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BATTENBERG SYNOPSIS: |
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The name Battenberg Cake is first recorded in 1903. However, it must have existed earlier as it is said to have been created to mark the marriage in 1884 of Princess Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Louis of Battenberg. The first Battenbergs were a family of German counts that died out about 1314 and whose seat was the castle of Kellerburg, near Battenberg, in Hesse. In 1851, Prince Alexander of Hesse contracted a morganatic marriage with the Polish countess, Julie Hauke, who was then created countess of Battenberg. In 1858 the countess and her children were all raised to the rank of Prince or Princess of Battenberg. |
Prince Alexander (1823-88) was the third and youngest son of Louis II, grand duke of Hesse. It was Alexanda's morganatic marriage to countess Julia Theresa von Hauke (1825-95) that lead to the revival of the Battenberg name. Their marriage produced five offspring, and the eldest son was Prince Louis of Battenberg.
Prince Louis was born in Graz, Austria on 24th May 1854. On 30th April 1884 - he became wed to Princess Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt, Battenberg. They had two daughters and two sons, George (1892-1938), 2nd marquess, and Louis, afterward Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
His daughter Louise married Gustavus VI, king of Sweden. Another daughter, Alice, married Prince Andrew of Greece, third son of King George I of Greece; their son Philip was created duke of Edinburgh and married (1947) Princess Elizabeth of England (later Queen Elizabeth II). Louis Mountbatten was their second sonrd Haven.
Prince Louis was naturalized as a British subject in 1868, when he entered the Royal Navy. He took part in the British invasion of Egypt in 1882, including the bombardment of Alexandria (July 11). After serving as director of naval intelligence, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1904 and vice admiral in 1908. He commanded the Atlantic Fleet from 1908 to 1910 and became first sea lord in 1912. As such he was charged with readying the fleet for war. After a test mobilization in July 1914, he ordered (with instructions from Churchill, first lord of the Admiralty) the reserve ships to remain in full commission; thus, the fleet was wholly mobilized on Aug. 3, 1914, the day before Great Britain entered World War I.
Despite this and other services, he was forced to resign as first sea lord (Oct. 29, 1914) because of his German birth and a surge in British anti-German sentiment (whipped-up by a press campaign which harped unscrupulously on about his German background), thus losing one of the most effective officers of the Royal Navy at a critical moment. In 1917, at the request of King George V, he relinquished his German titles, assumed the surname of Mountbatten, and on July 17 of that year was created marquess of Milford Haven.
Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1820-1893) was first prince of Bulgaria, and uncle of Earl Mountbatten, born in Verona, Italy. An officer in the Hessian army, he was elected prince of the new principality of Bulgaria in 1879. In 1885 he annexed E Romania after an uprising there, thereby provoking the hostility of Serbia. In 1886 he was overpowered by pro-Russian army conspirators in his palace in Sofia, and forced to abdicate.
Marie of Battenberg - Info TBA
Henry Maurice of Battenberg - took British nationality on his marriage in 1885 to Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, and was the father of Victoria Eugenie, or Ena (1887-1969), who in 1906 married King Alfonso XIII of Spain. Francis Joseph (1861-1924) married in 1897 Anna, daughter of Nicholas I, prince of Montenegro.
Franz Joseph of Battenberg - Info TBA
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DEFINITIONS:- Count/Countess - A middle ranking European nobleman/woman. Morganatic - A marriage between a person of high rank and a person of low rank, by which the latteris noe elevated to the higher rank and any children have no rights to inherit the higher party titles or property. |
