Battenberg family

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Battenberg
Prince George of Battenberg
Connected familiesHouse of Windsor
Cadet branchesMountbatten family

The Battenberg family is a non-dynastic

Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. The name of the title refers to the town of Battenberg in Hesse. In 1858, the countess' title was elevated to Princess of Battenberg, with the style of Serene Highness
(H.S.H.).

The Battenberg name was last used by

Juan, Count of Barcelona, a son of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
, Queen of Spain, bore the surname of Borbón y Battenberg until his death in 1993.

Origins

Prince Alexander (1823–1888) was the third son of

Count von Hauke, a Polish nobleman of German ancestry who had served as a general in the Imperial Russian Army and then as Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland
.

Count von Hauke's rank was too low for his daughter's children with Prince Alexander to qualify for the succession to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. For this reason, her new brother-in-law Louis III of Hesse created the title of Countess of Battenberg (German: Gräfin von Battenberg) for her and for the couple's descendants.

In 1858, the title, which referred to the town of Battenberg in Hesse, was elevated to princely status. There was never a corresponding principality of Battenberg; the title was a non-sovereign one in the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. A previous family of counts of Battenberg had become extinct in the 14th century.[2]

After 1858, the children of this union bore the title of Prince (German: Prinz) or Princess (German: Prinzessin), with the style of Serene Highness (German: Durchlaucht).[3] Battenberg thus became the name of a morganatic cadet branch of the Grand Ducal family of Hesse, without the right of succession.[4]

Members

Connections to royal families

One of the original couple's sons, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, was made Sovereign Prince of Bulgaria in 1879. However, he was forced to abdicate in 1886.

Another son, Prince Henry of Battenberg, married Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. Their daughter, Victoria Eugenia Julia Ena, became queen consort of Spain. Her uncle Edward VII elevated her style to Royal Highness, so that she would have the necessary status to marry into the Spanish royal family.

Alexander and Julia's eldest son,

Mountbatten
, as did his children and nephews, the sons of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice.

One of the couple's four sons and one of their grandsons renounced their Hessian titles and were granted peerages by their cousin, George V – Prince Louis became the first Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry's eldest son, was created Marquess of Carisbrooke.

Prince Louis's second daughter,

Viceroy of India. Prince Louis's elder daughter, Princess Alice of Battenberg, married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark; their son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (later styled as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), married the heir presumptive to the British throne, later Elizabeth II, after having renounced his Greek titles and taken his maternal grandfather's and uncle's surname of Mountbatten. The name Battenberg, in its anglicised form, is now a part of the personal surname (Mountbatten-Windsor) of some members of the British royal family
.

In 1897, Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg married Princess Anna of Montenegro,[5] a sister of Queen Elena of Italy and a maternal aunt of Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

Coats of arms

In addition to the arms shown above:

Family tree

Genealogical Table of the Battenberg, Mountbatten and Mountbatten-Windsor Family


Battenberg/
Mountbatten
Spanish Royal Family
Grand Duke of Hesse and by the Rhine
1830—1848

Emperor of
All Russia
1855—1881
King of Greece
1863—1913
King of Greece

1913-17 &
1920-22
King of Greece

1947—1964
King of Greece

1964–73
King of Spain
2014—
Pavlos
Crown Prince
(1967—)

Notes

  1. ^ This coat of arms is reported in the "Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe", by Jiri Louda and Michael Maclagan, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1981, p216, table 109. While these arms are virtually the same as the city of Mainz, it is a common heraldic law that identical arms are allowed when the bearers are of different nations, but within a nation they are not (see for England, Warbelton v Gorges and Scrope v Grosvenor). However, Wikipedia reports a different set of arms for the family at the article on Hauke-Bosak (. However, these arms are for the family in Russia, and the reference given is an expired page in the Polish Wikipedia. There is no reference for the family seen in the Rietstap Armorial General.
  2. ^ Admiral of the Fleet, RN
    PC
    First Sea Lord, RN
    (1912–1914)
  3. ^ Admiral of the Fleet, RN
    PC FRS
    Chief of
    Combined Operations, Chiefs of Staff Committee (UK) and Combined Chiefs of Staff
    (US & UK) (1941–1943)
    Supreme Allied Commander,  South East Asia Command(1943–1946)
    Viceroy and Governor-General of India
    (1947)
    Governor-General of India(1947–1948)
    Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, RN (1952–1954)
    Fourth Sea Lord, RN (1950–1952)
    First Sea Lord, RN
    (1955–1959)
    Chief of the Defence Staff (1959–1965)
  4. ^ Prince Philip was born a member of the Danish and Greek Royal
    Greece and Denmark
    .
    On his marriage he became a naturalized British subject, disclaimed his Greek and Danish titles, and adopted his mother's maiden name of Mountbatten as his surname. As documented in the
    Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor
    ).
    Philip was created
    British Prince
    .

References

  1. ^ Hugo Vickers, Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece (2000), p. 8
  2. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A History (1997), p. 809
  3. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd
    , Burke's Royal Families of the World, Vol. 1 (1977), p. 213
  4. ^ Hugo Young, Political Lives (2001), p. 531
  5. ^ The Annual Register (1898), p. 27

External links

Wikisource has the text of The New Student's Reference Work article "Battenberg, House of".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to House of Battenberg.
Battenberg family
House of Battenberg
Cadet branch of the
House of Hesse-Darmstadt
Preceded by
House of Shishman
 Ruling House of Bulgaria
1879–1886 		Succeeded by
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