First Cousins: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819 – 1901)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London, England on May 24, 1819. She was the only child of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Victoria’s father died when she was eight months old. Her paternal grandparents were King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her maternal grandparents were Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss of Erbesdorf.

Eighteen months before Victoria’s birth, her first cousin Princess Charlotte of Wales died in childbirth along with her son. At the time of her death, Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, despite the fact that twelve of his fifteen children were still alive. If Charlotte had survived her grandfather King George III and her father, the future King George IV, she would have become Queen. Her death left no legitimate heir in the second generation and prompted the aging sons of King George III to begin a frantic search for brides to provide for the succession. Victoria’s father was the fourth son of King George III but the eldest son who had a surviving child and so Victoria became the heir to the throne during the reign of George III’s third son King William IV and succeeded to the throne upon his death.

Victoria married her maternal first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and had nine children. She was the longest-reigning British sovereign until her great-great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II surpassed the length of her reign in 2015.

Victoria had seven paternal first cousins and 21 maternal first cousins. She shared her maternal first cousins with her half-siblings Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Victoria: Children of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Victoria: Children of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss of Erbesdorf

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Child of King George IV of the United Kingdom and Caroline of Brunswick

Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796 – 1817)

Had Princess Charlotte of Wales survived her grandfather King George III and her father King George IV, she would have become Queen of the United Kingdom. During her lifetime, Charlotte was second in the line of succession to the British throne after her father. Charlotte married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and died in childbirth at the age of 21 along with her son eighteen months later. Charlotte’s pregnancy and delivery had been grossly mismanaged and the doctor in charge later died by suicide. She was mourned by the British people in a manner similar to the mourning of Diana, Princess of Wales. There is a very moving memorial to Charlotte in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.  Charlotte’s body is draped as she ascends to heaven along with angels, one of which carries her stillborn son.

Memorial to Charlotte; Credit – http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/

Charlotte’s widower Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld greatly mourned Charlotte but his connection with the British Royal Family continued.  He was the uncle of both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  Leopold went on to become the first King of the Belgians, having been elected King by the Belgian National Congress in 1831.

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Paternal First Cousins: Child of King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

George V, King of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (1819 – 1878)

Prince George of Cumberland, the last King of Hanover, was the only child of King George III’s fifth son Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale. George was born three days after his first cousin Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (later Queen Victoria), who was ahead of her cousin in the succession by being the child of King George III’s fourth son. In 1828, an accident with a swinging set of keys resulted in George losing some vision. By 1835, George was completely blind. George married Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg and had one son and two daughters.

In 1837, upon the accession of Queen Victoria, George’s father became King of Hanover. Up until the point, Hanoverian kings of the United Kingdom were also Electors or Kings of Hanover. However, Hanover followed the Salic Law which did not allow female succession. Ernest Augustus, as the eldest surviving son of King George III, became King of Hanover and his son George became the Crown Prince. George succeeded his father as King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, as well as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, in the Peerage of Great Britain, and Earl of Armagh, in the Peerage of Ireland. Fifteen years later, the monarchy was abolished when Hanover was annexed by Prussia.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex and Lady Augusta Murray

The sixth son and the ninth of the fifteen children of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex is infamously known for making two marriages in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772. The first marriage to Lady Augusta Murray resulted in the birth of two children. The marriage was null and void because it violated the Royal Marriages Act and the children were considered illegitimate and did not have succession rights. Nevertheless, they were first cousins of Queen Victoria.

Augustus Frederick d’Este (1794 – 1848)

Augustus Frederick D’Este was an active member of the Aborigines Protection Society and was particularly interested in Native Americans. He was also the earliest recorded person for whom a definite diagnosis of multiple sclerosis can be made. The diagnosis was made in 1948 after the discovery of the diaries he kept for 22 years detailing his symptoms. He never married, probably due to his illness.

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Augusta Emma d’Este, Baroness Truro (1801-1866)

Augusta Emma D’Este married Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro, but their marriage was childless. Like her father, she suffered from asthma and spent time in the warmer climates of Europe to ease her symptoms. Augusta kept in touch with her father and spent time at court attending Queen Adelaide, the wife of her uncle King William IV.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge and Augusta of Hesse-Kassel

Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (1819 – 1904)

A maternal uncle of Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V, Prince George was the son of King George III’s seventh son. He was born two months before his first cousin Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (Queen Victoria), who was ahead of her cousin in the line of succession by being the child of King George III’s fourth son. George married actress Sarah Louisa Fairbrother and had three sons but the marriage was in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act so it was not legal and children of the marriage were illegitimate.

Because George’s sons were illegitimate, his title Duke of Cambridge became extinct upon his death. 107 years later, the title Duke of Cambridge was created for Prince William, his father’s great-great-great-great-grandson and the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, on the occasion of William’s wedding.

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Princess Augusta of Cambridge, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1822 – 1916)

Princess Augusta of Cambridge married her maternal first cousin Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and had two sons, but only one survived to adulthood. Because she had no daughter of her own, Augusta became very close with her niece Mary (May) of Teck, later the wife of King George V of the United Kingdom, and the two corresponded regularly until Augusta’s death.

Prior to the coronation of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his wife Queen Alexandra in 1902, which Augusta attended, she was consulted on matters of ceremony and attire as she was almost the only person alive who could remember the coronation of King William IV and Queen Adelaide. Her recollection of Queen Victoria’s coronation also proved invaluable. Unfortunately, due to old age, Augusta was not able to attend the coronation of her niece May (Queen Mary) and her husband King George V of the United Kingdom in 1911.

At the time of her death, Augusta was 94 years, 4 months and 16 days old which made her, at that time, the longest-lived British Princess of the Blood Royal. Princess Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone, the daughter of Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold, became the longest-lived British Princess of the Blood Royal in 1977 and died four years later at the age of at age 97 years and 313 days.

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Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck (1833 – 1897)

Princess Mary Adelaide was a granddaughter of King George III, the mother of King George V’s wife Queen Mary, the grandmother of King Edward VIII and King George VI, and the great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. Mary Adelaide weighed approximately 250 pounds and was affectionately known as “Fat Mary.” Her first cousin Queen Victoria wrote of her, “Her size is fearful. It is really a misfortune.” Because of her large size, many members of her family considered her unmarriageable. Mary Adelaide, however, was high-spirited and full of life and was adored by the Victorian public who called her “The People’s Princess.”

However, she married Francis, Duke of Teck and had two sons in addition to her already-mentioned daughter. Mary Adelaide devoted her life to charity, serving as the first royal patron of Barnardo’s, a charity still in existence, founded by Thomas Barnardo in 1866 to care for vulnerable children and young people. Barnardo’s has a long history of royal patrons and presidents including Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary (Mary Adelaide’s daughter), Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Queen Consort Camilla.

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Emmanuel, Count of Mensdorff-Pouilly

Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly (1813 – 1871)

Alexander had a career in the Austrian Army and attained the rank of Lieutenant Field Marshal. He was the Austrian ambassador to Russia, Governor of Austrian Galicia, and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire. Alexander married Alexandrine von Dietrichstein, the heiress of Prince Joseph von Dietrichstein, and had two sons.

Other First Cousins: Children of Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Emmanuel, Count og Mensdorff-Pouilly

  • Hugo of Mensdorff-Pouilly (1806 – 1847), unmarried
  • Alphons of Mensdorff-Pouilly (1810 – 1894), married (1) Countess Therese von Dietrichstein-Proskau-Leslie, had two daughters (2) Countess Maria Therese von Lamberg, had one son
  • Alfred of Mensdorff-Pouilly (1812 – 1814), died in early childhood
  • Leopold of Mensdorff-Pouilly (1815 – 1821), died in childhood
  • Arthur of Mensdorff-Pouilly (1817 – 1904), married (1) Magdalene Kremzow, no children (2) Bianca von Wickenburg, no children

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Alexander of Württemberg

Duchess Marie of Württemberg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha  (1799 – 1860)

When she was 33-years-old, Marie became the second wife of her 48-year-old maternal uncle Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. After her marriage, Marie was not only the first cousin but also the stepmother of her husband’s sons from his first marriage, Ernst (later Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and Albert (later husband of Queen Victoria). Marie and Ernst had no children, but Marie had a good relationship with her stepsons and maintained a correspondence with Albert throughout their lives.

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Duke Alexander of Württemberg (1804 – 1881)

Alexander’s branch of the Württemberg was not considered very prestigious but he did have some impressive royal connections. He was the nephew both of King Friedrich I of Württemberg (via his father) and of Leopold I of the Belgians (via his mother), a first cousin of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert as well the first cousins of King Ferdinand II of Portugal (via his mother) and Alexander I and Nicholas I, Emperors of All Russia (via his father.) Alexander married Princess Marie of Orléans, daughter of Louis-Philippe, King of the French and had one son.

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  • Duke Paul of Württemberg (1800 – 1801), died in infancy
  • Duke Ernst of Württemberg (1807 – 1868), married Natalie Eischborn, had one daughter
  • Duke Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand of Württemberg (1810 – 1815), died in childhood

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his first wife Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1818 – 1893)

Ernst II was the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1844 – 1893. He grew up and was educated with his brother Albert who was just a year younger. At the urging of Albert, who had married Queen Victoria in 1840, Ernst began his search for a bride. Ernst was suffering from a venereal disease as a result of his many affairs and had been warned that continued promiscuity could leave him unable to father children. He married Princess Alexandrine of Baden, the daughter of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess Sophie of Sweden. Their marriage was childless, perhaps due to Ernst passing the venereal disease to Alexandrine causing her to become infertile. Alexandrine was loyal and devoted to her husband despite his infidelities, and believed that their lack of children was her fault. Upon Ernst’s death, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, his brother Albert’s second son, succeeded him as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Albert with his wife and first cousin Queen Victoria

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819 – 1861)

Albert was not only Queen Victoria’s husband but also her first cousin. Albert’s father and Victoria’s mother were siblings. Victoria and Albert had nine children. Their children and grandchildren married into other European royal families and their grandchildren sat upon the thrones of Germany/Prussia, Greece, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom as monarchs or consorts. Through these marriages, Victoria and Albert’s daughters and granddaughters transmitted the genetic disease hemophilia into other royal families. Albert’s early death at the age of 42 left Victoria in a perpetual state of widowhood that lasted the rest of her life. Victoria and Albert’s descendants currently sit upon the thrones of Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Princess Maria Antonia Koháry

When Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld married Princess Maria Antonia Koháry, daughter and heiress of Ferenc József, Prince of Koháry de Csábrág et Szitnya, he remained Lutheran but agreed that their children would be raised Roman Catholic, thereby establishing the Catholic branch of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family. When Antonia’s father died, she inherited his estates in Hungary and Ferdinand took the title of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry.

Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, King Consort of Portugal (1816 – 1885)

Ferdinand’s marriage to Queen Maria II of Portugal was orchestrated by his paternal uncle Leopold I, King of the Belgians. At the time of the marriage, Ferdinand was created Prince Consort of Portugal. The couple had eleven children and following tradition, Ferdinand was elevated to King Consort following the birth of their eldest son, the future King Pedro V. Ferdinand preferred to stay out of politics and left the affairs of state to his wife but like his cousin Prince Albert who married their cousin Queen Victoria, Ferdinand often stood in for his wife during her numerous pregnancies. When Queen Maria II died after giving birth to their last child, Ferdinand served as Regent for his eldest son, the new King Pedro V, until he became of age. Ferdinand married again to Elise Hensler who was a Swiss-born American actress and opera singer but the couple had no children.

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Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1818 – 1881)

August married Princess Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French and had five children including Ferdinand, reigning Prince of Bulgaria and later Tsar of Bulgaria. August and his family lived in Palais Coburg in Vienna, Austria and the Bürglaß Castle in Coburg. When his mother died, August inherited her extensive land in Hungary and became one of Hungary’s largest landowners.

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Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess of Nemours  (1822 – 1857)

Victoria married Louis of Orléans, Duke of Nemours, the second son of Louis Philippe, King of the French and had four children. She died ten days after giving birth to her last child.

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Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1824 – 1884)

Leopold had a career in the Austrian Army. He had a son born out of wedlock with Constanze Geiger. The couple married six months after their son’s birth. Because the marriage was unequal, Leopold’s wife and son could not share his title and they were created Freihfrau (Countess) and Freiherr (Count) von Ruttenstein.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Leopold I, King of the Belgians and his second wife Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans

Louis Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium (1833 – 1834)

Little Louis-Philippe did not fulfill his destiny to be the second King of the Belgians. He died two months short of his first birthday. His father Leopold I, King of the Belgians, recalling the death of his first wife Princess Charlotte of Wales and their son in childbirth, grieved deeply and feared he would never have an heir and this would compromise his position as king of the new Kingdom of the Belgians.

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Leopold II, King of the Belgians (1835 – 1909)

Leopold II was the second monarch of Belgium and is known for his exploitation of the Congo Free State in Africa for his personal gain and the atrocities committed against the Congolese people. He married Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria, daughter of Archduke Joseph of Austria and his third wife Maria Dorothea of Württemberg. The couple had three daughters and one son who died at age 10 after falling into a pond and catching pneumonia. At the time of his death, Leopold II was extremely unpopular and his funeral procession was booed. He was succeeded by his nephew King Albert I, the son of his brother Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders.

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Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (1837 – 1905)

Prince Philippe is the ancestor of the current Belgian royal family as his son succeeded to the Belgian throne as Albert I, King of the Belgians. Philippe refused the offer of the throne of Romania which was later accepted by his future brother-in-law Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen who reigned as King Carol I of Romania. He married Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and had three daughters and two sons.

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Princess Charlotte of Belgium, Empress Carlotta of Mexico (1840 – 1927)

Princess Charlotte was the only daughter and the youngest of the four children of Leopold I, King of Belgians and his second wife Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans. Her father named her after his first wife Princess Charlotte of Wales who died in childbirth along with their son. Charlotte married Archduke Maximilian of Austria, a younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, but the couple had no children. After a French-staged referendum in Mexico that supposedly confirmed the will of the people that they wanted an empire, Maximilian agreed to become the Emperor of Mexico. Charlotte was then known as Empress Carlotta of Mexico. Maximilian’s reign of Mexico was short-lived. Many Mexicans wanted a republic instead of an empire and this led to continuous warfare. Three years after he became Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian was condemned to death by a court of war and executed by a firing squad. After the death of her husband, Charlotte apparently developed some kind of mental illness. She spent the rest of her life at Bouchout Castle in Meise, Belgium where her brother King Leopold II oversaw her care.

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

The first husband of Princess Maria of Greece who was the daughter of King George I of Greece, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia was executed by the Bolsheviks along with his brother Nicholas and two other Russian Grand Dukes. George was born on August 23, 1863, in Bielyi-Kliutsch, in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire, now in the country of Georgia. He was the third of the six sons and the fourth of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna, born Princess Cecilie of Baden. George’s paternal grandparents were Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia and his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. His maternal grandparents were Grand Duke Leopold of Baden and Princess Sofia of Sweden, daughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.

George had five brothers and one sister:

Grand Duke George; Credit – Wikipedia

George grew up in present-day Georgia where his father was the Governor-General of the Russian provinces of Transcaucasia. Educated by private tutors, George had a Spartan upbringing that included sleeping on army cots and taking cold baths.

While George did have a military career and served as a General in the Russian Army, he was a passionate coin collector. His collections of Russian coins and medals included practically every coin ever used in the Russian Empire and he wrote ten books on coins. One of them, Catalogue of Imperial Russian Coins 1725–1891, was reprinted in the United States in 1976 and is still an important reference for coin collectors. In 1895, George was appointed the curator of the Alexander III Museum, today the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. His knowledge of coins was invaluable in increasing the museum’s coin collection. In 1909, George donated his collection to the museum.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Princess Maria of Greece, circa1900; Credit – Royal Collection Trust RCIN 2927293

On April 30, 1900, in Corfu, Greece, George married Princess Maria of Greece, the daughter of his first cousin Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia and her husband King George I of Greece, born Prince Vilhelm of Denmark. The couple had two daughters. George’s daughter Princess Xenia married millionaire William Leeds and lived in an estate on Long Island in New York State for years. For a few months in 1927, Xenia took in a woman claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, later found to be Anna Anderson, an impostor.

George, Maria, and their two daughters; Credit – Wikipedia

George and Maria’s marriage was never really happy. Maria was not in love with her husband despite his apparent devotion to her. She had never wanted to leave Greece and soon found excuses to leave Russia and her husband. She spent more time in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, often using her daughters’ health as the reason for her travels. Maria and her two daughters were in England when World War I broke out and chose not to return to Russia. They never saw George again.

In March 1918, all the male members of the Romanov family were ordered to register at Cheka (Soviet secret police) headquarters and then were sent into exile in internal areas of Russia. George was sent to Vologda, a town north of Moscow, with his brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and their first cousin Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich. They could move freely around town and visit each other.

George’s brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich; Credit – Wikipedia

George’s brother Nicholas, known in the family as Bimbo, was the eldest child in the family.  Although he had a career in the Russian army, his passion, even in childhood, was Russian history. In 1905, Nicholas left the military and pursued his interest in history full-time. Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia granted him unlimited access to the Romanov Family Archives and Library. Grand Duke Nicholas was the author of many historical books about Alexander I, Emperor of All Russia and the Napoleonic Wars. He was chairman of the Russian Historical Society and headed the Russian Geographical Society and the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Art and Antiquities. In 1915, Moscow University awarded Nicholas an honorary doctorate in Russian history.

However, an incident on June 13, 1918, during the execution of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, changed the way the remaining Romanovs were treated. It appeared to his executioners that Michael had been trying to escape after the gun that was intended for him misfired. The incident was used to justify the necessity of keeping all exiled Romanovs under a strict regime of imprisonment.

On July 1, 1918, George, his brother Nicholas, and their cousin Dmitri were arrested in Vologda where they had been exiled. They were sent back to St. Petersburg to the Shpalernaia Prison where they would remain for most of their incarceration. On August 13, 1918, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, the youngest of the eight children of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia and the uncle of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, was arrested and joined the three other Grand Dukes at Shpalernaia Prison in St. Petersburg. The four Grand Dukes were all first cousins as their fathers were all sons of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Each Grand Duke was held in a cell, only seven feet by three feet. Each day, they were all allowed to gather in the courtyard for exercise and the Grand Dukes could exchange a few words.

Grand Duke George somehow managed to smuggle letters to his wife Maria in England. The last letter was dated November 27, 1918. Maria unsuccessfully tried to buy freedom of her husband and the other three Grand Dukes for fifty thousand pounds through the Danish ambassador in St. Petersburg. Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, a niece of Nicholas and George, tried unsuccessfully to obtain the release of the four Grand Dukes, also through the Danish ambassador’s intervention. On December 6, 1918, Grand Duke Paul’s health, which was already bad, declined sharply, and he was transferred to a prison hospital.

The writer Maxim Gorky had been a supporter of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks but after seeing the terror of the new regime, he changed his mind. Princess Paley, Grand Duke Paul’s wife, asked Gorky to intercede on behalf of the four Grand Dukes. In January 1919, Gorky went to Lenin to plead the case of the four Grand Dukes. Gorky pleaded the merits of each Grand Duke. When Gorky came to Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, he said, “Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich is a historian.” Lenin replied, “The Revolution does not need historians.” Gorky did not give up and eventually, Lenin promised to release the four Grand Dukes. Gorky, with the release document signed by Lenin, rushed to the station in Moscow to catch the train to St. Petersburg. When he reached St. Petersburg, Gorky saw the headline in the newspaper, “Four Grand Dukes Shot” and he nearly fainted.

Unlike the execution of Nicholas II and his family and the execution of Elizabeth Feodorovna and the five other Romanovs, there are no written eyewitness accounts of the execution of the four Grand Dukes. What is known is based on versions of second-hand information.

Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg; The Peter and Paul Cathedral with its golden spire can be seen in the middle; Photo Credit – By Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51488758

On January 27, 1919, Grand Duke Paul was transferred from the prison hospital to another prison. He was kept there until 10 pm when he was driven to the Peter and Paul Fortress, originally built by Peter the Great to protect his new city of St. Petersburg and the site of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial place of the Romanovs. At 11:30 pm on January 27, 1919, Grand Dukes Dmitri, Nicholas, and George were awakened in their cells at Shpalernaya Prison and were driven to the Peter and Paul Fortress. When Dmitri, Nicholas, and George arrived at the Fortress, they were roughly pushed from the truck into the Trubetskoy Bastion where prisoners arrested by the Bolsheviks were held. The Grand Dukes were told to remove their shirts and coats, despite the frigid January temperature.

The Trubetskoy Bastion in the late 1920s; Photo Credit – Автор: Анонимный автор – http://encspb.ru/object/2804023013, Общественное достояние, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26266039

Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich, Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and Grand Duke George Mikhailovich were escorted toward a ditch in the courtyard. As they passed the Peter and Paul Cathedral where their ancestors were buried, they each made the sign of the cross. Guards appeared carrying Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich on a stretcher. The three Grand Dukes were lined up before the ditch, in which there were already bodies. Nicholas Mikhailovich, who was carrying his cat, handed it to a soldier, asking him to look after it. Grand Duke Paul was shot on his stretcher. Grand Dukes Nicholas, George, and Dmitri were all killed by the same blast, causing them to fall into the ditch.  The four Grand Dukes were the last of the eighteen Romanovs killed as a result of the Russian Revolution.

Most likely, the ditch is the burial place of the four Grand Dukes. In 2004, in the Grand Ducal Burial Mausoleum adjoining the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a commemorative plaque was placed with the names of four Grand Dukes shot nearby in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 2009, during the construction of a road to a parking lot at the Peter and Paul Fortress, nine unmarked mass graves were discovered and a total of 112 remains were unearthed.  Perhaps eventually the remains of the four Grand Dukes will be identified.

In 1981, Grand Duke Paul, Grand Duke Dmitri, and Grand Duke George were canonized as New-Martyrs of Russia by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Grand Duke Nicholas was the only Romanov who had been executed by the Bolsheviks not to be canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Angelfire.com. (2018). ROYAL RUSSIA NEWS. THE ROMANOV DYNASTY & THEIR LEGACY, MONARCHY, HISTORY OF IMPERIAL & HOLY RUSSIA. [online] Available at: http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog/1450058/excavations-for-grand-dukes-remains-to-resume-at-peter-and-paul-fortress/.
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (1863–1919). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_George_Mikhailovich_of_Russia_(1863%E2%80%931919).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019). January 28, 1919 – Execution of Four Russian Grand Dukes. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/execution-of-four-grand-dukes/.
  • https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-maria-of-greece/
  • Perry, J. and Pleshakov, K. (2008). The flight of the Romanovs. New York: Basic Books.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2018). Расстрел великих князей в Петропавловской крепости. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB_%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85_%D0%BA%D0%BD%D1%8F%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%B2_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8.

First Cousins: King Edward VII of the United Kingdom

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

 

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (1841 – 1910)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Edward VII was born on November 9, 1841, at Buckingham Palace in London, England. He was the eldest son and the second of the nine children of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His maternal grandparents were Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His paternal grandparents were Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his first wife Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark and had three sons and three daughters.

King Edward VII’s one paternal uncle had no children and his mother had no full siblings but did have two half-siblings. Edward VII has no paternal cousins and eight maternal half-first cousins. He shares his half-first cousins with his siblings Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress, Queen of Prussia; Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine; Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Edinburgh; Princess Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein; Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll; Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught; Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany; and Princess Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg.

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Paternal Uncle of King Edward VII: Child of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

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Maternal Half-Aunt and Half-Uncle of King Edward VII: Children of Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and her first husband Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen

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Maternal Half First Cousins: Children of Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen and Countess Maria Klebelsberg

Ernst Leopold, 4th Prince of Leiningen (1830 – 1904)

Ernst Leopold spent his childhood in England and had a career in the British Royal Navy. He attained the rank of Admiral and retired from the Royal Navy after a forty-six-year career. Upon the death of his father in 1856, Ernst Leopold became the 4th Prince of Leiningen but he was not a reigning prince. His great-grandfather Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Count of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg had received the Principality of Leiningen as a compensation for the lost Hardenburg estates in the Palatinate occupied by French revolutionary troops. Three years later, the territory encompassing the Principality of Leiningen became part of the newly established Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Ernst Leopold married Princess Marie of Baden, daughter of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden and Sophie of Sweden. The couple had two sons, both born at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in England, one of the two private homes of Queen Victoria, Ernst Leopold’s aunt.

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Prince Eduard Friedrich of Leiningen (1833 – 1914), unmarried

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Maternal Half First Cousins: Children of Princess Feodora of Leiningen and Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Carl Ludwig II, 5th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1829 – 1907)

Carl Ludwig succeeded as 5th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg after his father’s death. Nine days later, he renounced his rights as the reigning prince in favor of his brother Hermann because he intended to make a morganatic (unequal) marriage. However, he was able to keep his birth title. Carl Ludwig married Maria Grathwohl and had one son and two daughters.

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Credit – https://www.rct.uk/collection/420419/princess-elise-of-hohenlohe-langenberg-1830-1851

Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1830 – 1851)

Princess Elise died in Venice, Italy from tuberculosis. After her death, Queen Victoria sent her grieving half-sister Feodora a bracelet containing a copy of the above portrait. Feodora responded, “I think the miniature very good, and the setting so beautiful, the idea so beautiful … Only with tears I can thank you!”

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Hermann and his wife Leopoldine of Baden

Hermann, 6th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1832 – 1913)

Hermann became the 6th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg when his elder brother Carl Ludwig renounced his rights after a reign of nine days. He had a military career in the Prussian Army and was a member of the Reichstag, the parliament of the German Empire. Hermann married Princess Leopoldine of Baden and had one son and one daughter. His son and successor Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg married Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Alexandra of Edinburg and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1833 – 1891)

Victor was a British admiral, sculptor, artist, and watercolor painter and lived in the United Kingdom from the time he was 18-years old when he entered the Royal Navy. He served on active duty in the Royal Navy for 18 years. After his retirement, he was promoted to the rank of Retired Rear Admiral, Retired Vice Admiral and finally to Retired Admiral. He became quite famous as an artist and was particularly noted for his sculptures, including the huge statue of Alfred the Great in his traditional birthplace Wantage, Oxfordshire, England. (List of Victor’s sculptures)

Statue of Alfred the Great sculpted by Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Victor married Laura Seymour, daughter of Admiral Sir George Seymour, and the couple had three daughters and one son. Because this marriage was considered an unequal marriage, Laura could not use Victor’s title. Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Queen Victoria’s brother-in-law and first cousin, created her Countess Gleichen. Eventually, Queen Victoria allowed Laura to use her husband’s title within the British Empire.

Wikipedia: Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

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Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein  (1835 – 1900)

Napoléon III, Emperor of France offered a proposal of marriage to Adelheid’s parents. Adelheid’s aunt Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert were dead-set against the marriage and the negotiations were eventually halted. Instead, Adelheid married Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and had seven children including Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg who married Queen Victoria’s grandson, the future Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

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Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen (1839 – 1872)

Feodora was the second wife of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The marriage was primarily intended to find a mother for his children and was not a love match. Georg never got over the death of his first wife, with whom he shared many common interests. The same could not be said for his relationship with Feodora. His attempts to foster in her a love of the arts and theater proved unsuccessful, and he quickly realized that Feodora would never compare to his beloved first wife. Despite their differences, Feodora and Georg had three sons. Feodora died from scarlet fever at the age of 32.

Unofficial Royalty: Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

First Cousins: King George V of the United Kingdom

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

King George V of the United Kingdom (1865 – 1936)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King George V of the United Kingdom was born on June 3, 1865, a month early, at Marlborough House in London, England. He was the second son and the second of the six children of King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra of Denmark, who were the Prince and Princess of Wales at that time. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were George’s paternal grandparents. His maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. George’s elder brother Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, known as Eddy, was expected to become king. However, Eddy died of pneumonia at the age of 28 and George became second in the line of succession after his father. George married Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, his deceased brother’s fiancee, and had five sons and one daughter.

The children and grandchildren of George’s paternal grandmother Queen Victoria married into other European royal families giving Victoria the unofficial title of “Grandmother of Europe.” Her grandchildren sat upon the thrones of Germany/Prussia, Greece, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom as monarchs or consorts. Similarly, George’s paternal grandfather King Christian IX of Denmark can be called the “Grandfather of Europe. His grandsons were the monarchs of Denmark, Greece, Norway, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

King George V had 34 paternal first cousins and 33 maternal first cousins for a total of 67 first cousins.  He shares his first cousins with his siblings Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence; Princess Louise, Princess Royal, Duchess of Fife; Princess Victoria; Princess Maud, Queen of Norway; and Prince Alexander John.

Because King George V has so many cousins and because Unofficial Royalty has articles on all of Queen Victoria’s children, grandchildren, and their spouses and on all of King Christian IX’s children and many of his grandchildren and Wikipedia has articles on the others, this article will be a list on the cousins, with some information and an Unofficial Royalty link or a Wikipedia link where more information can be found.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of King George V: Children of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their nine children in 1857

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of King George V: Children of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel

Christian IX, King of Denmark and his family by Georg Emil Hansen, albumen carte-de-visite photomontage, 1862, NPG x74402 © National Portrait Gallery, London

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of Victoria, Princess Royal and Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Family of The Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia in 1875

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine

Hesse and by Rhine family in 1876

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia

The Duchess of Edinburgh with her children

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Helena and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Photo Credit – royal-splendor.blogspot.com

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia

Connaught Family in 1893

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont

The Duchess of Albany with her two children in 1887; Credit – http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg

Princess Beatrice with her children in 1900

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of King Frederik VIII of Denmark and Princess Louise of Sweden

Frederick VIII, King of Denmark with his family by Elfelt, bromide postcard print, (circa 1877), NPG x74398 © National Portrait Gallery, London

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Vilhelm of Denmark, King George I of Greece and Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia

King George and Queen Olga with six of their children, circa 1890

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, Maria Feodorovna after marriage, and Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia

Russian Imperial Family in 1888, Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Thyra of Denmark and Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale

Thyra with her husband and children

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Princess Marie of Orléans

Valdemar, Marie, and their children; Photo Credit – www.findagrave.com

  • Prince Aage of Denmark (1887 – 1940), married (1914) Matilda Calvi dei conti di Bergolo (1885 – 1949), due to the unequal marriage, he renounced his place in the line of succession to the Danish throne, forfeited the title Prince of Denmark, and was then titled Prince Aage, Count of Rosenborg; had one son, divorced 1939
  • Prince Axel of Denmark (1888 – 1964), married (1919) Princess Margaretha of Sweden (1899 – 1977), had two sons
  • Prince Erik of Denmark (1890 – 1950), married (1924) Lois Frances Booth (1897 – 1941), a Canadian, due to the unequal marriage, he renounced his place in the line of succession to the Danish throne, forfeited the title Prince of Denmark, and was then titled Prince Erik, Count of Rosenborg, had one son and one daughter, divorced 1937
  • Prince Viggo of Denmark (1893 – 1970), married (1924) Eleonor Green (1895 – 1966), an American, due to the unequal marriage, he renounced his place in the line of succession to the Danish throne, forfeited the title Prince of Denmark, and was then titled Prince Viggo, Count of Rosenborg, had no children
  • Princess Margrethe of Denmark (1895 – 1992), married (1921) Prince René of Bourbon-Parma (1894 – 1962), had three sons and one daughter

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

First Cousins: King Edward VIII and King George VI of the United Kingdom

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, later The Duke of Windsor (1894 – 1972)

 

King George VI of the United Kingdom (1894 – 1952)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor after his abdication, was born on June 23, 1894, at White Lodge, Richmond Park on the outskirts of London, England. At the time of his birth, his great-grandmother Queen Victoria sat upon the throne of the United Kingdom. His parents, the future King George V and Queen Mary were the Duke and Duchess of York and his grandparents, the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra were Prince and Princess of Wales. The infant prince was the eldest son of his parents and was third in the line of succession behind his grandfather and father. Christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, he was known as David. After his abdication in 1936, he married Wallis Simpson and had no children.

Eighteen months after David’s birth, another son was born into the family on December 14, 1895, at York Cottage, his parents’ home on the grounds of the Sandringham estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, England. Christened Albert Frederick Arthur George, he was known as Bertie and would succeed his elder brother upon his abdication as King George VI. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and had two daughters.

The brothers’ paternal grandparents were King Edward VII, eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Alexandra of Denmark, eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Their mother had been born Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, known as May, the eldest of the four children and the only daughter of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a first cousin of Queen Victoria.

The Duke of Windsor and King George VI had ten first cousins. They share their first cousins with their siblings Mary, Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood; Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; Prince George, Duke of Kent; and Prince John.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexandra of Denmark

Maternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife

Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, Princess Arthur of Connaught (1891 – 1959)

Princess Alexandra was the eldest surviving child of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. As a female-line great-granddaughter of the British sovereign, (Queen Victoria) at birth, Alexandra was not entitled to the title of Princess or the style Royal Highness. Instead, she was styled Lady Alexandra Duff, the style of daughters of a Duke. The Letters Patent for her father’s title allowed the dukedom to pass to the daughters of the 1st Duke of Fife if he had no son, and then to the male heirs of his daughters. Therefore, Alexandra became heir to her father’s dukedom and did succeed her father as 2nd Duchess of Fife in her own right.

When Alexandra’s mother was created Princess Royal in 1905, Alexandra and her sister Maud were granted the title of Princess with the style of “Highness” and received precedence immediately after all members of the royal family bearing the style of “Royal Highness.” Alexandra married her first cousin once removed, Prince Arthur of Connaught, the only son of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught who was a son of Queen Victoria.

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Princess Maud of Fife, Countess of Southesk (1893 – 1945)

Princess Maud of Fife was the younger of the two daughters of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. Maud married Charles Carnegie, the eldest son of Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk. The couple had one child, James Carnegie. After her marriage, Maud stopped using ‘Her Highness Princess Maud’ and was known as Lady Carnegie, and later The Countess of Southesk after her husband succeeded his father as the 11th Earl of Southesk. Maud’s son James Carnegie succeeded his maternal aunt Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, as the 3rd Duke of Fife, because her only child, Alastair, 2nd Duke of Connaught, had predeceased her. James also succeeded his father upon his death in 1992 as the 12th Earl of Southesk and as Chief of the Clan Carnegie.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway and King Haakon VII of Norway

King Olav V of Norway (1903 – 1991)

King Olav V of Norway was born Prince Alexander of Denmark on July 2, 1903, at Appleton House on the Sandringham Estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, England. He was the only child of Prince Carl of Denmark, son of King Frederik VIII of Denmark, and Princess Maud of Wales, daughter of the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. At the time of his birth, there was little expectation that he would one day become a king himself. However, this would all change in 1905, when his father was named as the new King of Norway, taking the name Haakon VII. Young Alexander was given the more Norwegian-sounding name Olav and at the age of just two years old, became Crown Prince of Norway.

Olav represented Norway in the 1928 Olympic Games, winning a Gold Medal in the sailing competition and remained active in sailing his whole life. He married Princess Märtha of Sweden and had one son, King Harald V of Norway, and two daughters. Sadly, Märtha died of cancer before Olav succeeded his father in 1957.

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Adolphus of Teck, later Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and Lady Margaret Evelyn Grosvenor

Prince George of Teck, later 2nd Marquess of Cambridge (1895 – 1981)

Styled His Serene Highness Prince George of Teck at birth, George’s name and title changed in 1917, when King George V requested that his relatives who were British subjects relinquish their German titles, styles, and designations, due to anti-German sentiment during World War I. George’s father became Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and George became George Cambridge, Earl of Eltham, one of his father’s subsidiary titles. George married Dorothy Hastings and they had one daughter. Upon his father’s death, George succeeded to the title Marquess of Cambridge. However, the title became extinct upon George’s death because he had no sons and his only brother had died in World War II.

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Princess Mary of Teck, later Lady Mary Cambridge, Duchess of Beaufort  (1897 – 1987)

Like her brother George, Princess Mary of Teck’s title changed in 1917 to Lady Mary Cambridge. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her first cousin Prince Albert, Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Mary married Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort but the couple had no children.

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Princess Helena of Teck, later Lady Helena Cambridge, Lady Helen Gibbs (1899 – 1969)

In 1917, as per King George V’s request, Princess Helena of Teck relinquished her German title and was then styled Lady Helena Cambridge. Lady Helena married Colonel John Gibbs, a veteran of the Boer Wars and World War I but their marriage was childless.

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Prince Frederick of Teck, later Lord Frederick Cambridge (1907 – 1940)

Born Prince Frederick of Teck, like the rest of his family, he relinquished his title in 1917 and was then styled Lord Frederick Teck. During World War II, Frederick served as a Captain in the Coldstream Guards. He was killed in action in Leuven, Belgium and was buried in Heverlee War Cemetery in Belgium.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Alexander of Teck, later Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice of Albany

Princess May of Teck, later Lady May Cambridge, Lady May Abel Smith (1906- 1994)

Princess May of Teck was the eldest of the three children of Prince Alexander of Teck and Princess Alice of Albany, the daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the hemophiliac son of Queen Victoria. At the request of King George V, the family relinquished their German titles. May’s father became Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone and May was styled Lady May Cambridge. When Lady May married Henry Abel Smith in 1931, the future Queen Elizabeth II was one of her child bridesmaids. Lady May and her husband had two daughters and one son.

Wikipedia: Lady May Abel Smith

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Rupert with his mother and his sister

Prince Rupert of Teck, later Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon (1907 – 1928)

In 1917, Prince Rupert of Teck, along with the rest of his family, gave up his title and was then styled Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon, one of his father’s subsidiary titles. Rupert inherited hemophilia from his mother Princess Alice of Albany. Princess Alice’s father, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany was Queen Victoria’s youngest son and had hemophilia. The daughter of a hemophiliac will always be a carrier because her father can only pass on to her an X chromosome with hemophilia on it.

On April 1, 1928, Rupert was driving with two of his friends when the car skidded and crashed into a tree. One of his friends died due to injuries and the other was only slightly injured. At first, Rupert also did not seem to be seriously injured. However, after being in the hospital for several days, he began to hemorrhage from the ear due to a slight fracture of the skull. The bleeding was arrested and Rupert seemed to be improving, but it did not last. On April 15, 1928, 20-year-old Rupert died from an injury he probably would have recovered from had he not been a hemophiliac.

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Maurice on his mother’s lap with his sister and brother

Prince Maurice of Teck (born and died 1910)

Prince Maurice of Teck was born March 29, 1910. On September 14, 1910, five-month-old Maurice died at Reinhardsbrunn Castle in Germany while his family was visiting Princess Alice’s brother, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maurice was interred on a burial island on the grounds of Reinhardsbrunn Castle.

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

First Cousins: King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born 1946)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Carl XVI Gustaf was born on April 30, 1946, at the Haga Palace in Solna, Sweden. He was the only son and the youngest of the five children of Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. At the time of his birth, Carl Gustaf’s great-grandfather King Gustaf V was the reigning King of Sweden, his grandfather, the future King Gustaf VI Adolf, was the Crown Prince, and his father Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten was second in the line of succession. When Carl Gustaf was only nine months old, his father died in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport near Copenhagen, Denmark. At that time, Carl Gustaf became second in the line of succession behind his grandfather.

King Carl Gustaf is a descendant of Queen Victoria through both of his parents. His paternal grandmother was Princess Margaret of Connaught, daughter of Queen Victoria’s son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. His maternal grandparents were  Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria’s youngest son, who married Princess Viktoria Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Carl Gustaf married Silvia Sommerlath, a German, and had two daughters and one son.

King Carl Gustaf has nineteen first cousins. He shares his first cousins with his siblings Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler; Princess Birgitta, Princess of Hohenzollern; Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld; and Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson.

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King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Paternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of King Gustaf VI Adolf and Princess Margaret of Connaught

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King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Maternal Aunts and Uncles: Children of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and 

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg, born Prince Sigvard of Sweden, and Sonja Christensen Robbert

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Ingrid of Sweden and King Frederik IX of Denmark

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (born 1940)

Queen Margrethe married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, born in France, and the couple had two sons. She became Queen of Denmark in 1972 upon the death of her father. An avid painter and designer, Margrethe has had her work displayed in exhibitions around the world, and some are part of permanent collections in several museums in Denmark. In addition to her painting, Queen Margrethe has designed many sets and costumes for theater productions and provided illustrations for several books. She has also published translations of several foreign works.

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Princess Benedikte of Denmark, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (born 1944)

Princess Benedikte married German Richard, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. The couple had one son and two daughters. One of their daughters, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, competed for Denmark in the Equestrian Team and Individual Dressage in the 2008/Bejing and 2012/London Summer Olympics. In the 2008 Bejing Olympics, Nathalie won a Bronze Medal in Team Dressage.

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Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, Queen of Greece (born 1946)

Anne-Marie married King Constantine II of Greece and the couple had three sons and two daughters. Unfortunately, her tenure as Queen did not last very long. Following a coup in 1967, the Greek royal family went into exile, living in Rome for several years before moving to Denmark and then finally settling in the United Kingdom. While in exile, King Constantine was deposed and the monarchy formally abolished in 1974.

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Paternal First Cousins: Adopted Children of Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg, born Prince Carl Johan of Sweden, and Kerstin Wijkmark

  • Monika Bernadotte (born 1948, adopted in 1951) married Count Johan Peder Bonde. They had three children and divorced after 21 years of marriage.
  • Christian Bernadotte (born 1949, adopted in 1950) married Marianne Jenny and had three children.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Baroness Feodora von der Horst

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Prince Ernst Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1935 – 1996) 

  • Prince Ernst Leopold married (1) Ingeborg Henig, had one son, divorced  (2) Gertraude Monika Pfeiffer, had two daughters and three sons, divorced  (3) Sabine Biller, with whom he committed suicide, no children

In 1986, Ernst Leopold married for a third time to Sabine Biller, a journalist. The couple began to have money problems as they were living beyond their means. On June 27, 1996, in the parking lot of a chalet restaurant in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria, Germany, the bodies of Ernst Leopold and Sabine were found in their car, dead from gunshot wounds from hunting rifles. Apparently, they had simultaneously shot themselves.

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her first husband Friedrich Wolfgang Otto, Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Caroline of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her second husband Flight Captain Max Schnirring

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Friedrich Josias. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his first wife Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth

Prince Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 21 March 1943)

Prince Andreas is the Head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He married Carin Dabelstein, daughter of Adolf Wilhelm Martin Dabelstein and Irma Maria Margarete Callsen. The marriage, although unequal, is not morganatic because it was authorized by Andreas’s father. Andreas and Carin have two sons and one daughter.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his second wife Denyse Henrietta de Muralt

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

First Cousins: King Felipe VI of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

 

King Felipe VI of Spain (born 1968)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Felipe VI of Spain was born at the Nuestra Señora de Loreto Clinic in Madrid, Spain on January 30, 1968. He is the only son and the third of the three children of King Juan Carlos of Spain and his wife, Queen Sofia, born Princess Sophia of Greece. Felipe is a descendant of Queen Victoria through both of his parents. Felipe’s paternal grandparents were Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, son of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, and Princess María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. His maternal grandparents were King Paul of Greece, son of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Sophia of Prussia, and Princess Frederica of Hanover, granddaughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor who was a grandson of Queen Victoria. Felipe married Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano and had two daughters. He became King of Spain upon the abdication of his father in 2013.

King Felipe VI has eleven first cousins. He shares his first cousins with his siblings Infanta Elena of Spain, Duchess of Lugo and Infanta Cristina of Spain.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of King Felipe VI: Children of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and Princess María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of King Felipe VI: Children of King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz and Luis Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, Viscount de la Torre

  • Simoneta Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (born 1968) married José Miguel Fernández-Sastrón, had two sons and one daughter, divorced
  • Juan Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón, Viscount de la Torre (born 1969) married Winston Holmes Carney, daughter of James Carney, had one son
  • Bruno Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (born 1973) married (1) Laura Ponte y Martínez had one son and one daughter, divorced (2) Andrea Pascual Vicens, had one son
  • Fernando Gómez-Acebo y de Borbón (1974 – 2024) married (1) Mónica Martín Luque, no children, divorced (2) Nadia Halamandari, had one son

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria and Carlos Zurita y Delgado

  • Alfonso Zurita y de Borbón (born 1973), unmarried
  • María Zurita y de Borbón (born 1975), unmarried, had one son by artificial insemination

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of King Constantine II of Greece and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark

Princess Alexia of Greece (born 1965)

In 1967, Princess Alexia’s father King Constantine II was deposed. The family lived for two months in the Greek embassy and then for the next five years in a house in a suburb of Rome. King Constantine II remained the head of state in exile until June 1, 1973, when the monarchy was abolished. In 1973, the family moved with to England where Alexia and her siblings grew up.

Princess Alexia and her siblings attended the Hellenic College of London, a school founded by his parents. She received a Bachelor’s degree in History and Education from the University of Surrey in England and then received a post-graduate certificate in education. Alexia worked as a primary school teacher in the inner city area of Southwark in London, England, and as a teacher of children with developmental disabilities in Barcelona, Spain. She married Carlos Javier Morales Quintana, an architect and a champion yachtsman, and the couple had three daughters and one son.

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Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece (born 1967)

Pavlos graduated from the United World College and then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, followed by a three-year commission with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Following his military career, he enrolled in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington DC, earning his Bachelor’s Degree (International Relations, Law and Organization) and his Master’s Degree (Foreign Relations and Economics). While at Georgetown, his roommate was his first cousin, King Felipe VI of Spain. Pavlos married Marie-Chantal Miller, the daughter of billionaire entrepreneur Robert Warren Miller and María Clara Pesantes Becerra. They had one daughter and four sons.

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Prince Nikolaos of Greece (born 1969)

Nikolaos attended Brown University in Rhode Island in the United States, graduating with a Bachelor degree in International Relations. He married Tatiana Blatnik who was born in Caracas, Venezuela and grew up in Switzerland.

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Princess Theodora of Greece (born 1983)

Theodora attended Brown University in Rhode Island and received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts. She moved to Los Angeles, California in the United States to pursue an acting career under the name Theodora Greece. In 2018, Theodora’s engagement to Los Angeles based attorney Matthew Kumar was announced.

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Prince Philippos of Greece (born 1986)

Philippos had an impressive set of godparents: his uncle by marriage King Juan Carlos of Spain, his first cousin twice removed Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, his first cousin Infanta Elena of Spain, his maternal aunt Princess Benedikte of Denmark, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He is a graduate of United World College-USA and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. where he graduated with a Bachelor degree in foreign relations.

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

First Cousins of Queen Sofia of Spain and King Constantine II of Greece

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

Queen Sofia of Spain (born 1938)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

Queen Sofia, the wife King Juan Carlos I of Spain, was Queen Consort of Spain from her husband’s accession in 1975 until his abdication in 2014 in favor of their son, King Felipe VI. Born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark on November 2, 1938, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece, She married the future King Juan Carlos of Spain, a descendant of Queen Victoria via her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice, and had two daughters and one son.

 

King Constantine II of Greece (1940 – 2023)

King Constantine II of Greece was the King of Greece (styled King of the Hellenes) from 1964 until the monarchy was abolished in 1973. He was born on June 2, 1940, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece. In 1964, Constantine married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark, and a descendant of Queen Victoria via her son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Constantine and Anne-Marie had five children.

Sofia was the eldest of the three children and Constantine was the second of the three children and the only son of King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, both descendants of Queen Victoria’s eldest child Victoria, Princess Royal who married Friedrich III, German Emperor. Sofia and Constantine’s paternal grandparents were King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophie of Prussia. Their maternal grandparents were Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor. Queen Sofia of Spain and King Constantine II of Greece have fifteen first cousins. They share their first cousins with their sister Princess Irene of Greece.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Sofia of Spain, born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark and King Constante II of Greece: Children of King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophie of Prussia

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of Queen Sofia of Spain, born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark and King Constante II of Greece: Children of Ernst August III of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of King Alexander of Greece and Aspasia Manos

Princess Alexandra of Greece, Queen of Yugoslavia (1921 – 1993)

Princess Alexandra of Greece was the only child of King Alexander of Greece and his commoner wife Aspasia Manos, the daughter of Petros Manos, who had served as Master of the Horse to Alexander’s father King Constantine I. Aspasia would not be recognized as Queen. King Alexander died after contracting septicemia from a monkey bite. Aspasia was four months pregnant at the time, and gave birth to their daughter, Alexandra, in March 1921. Princess Alexandra married King Peter II of Yugoslavia and they had one son Crown Prince Alexander. After World War II, the Yugoslav monarchy was abolished and Alexandra and Peter separated.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Helen of Greece and King Carol of Romania

King Michael of Romania (1921 – 2017)

King Michael of Romania, also known as Mihai, was King of Romania twice, from 1927 – 1930, and then from 1940 – 1947, when the monarchy was abolished. Michael married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, the daughter of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Margaret of Denmark. The couple had five daughters. Michael worked as a commercial pilot and also worked for an aircraft equipment company. It would be 43 years before he set foot on Romanian soil again. Eventually, the Romanian government restored Michael’s citizenship and returned several properties to the royal family. When Michael died in 2017, he was the second oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was older by four months.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Irene of Greece and Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta

Prince Amadeo, Duke of Aosta (1943 – 2021)

Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta was a claimant to the head of the House of Savoy, the former royal family of Italy. Amedeo married Princess Claude of Orléans, the daughter of Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris, the Orléanist claimant to the French throne. The couple had two daughters and one son before divorcing. Amedeo married again to Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto but the couple had no children.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Katherine of Greece, The Lady Katherine Brandram and Major Richard Brandram

Paul Brandram’s christening: Lady Katherine Brandram and her husband with their son, held by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Paul Brandram (1948 – 2020)

Paul Brandram grew up in England. He married Jennifer Steele and they had two daughters and one son before divorcing after eighteen years of marriage. He made a second marriage to Katherine Moreton.

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal First Cousins: Children of Ernst August IV, Prince of Hanover, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick and Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg

Princess Marie of Hanover, Countess of Hochberg (born 1952)

Princess Marie of Hanover married Count Michael of Hochberg and had two sons.

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Ernst August V at the wedding of his son Christian, 2018; Credit – www.zimbio.com

Prince Ernst August V of Hanover (born 1954)

Ernst August V is among the senior male-line descendants of King George III of the United Kingdom. This line is directly descended from King George III’s son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who became King of Hanover due to the Salic Law which forbade female succession following the death of his brother King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria. Ernst August V is the Head of the House of Hanover and pretender to the thrones of the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick.

Ernst August first married Chantal Hochuli, the daughter of Johann Gustav Hochuli, a Swiss millionaire from his family’s chocolate company and architect. The couple had two sons and divorced. He then married Princess Caroline of Monaco and had one daughter. While initially very happy, the couple, still legally married, now leads separate lives.

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Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover, held by his mother after his christening. Also in the photo is his father and his elder brother Prince Ernst August

Prince Ludwig Rudolph of Hanover (1955 – 1988)

Prince Ludwig Rudolph married Countess Isabelle von Thurn und Valsassina-Como-Vercelli and the couple had one son. Ludwig died by suicide shortly after discovering the body of his wife, who had died from a drug overdose.

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Princess Olga of Hanover (born 1958), unmarried

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Princess Alexandra with her husband

Princess Alexandra of Hanover, Princess of Leiningen (born 1959)

Princess Alexandra of Hanover married another descendant of Queen Victoria, Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.  The couple had two sons and one daughter.

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Prince Heinrich of Hanover (born 1961)

Prince Heinrich of Hanover is a historian and publisher. He writes under the name Heinrich von Hannover. He married Thyra von Westernhagen whose family is from the landed nobility of Thuringia, Germany and who studied forestry at university. The couple had two sons and one daughter.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover and Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)

Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover (1947 – 1981)

Welf married Wibke van Gunsteren and they had one daughter. Welf and his wife became disciples of the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh also known as Osho.  They took the names Vimalkirti (“Spotless Splendor”) and Wibke Prem Turiya (“Spiritual love”) and moved with their daughter to Poona, India to live in Osho’s ashram.  In 1979, the couple divorced but continued to live together in India.  Welf died at a clinic in Poona, India from a cerebral hemorrhage after collapsing during a morning karate practice session.  After Welf’s death, his daughter was brought to England by her grandparents so she could have a normal education.

Welf Ernst and his siblings Georg and Friederike are also first cousins of the children of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.

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Prince Georg of Hanover (born 1949)

Prince Georg of Hanover married Victoria Anne Bee, daughter of Robert Bee and Eleonore Gräfin Fugger von Babenhausen. The couple had two daughters.

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Princess Friederike of Hanover, Mrs. Jerry Cyr (born 1954)

Princess Friederike of Hanover is a godchild of her aunt by marriage, Queen Elizabeth II. She attended Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada and remained in Canada. Friederike married Jerry William Cyr, son of Gordon Paul Cyr and Emma Grandbois in Vancouver, Canada. The couple had one daughter and one son.

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Prince Christian Oscar of Hanover and Mireille Dutry

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)

October 22, 2019 – Enthronement Ceremony of Emperor Naruhito of Japan

On October 22, 2019, the Enthronement Ceremony (Sokui-Rei) of Emperor Naruhito of Japan will be held. This is the third of the four ceremonies traditionally held when a new emperor ascends the throne. Around 200 foreign heads of state and other dignitaries are expected to attend Emperor Naruhito’s Enthronement Ceremony.

Below is the information from our article Ceremonies: Abdication of Emperor Akihito and Accession and Enthronement of Emperor Naruhito involving the Enthronement Ceremony. For more information about the Imperial Family of Japan, see Unofficial Royalty: State of Japan Index.

October 22, 2019: Enthronement Ceremony (Sokui-Rei)

Plans for the Enthronement Ceremony are expected to be similar to Emperor Akihito’s Enthronement Ceremony in 1990 which was televised. Heads of state from seventy countries and royalty from twenty countries attended the 1990 Enthronement Ceremony. Around 200 foreign heads of state and other dignitaries are expected to attend Emperor Naruhito’s Enthronement Ceremony.

The Takamikura used for the Enthronement Ceremony; Credit – Wikipedia

First, Emperor Naruhito will inform his ancestors that he has ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. Next will come the actual enthronement. This will take place in an enclosure called the Takamikura which contains a simple chair. At the same time, Empress Masako will move to a separate enclosure beside her husband’s which also contains a simple chair where she will also be enthroned.

Emperor Naruhito will proceed to the simple chair and after being seated, two of the Three Sacred Treasures (the sword and the jewel) along with the Privy Seal of Japan and the Great Seal of Japan will be placed on stands next to him. A simple wooden scepter will then be presented to the Emperor.

The Emperor will face the Prime Minister who represents the people of Japan. The Emperor will announce his accession to the throne and call upon the Japanese people to assist him in attaining all of his aspirations. The Prime Minister will reply promising fidelity and devotion. This will be followed by three cheers of “Banzai!”  from all present.

First Cousins: King Juan Carlos of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

King Juan Carlos of Spain (born 1938)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Juan Carlos of Spain was born on January 5, 1938, in Rome, Italy where his family had settled after the monarchy was overthrown in 1931 and Spain had become a Republic. He was the second of the four children and the elder of the two sons of Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona, and Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. His paternal grandparents were King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. His maternal grandparents were Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, a grandson of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, and his second wife Princess Louise of Orléans, daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, a pretender to the French throne. Juan Carlos became King of Spain in 1975 upon the death of dictator Francisco Franco who had named him his successor, bypassing Juan Carlos’ father whom Franco thought would be too liberal. Juan Carlos married Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark and had two sons and one daughter. In 2014, King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son King Felipe VI.

King Juan Carlos has ten paternal first cousins, six maternal first cousins and three maternal half first cousins. He shares his first cousins with his siblings Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Babajoz; Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria; and Infante Alfonso of Spain.

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Paternal Aunts and Uncles of King Juan Carlos: Children of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

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Maternal Half Aunts and Uncles of King Juan Carlos: Children of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain and his first wife María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias

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Maternal Full Aunts and Uncles of King Juan Carlos: Children of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain and his second wife Princess Louise of Orléans

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PATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Paternal First Cousins: Children of Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia, Duke of Anjou and his first wife Emmanuelle de Dampierre


Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz (1936 – 1989)

At one time considered as a possible heir to the Spanish throne during the rule of dictator Francisco Franco, Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz was a Legitimist claimant to the throne of France.  Alfonso married María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco, the granddaughter of Francisco Franco, and the couple had two sons. After ten years of marriage, the couple divorced. Their elder son was killed in a car accident at the age of eleven when the car Alfonso was driving collided with a truck.  From 1977 to 1984, Alfonso was President of the Spanish Skiing Federation and from 1984 to 1987, he was President of the Spanish Olympic Committee. He died in a skiing accident in Colorado.

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Gonzalo, Duke of Aquitaine (1937 – 2000)

In 1983, Gonzalo, Duke of Aquitaine first married María del Carmen Harto y Montealegre in Mexico but they were divorced less than three months later. The next year, Gonzalo married  María de las Mercedes Licer y García, a model, but they separated a year later and ultimately divorced. In 1992, Gonzalo married Emanuela Maria Pratolongo.  He did not have any children from his marriages but he did have an illegitimate daughter. Gonzalo died from leukemia.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Infanta Beatriz of Spain and Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi

Sandra Torlonia dei principi di Civitella-Cesi (1936–2014)

Sandra Torlonia dei principi di Civitella-Cesi married Count Clemente Lecquio di Assaba and had one son and one daughter.

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Credit – www.geni.com

Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince di Civitella-Cesi (1937–2014)

Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince di Civitella-Cesi married (1) Donna Orsetta Caracciolo dei principi di Castagneto who died at age 28, had one son  (2) Philippa Catherine McDonald, had one daughter, divorced  (3) Blažena Anna Helena Svitákovám, had one daughter

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Marino Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1939–1995)

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With her husband

Olympia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (born 1943)

Olympia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi married French millionaire Paul Weiller and had five daughters and one son including Sibilla Weiller who married Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg, son of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg.

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Paternal First Cousins: Children of Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain and Enrico Eugenio Marone-Cinzano, 1st Conte Marone-Cinzano

  • Vittoria Marone-Cinzano (born 1941) married José Carlos Álvarez de Toledo y Gross, 6th Marquis of Casa Loring, had one daughter and three sons.
  • Giovanna Marone-Cinzano (born 1943) married (1)  Jaime Galobert y Satrustequi, had one son, divorced  (2) Luis Ángel Sánchez-Merlo y Ruiz, no children
  • María Theresa Marone-Cinzano (born 1945), married José María Ruiz de Arana y Montalvo, 17th Duke of Baena, 17th Duke of Sanlúcar La Mayor, 15th Marquess of Villamanrique, 13th Marquess of Castromonte, 5th Marquess of Brenes, 11th Count of Sevilla La Nueva and 5th Viscount of Mamblas, had three daughters, divorced
  • Anna Alessandra Marone-Cinzano (born 1948), married (1) Gian Carlo Stavro Santarosa, had two daughters, divorced (2) Fernando Schwartz y Giron, no children

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MATERNAL FIRST COUSINS

Maternal Half First Cousins: Children of Prince Alfonso of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria and Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma

Princess Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (born 1937) married Íñigo Moreno y Arteaga, 8th Marquess of Laula, had three sons and four daughters.

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Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria with his wife

Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria (1938 – 2015)

Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria was eleven days younger than his first cousin King Juan Carlos of Spain.  They were raised together and attended school together, from primary school through university, and remained very close friends. Carlos married Princess Anne of Orléans, daughter of Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Orléanist claimant to the French throne.  The couple had four daughters and one son

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Princess Inés María of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (born 1940)

Princess Inés María of Bourbon-Two Sicilies married Luis de Morales y Aguado, had four daughters and one son.

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Maternal Half First Cousins: Children of Princess Isabel Alfonsa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Count Jan Kanty Zamoyski

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Princess Maria de los Dolores of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Prince Augustyn Józef Czartoryski

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Maternal First Cousins: Children of Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza

Prince Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza (born 1945)

Prince Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza is one of two claimants to the Brazilian throne.  He is a forestry engineer and founded and directed the Botanical Garden of Brasilia, which is in the capital of Brazil. Pedro Carlos has been married and widowed twice. His first wife was  Rony Kuhn de Souza, who died two days after the birth of their son. With his second wife Patrícia Alexandra Braumeyer Branscomb, Pedro Carlos had one son.

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Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Braganza (born 1946)

The former Crown Princess of Yugoslavia, Maria da Gloria married Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (as he was known at the time), the only child of the former King Peter II of Yugoslavia and Princess Alexandra of Greece. They had three sons and divorced after thirteen years of marriage.  Maria da Glória then married Ignacio de Medina y Fernández de Córdoba, 19th Duke of Segorbe and they had two daughters.

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Prince Afonso Duarte of Orléans-Braganza (born 1948)

Prince Afonso Duarte of Orléans-Braganza married (1) Maria Juana Parejo y Gurruchaga, had two daughters, divorced   (2) Silvia-Amália Hungria de Silva Machado

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Prince Manuel Álvaro of Orléans-Braganza (born 1949)

Prince Manuel Álvaro of Orléans-Braganza married Margarita Haffner y Lancha, had one son and one daughter, divorced

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Princess Cristina Maria of Orléans-Braganza (born 1950)

Princess Cristina Maria of Orléans-Braganza married Prince Jan Pawel Sapieha-Rozanski, had two daughters

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Prince Francisco Humberto of Orléans-Braganza (born 1956)

Prince Francisco Humberto of Orléans-Braganza  (1) married Christina Schmidt-Peçanha, had one son and one daughter, divorced  (2) Rita de Cássia Ferreira Pires, had one son and one daughter

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This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
  • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
  • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)