Marina, Duchess of Kent
HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent GCVO GBE CI ; born Princess of Greece and Denmark (born November 30 . jul / 13. December 1906 greg. in Athens ; † 27. August 1968 in Kensington Palace , London ) was by marriage a member of the British royal family . Princess Marina was the last foreign princess to marry into the British royal family; future royal brides were either British nobles or commoners.
Life
Childhood and youth
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark was born on December 13, 1906 in the Nikolai Palace in Athens. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Prince Nicholas of Greece , the third son of King George I of Greece and Grand Duchess Jelena Vladimirovna Romanova , a granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia . She was baptized in late 1906. Her godparents were King George I of Greece, King Edward VII of Great Britain , Princess Maria von Teck (later Queen Mary), Prince Andreas of Greece , Grand Duke Boris Wladimirowitsch Romanow and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .
Together with her sisters Olga and Elisabeth , Marina mostly grew up with her paternal grandparents in Athens. She received an upbringing from English nannies, which was common for the time, and was taught by private tutors in foreign languages, history and mathematics. She was raised in a particularly religious and pious manner, which was greatly encouraged by her grandmother Queen Olga . Despite this, she enjoyed a lot of freedoms in her childhood and often roamed the palaces and gardens.
Marina's parents often traveled with their children and spent the summer months outside Greece. The family traveled to Great Britain for the funeral of their godfather King Edward VII in 1910. There Marina met her godmother and later mother-in-law Maria von Teck, who treated her and her sisters like their own children during their stay.
After the fall of the monarchy, the family had to go into exile , poor . The princess was eleven years old at the time and spent her youth mainly in Paris for this reason .
Marriage and offspring
She met her future husband Prince George, 1st Duke of Kent , fourth son of King George V and her godmother King Maria, in London in 1932. The engagement was announced in August 1934. George and Marina were married on November 29, 1934 in Westminster Abbey , London . Since the bride was Greek Orthodox , a second Greek Orthodox ceremony took place after the actual wedding in the chapel of Buckingham Palace. The wedding dress was designed by the French designer Edward Moleyneux . Marina's bridesmaids were her cousins, the Greek princesses Irene , Eugenie and Katharina , her mother's cousin, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillowna Romanowa , her cousin Princess Juliana of the Netherlands , her husband's niece, Princess Elisabeth of York, and Lady Iris Mountbatten and Lady Mary Cambridge. The Royal School of Needlework gave the couple a quilt as a wedding gift.
The couple had three children:
- Prince Edward (born October 9, 1935); ⚭ 1961 Katharine Worsley
- Princess Alexandra (born December 25, 1936); ⚭ 1963 Angus Ogilvy
- Prince Michael (born July 4, 1942); ⚭ 1978 Marie Christine von Reibnitz
During the Second World War, Princess Marina trained as a nurse under the name "Sister Kay" and joined the civil nurse reserve. The Duke of Kent died on August 25, 1942, a few weeks after the youngest child was baptized, in a plane crash in Scotland. He was a passenger on board a Short Sunderland when it crashed due to a storm in Caithness, Scotland .
Next life
After the death of her husband, Princess Marina continued to fulfill her royal representative duties and was very popular with the population. As a result of the death of Prince Georg, the Duchess lost its claim to the state's appanage. She then received financial support from her mother-in-law, Queen Mother Mary, and from her brother-in-law, the King.
By their wedding in 1934 she became "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent, Countess of St. Andrews, Baroness Downpatrick". But she remained a princess of Greece and Denmark suo jure. Shortly before the wedding of her son, the new Duke of Kent, to Katharine Worsley , Princess Marina announced that she would accept the title "Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent" instead of "HRH The Dowager Duchess of Kent". This was done with the express permission of her niece, Queen Elizabeth II. She also gave her an apartment in Kensington Palace .
Princess Marina was known for her sharp tongue. Allegedly she called her two sisters-in-law, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Alice, Duchess of Gloucester , both "just" from the Scottish nobility, "ordinary Scottish girls".
Princess Marina died of a brain tumor at Kensington Palace in 1968.
Her name was in her different phases of life
- 1906–1934 Her Royal Highness Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark
- 1934–1937 Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent
- 1937 Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent , GBE
- 1937-1948 Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent , GBE, CI
- 1948-1961 Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent , GCVO, GBE, CI
- 1961-1968 Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent , GCVO, GBE, CI
Web links
- Christenings of the Royal Family , Yvonne's Royalty Home Page
- Newspaper article about Marina, Duchess of Kent in the press kit 20th Century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (English)
- ↑ Royal Baptisms (English) ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b The Milwaukee Journal - Google News Archive Search. Retrieved October 11, 2018 .
- ^ The Sydney Morning Herald - Google News Archive Search. Retrieved October 11, 2018 .
- ^ The wedding of Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent - National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved October 11, 2018 .
- ↑ British Pathé: Princess Marina's Quilt. Retrieved October 11, 2018 (UK English).
- ^ The Sydney Morning Herald - Google News Archive Search. Retrieved October 11, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marina, Duchess of Kent |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Duchess of Kent; Marina of Greece and Denmark |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British noblewoman, member of the British royal family |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 13, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Athens |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 27, 1968 |
| Place of death | Kensington Palace , London |