Wedding Announcement of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca Bettarini and last Imperial Marriage in Russia.

Tags

Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia., King Gustaf V of Sweden, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Russian Emperor, Russian Empire

The wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca Bettarini will take place in St Petersburg on October 1, 2021.


It will be the first imperial wedding in Russia since the wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in 1917.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was the first child and only daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. She was therefore a granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II.

She was a paternal first cousin of Nicholas II (Russia’s last Emperor) and maternal first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (consort of Queen Elizabeth II).


In September 1917, during the period of the Russian Provisional Government,  Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna married Prince Sergei Putyatin. They had one son, Prince Roman Sergeievich Putyatin, who died in infancy. The couple escaped revolutionary Russia through Ukraine in July 1918.

Previously, in 1908, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna married Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland, the second son of King Gustaf V of Sweden and his wife Victoria of Baden.

The couple had only one son, Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland later Count Bernadotte af Wisborg. The marriage was unhappy and ended in divorce in 1914.

69th Anniversary of the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Tags

Acession to the Throne, Kenya, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Today, February 6, 2021 marks the anniversary of the death King George VI of the United Kingdom and marks the beginning of the 69th year on the throne for his daughter and heir, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926) who is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). Her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947 she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee. She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch. She is the longest-serving female head of state in world history, and the world’s oldest living monarch, longest-reigning current monarch, and oldest and longest-serving current head of state. Next year if she is still with us she will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee marking 70th year on the throne.

Her father died at the age of 56 and though his health had been declining the death still came unexpectedly. The stress of World War II had taken its toll on the King’s health, made worse by his heavy smoking and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger’s disease. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after the King suffered an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949. His elder daughter Elizabeth, the heir presumptive, took on more royal duties as her father’s health deteriorated. The delayed tour was re-organised, with Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen.

The King was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 23 September 1951, he underwent a surgical operation where his entire left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found. In October 1951, Elizabeth and Philip went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to the King’s illness. At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the King’s speech from the throne was read for him by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simonds. His Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together.

On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, the King went to London Airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on their tour to Australia via Kenya. It was his last public appearance. Six days later, at 07:30 GMT on the morning of 6 February, he was found dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died in the night from a coronary thrombosis at age 56. His daughter flew back to Britain from Kenya as Queen Elizabeth II.

From 9 February for two days George VI’s coffin rested in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, before lying in state at Westminster Hall from 11 February. His funeral took place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on the 15th. He was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George’s on 26 March 1969. In 2002, fifty years after his death, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his younger daughter Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him.

Happy Birthday to HRH The Prince of Wales

Tags

Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Princess of Wales, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born November 14, 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and he is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958.

Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child. Charles also spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, and they had two sons: Prince William (b. 1982) and Prince Harry (b. 1984). In 1996, the couple divorced following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties.

Diana died as the result of a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married long-time partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

As Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen and the Commonwealth realms. Charles founded The Prince’s Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince’s Charities, and is a patron, president, and a member of over 400 other charities and organisations. As an environmentalist, he raises awareness of organic farming and climate change, which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups.

His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been criticised by many in the medical community, and his views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received considerable attention from British architects and design critics. Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his preferences. He is also an author and co-author of a number of books.

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Part III.

Tags

Cecile of Greece and Denmark, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Hereditary Grand Duke Georg-Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine, Kensington Palace, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, the prince of Wales, Victoria Mountbatten, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

In 1937, Victoria’s brother, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, died and soon afterwards her widowed sister-in-law, nephew, granddaughter and two of her great-grandchildren all died in an air crash at Ostend.

Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, had married Victoria’s nephew (Ernst Ludwig’s son), Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse and by Rhine. They and their two young sons, Ludwig and Alexander, were all killed.

Further tragedy soon followed when Victoria’s son, George, died of bone cancer the following year. Her granddaughter, Lady Pamela Hicks, remembered her grandmother’s tears.

In World War II Victoria was bombed out of Kensington Palace, and spent some time at Windsor Castle with King George VI. Her surviving son (Louis Mountbatten) and her two grandsons (David Mountbatten and Prince Philip) served in the Royal Navy, while her German relations fought with the opposing forces.

Victoria spent most of her time reading and worrying about her children; her daughter, Alice, remained in occupied Greece and was unable to communicate with her mother for four years at the height of the war.

After the Allied victory, her son, Louis, was made Viscount Mountbatten of Burma. He was offered the post of Viceroy of India, but she was deeply opposed to his accepting, knowing that the position would be dangerous and difficult; he accepted anyway.

Victoria was present at the christening of her great grandson, the current Prince of Wales.

Victoria fell ill with bronchitis (she had smoked since the age of sixteen) at Lord Mountbatten’s home at Broadlands, Hampshire, in the summer of 1950. Saying “it is better to die at home”, Victoria moved back to Kensington Palace, where she died on September 24 aged 87. She was buried four days later in the grounds of St. Mildred’s Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight.

Legacy

With the help of her lady-in-waiting, Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, Victoria wrote an unpublished memoir, held in the Mountbatten archive at the University of Southampton, which remains an interesting source for royal historians. A selection of Queen Victoria’s letters to Victoria have been published with a commentary by Richard Hough and an introduction by Victoria’s granddaughter, Patricia Mountbatten.

Lord Mountbatten remembered her fondly: “My mother was very quick on the uptake, very talkative, very aggressive and argumentative. With her marvellous brain she sharpened people’s wits.” Her granddaughter thought her “formidable, but never intimidating … a supremely honest woman, full of commonsense and modesty.”

Victoria wrote her own typically forthright epitaph at the end of her life in letters to and conversation with her son: “What will live in history is the good work done by the individual & that has nothing to do with rank or title … I never thought I would be known only as your mother. You’re so well known now and no one knows about me, and I don’t want them to.”

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Part II.

Tags

Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Louis of Batenberg, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Victoria Mountbatten, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine, World War I

Victoria and Louis in a succession of houses at Chichester, Sussex, Walton-on-Thames, and Schloss Heiligenberg, Jugenheim. When Prince Louis was serving with the Mediterranean Fleet, Victoria spent some winters in Malta. In 1887, she contracted typhoid but, after being nursed through her illness by her husband, was sufficiently recovered by June to attend Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in London.

She was interested in science and drew a detailed geological map of Malta and also participated in archaeological digs both on the island and in Germany. In leather-bound volumes she kept meticulous records of books she had read, which reveal a wide range of interests, including socialist philosophy.

She personally taught her own children and exposed them to new ideas and inventions. She gave lessons to her younger son, Louis, until he was ten years of age. He said of her in 1968 that she was “a walking encyclopedia. All through her life she stored up knowledge on all sorts of subjects, and she had the great gift of being able to make it all interesting when she taught it to me.

Victoria was completely methodical; we had time-tables for each subject, and I had to do preparation, and so forth. She taught me to enjoy working hard, and to be thorough. She was outspoken and open-minded to a degree quite unusual in members of the Royal Family. And she was also entirely free from prejudice about politics or colour and things of that kind.”

In 1906, she flew in a Zeppelin airship, and even more daringly later flew in a biplane even though it was “not made to carry passengers, and we perched securely attached on a little stool holding on to the flyer’s back.”

Up until 1914, Victoria regularly visited her relatives abroad in both Germany and Russia, including her two sisters who had married into the Russian imperial family: Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and Alix, who had married Emperor Nicholas II. Victoria was one of the Empress’s relatives who tried to persuade her away from the influence of Rasputin.

On the outbreak of war between Germany and Britain in 1914, Victoria and her daughter, Louise, were in Russia at Yekaterinburg. By train and steamer, they travelled to St Petersburg and from there through Tornio to Stockholm. They sailed from Bergen, Norway, on “the last ship” back to Britain.

Prince Louis was forced to resign from the navy at the start of the war when his German origins became an embarrassment, and the couple retired for the war years to Kent House on the Isle of Wight, which Victoria had been given by her aunt Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.

Victoria blamed her husband’s forced resignation on the Government “who few greatly respect or trust”. She distrusted the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, because she thought him unreliable—he had once borrowed a book and failed to return it.

Continued public hostility toward Germany led King George V of the United Kingdom to renounce his German titles, and at the same time on July 14, 1917 Prince Louis and Victoria renounced their German titles also, assuming an anglicised version of Battenberg—Mountbatten—as their surname. Four months later Louis was re-ennobled by the King as Marquess of Milford Haven.

During the war, Victoria’s two sisters, Alix and Elisabeth, were murdered in the Russian revolution, and her brother, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, was deposed.

On her last visit to Russia in 1914, Victoria had driven past the very house in Yekaterinburg where Alix would be murdered. In January 1921, after a long and convoluted journey, Elisabeth’s body was interred in Jerusalem in Victoria’s presence. Alix’s body was never recovered during Victoria’s lifetime.

Victoria’s husband died in London in September 1921. After meeting her at the Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly, he complained of feeling unwell and Victoria persuaded him to rest in a room they had booked in the club annexe. She called a doctor, who prescribed some medicine and Victoria went out to fill the prescription at a nearby pharmacist’s. When she came back, Louis was dead.

On her widowhood, Victoria moved into a grace-and-favour residence at Kensington Palace and, in the words of her biographer, “became a central matriarchal figure in the lives of Europe’s surviving royalty”. In 1930, her eldest daughter, Alice, suffered a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed as schizophrenic.

In the following decade Victoria was largely responsible the education and upbringing for her grandson Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark ‘s education during his parents’ separation and his mother’s institutionalisation. Prince Philip recalled, “I liked my grandmother very much and she was always helpful. She was very good with children … she took the practical approach to them. She treated them in the right way—the right combination of the rational and the emotional.”

September 24, 1950: Death of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Part I.

Tags

Diptheria, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine, King Gustaf VI Adolph of Sweden, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (Victoria Alberta Elisabeth Mathilde Marie; April 5, 1863 –September 24, 1950) was the eldest daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1837–1892), and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (1843–1878), daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Victoria’s mother died while her brother and sisters were still young, which placed her in an early position of responsibility over her siblings. Over her father’s disapproval, she married his first cousin Prince Louis of Battenberg, an officer in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, and lived most of her married life in various parts of Europe at her husband’s naval posts and visiting her many royal relations. She was perceived by her family as liberal in outlook, straightforward, practical and bright.

During World War I, she and her husband abandoned their German titles and adopted the British-sounding surname of Mountbatten, which was simply a translation into English of the German “Battenberg”. Two of her sisters—Elisabeth and Alix, who had married into the Russian imperial family—were killed by communist revolutionaries.

She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and mother-in-law of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden.

Victoria was born on Easter Sunday at Windsor Castle in the presence of her maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was christened in the Lutheran faith in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, in the arms of the Queen on April 27. Her godparents were Queen Victoria, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse (represented by Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine), the Prince of Wales and Prince Heinrich of Hesse and by Rhine.

Her early life was spent at Bessungen, a suburb of Darmstadt, until the family moved to the New Palace in Darmstadt when she was three years old. There, she shared a room with her younger sister, Elisabeth, until adulthood. She was privately educated to a high standard and was, throughout her life, an avid reader.

During the Prussian invasion of Hesse in June 1866, Victoria and Elisabeth were sent to Britain to live with their grandmother until hostilities were ended by the absorption of Hesse-Cassel and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt into Prussia.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military hospitals were set up in the palace grounds at Darmstadt, and she helped in the soup kitchens with her mother. She remembered the intense cold of the winter, and being burned on the arm by hot soup.

In 1872, Victoria’s eighteen-month-old brother, Friedrich, was diagnosed with haemophilia. The diagnosis came as a shock to the royal families of Europe; it had been twenty years since Queen Victoria had given birth to her haemophiliac son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and it was the first indication that the bleeding disorder in the royal family was hereditary. The following year, Friedrich fell from a window onto stone steps and died. It was the first of many tragedies to beset the Hesse family.

In early November 1878, Victoria contracted diphtheria. Elisabeth was swiftly moved out of their room and was the only member of the family to escape the disease. For days, Victoria’s mother, Princess Alice, nursed the sick, but she was unable to save her youngest daughter, Victoria’s sister Marie, who died in mid-November.

Just as the rest of the family seemed to have recovered, Princess Alice fell ill. She died on December 14, the anniversary of the death of her father, Prince Albert. As the eldest child, Victoria partly assumed the role of mother to the younger children and of companion to her father. She later wrote, “My mother’s death was an irreparable loss … My childhood ended with her death, for I became the eldest and most responsible.”

Marriage and family

At family gatherings, Victoria had often met Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was her first cousin once removed and a member of a morganatic branch of the Hessian royal family. Prince Louis had adopted British nationality and was serving as an officer in the Royal Navy. In the winter of 1882, they met again at Darmstadt, and were engaged the following summer.

After a brief postponement because of the death of her maternal uncle Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Victoria married Prince Louis on 30 April 1884 at Darmstadt. Her father did not approve of the match; in his view Prince Louis had little money and would deprive him of his daughter’s company, as the couple would naturally live abroad in Britain.

However, Victoria was of an independent mind and took little notice of her father’s displeasure. Remarkably, that same evening, Victoria’s father secretly married his mistress, Countess Alexandrine von Hutten-Czapska, the former wife of Alexander von Kolemine, the Russian chargé d’affaires in Darmstadt.

His marriage to a divorcee who was not of equal rank shocked the assembled royalty of Europe and through diplomatic and family pressure Victoria’s father was forced to seek an annulment of his own marriage.

Happy 70th Birthday to HRH The Princess Royal.

Tags

Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The Princess Royal

New photographs have been released to celebrate the 70th birthday of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal today!

‪The photographs were taken by John Swannell at The Princess’ home, Gatcombe Park, in February this year.

Anne, Princess Royal, (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born August 15, 1950) is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She is 14th in line to the throne as of August 2019 and has been Princess Royal since 1987.

July 11, 1866: Birth of Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine. Part II.

Tags

Anna Anderson, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Franziska Schanzkowska, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, Hemophilia, Prince Henry of Prussia, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and By Rhine, Princess Irene of Hesse and By Rhine

Princess Irene, raised to believe in a proper Victorian code of behavior, was easily shocked by what she saw as immorality. In 1884, the same year that her elder sister Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg, another sister, Elisabeth, married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, and when Elisabeth converted from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, in 1891, Irene was deeply upset.

Princess Irene ca. 1902

She wrote to her father that she “cried terribly” over Elisabeth’s decision. In 1892, Irene’s father, Grand Duke Ludwig IV, died, and her brother, Ernst-Ludwig, succeeded him as Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Two years later, in May 1894, Ernst-Ludwig was married off by Queen Victoria to a first cousin, Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. It was amidst the wedding festivities that Irene’s youngest surviving sister, Alix, accepted the marriage proposal of Tsarevich Nicholas, a second cousin, and when Nicholas’ father, Emperor Alexander III, died prematurely in November 1894, Irene and her husband traveled to St. Petersburg to be present at both his funeral and the wedding of Alix, who had taken the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon her conversion to Orthodoxy, to the new Emperor Nicholas II.

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864–1918)

Despite the disagreement that she had over the conversion of her two sisters to Russian Orthodoxy, she remained close with all of her siblings. In 1907, Irene helped arrange what later turned out to be a disastrous marriage between Elizabeth’s ward, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland. Wilhelm’s mother, the Queen Victoria of Sweden, was an old friend of both Irene and Elisabeth. Grand Duchess Maria later wrote that Irene pressured her to go through with the marriage when she had doubts. She told Maria that ending the engagement would “kill” Elizabeth.

Prince Wilhelm was the second son of King Gustaf V of Sweden and his wife Victoria of Baden.

On May 3, 1908, in Tsarskoye Selo, the wedding between was Wilhelm of Sweden married Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia took place. The bride was a daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia by his first wife Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was a cousin of the reigning Russian Emperor Nicholas II and first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The couple had only one son: Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland and later Count of Wisborg (1909–2004).

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia

The marriage was unhappy. Their son, Lennart, later wrote an autobiography in which he revealed several details of the Swedish royal family. The autobiography tells of how Maria, like her aunt and namesake Maria, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, felt that she had married beneath herself in marrying a younger son of the King of Sweden, and this caused problems of ego between the couple.

Maria insisted that the servants address her by her correct style Your Imperial and Royal Highness, to the chagrin of her husband, who was merely a Royal Highness. When apprised of the matter, Wilhelm’s father King Gustaf V had no choice but to acquiesce with his daughter-in-law’s wish, which was perfectly valid in law, and ordered that the imperial style be used invariably for Maria.

Maria sought a divorce because of what she described as the horror she then felt toward the Swedish royal family, due to their unlimited support of Doctor Axel Munthe who had accosted her sexually. The divorce was granted in 1914, and Maria returned to Russia.

Prince Heinrich and Princess Irene

In 1912, Irene was a source of support to her sister Alix and her relationship with Grigori Rasputin when Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich nearly died of complications of haemophilia at the Imperial Family’s hunting lodge in Poland.

Princess Irene’s support stemmed from the fact that two of her children with Prince Heinrich of Prussia, princes Waldemar and Heinrich, were hemophiliacs, a disease which they inherited through Irene from the maternal grandmother of both of their parents, Queen Victoria, who was a carrier. Prince Sigismund was the only one of the three brothers who did not have the hemophilia.

On February 25, 1904, Princess Irene left 4 year old Prince Heinrich unsupervised for a few minutes while she went to fetch something. The playful Prince climbed a chair, and then he climbed onto the table. As he heard his mother approaching, he attempted to quickly come down but stumbled while attempting to climb down the chair and fell on the floor headfirst.

Prince Heinrich started to scream, which immediately attracted Princess Irene’s attention. By the time she reached him, the child was almost unconscious. The doctor said the fall had not been that bad and the child would have survived had he not been a haemophiliac. However, suffering from this condition, it was certain the young Prince would die. He was suffering from a brain haemorrhage. He lingered for a couple of hours, but died the following day, on February 26. Prince Heinrich’s premature death would later very much affect the Princess, who would withdraw into herself.

Princess Irene with her husband Prince Heinrich of Prussia and their two surviving sons, Prince Sigismund, left, and Prince Waldemar.

Later life

Irene’s ties to her sisters were disrupted by the advent of World War I, which put them on opposing sides of the war. When the war ended, she received word that her sister Alix, and her husband and children along with her sister Elisabeth had been murdered by the Bolsheviks. Following the war and the abdication of her brother-in-law, Emperor Wilhelm II, Germany was no longer ruled by the Prussian Royal Family, but Irene and her husband retained their estate, Hemmelmark, in northern Germany.

Irene and Anna Anderson

When Anna Anderson surfaced in Berlin in the early 1920s, claiming to be the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, Irene visited the woman, but decided that Anderson could not be her niece that she had last seen in 1913. Princess Irene was not impressed.

Anna Anderson

I saw immediately that she could not be one of my nieces. Even though I had not seen them for nine years, the fundamental facial characteristics could not have altered to that degree, in particular the position of the eyes, the ear, etc. .. At first sight one could perhaps detect a resemblance to Grand Duchess Tatiana.”

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, sister of the murdered Emperor, commented on the visit of Princess Irene, saying it was an unsatisfactory meeting, but the woman’s supporters said that Princess Irene had not known her niece very well and all the rest of it.”

Irene’s husband, Heinrich of Prussia, said that the mention of Anderson upset Irene too much and ordered that no one was to discuss Anderson in her presence.

Prince Heinrich, Irene’s husband, died of throat cancer, as his father Emperor Friedrich III had, in Hemmelmark on April 20, 1929.

Anna Anderson biographer Peter Kurth wrote that several years later, Irene’s son (Prince Sigismund) posed questions to Anderson through an intermediary about their shared childhood and declared that her answers were all accurate. Irene later adopted Sigismund’s daughter, Barbara, born in 1920, as her heir after Sigismund left Germany to live in Costa Rica during the 1930s. Sigismund declined to return to Germany to live after World War II.

Princess Irene died November 11, 1953 (aged 87) at Schloss Hemmelmark, Barkelsby, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany.

End note:

In 1991, the bodies of Emperor Nicholas II, Irene’s sister, Empress Alexandra (Alix) and three of their daughters were exhumed from a mass grave near Yekaterinburg. They were identified on the basis of both skeletal analysis and DNA testing. The female bones matched that of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose maternal grandmother Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine was a sister of Alexandra and Irene. The bodies of Tsarevich Alexei and the remaining daughter were discovered in 2007. Repeated and independent DNA tests confirmed that the remains were the seven members of the Romanov family, and proved that none of the Emperor’s four daughters survived the shooting of the Romanov family.

A sample of Anderson’s tissue, part of her intestine removed during her operation in 1979, had been stored at Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville, Virginia. Anderson’s mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the sample and compared with that of the Romanovs and their relatives. It did not match that of the Duke of Edinburgh or that of the bones, confirming that Anderson was not related to the Romanovs. However, the sample matched DNA provided by Karl Maucher, a grandson of Franziska Schanzkowska’s sister, Gertrude (Schanzkowska) Ellerik, indicating that Karl Maucher and Anna Anderson were maternally related and that Anderson was Franziska Schanzkowska.

June 25, 1900: Birth of Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Part I.

Tags

1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine), Lord Louis Mountbatten, Louis Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi, Marquess of Milford Haven, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Viceroy of India

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; June 25, 1900 – August 27, 1979), was a British Royal Navy officer and statesman, a Maternal Uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (1943–1946). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first governor-general of independent India (1947–1948).

Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

Lord Mountbatten was known as His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg from the time of his birth at Frogmore House in the Home Park, Windsor, Berkshire until 1917, when he and several other relations of King George V of the United Kingdom dropped their German styles and titles.

Lord Mountbatten was the youngest child and the second son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. His maternal grandparents were Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, who was a daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His paternal grandparents were Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia von Hauke, Princess of Battenberg.

Mountbatten’s paternal grandparents’ marriage was morganatic because his grandmother was not of royal lineage; as a result, he and his father were styled “Serene Highness” rather than “Grand Ducal Highness”, and were not eligible to be titled Princes of Hesse and by Rhine and were given the less exalted Battenberg title. His siblings were Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), Queen Louise of Sweden, and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven.

Young Mountbatten’s nickname among family and friends was “Dickie”, although “Richard” was not among his given names. This was because his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, had suggested the nickname of “Nicky”, but to avoid confusion with the many Nickys of the Russian Imperial Family (“Nicky” was particularly used to refer to Nicholas II, the last Russian Emperor) Nicky” was changed to “Dickie”.

Mountbatten was posted as midshipman to the battlecruiser HMS Lion in July 1916 and, after seeing action in August 1916, transferred to the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth during the closing phases of the First World War. In June 1917, when the royal family stopped using their German names and titles and adopted the more British-sounding “Windsor”, his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg became Louis Mountbatten, and was created 1st Marquess of Milford Haven. His second son acquired the courtesy title Lord Louis Mountbatten and was known as Lord Louis until he was created a peer in 1946. He paid a visit of ten days to the Western Front, in July 1918.

Louis Mountbatten and Edwina Ashley

Lord Mountbatten was married on July 18, 1922 to Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of Wilfred William Ashley, later 1st Baron Mount Temple, himself a grandson of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. She was the favourite granddaughter of the Edwardian magnate Sir Ernest Cassel and the principal heir to his fortune. The couple spent heavily on households, luxuries and entertainment. There followed a honeymoon tour of European royal courts and America which included a visit to Niagara Falls (because “all honeymooners went there”).

Last viceroy of India

His experience in the region and in particular his perceived Labour sympathies at that time led to Clement Attlee advising King George VI to appoint Mountbatten Viceroy of India on 20 February 20, 1947 charged with overseeing the transition of British India to independence no later than June 30, 1948.

Mountbatten’s instructions were to avoid partition and preserve a united India as a result of the transference of power but authorised him to adapt to a changing situation in order to get Britain out promptly with minimal reputational damage. Soon after he arrived, Mountbatten concluded that the situation was too volatile to wait even a year before granting independence to India.

Lord and Lady Mountbatten with Mahatma Gandhi, 1947

Although his advisers favoured a gradual transfer of independence, Mountbatten decided the only way forward was a quick and orderly transfer of independence before 1947 was out. In his view, any longer would mean civil war. The Viceroy also hurried so he could return to his senior technical Navy courses.

Mountbatten was fond of Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru and his liberal outlook for the country. He felt differently about the Muslim leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, but was aware of his power, stating “If it could be said that any single man held the future of India in the palm of his hand in 1947, that man was Mohammad Ali Jinnah.” During his meeting with Jinnah on April 5, 1947, Mountbatten tried to persuade Jinnah of a united India, citing the difficult task of dividing the mixed states of Punjab and Bengal, but the Muslim leader was unyielding in his goal of establishing a separate Muslim state called Pakistan.

Given the British government’s recommendations to grant independence quickly, Mountbatten concluded that a united India was an unachievable goal and resigned himself to a plan for partition, creating the independent nations of India and Pakistan. Mountbatten set a date for the transfer of power from the British to the Indians, arguing that a fixed timeline would convince Indians of his and the British government’s sincerity in working towards a swift and efficient independence, excluding all possibilities of stalling the process.

Lord and Lady Mountbatten with Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Among the Indian leaders, Mahatma Gandhi emphatically insisted on maintaining a united India and for a while successfully rallied people to this goal. During his meeting with Mountbatten, Gandhi asked Mountbatten to invite Jinnah to form a new Central government, but Mountbatten never uttered a word of Gandhi’s ideas to Jinnah. And when Mountbatten’s timeline offered the prospect of attaining independence soon, sentiments took a different turn. Given Mountbatten’s determination, Nehru and Patel’s inability to deal with the Muslim League and lastly Jinnah’s obstinacy, all Indian party leaders (except Gandhi) acquiesced to Jinnah’s plan to divide India.

When India and Pakistan attained independence at midnight on the night of 14–15 August 1947, Mountbatten remained in New Delhi for 10 months, serving as the first governor general of an independent India until June 1948.

June 21, 1982: Birthday of HRH The Duke of Cambridge

Tags

Catherine Middleton, Diana Princess of Wales, HRH The Prince of Wales, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Charles, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William Duke of Cambridge, Prince William of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, The Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of Cambridge

Official photo released on The Duke of Cambridge’s 38th birthday.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, KG, KT, PC, ADC (William Arthur Philip Louis; born June 21, 1982) is a member of the British royal family. He is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Since birth, he has been second in the line of succession to the British throne.

HRH The Duke of Cambridge

His father is HRH The Prince of Wales eldest son and heir to the throne of HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and her husband HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

His mother, Diana, Princess of Wales was born Lady Diana Spencer (1961-1997) the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1924–1992), and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (née Roche; 1936–2004). The Spencer family had been closely allied with the British royal family for several generations; Diana’s grandmothers, Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer and Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

HRH The Prince of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales

Prince William was born at Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, London, at 9:03 pm on June 21, 1982 as the first child of Charles, Prince of Wales—heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth II—and Diana, Princess of Wales. His names, William Arthur Philip Louis, were announced by Buckingham Palace on June 28.

Prince William was baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on 4 August 4, the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. He was the first child born to a Prince and Princess of Wales since the birth of Prince John in 1905.

William’s mother wanted him and his younger brother Prince Henry (Harry) to have wider experiences than are usual for royal children. She took them to Walt Disney World and McDonald’s, as well as AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless, and bought them items typically owned by teenagers, such as video games. Diana, who was by then divorced from Charles, died in a car accident in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

Prince William, then aged 15, together with his 12-year-old brother and their father, were staying at Balmoral Castle at the time. The Prince of Wales waited until his sons awoke the following morning to tell them about their mother’s death. William accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and his maternal uncle Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, at his mother’s funeral; they walked behind the funeral cortège from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

The decision to place William in Eton went against the family tradition of sending royal children to Gordonstoun, which William’s grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins all attended. Diana’s father and brother both attended Eton. The royal family and the tabloid press agreed William would be allowed to study free from intrusion in exchange for regular updates about his life.

After completing his studies at Eton, William took a gap year, during which he took part in British Army training exercises in Belize, worked on English dairy farms, visited Africa, and for ten weeks taught children in southern Chile. By 2001, William was back in the United Kingdom and had enrolled at the University of St Andrews. The extra attention did not deter him; he embarked on a degree course in Art History, later changing his main subject to Geography, and earned a Scottish Master of Arts degree with upper second class honours in 2005.

Having decided to follow a military career, in October 2005 William attended the four-day Regular Commissions Board at Westbury in Wiltshire, where he underwent selection to judge his suitability to become an army officer. He passed selection and was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006. After completing the course, William was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant at Sandhurst on 15 December 2006; the graduation parade was attended by the Queen and the Prince of Wales, along with other members of the Royal Family.

Prince William officially received his commission as a lieutenant at midnight. As “Lieutenant Wales”—a name based on his father’s title Prince of Wales—he followed his younger brother into the Blues and Royals as a troop commander in an armoured reconnaissance unit, after which he spent five months training for the post at Bovington Camp, Dorset.

In January 2009, William transferred his commission to the RAF and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He trained to become a helicopter pilot with the RAF’s Search and Rescue Force. In January 2010, he graduated from the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, where he had been under the instruction of Squadron Leader Craig Finch. On January 26, 2010, he transferred to the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley, Anglesey, to receive training on the Sea King search and rescue helicopter; he graduated from this course on September 17, 2010. This made him the first member of the British royal family since King Henry VII to live in Wales.

In November 2011, he participated in a search-and-rescue mission involving a cargo ship that was sinking in the Irish Sea; William, as a co-pilot, helped rescue two sailors.

William was deployed to the Falkland Islands for a six-week tour with No. 1564 Flight from February to March 2012. The Argentine government condemned the Duke’s deployment to the islands close to the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Falklands War as a “provocative act”.

In June 2012 Prince William gained a qualification to be captain or pilot in command of a Sea King rather than a co-pilot. His active service as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot ended in September 2013.

Prince William’s private life became a subject of tabloid speculation, especially around his relationship with Catherine Middleton, one of William’s university flatmates whom William began dating in 2003. Middleton attended William’s passing-out parade at Sandhurst, which was the first high-profile event that she attended as his guest.

On November 16, 2010, Clarence House announced that Prince William and Middleton were to marry; the couple had become engaged in Kenya in October. The engagement ring given by William to Catherine had belonged to his mother.

The wedding took place on April 29, 2011 in Westminster Abbey, London. A few hours before the ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen ennobled Prince William with new peerage titles Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus were announced.

His wife’s first pregnancy was announced on December 3, 2012. She was admitted on July 22, 2013 to the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, London, where Prince William had been delivered. Later that day, she gave birth to Prince George. On September 8, 2014, it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with her second child. She was admitted on May 2, 2015 to the same hospital and gave birth to Princess Charlotte. The Duchess’s third pregnancy was announced on September 4, 2017; Prince Louis was born on April 23, 2018.