by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2014
Prince Michael of Kent was born on July 4, 1942, at Coppins, his family’s country house in Iver, Buckinghamshire, England. He is the youngest of the three children of Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece, and one of the nine grandchildren of King George V. Because Prince Michael was born on American Independence Day, the Duke of Kent asked President Franklin Roosevelt to be one of his son’s godparents. President Roosevelt accepted and the baby prince was named Michael George Charles Franklin. See Unofficial Royalty: Born on the Fourth of July.
Michael was christened on August 4, 1942, at the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle. His godparents were:
- King George VI (his paternal uncle)
- Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
- King Haakon VII of Norway (his great uncle)
- President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States of America
- Crown Princess Frederica of Greece (a distant cousin, born Princess Frederica of Hanover, later Queen of Greece)
- Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (his paternal uncle)
- Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (his grandfather King George V’s cousin, born Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine)
- Lady Patricia Ramsay (his grandfather King George V’s cousin, born Princess Patricia of Connaught)
Michael has two elder siblings:
- Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (born 1935), married Katharine Worsley, had two sons and one daughter
- Princess Alexandra of Kent (born 1936), married The Honorable Angus Ogilvy, had one son and one daughter
Sadly, six weeks after his son’s birth, on August 25, 1942, the Duke of Kent died in a Royal Air Force plane crash in the service of his country. In 1947, Prince Michael served as a page boy at the wedding of his cousins, Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.
Prince Michael was educated at Sunningdale School in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England and Eton College in Eton, Berkshire, England. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own). Prince Michael served in Germany and Hong Kong and was part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus in 1971. He had a twenty-year career in the military which included serving on the Defense Intelligence Staff.
Prince Michael does not carry out any official duties, although he occasionally represented Queen Elizabeth II, his first cousin, at events abroad. Because he receives no public funds, Prince Michael had the permission of the Queen to earn a living and has his own consulting company.
Prince Michael attends the reburial ceremony for Empress Maria Feodorovna at the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, 2006
Prince Michael had a strong interest in Russia and was the first member of the British Royal Family to learn Russian. Three of his grandparents were first cousins of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia and it has been said that Michael bears some resemblance to Nicholas. Prince Michael has qualified as a Russian interpreter and has traveled frequently to Russia. He has represented his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, at Romanov-related events including the 1998 burial of Nicholas II and his family and the 2006 reburial of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
On June 30, 1978, Prince Michael married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, now known as Princess Michael of Kent, in a civil ceremony at the Rathaus (City Hall) in Vienna, Austria. Because his wife was Roman Catholic, Prince Michael forfeited his place in the line of succession under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701. When the Succession to The Crown Act 2013 went into effect, eliminating the exclusion of anyone who marries a Roman Catholic, Prince Michael was returned to his place in the line of succession.
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have two children who were raised in the Church of England and are in the line of succession:
- Lord Frederick Michael George David Louis Windsor (born 1979), married Sophie Winkelman
- Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina Windsor (born 2013)
- Isabella Alexandra May Windsor (born 2016)
- Lady Gabriella Marina Alexandra Ophelia Windsor (born 1981), married Thomas Kingston (died 2024), no children
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