Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg

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Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg

Prince Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg (born October 5, 1858 in Milan , † January 20, 1896 in Sierra Leone ) was a member of the House of Battenberg and by marriage a member of the British royal family. From 1889 he was governor and captain of the Isle of Wight .

origin

Coat of arms of Prince Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg

Heinrich Moritz, called Liko , was the third son of five children of Prince Alexander von Hessen-Darmstadt (1823–1888) and Countess Julia Hauke (1825–1895), a former lady-in-waiting of Tsarina Marie Alexandrovna . Since their marriage was considered morganatic , Julia Hauke ​​did not become a member of the House of Hesse through her marriage , but received from her brother-in-law, Grand Duke Ludwig III. of Hesse and the Rhine , the orphaned title of Countess of Battenberg since 1310 . Since this also applied to their children, who were not entitled to inherit the succession to the throne of Hesse , the Battenberg family was created . Julia was later elevated to the Hessian prince status, her descendants thus received the title of prince or princess .

Life

Beatrice of Great Britain and Ireland

Prince Heinrich received military training and served as a lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of the Rhenish Hussars in the Prussian army . He also served in the Prussian Regiment of the Gardes du Corps and was also Colonel of Honor of the 1st Infantry Regiment of Bulgaria, where his brother Alexander was Prince.

Due to the close ties of the Battenbergs to the grand ducal house of Hesse, they came into contact with various ruling families in Europe, including the British royal family. At the wedding of his older brother Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg with Princess Viktoria of Hessen-Darmstadt in 1884, Heinrich Moritz met the British Princess Beatrice , daughter of Queen Victoria and her Prince Consort Albert . Beatrice and Heinrich Moritz secretly got engaged in Darmstadt . Back in Great Britain, the Queen was shocked, she did not want to allow Beatrice to marry under any circumstances, as she was her permanent companion and secretary. After eight months of constant fights over the marriage, Queen Victoria finally agreed. The queen's only request was that the couple live with her for the rest of their lives. Beatrice agreed, and Heinrich Moritz, who was a half-impoverished and half-class prince, had nothing to lose and no future in the Prussian army, so he too agreed.

Wedding picture of Prince Heinrich and Princess Beatrice

On July 23, 1885, he married Princess Beatrice at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. He and his wife were the left and right hands of the Queen of Great Britain. In 1889 Queen Victoria appointed her son-in-law governor and captain of the Isle of Wight, he was also accepted as a knight in the Order of the Garter . However, that was not a strenuous task for Heinrich Moritz either, and so he still had little to do. He spent his time raising and educating his four children.

He was rumored to have had a secret affair with his wife's sister, Louise (1848–1939), but there is insufficient evidence to support this claim.

expedition

In 1895 it became known that in the area of Ashanti in what is now Ghana , from 1900 a crown colony of Great Britain, contrary to the provisions of the 1874 Treaty of Fomena, locals were sold as slaves . London banned the local chief Kwakuh Prah III. that kind of trade. When the African king refused, it was decided to send an expedition to Ashanti under Sir Francis Scott. Heinrich Moritz asked his mother-in-law for her consent to take part in this expedition, which she initially refused. On December 7, 1895, he went to Africa on board the HMS Coramandel . In Ghana, Heinrich Moritz went with the main group of the expedition to Kumasi , the capital of Ashanti. When they arrived at the Pra River on January 4th, the group suffered from a fever and several soldiers fell ill. When they arrived in Kwisu on January 10th, Heinrich Moritz also fell ill with malaria . Despite his protests, he was brought aboard the HMS Blonde and shipped back to the UK, but Heinrich Moritz died while the ship was passing the coast of Sierra Leone. He was buried in Whippingham Church on the Isle of Wight.

His descendants changed their family name from Battenberg to Mountbatten in 1917 .

Beatrice with her children, 1900

progeny

∞ Irene Denison (1890–1956)
∞ King Alfonso XIII. of Spain (1886–1941)

literature

  • Günter Baisch, Claudia Schäfer: Youth home. The Heiligenberg and the Battenberger. Traffic and Beautification Association Jugenheim 1863 eV, Seeheim-Jugenheim 2011, without ISBN.
  • David Duff: Hessian Tapestry. London, Muller 1967, without ISBN.

Web links

Commons : Prince Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Battenberg, Heinrich Moritz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Battenberg, Prince Heinrich Moritz von (full name); Battenberg, Henry Maurice of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1896
Place of death Sierra Leone