Charles-Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Baden

Although Louise-Caroline’s children were not initially legally recognised as of dynastic rank, on February 20, 1796 their father clarified in writing (subsequently co-signed by his elder sons) that the couple’s sons were eligible to succeed to the margravial throne in order of male primogeniture after extinction of the male issue of his first marriage. The Margrave further declared that his marriage to their mother must “in no way be seen as morganatic, but rather as a true equal marriage”.

On September 10, 1806, after the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire and the assumption of full sovereignty, Charles-Friedrich confirmed the dynastic status of the sons of his second marriage. This act was, yet again, signed by his three eldest sons, but was not promulgated.

Louise-Caroline, Baroness Geyer of Geyersberg

On October 4, 1817, as neither Grand Duke Charles nor the other sons from his grandfather’s first marriage had surviving male descendants, Charles proceeded to confirm the succession rights of his hither-to morganatic half-uncles, elevating each to the title Prince and Margrave of Baden, and the style of Highness.

Grand Duke Charles asked the princely congress in Aachen on November 20, 1818, just weeks before his death, to confirm the succession rights of these sons of his step-grandmother, still known as Countess Louise von Hochberg.

However, this proclamation of Baden’s succession evoked international challenges. The Congress of Vienna had, in 1815, recognised the claims of Bavaria and Austria to parts of Baden which it allocated to Charles-Friedrich in the Upper Palatinate and the Breisgau, anticipating that upon his imminent demise those lands would cease to be part of the Grand Duchy.

Charles, Grand Duke of Baden

Moreover, the Wittelsbach King of Bavaria, Maximilian I Joseph, was married to Grand Duke Charles’s eldest sister, Caroline of Baden. The female most closely related to the last male of a German dynasty often inherited in such circumstances, in accordance with Semi-Salic succession law.

As a result, Maximilian had a strong claim to Baden under the customary rules of inheritance, as well as his claims under a post–Congress of Vienna treaty of April 16, 1816. Nonetheless, in 1818 Charles granted a constitution to the nation, the liberality of which made it popular with the people of Baden and which included a clause securing the succession rights of the offspring of Louise-Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg.

Another dispute was resolved by Baden’s agreement to cede a portion of the county of Wertheim, already enclaved within Bavaria, to that kingdom.

To further improve the status of Prince Leopold, his half-brother the new Grand Duke Ludwig I arranged for him to marry his great-niece, Sophie of Sweden, daughter of former King Gustaf IV Adolph of Sweden by Grand Duke Charles’s sister, Fredrica. Since Sophie was a granddaughter of Leopold’s oldest half-brother, Hereditary Prince Charles-Ludwig, this marriage united the descendants of his father’s (Grand Duke Charles-Friedrich) two wives. Sophie’s undoubted royal blood would help to offset the stigma of Leopold’s morganatic birth.

Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden

Finally, on July 10, 1819, a few months after Charles’s death, the Great Powers of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia joined with Bavaria and Baden in the 1819 Treaty of Frankfurt which recognized the succession rights of the former Hochberg morganatic line.

When Ludwig I died on March 30, 1830, he was the last male of the House of Baden not descended from the morganatic marriage of Charles-Friedrich and Louise-Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg. Leopold von Hochberg now succeeded as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden.

Today is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Queen Ingrid of Denmark, born Princess of Sweden.

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Frederik IX of Denmark, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Louise Mountbatten, Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught, Princess Ingrid of Sweden, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Ingrid of Sweden (Ingrid Victoria Sofia Louise Margareta; March 28, 1910 – November 7, 2000).

She is pictured here with her daughters Queen Margrethe II and Princess Benedikte of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes on her 90th birthday.

She died eight months later.

Born into the House of Bernadotte Princess Ingrid was born on March 28, 1910, at the Royal Palace in Stockholm as the third child and only daughter of Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught. Her father was the eldest son of King Gustaf V of Sweden by his wife, Princess Victoria of Baden. Her mother was a daughter of Queen Victoria’s third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn by his wife Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia.

Princess Margaret of Connaught

In 1920, when Ingrid was just ten years old, her mother died after undergoing mastoid surgery while in the eighth month of her sixth pregnancy. After her mother’s death, Ingrid spent several months of each year in the United Kingdom in the care of her grandfather. Observers suggested that Ingrid’s strong self-discipline was shaped as an effect of her mother’s death. Her father remarried Lady Louise Mountbatten three years later. Louise was a second cousin of Ingrid’s.

Princess Ingrid (far right) with her father, mother and three brothers in 1912.

Her step-mother, Louise, was born a princess of Battenberg. Her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was an admiral in the British Royal Navy, renounced his German title during the First World War and anglicised his family name to “Mountbatten” at the behest of King George V. From 1917, therefore, his daughter was known as “Lady Louise Mountbatten”. Her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Louise was a sister of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was also a niece of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Only a stillborn daughter resulted from her father’s second marriage. Ingrid felt betrayed by her father when he remarried, and she was unkind to Crown Princess Louise. Ingrid and her father would not reconcile until many years later.

The question of Ingrid’s marriage was a hot topic of conversation in the 1920s. She was matched with various foreign royalties and was seen by some as a possible wife for the heir-apparent to the British throne, the Prince of Wales, (future King Edward VIII) who was her second cousin. Her mother, Margaret of Connaught, and the then-Prince of Wales’ father, King George V, were first cousins, both being grandchildren of Queen Victoria. In 1928, Ingrid met the Prince of Wales in London. However, no engagement took place.

On March 15, 1935, shortly before her 25th birthday, she was engaged to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Iceland. They were related in several ways. As descendants of Oscar I of Sweden, they were third cousins. Through Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were third cousins. And finally through Paul I of Russia, Frederik was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother. They married in Stockholm Cathedral on May 24, 1935. Among the wedding guests were the King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, the King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of the Belgians and the Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway.

During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, Ingrid, with her personal courage and integrity, influenced the Danish Royal House and its conduct in relation to the occupation forces, and won great popularity as a symbol of silent resistance and public patriotic moral. She showed solidarity toward the Danish population, and could often be seen on her bicycle or with her baby carriage on the streets of Copenhagen during the war.

Her open defiance of the occupation forces made her grandfather, King Gustaf V of Sweden, worry about the risks, and in 1941, he sent a demand to her to be more discreet “for the sake of the dynasty” and its safety, but she reacted with anger and refused to obey, and she had the support of her spouse, who shared her views. One display of defiance shown by Ingrid was her positioning of the flags of Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom in the window of the nursery at Amalienborg, the royal residence in the centre of Copenhagen.

King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark

Upon her husband’s accession to the throne on April 20, 1947, as King Frederik IX of Denmark she became the Queen of Denmark. As such, she reformed the traditions of Danish court life, abolished many old-fashioned customs at court and created a more relaxed atmosphere at official receptions.

In 1972, King Frederick IX died, and Ingrid was widowed at the age of 61. Her elder daughter, aged 31, became the new queen, Margrethe II, and Ingrid now assumed a position as family matriarch. That same year, after having sworn to respect the Danish constitution, she was appointed Rigsforstander (formal Regent) and representative of the monarch whenever her daughter (and later her grandsons) were absent, a task she performed on many occasions. This was exceptional; since the constitution of 1871, only the Crown Prince had been allowed to act as regent in the absence of the monarch.

Queen Ingrid died on November 7, 2000 at Fredensborg Palace, Fredensborg, with her three daughters—Queen Margrethe II, Princess Benedikte and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece—and ten grandchildren at her bedside. Thousands gathered outside Amalienborg Palace, her official residence, after her death was announced; flowers were left, candles were lit and hymns were sung in her honour.

On this date in History: July 13, 1889. Birth of Lady Louise Mountbatten, Queen of Sweden.

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Crown Prince of Sweden, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kings and Queens of Sweden, Lady Louise Mountbatten, Princess Louise of Battenberg, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Louise of Sweden, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Louise of Battenberg at Schloss Heiligenberg, Seeheim-Jugenheim, on 13 July 1889 in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and By Rhine. Her father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was Admiral of the Fleet in the United Kingdom, renounced his German title during World War I and anglicised his family name to “Mountbatten” at the behest of King George V. He was then created the first Marquess of Milford Haven in the peerage of the United Kingdom. From 1917, therefore, his daughter was known as “Lady Louise Mountbatten”. Her mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, who was eldest daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Louise was a sister of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (Last Viceroy of India) and of Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was also a niece of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Ludwig and Victoria of Battenberg with young Princess Louise.

In 1909, Louise received a proposal from King Manuel II of Portugal. Edward VII was in favour of the match, but Louise declined, as she wished to marry for love. In 1913, having been deposed in 1910, Manuel married Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern in exile, but their marriage was childless. At the age of twenty, Louise became secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but they were forced to give up their relationship for financial reasons. While living in exile more than 10 years later, he would wed the wealthy widow, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds. After the death of Nancy Leeds Christopher married Princess Françoise d’Orléans in 1929. Princess Françoise d’Orléans was the second daughter of Jean d’Orléans, duc de Guise (an Orléanist pretender to the throne of France under the name Jean III) and his wife, the French Princess Isabelle of Orléans. Françoise’s brother, Prince Henri, Count of Paris, succeeded their father as the Orleanist pretender, under the name Henri VI.

In 1914, the 25 year old Louise and her mother visited Russia, and were invited to a trip down the Volga with their Imperial relatives. During her visit, Louise noted the influence of Rasputin with concern. The trip was interrupted by the sudden outbreak of World War I, and Louise’s father telegraphed for them to return immediately. They stayed in Sweden as guests of the Crown Princely couple (her future husband Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph and his then wife, Margaret of Connaught, who was also her first cousin once removed) at Drottningholm Palace, just one night before they returned to Great Britain.

Lady Louise Mountbatten.

Later during the war, while she volunteered as a nurse in Nevers, she began a relationship with Alexander Stuart-Hill, a Scottish artist living in Paris and they became engaged. Anticipating that her parents would be disappointed in her choice, Louise kept their engagement a secret.

Eventually, she confided in her parents, who were initially understanding, and invited Stuart-Hill for visits at Kent House twice. In fact, her family, referring to him as “Shakespeare” because of his odd appearance, found him “eccentric” and “affected”. Lacking resources, the engaged couple agreed to postpone marriage until after the war. But in 1918 Louise’s father explained to her that Stuart-Hill was most likely homosexual, and that a marriage with him was impossible.

In 1923 Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, having been for three years the widower of Louise’s mother’s cousin Princess Margaret of Connaught, paid a visit to London and, to Louise’s surprise, began to court her. Although as a young woman Louise had said that she would never marry a king or a widower, she accepted the proposal of a man destined to be both. However, under Article 5 of the 1810 Swedish Succession Law, a prince of the Swedish royal house forfeited his right of succession to the throne if he “with or without the King’s knowledge and consent, married a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter.”

Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph of Sweden with his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught and children.

Princess Margaret of Connaught.

Once the couple’s engagement was announced, there were lively discussions in the media about whether the bride-to-be was constitutionally eligible to become Sweden’s future queen. In response the Swedish Foreign Ministry, citing the law in question, clarified the term “a private Swedish or foreign man’s daughter” to mean “he who did not belong to a sovereign family or to a family which, according to international practice, would not be equal thereto” and announced that the Swedish government had “requested the British government’s explanation of Lady Louise Mountbatten’s position in this respect.” The Swedish Court announced that following the British government’s reply to its inquiry and the subsequent investigation into the matter, it had been determined that the Crown Prince’s choice of a future wife was in compliance with the succession law, and that she was of royal lineage, thereby concluding debate on the imminent nuptials.

On 3 November 1923, at age 34, Louise married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in the presence of King George V and members of both royal families.

Wedding of the Crown Prince of Sweden and Lady Louise Mountbatten.

In 1950, Louise became queen after accession to the throne of her husband. Louise is described as a true democrat at heart, and was therefore somewhat disturbed at being celebrated merely in her capacity of queen. In reference to the attention, she remarked: “People look at me as if I were something special. Surely I do not look differently today from how I looked yesterday!”

Louise disliked the strict pre-World War I protocol at court, retained during her mother-in-law’s era, and reformed it when she became queen, instituting new guidelines in 1954 which democraticised many old customs. In 1962, she abolished the court presentations, replaced them with “democratic ladies’ lunches”, to which she invited professional career women, a custom which was to continue under Princess Sibylla after her death. Louise also renovated and redecorated the interior of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden and Queen Louise of Sweden

Louise was described as eccentric for royalty and temperamental; she could get very angry, but was said to possess a good heart, a great sense of humour, a sense of self irony and was able to distinguish between herself and her royal role. She could show her sympathies openly, and this was taken as a sign of her honesty. One courtier commented, “I would describe the queen as a ‘gentleman’. She would never avoid acknowledging her own mistakes”. Louise is described as a great lover and patriot of her new home country, and was often shocked by Swedish non-patriotic customs. She was a supporter of the political system and democracy in the form it had developed in Sweden and stated her opinion to her relatives that no other political system than the Swedish one had created such a happy development for any nation. Queen Louise also admired Swedish nature and in particular Swedish women, because of what she considered their natural dignity regardless of class, and remarked that she had never seen a country with less vulgarity than Sweden.

Queen Louise’s last official engagement was the Nobel Prize dinner in December of 1964, during which no one noticed that she was in fact already ill. Queen Louise died on 7 March 1965 at Saint Göran Hospital, in Stockholm, Sweden, following emergency surgery after a period of severe illness. Queen Louise is buried beside her husband and his first wife, Crown Princess Margaret, in the Royal Cemetery in Solna north of Stockholm.

50th Birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

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50th Birthday, Birthday, Copenhagen, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, European Royalty, Frederik IX of Denmark, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Kings and Queens of Denmark, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Today HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, celebrates his 50th Birthday!


Frederik was born at Rigshospitalet which is the Copenhagen University Hospital in Copenhagen, on May 26, 1968, to the then Princess Margrethe, heir presumptive to the Danish throne, and Prince Henrik, Count of Monpezat. Princess Margrethe was oldest daughter of King Frederik IX of Denmark and Princess Ingrid of Sweden. At the time of Crown Prince Frederik’s birth, his maternal grandfather was on the throne of Denmark and his matrilineal great-grandfather (Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) was on the throne of Sweden.

He was baptized on June 24, 1968, at Holmens Kirke, in Copenhagen. He was christened Frederik after his maternal grandfather, King Frederik IX, continuing the Danish royal tradition of the heir apparent being named either Frederik or Christian. His middle names honor his paternal grandfather, André de Laborde de Monpezat; his father, Prince Henrik; and his maternal great-grandfather, Christian X.


Frederik’s godparents include Count Etienne de Laborde de Monpezat (paternal uncle); Queen Anne-Marie of Greece (maternal aunt); Prince Georg of Denmark; Baron Christian de Watteville-Berckheim; Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg; and Birgitta Juel Hillingsø.


He became Crown Prince of Denmark when his mother succeeded to the throne as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark on January 14, 1972. Upon his fathers death this past April, Crown Prince Frederik also inherited the title Count of Monpezat.


In the Council of State on October 8, 2003, Queen Margrethe II gave her consent to the marriage of Crown Prince Frederik to Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, an Australian marketing consultant whom the prince met when he was attending the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The wedding took place on May 14, 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, Copenhagen.


The couple have four children:

* Prince Christian Valdemar Henri John, born October 15, 2005
* Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe, born April 21, 2007
* Prince Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander, born January 8, 2011
* Princess Josephine Sophia Ivalo Mathilda, born January 8, 2011

Tonight in Copenhagen there are festivities being planed with many, many reigning and non-reigning royals in attendance.

The Connaught Family

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Alistair Arthur Windsor, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Louise Margaret of Prussia, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., The Duke of Connaught

Looking at the genealogies of the various royal families I have been viewing them in a larger context of a large family often spread out over multiple nation states. I am going to shift my focus for a while and examine the smaller family unit. For example, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had nine children and each of those children had families of their own so it is these smaller family units I wish to concentrate on. So with these smaller family units I want to just focus on the parents, children and grandchildren.

The first family I wish to look at is the Connaught family.

HRH Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert was born May 1, 1850 and was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As I mentioned in other posts about the Duke of Connaught he was named after his godfather,The Duke of Wellington, the general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Prince Arthur entered military service in the British Army and was to remain in service for 40 years. His mother created him the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and Earl of Sussex. In 1900 when his brother, Prince Alfred, the reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha died and his heir, Hereditary prince Alfred, died the year before, left the Duke of Connaught as heir to the ducal throne. However, Arthur did not want to leave the British Army and uproot his family to take the reigns of government in Coburg so he renounced his rights to the succession for himself and his son, prince Arthur of Connaught. In 1911 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith recommended to King George V that he should appoint his uncle to the position of Governor General of Canada replacing Earl Grey. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught served that position until 1916 when they were in turn replaced by the Duke of Devonshire.

The Duke of Connaught’s wife was HHR Princess Luise Margarete Alexandra Victoria Agnes was born at Marmorpalais outside of Potsdam, in the Kingdom of Prussia on July 25, 1860 . Her father was Prince Friedrich-Karl of Prussia (1828–1885), was a nephew of the German Emperor Wilhelm I. Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt (1837–1906), daughter of Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau.,This made her father a double first cousin of the German Emperor Friedrich III, the husband of her sister-in-law, Victoria, Princess Royal.

On 13 March 1879, Princess Luise Margarete married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at St. George’s Chapel Windsor. At first Queen Victoria was not pleased with the match. She did not like the fact that Luise came from her a broken home, her father was physically abusive, and the queen thought she had ugly teeth and mouth along with an unattractive nose. In reality Arthur was her favorite and his mother did not want to part with him. In a short time all of these concerns were forgotten and the queen was calling her daughter-in-law her “dear Louischen.” The couple had a home built at Bagshot Park in Surrey (now the home of the Earl and Countess of Wessex) In 1900 the Duke and Duchess used Clarence House as their London residence which is the current home of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Between 1882 and 1886 the Duke and Duchess of Connaught had three children. Margaret (1882), Arthur (1883) and Victoria-Patricia (1886). The Duchess of Connaught accompanied her husband on his travels with the army and to Canada for his term as Governor General. From my reading the family seemed very tight and closer than most royal families.

In 1905 Princess Margaret married Prince Gustaf-Adolph of Sweden (he became Crown prince in 1907 on the death of his grandfather King Oscar II). She became a patron of the arts in Sweden and the head of several charities which proved beneficial during World War I. Crown Princess Margaret and Crown Prince Gustaf-Adolph had five children: Gustaf-Adolph (1906-1947), Sigvard (1907-2002), Ingrid (1910-2000), Bertil (1912-1997), Carl-Johan (1916-2012). Crown Princess Margaret is grandmother of the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and of the former Queen-consort of Greece, Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark. On May 1, 1920, her father’s 70th birthday, Crown Princess Margaret died from complications while having mastoid surgery and she was eight months pregnant with her sixth child.

Prince Arthur of Connaught was the first royal prince to be educated at Eton College and he served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1920 to 1924. Like his father, Prince Arthur also had a career in the British Army and during World War I, Prince Arthur served as aide-de-camp to Generals Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig. After the war Arthur was promoted to lieutenant colonel and then to full colonel in the Army Reserves. In October 1922, Prince Arthur was promoted to the honorary rank of major general and became an aide-de-camp to his first cousin, King George V. In 1913 Arthur married Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife the eldest daughter of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and his wife HRH Princess Louise, the Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of King Edward VII.Prince Aurth’s wife was a Duchess in her own right. They had one child who was born HH Prince Alistair Arthuer, Earl of McDuff in 1914. Alistair Arthur was stripped of his style and title when King George V issued new Letters Patent restricting the princely style and title to only the grandchildren of the sovereign in the male line. Unfortunately Alistair Arthur was great-grandson of a sovereign. My personal opinion on this is that since he was the only male great-grandson at the time of the new Letters Patent and he should have been “grandfathered in” and allowed to keep his title.

His father, Prince Arthur of Connaught. died of stomach cancer in 1938 at the age of 55 leaving his son Alistair as heir to his father’s dukedom which he in turn inherited in 1942. Sadly, Alistair only enjoyed his new title for 15 months and he died in 1943. Leaving no heir the dukedom of Connaught merged with the crown.

Princess Victoria-Patrica, or Princess Patricia or Patsy, as she was called, traveled a great deal with her parents and was particularly close with her sister, Margaret. She was made Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in 1918 and remained in that position for life. During the Edwardian era the question who the very attractive Patsy would marry was a eagerly anticipated. She had a number of royal suitors including, Grand Duke Adolph-Friedrich VI of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, future King Manuel II of Portugal and Grand Duke Mikhail of Russia, brother of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. But in the end Patsy chose naval Commander The Hon. Alexander Ramsay. Ramsay later became an Admiral. Patricia voluntarily relinquished her style and title upon her marriage but still remained a member of the British Royal Family. Patricia was also an accomplished artist. She and her husband had one child, Alexander Ramsay of Mar (1919-2000). Patsy died in 1974 at the age of 87 and was one of the last surviving grandchildren of Queen Victoria at the time (the other being princess Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone who died).

The Duchess of Connaught died in March of 1917 at the age of 56 from influenza and bronchitis and was the first member of the royal family to be cremated. Her husband the Duke of Connaught outlived his wife by 25 years dying at the age of 91 in 1942. The Duke of Connaught was one of the last surviving children of Queen Victoria. 

 

Did they meet?

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1815, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington Napoleon, Battle of Waterloo, Charlotte Zeepvat, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Duke of Connaught, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine, Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Arthur, Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia, Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Queen Victoria's Family: A Century of Photographs, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album

One of the things I enjoy about royalty is how its members connect to the past and the rich history of each nation. One example I showed was the christening of Queen Elizabeth II and one of her godparents was HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1850-1942) son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I failed to mention that the Duke of Connaught was also a godfather to one of his own descendents, his great-granddaughter, Queen Margrethe II, current Queen Regnant of Denmark! Even the Duke of Connaught’s life connects us to the past. One of his godparents was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) who lead the British in defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815!

When I scan across the genealogy charts of these royal families it is often difficult to see all the lives that overlap. In many families, after a generation or two, relatives can be scattered all about different countries or different regions of the same country and never see or meet one another. I have cousins I have not seen in nearly 30 years.  In my head I have some people belonging to certain eras and it is interesting to see how some of these people spanned the eras. For example, at 91, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is someone I associate with today’s time period. Yet in his youth he interacted with people I associate more with the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

I have a couple of books by Charlotte Zeepvat. One is called Queen Victoria’s Family: A Century of Photographs & the other is The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album which both showcase wonderful family photographs. Although I will not be able to post some of the photographs but I did want to discuss some of the family connections they depict. I found these interesting and I hope you will also.

1910.

There is a picture of the funeral procession of King Edward VII of Great Britain. In the procession is the new king, George V, and his two eldest sons, Edward, Duke of Cornwall (future Edward VIII) and Prince Albert (future George VI). Also in the procession was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. I had known that the Kaiser and George V were fist cousins, what I did not know was that the Kaiser had met the future George VI, father to the the present queen.

1921.

There is another family gathering of the Swedish royal family. In the picture is Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, whose daughter, Princess Margaret of Connaught had just died unexpectedly the previous year. Also depicted is her widowed husband, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph (Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden) and his children, the youngest, prince Carl-Johan just passed away a month or so ago.

1931.

There are a couple of pictures with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh which connects him to the Victoria era. One takes place in 1931 with the marriage of his sister, Princess Cecile of Greece and Denmark to Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine. Standing in front of Prince Philip is his great-uncle, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, and next to him is his sister, the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine) grandmother to prince Philip and the bride, Princess Cecile of Greece and Denmark. Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine and the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven were grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

1937

In October of 1937 Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine and his wife, Cecile of Greece and Denmark (along with two of their children) were killed in a plane crash en-route to the wedding of his brother, Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine to Margaret Campbell-Geddes. In the funeral procession were members of German Royalty. Prince Philip, then aged 16, walked in front of Prince August-Wilhelm of Prussia the son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

1939.

Speaking of the Kaiser. The book had a picture of the Kaiser holding his great-grandson Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, son of Prince Louis-Ferdinand and Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia. Although Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia married unequally he still claims to be the head of the House of Prussia.

1940.

In the book is also the only picture I have seen of King Alfonso XIII of Spain with his grandson the current Spanish King, Juan Carlos. Alfonso XIII was born a king in 1886 after the death of his father. One of the two people in European History to be born a king. The other was King Jean I of France who died a five days after his birth in 1316.

There you have some interesting connections. I will have more for next Monday’s look at royal Geology.