THE ROYAL MARRIAGE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6449, 21 November 1947, Page 4

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE

HISTORY OF THE MOUNTBATTENS ONE OF THE MOST ROMANTIC IN HISTORY (By Cyril F. J. Hankinson, Editor of Debrett) The story of the Battenbergs, or Mountbattens, as they afterwards became, is one of the most romantic in history. Their menfolk were handsome and dashing princes, whose charm of manner was often matched with great ability, and their beautiful women became the brides of Emperors, Kings and Princes. Coming from such stock as this on his mother’s side, welded with the more stolid qualities of his father’s family, which has provided Denmark, Norway and Greece with their Kings, it is not surprising that Philip Mountten should be led by his destiny to win as his bride Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England and Sovereign of the greatest Commonwealth of Nations the world has yet seen.

Mountbatten, the surname adopted by the former Prince Philip of Greece, was chosen as the family name of the English branches of the Battenberg family when they renounced their German titles at the request of the late King George V in 1917. Not only was there the obvious reason for the choice provided by the translation of the German word “berg” into “mount,” but there was also the old fortress of Mount Batten, sentine l of the Sound at Plymouth, which gave Prince Louis of Battenberg the opportunity of paying a compliment to that great naval port. The history of the Battenbergs commences in the 1820’s, when in successive years the beautiful Grand Duchess Wilhelmina of Hesse gave birth to her two youngest childien, Alexander and Marie, under circumstances that led to rumours that the Grand Duke was not their father. However, as he never denied his paternity, the children were received everywhere as members of his family. In 1841, Alexander, heir to the Tsar Nicholas of Russia, who was touring Europe in search of a bride, met Maria of Hesse, then a child of 16, and, attracted by the lovely girl’s youthful charm, greatly against his father’s wishes insisted on her becoming his wife.

Princess Julie’s Family

When Princess Marie went to Russia she took with her her brother Alexander, who fell in love with Julie von Hauke, the daughter of a Polish count. For some time their romance was kept secret, but in 1851 he married her morganatically and, being compelled to leave Russia on this account, after serving in the Austrian Army, finally returned to live at Darmstadt, the capital of the Hessian Grand Duchy. To give her and her children some semi-Royal status in 1858 Julie was created by her bro-ther-in-law, the Grand Duke, Princess of Battenberg, a town in HesseNassau.

The marriage resulted in the birth of four Princes and a Princess of Battenberg. Of these the eldest, Louis, chose the British Navy as a career, and on entering the Senior Service in 1868 was naturalised a British subject. His outstanding achievements are too well known to need more than a passing mention; but it must be recorded that he rose to be Admiral of the Fleet and was First Sea Lord in August, 1914, when owing to public prejudice against his German origin he felt compelled to resign, thus enduring the mortification of taking no active part when the Navy which he had helped to bring to such a high state of efficiency was called into action. Unlike his grandson, Philip Mountbatten, he had retained his foreign titles; but in 1917 he renounced them and was created Marquess of Milford Haven. He married his cousin, Princess Victoria of Hesse, eldest daughter of the Grand Duke Louis IV by Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and her younger sister, Aix, was the wife of the unfortunate Tsar Nichoas II of Russia, whose fate she shared. >

The great naval traditions of this branch of the family were carried on by both sons of the first Marquess. The elder, who became the second Marquess, was a naval officer, as is his son, the present Lord Milford Haven, while the younger Louis, to whom fate was more kind than to his father, was one of the great architects of victory in the last war and as now Lord Mountbatten of Burma. The next son of the Princess of Battenberg was Alexander, one of the nineteenth century’s most remarkable figures. After fighting with conspicuous gallantry in the Russo-Turkish war of 1878, which won for him the high regard of his uncle, the Tsar, he was nominated by Russia as the first Prince of Bulgaria, a State newly created by the Peace Treaty, and in due course was elected. Alexander became immensely popular in Bulgaria, and with a high sense of his duty towards his subjects soon showed that the placed the interests of his newly adopted country before those of Russia.

A year after his election as Prince commences his tragic love story. He met Princess Victoria, daughter of the Crown Prince of Germany and his wife, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, and the two fell madly in love. The Crown Princess favoured their cause; but the proposal of marriage came to the knowledge of Bismarck, who placed every difficulty in their way. However, after Alexander had engaged in a whirlwind and brillantly successful war against Serbia which had been caused by the jealousy of the Serbs on the incorporation of South Bulgaria in his domains, his prestige became so greatly enhanced throughout Europe that the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany gave their permission for the engagement of the young couple. In the next year relations with Russia became very strained, that country being no longer ruled by the friendly uncle but by his cousin and namesake, Alexander, who disliked him. Envious of his popularity with his subjects and annoyed by his lack of subservience to their will, the Russians encouraged a plot which resulted in Alexander being kidnap-

ped by Bulgarian officers, taken down the Danube, and handed over to the Tzarist officials at the frontier. This amazing episode caused such unfavourable reactions that he was soon set free and allowed to return to Bularia. Alexander, however, imagined that a considerable section of the Bulgars had turned against him, and, in spite of his great achievements, felt that with Russia as his enemy the difficulties were too great for him to continue to rule. He therefore telegraphed his abdication to the Tsar, and retired from the Balkan area a disappointed and well-nigh broken man. The end of his rule in Bulgaria was also to effect the end of his romance, for, although formal consent had been given to the marriage, the death of the old German Emperor, followed shortly by that of his son, and the accession of Kaiser Wilhelm, resulted in the wedding being finally forbidden, and Alexander returned to Darmstadt. “Ruritanian Charm” At 31 he was left with but little to live for, but sought consolation in his despair by marrying an opera singer, and received the title of Count von Hartcnau. For four years he lived in obscurity in Austria, where he died in 1893. Even after this lapse of time he was still enthroned in the hearts of his Bulgars, whose faithful feelings were clearly shown when by his last wishes he was buried at Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Alexander’s next brother Henry was more fortunate in his love affairs, and married Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. He died at sea from fever contracted while serving with the Ashanti Expedition in 1896, and his eldest son was created Marquess of Carisbrooke in 1917, while his daughter, Princess Ena, married the late King Alfonso XIII of Spain, her wedding day being marred by attempted assassination. Francis Joseph, the youngest of the four Princes of Battenberg, like his brother Alexander, became associated with the Balkans through his mar-, riage with Princess Anna, daughter of Nicholas, the last King of Montenegro. He was the last of the four , sons of the Princess of Battenberg to survive.

The Battenbergs have almost with- •. out exception possessed a Ruritanian charm and dash which has endeared them to all with whom they have come into contact. They have all been bom fighters and leaders, but have not always been the darlings of the gods’, as is borne out by the untimely ending of the career of the first Marquess of Milford Haven just as the great moment of his life had come, and the abrupt termination of the rule of Alexander in Bulgaria. Had it continued it might have completely altered the subsequent chequered and unhappy history of that country.