Battenberg/Mountbatten

 

Line of Nobility

The left column of the nobility line below shows the Battenberg line down to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and his descendants. Coming down on the right is Queen Victoria and a selection of her descendants who married into the Battenberg/Mountbatten line at two different points in time.

Historical link
The house of Battenberg originated in the north of Hesse in the town of Battenberg (now twinned with Romsey) after separating from the House of Battenberg and Wittgenstein in 1214. At the beginning of the 14th century this was redeemed to the Archbishop of Mainz and finally dissolved. 

The House of Battenberg was revived after the morganatic marriage of Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt and Julia Hauke, from Poland, in 1851 who was then given the title of Countess of Battenberg.

Prince Philip's grandfather, Prince Louis Alexander of Battenburg, was born in 1854 in Graz/Austria. Due to the great influence of his many British relatives he decided to join the Royal Navy. As a teenager he emigrated to England, became a naturalised British citizen and served in the Royal Navy for over forty years. In 1912, towards the end of his long career, he was appointed First Sea Lord. His youngest son who became Louis Mountbatten, Admiral of the Fleet and 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma also served as First Sea Lord (1954 - 1959). In 1917 after World War One any connections with Germany were classed as undesireable. Louis Alexander was asked to relenquish the title of Prince of Battenberg and changed the family name to Mountbatten. Due to the upheavals during and after the Russian Revolution and the killing of the related Tsar family Prince Louis lost a great deal of wealth and, in 1920, shortly before his death, was forced to sell the family home Schloss Heiligenberg in Jugenheim (near Darmstadt).

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, born in 1921 in Corfu/Greece, is a direct descendent of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (known as the House of Glücksburg for short - follow link to Glücksburg). In 1947 he became a British citizen, whereupon he relinquished his former titles and changed his name to Mountbatten giving whitness to his mother's family line.

Queen Victoria, who married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (follow link), was the last British monarch of the German House of Hanover. Her son, King Edward VII, belonged to the same line as his father. Victoria was also the grandmother of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Hence, she is the great great grandmother of both Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II.

The Windsors
The current Royal House of Windsor has existed since 1917, when the then King George V proclaimed a break in the previous direct link with the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Under an ambiguously-worded Order-in-Council issued in 1960, the name Mountbatten-Windsor is apparently the personal surname of some of the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. This meant that, under certain circumstances, such descendants can officially carry the family name of Mountbatten-Windsor (link to Windsor family tree).

For further details on the British Monarchy follow this external link --> British Monarchy


 British Royal Family in 1880

Louis II
Grand Duke of Hesse
(1777-1848)
*
Wilhelmine
of Baden
(1788 - 1836)

      

 
       

 

Prince Alexander
Ludwig Friedrich Emil
of Hesse
(1823 - 1888)
*
Julia Hauke,
Countess of Battenberg

  

 

Prince Albert
of
Saxe-Coburg + Gotha
(1819 - 1861)
*
Queen Victoria
(1819 - 1901)

     

Queen Victoria
with her Hessian
Grandchildren

Prince Louis Alexander
of Battenberg/Mountbatten
(1854 - 1921)

  

Louis IV, Grand Duke
of Hesse and by Rhine
*
Princess Alice
 of UK
(1843 - 1878)

King Edward VII
(1841 - 1910)
*
Princess Alexandra
of Denmark

Princess Victoria
of Hesse and by Rhine
(1863 - 1950)

 
     

 

Princess Alice
of Battenberg
(1885 - 1969)
*
Prince Andrew
of Greece and Denmark

  

 

 

King George V
(1865 - 1936)
*
Princess Victoria Mary
of Teck
   

 

 

Prince Philip,
Duke of Edinburgh
(born 1921)

  

 

 

King George VI
(1895 - 1952)
*
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Queen Elizabeth II
(born 1926)
       

 

Prince Charles
+
Princess Anne
+
Prince Andrew
+
Prince Edward

        

 

Written and compiled by Johnny Glover, Lautertal

© 2010