The children of this union bore the title of Prince (German: Prinz) or Princess (German: Prinzessin) and the style Serene Highness (German: Durchlaucht). Battenberg thus became the name of a morganatic cadet branch of the Grand Ducal family of Hesse, without right of succession. They shared the Coat of Arms of both parents.
The name Battenberg refers to the town of Battenberg in Hesse, which was granted town rights in 1234. In 1297, the town's ownership was transferred to the Archbishops of Mainz and in 1464, the Amt of Battenberg passed to Hesse. In 1932, Battenberg became part of the Frankenberg/Eder district and, as part of municipal reform in 1974, the districts of Frankenberg (including Battenberg) and Waldeck united to form the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg.
The Battenberg/Mountbatten family Coat of Arms are based on the town of Battenberg's civic Coat of Arms which are very simple. They are blazoned: Per pale sable and argent. The tinctures come from the arms borne by the town's old overlords, the Counts of Battenberg (a branch of the Counts of Wittgenstein). Battenberg's arms have their roots in the 13th century, putting them among Hesse's oldest municipal coats of arms. The Battenberg/Mountbatten family Coat of Arms became Argent two Pallets sable, maintaining the simplicity. As we will see, they were initially quartered with Lion of Hesse and then, after the various interdynastic marriages, were quartered with other Arms. |
- Princess Marie of Battenberg (1852–1923) married the Prince of Erbach-Schönberg in 1871.
- Prince Louis of Battenberg (1854–1921) renounced his title in 1917 to become Marquess of Milford Haven. He married his cousin Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom.
- Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885–1969) married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903. They were the parents of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
- Princess Louise of Battenberg (1889–1965) renounced her title in 1917 to become Lady Louise Mountbatten. She married the future Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1923.
- Prince George of Battenberg (1892–1938) renounced his title in 1917 to become Earl of Medina (later Marquess of Milford Haven).
- Prince Louis of Battenberg (1900–1979) renounced his title in 1917 to become Lord Louis Mountbatten (later Earl Mountbatten of Burma).
- Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1857–1893) became Prince of Bulgaria in 1879 (later Count of Hartenau).
- Asen of Hartenau (1890–1965)
- Tsvetana of Hartenau (1893–1935)
- Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896) married Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
- Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1886–1960) renounced his title in 1917 to become Marquess of Carisbrooke.
- Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887–1969) married Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906.
- Prince Leopold of Battenberg (1889–1922) renounced his title in 1917 to become Lord Leopold Mountbatten.
- Prince Maurice of Battenberg (1891–1914).
- Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg (1861–1924) married Princess Anna of Montenegro, daughter of Nikola Petrović-Njegoš, King Nicholas I of Montenegro.
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 house.
Alexander and Julia's eldest son, Prince Louis of Battenberg, became the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. Due to anti-German feelings prevalent in Britain during World War I, he anglicised his name to Mountbatten, as did his children and nephews, the sons of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice. They renounced all German titles and were granted peerages by their cousin, George V: Prince Louis became the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry's eldest son, became the 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke.
Prince Louis's second daughter Princess Louise of Battenberg become Queen Consort of Sweden as she married Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden in 1923 and his younger son Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma served as the last Viceroy of India. Prince Louis's elder daughter, Princess Alice of Battenberg, married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark; their son, Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark (now Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), married the heir presumptive of the British throne, later Elizabeth II, after having renounced his Greek titles and taken his maternal grandfather's and uncle's surname, 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.
Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg married Princess Anna of Montenegro, sister of Queen Elena of Italy and a maternal aunt of Alexander I of Yugoslavia.
Prince Louis of Battenberg/1st Marquess of Milford Haven (1854–1921)
Although born in Graz, Austria, and brought up in Italy and Germany, he enrolled in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy at the age of fourteen, having become a naturalised British citizen. Queen Victoria and her son King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, occasionally intervened in his career as there was a general fear of promoting Officers who were Princes. However, Louis welcomed assignments that provided opportunities for him to demonstrate to his superiors that he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours arranged by the Queen and Edward actually impeded his progress, as his promotions were perceived as undeserved royal favours.
After a naval career lasting more than forty years, in 1912 he was appointed First Sea Lord, the professional head of the British naval service. With World War I looming, he took steps to ready the British fleet for combat, but his background as a German prince forced his retirement once the war began, when anti-German sentiment was running high. He changed his name and relinquished his German titles, at the behest of King George V, in 1917. He was subsequently created Marquis of Milford Haven but for a period of 4 months he was plain The Right Honourable Sir Louis Mountbatten by virtue of being a Knight of various British Orders including the Bath (which, as the highest ranking order that Louis received, surrounded his Shield), Royal Victorian Order and St Michael and St George.
He married Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through Princess Alice (whose Arms will become important to this line), and was the father of Queen Louise of Sweden and Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who also served as First Sea Lord from 1954 to 1959. He is the maternal grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
His Coat of Arms as Marquis (shown above) are blazoned as follows:
Escutcheon:
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Azure a Lion rampant double-queued barry of ten Argent and Gules armed and langued of the last crowned Or within a Bordure company of the second and third (Hesse); 2nd and 3rd, Argent two Pallets Sable (Battenberg)
Crests:
1st: Out of a Coronet Or two Horns barry of ten Argent and Gules issuing from each three Linden Leaves Vert and from the outer side of each horn four Branches barwise having three like Leaves pendent therefrom of the last (Hesse); 2nd: Out of a Coronet Or a Plume of four Ostrich Feathers alternately Argent and Sable (Battenberg)
Supporters:
On either side a Lion double-queued and crowned all Or
Motto:
In Honour Bound
The interesting aspect of the Coat of Arms is the Motto, a traditional maxim or short philosophy which appears on a banner or ribbon underneath the Shield. In Louis's case it was In Honour Bound, which in no way is unusual in itself. It was presumably granted with his British Arms when he became Marquis and took the anglicised surname Mountbatten. It is presumably derived from the Hessian Motto of his ancestors which translates as God, Honour, Fatherland and is shown here on a postcard along with the smaller version of the full Arms and the Flag. |
Princess Alice of Battenberg/Princess Andrew of Greece (1885–1969)
As Louis and Victoria's eldest child, Alice was a Hessian princess by birth and a member of the Battenberg family. She grew up largely in the United Kingdom, but also in Germany and the Mediterranean. She was born deaf.
After marrying Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, she adopted the style of her husband, becoming Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. Alice gave birth to 4 daughters followed by a son, Philip, who went on to marry the present Queen of the United Kingdom and was created Duke of Edinburgh. The family lived in Greece until the exile of most of the Greek royal family in 1917. On returning to Greece a few years later, her husband was blamed in part for the country's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and the family was once again forced into exile until the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935. Following her attempts to defend her husband, in spite of his philandering nature, she became deeply religious to the extent that she claimed to hear divine messages. In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed to a sanatorium in Switzerland, living separately from her husband.
After her recovery, she devoted most of her remaining years to charity work in Greece. She stayed in Athens during the Second World War, sheltering Jewish refugees, for which she is recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel's Holocaust Memorial Institution, Yad Vashem. After the war, she stayed in Greece and founded an Orthodox nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary.
After the fall of King Constantine II of Greece and the imposition of military rule in Greece in 1967, she was invited by her son and daughter-in-law to live at Buckingham Palace in London, where she died two years later. Her remains were transferred from a vault in her birthplace, Windsor Castle, to a Russian Orthodox convent on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1988.
The only representation of her Coat of Arms (as Princess of Greece and Denmark) that I can find shows Alice as as Dame of the Spanish Order of Queen Maria Luisa. It would seem to confirm that her Arms are the usual marshalling of her Father's Hessian/Battenberg Arms with those of her Husband's Greece/Denmark Arms.
The history of the Coat of Arms of her son, Philip (now HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) were covered in one of my first Blogs.
HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Suffice it to say that HRH's Arms carry on the Battenberg/Mountbatten tradition with the black and white Arms appearing in the third Quarter of his Shield. The intriguing question is why his children/descendants do not have a dynastic Inescutcheon on their Arms, as did the descendants, for instance, of Prince Albert... (By the way, that was a hyperthetical if not rhetorical question...)
Princess Louise of Battenberg/Queen of Sweden (1889–1965)
During the First World War, Louise volunteered with the Red Cross and served as a nurse from March 1915 to July 1917.
Through the proclamation of 17th July 1917, whereby the British royal family assumed their anglicised surname, Princess Louise of Battenberg became Lady Louise Mountbatten, which remained her name until her marriage in 1923. By her own account and that of many others, her marriage to Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (later King Gustaf VI Adolf) was a happy one despite the fact that the couple never had any children together.
In 1950, Louise became queen when her husband ascended the Throne. Louise has been described as a staunch democrat and a practical person who disliked the attention she received.
During the 1950s, Queen Louise suffered a couple of minor heart attacks. Her health deteriorated significantly during the autumn of 1964 and she was taken ill following the Nobel Banquet in December, which was to be her final public appearance. She died in Stockholm early the following year.
Louise's Coat of Arms is covered in a previous Blog.
Prince George of Battenberg/2nd Marquess of Milford Haven (1892–1938)
A remarkably intelligent and clever child, George had his own workshop at his father’s Heiligenberg Castle by the age of ten and was soon designing and building precise working models of steam engines. He enjoyed complex maths problems “for relaxation” and was recognised by his superiors at Dartmouth Naval College for being perhaps the most clever cadet the college had ever seen, obviously inheriting his talents there from his Father. During his time in the Royal Navy, he devised a system to provide air conditioning in his cabin and invented a device which would brew his morning tea, triggered by an alarm clock.
On 15th November 1916, at the Russian Embassy in London, George married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby. Nadjeda was born in Cannes on 28th March 1896, the younger daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich of Russia and Countess Sophie von Merenberg. Following their wedding, George and Nadejda settled at Lynden Manor in Bray, Berkshire and had two children.
On 14th July 1917, when the Battenbergs gave up their titles and styles and took on the surname Mountbatten, George, like his Father, became Sir George Mountbatten, by virtue of having previously been created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Four months later, on 7th November 1917, his father was created Marquess of Milford Haven, and George assumed the courtesy title Earl of Medina. Four years later, in 1921, George succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven.
In the late 1920s, having lost most of his inheritance to German inflation – and having a wife with very expensive tastes – George left the Royal Navy for a career in business.
In 1930, George became instrumental in the upbringing of his nephew, Prince Philip, whose mother, as we have seen above, suffered a breakdown that year. George became Philip’s primary guardian, serving as a surrogate father and arranging for, and financing, Philip’s education. Prince Philip would ask George's son David, the third Marquis, to be his best-man in 1947.
In December 1937, George suffered a fall and broke his femur. A month later, when it didn’t appear to be healing, further examination found that he was suffering from bone marrow cancer. Fearing that the diagnosis would cause him to decline quite quickly, the doctors chose to withhold it from him, in agreement with the family. He lingered for several months, finally losing his battle on 8th April 1938. He is buried at the Bray Cemetery.
George's Coat of Arms are almost a copy of his Father's as you would expect for an heir. As with his elder Sister Louise and his younger Brother Louis, the Mountbatten/Milford Haven children took on an Inescutcheon, placed in the Honour Point at the top of the Shield, of Queen Victoria's daughter HRH The Princess Alice, namely:
The royal arms (without the inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony) differenced by a Label argent of three points, the outer Points bearing an Ermine Spot each, and the centre bearing a Rose gules.
George's Shield is surrounded by the Riband of the Royal Victorian Order.
Prince Louis of Battenberg/1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979)
From early on his family referred to him as "Nicky," from the last of his first names. But a visit from Czar Nicholas of Russia, who was also called "Nicky", prompted a change to "Dickie", and the name stayed with him for life.
Louis was a close friend of his cousin Edward, Prince of Wales and accompanied him on a number of tours, namely to Australia, India and Japan.
In the summer of 1922 Mountbatten married Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley. She was the heir to a sizeable fortune, providing the couple with a comfortable lifestyle for the rest of their lives. Two years later, they had a daughter, Patricia and another daughter, Pamela, was born seven years later.
During the Second World War, Louis 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).
Known as Lord Louis Mountbatten (as the son of a marquis) since the changes of 1917, he was made a Knight of the Garter and created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, of Romsey in the County of Southampton on 27th August 1946 as a victory title for war service. However, as Louis and Edwina had two daughters he was then created Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey in the County of Southampton on 28th October 1947 when new Letters Patent were drafted such that in the event he left no sons or issue in the male line so that the titles could pass to his daughters, in order of seniority of birth, and then to their male heirs respectively.
From 1954 to 1959, Mountbatten was First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 1965, making him the longest-serving professional head of the British Armed Forces to date. During this period Mountbatten also served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee for a year.
In 1979, Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas, and two others were killed by a bomb set by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, hidden aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. His ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey on 5th September 1979 was attended by the British Royal Family and members of the European royal houses.
Louis's Coat of Arms, as you might expect, reflect those of his elder brother, combining Hesse, Mountbatten and the Inescutcheon of Princess Alice. His Shield, however, is surrounded by the Garter and shows the Coronet of an earl. He was highly decorated otherwise with the Orders of the Bath, Star of India and Indian Empire along with the Order of Merit (Military Division) and the Royal Victorian Order.
Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924 - 2017)
Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma (b. 1947)
Patricia married John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, a television producer and Oscar-nominated film producer, in 1946. The wedding was notable for one of the first open appearances of Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth, who was a bridesmaid, and Prince Philip (Lt. Mountbatten at the time), who was an usher. John predeceased his wife in 2005. Their eldest son, Norton, therefore became Baron Brabourne in his own right but succeeded to the higher title of Earl Mountbatten of Burma when his Mother dies in 2017. As such, Norton's Coat of Arms is as follows: Quaterly, 1st Azure, on a Bend voided Or, three Cross-crosslets fitchy of the same (Knatchbull); 2nd Argent, two Pallets Sable (Battenberg); 3rd Azure, a Lion rampant double queued Barry of ten Argent and Gules, armed and tongued Gules and crowned Or, within a Bordure compony Argent and Gules (Hesse); 4th the Arms of the late Princess Alice (that is, Quaterly, 1st and 4th Gules, three Lions passant guardant Or, 2nd Or, a Lion rampant Gules within a Double-Treasure flory-counter flory of the same, 3rd Azure, a Harp Or, differenced with a Lapel of three points Argent, charged in the centre point a Tudor Rose and both other points an Ermine Spot Sable). |
Prince Alexander of Battenberg/Prince of Bulgaria (1857–1893)
In his boyhood and early youth Alexander frequently visited Saint Petersburg, accompanying his uncle, Tsar Alexander II, who was much attached to him, during the Bulgarian campaign of 1877. When, under the Treaty of Berlin (1878), Bulgaria became an autonomous principality under the Ottoman Empire, the Tsar recommended his nephew to the Bulgarians as a candidate for the newly created throne, and the Grand National Assembly unanimously elected Prince Alexander as Prince of Bulgaria (29th April 1879). Not having had any previous training in governing, a range of problems confronted Alexander. He found himself caught between the Russians, who wanted him to do nothing really, and the Bulgarian politicians, who actively pursued their own quarrels with a violence that threatened the stability of Bulgaria.
After attempting to govern under these conditions for nearly two years, the Prince, with the consent of the Russian Tsar, assumed absolute power, having suspended the Constitution (9th May 1881). However, the monarchical coup infuriated Bulgarian Liberal and Radical politicians and real power passed to two Russian generals, whom Alexander vainly tried to get recalled. Alexander restored the constitution with the concurrence of all the Bulgarian political parties (19th September 1883) and a serious breach with Russia followed.
Revolution and the successful union of Eastern Rumelia ultimately caused Alexander's position to be untenable and he was forced to abdicate, leaving Bulgaria on 8th September 1886.
Alexander retired into private life and a few years later married an actress, assuming the style of Count von Hartenau. When he died in 1893 his remains were brought back to Sofia from Austria and were buried in the Battenberg Mausoleum, erected to his memory.
He was generally thought of as charming, amiable and handsome. Competent as a soldier, but as a ruler, with his youth and inexperience and the extreme difficulty of his position, he made many errors.
The Shield of his Arms as Prince of Bulgaria included a Latin Cross, a Russian Cross and the Lion of Bulgaria. Over all was a dynastic Inescutcheon of Hesse charged with a Label of difference (as a second son) which was white with the two black stripes (or Pales) of Battenberg.
This is suggested by the accompanying graphic from the Gallery of www.heraldika-bg.org/ and also the photograph of the gravestone of his wife, Johanna, Countess Hartenau in the St. Leonhard's Cemetery, Graz from the Androom Archives (www.androom.home.xs4all.nl), although the shadows on the photograph don't help identification.
Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896)
Prince Henry received a military education and took up a commission as a lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of the Rhenish Hussars in the Prussian Army. He served in the Prussian Garde du Corps and was also Honorary Colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment of Bulgaria, where his brother Alexander was Sovereign Prince.
Because of their close relationship to the Grand Ducal House of Hesse, the Battenbergs came into close contact with various ruling families of Europe, including the British Royal House. Henry's elder brother, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had married Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, his first cousin once-removed and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through Princess Alice. In 1884, Prince Henry became engaged to Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter and the youngest child of Victoria and Albert. Queen Victoria agreed to the marriage on the condition that the couple should make their home with her. The Queen formally gave her consent to the marriage at a meeting of the Privy Council on 27th January 1885.
On 22nd July 1885, the Queen made Prince Henry a Knight of the Garter, and granted him the style Royal Highness to give him equal rank with his wife. This style took effect in the United Kingdom, but not in the German Empire (where the Prince was still considered a Serene Highness). They were married the following day at St Mildred's Church at Whippingham, near Osborne on the Isle of Wight. On the same day, a bill to naturalise Prince Henry a British subject passed the House of Lords. The couple adopted the style, Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg.
On 22nd August 1885 he was made Honorary Colonel of the 5th (Isle of Wight, Princess Beatrice's) Volunteer Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment.
As we will see, they had four children. By Royal Warrant of 13th December 1886, the Queen granted their children the style Highness. This style took immediate effect in the United Kingdom and elsewhere except within the German Empire, where, as Princes and Princesses of Battenberg, they were only entitled to the style Serene Highness.
In 1889 Prince Henry was made Governor of Carisbrooke Castle and Captain-General and Governor of the Isle of Wight. He was made Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army on 21st June 1887, Colonel on 22nd February 1893 and appointed to the Privy Council on 20th November 1894.
In November 1895, Prince Henry persuaded Queen Victoria to allow him to go to West Africa to fight in the Ashanti War. He served as the military secretary to the commander-in-chief of British forces, General Sir Francis Scott. He contracted malaria when the expedition reached Prahsu, about 30 miles (50 km) from Kumasi, and subsequently died aboard the cruiser HMS Blonde stationed off the coast of Sierra Leone. His body was repatriated by the cruiser HMS Blenheim from the Canary Islands and his funeral service took place on 5th February 1896, at the same St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight where he had been married. Interment followed in what became known as the Battenberg Chapel.
Henry's Coat of Arms was the same as his Brothers', quartering Hesse with Battenberg. However, he chose a different Motto - In Te Domine Spero (I trust in you, o Lord) and turned the faces of his Lion Supporters to the front (guardant), no doubt to distinguish his Arms from those of his elder brother Louis who was also an active member of the British Royal Family.
Henry and Beatrice's children have been covered in a previous Blog. Additionally, Victoria Eugenia (Queen Ena of Spain) has had a couple of Blogs to herself. I will present them again here briefly.
Prince Alexander of Battenberg/1st Marquess of Carisbrooke (1886–1960)
Beatrice's children allegedly became Queen Victoria's favourites and Drino, as he was known, felt closer to his Grandmother than to his distant Mother. After leaving college, he appears to have been a bit of a military butterfly, having served in all three major services - in order, Navy, Army and Air Force - seemingly more to collect ranks, medals and orders of chivalry than forging a brilliant career. This was in great contrast to his simple, small-scale wedding to Lady Irene Denison on 19th July 1917, only days after having to relinquish his German princely title and coveted rank of Highness and rather resentfully becoming Marquis of Carisbrooke in the November. There was a period in 1917 when he technically Sir Alexander Mountbatten only by virtue of being a Knight of the Royal Victorian Order.
Having no allowance, Drino went into commerce after the Great War and, amongst other posts, became “an adviser to buyers of decorative fabrics” at an Oxford Street drapery store. He later became a director of Lever Brothers and several other prominent corporations. Known for his flamboyance, it is heavily rumoured that he was homosexual and that he had a male lover in later life. Irene was thanked by The King and Queen for her perseverance and for her charitable work.
Drino worked in 'intelligence' for the RAF during World War Two and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1960 as the last surviving grandson of Queen Victoria. He and Irene did have a child, Lady Iris Mountbatten, an actress, model and TV presenter. As such, the title of Marquis of Carisbrooke, though, became extinct.
Technically born a German prince, Alexander would take on his Father's Battenberg/Hesse Coat of Arms, and so would and did his two brothers. However, these were quartered with his Mother's Arms, although Crests and Cornet/Crown were still inherited from his Father. As with Princess Helena's children, Beatrice's Coat of Arms took first place in the Quarterings, even though neither Helena nor Beatrice were even remotely heraldic heiresses. It was simply an acknowledgement that they were members of the British Royal Family.
After the changes of 1917, the Battenberg princely Crown was changed for a British Coronet which is shown as that of a grandchild of a sovereign through the female line, with alternating Fleurs-de-Lys and Strawberry Leaves. However, it is not clear whether Alexander was entitled to this Coronet, rather than that of an ordinary marquis, as Letters Patent would be required, especially nowadays, but it is confirmed by his entry in Burke's Peerage. However, as we saw in a previous Blog, Alexander did wear the physical version of this Coronet at the Coronation of King George VI and lent it to the Earl of Harewood, son of HRH The Princess Mary, Princess Royal, in 1953.
Alexander and his Brothers used their Father's Supporters with the two gold Lions now being guardant (looking out) rather than looking at each other over the Shield.
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg/Queen Ena of Spain (1887–1969)
Her story and various Coats of Arms have been covered previously - Blog One and Blog Two.
Prince Leopold of Battenberg/Lord Leopold Mountbatten (1889–1922)
In 1909 he was commissioned in a territorial force unit and in 1912 in the regular army. He saw active service during the First World War but was put on half-pay early in 1918 due to his health. (There is no particular evidence that Leopold had hemophilia, but this action would certainly lead one to come to that conclusion.) However, Leopold didn't resign his commission until 1920.
During the First World War he relinquished his German titles along with the rest of the Royal Family and eventually became Lord Leopold Mountbatten, as now the equivalent of the younger son of a marquis.
After all his war service in the military, Leopold died at the age of 32 during a hip operation.
Before 1917, Leopold's Arms were the same as his Brothers. They continued pretty much the same afterwards as noted above, but for difference and according to the English system, Leopold's Arms carried a Crescent for a second son. The two elder, surviving brothers were further able to difference their Arms by the Orders they had received. Alexander had the Order of the Bath and Leopold the Royal Victorian Order, the respective Ribands of which encircled their Shields.
Prince Maurice of Battenberg (1891–1914)
The Prince, as he still was, was killed in action at Zonnebeke, in the Ypres Salient on 27 October 1914. The war diary of the 1st battalion for that day records: ‘During the advance eastwards from the ridge the battalion came under terrific shell fire as well as rifle fire… Poor [Prince] Maurice was killed outright just on top of the ridge’ (WO 95/1358/3).
Princess Beatrice declined Lord Kitchener’s offer to have Maurice's body returned to England for burial and so he lies with his men in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Ypres.
Maurice's Coat of Arms remains the version before the changes to the Royal Family in 1917 as a consequence of the Great War as he did not live long enough to have to relinquish the German titles he had inherited. It includes the Continental Royal Crown and the Inescutcheon of Saxony inherited from Prince Albert.
Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg (1861–1924)
Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg, also known as Prince Franz Joseph of Battenberg, (24th September 1861 – 31st July 1924), was the fourth and youngest son and child of Alexander and Julia. At one time, he was considered for the throne of Bulgaria, which eventually went to his brother Alexander. Francis Joseph nevertheless followed his brother to Bulgaria, where he served as a colonel in the Bulgarian cavalry. In 1891 he published an academic study on Bulgarian economic history, which he dedicated to his brother. At a family reunion in London in 1894 Franz Joseph met Consuelo Vanderbilt, the daughter of an extremely wealthy American railway tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt. He made a marriage proposal to her as one of several men who did, but the only who her mother allowed her to consider. However, Consuelo disliked him and turned him down. She later went on to marry the 9th Duke of Marlborough. In 1897 he married Princess Anna Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (1874–1971), daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro. They had no children. He was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (Civil Division) by Queen Victoria on 6th February 1896 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on 26 April 1897. |
Prince Franz Joseph died in Territet, Switzerland on 31st July 1924, having outlived all of his siblings.
It is not clear what his Coat of Arms was, but as he was already residing on the Continent before the First World War started and therefore was not considered regarding the change of name from Battenberg to Mountbatten even though he evidently did not fight, it is safe to say that his Coat of Arms remained the original Continental version.
As Franz/Francis Joseph and Anna had no children the name Battenberg died out with them in 1924 and 1971 respectively. This brings our look at the mini-dynasty sadly to a close.