August von Senarclens de Grancy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baron August Ludwig von Senarclens de Grancy (19 August 1794 - 3 October 1871) was born at Schloss Etoy, the son of Baron Cesar August von Senarclens. He became Grand Master of stables of the Grand Duke of Hesse, Major General, Knight of Honor and Devotion in the Order of Malta, and, most notably, the father of two of his employer's wife's children, and thereby an ancestor of the current heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom.

The Grand Duke of Hesse bought the area of Heiligenberg near Jugenheim in 1820 for his chamberlain, Senarclens de Grancy, to live, and, after the acquisition, Wilhelmina no longer lived with her spouse. Senarclens's identity as the father of the later children of Wilhelmina of Baden was well known: correspondence detailing this involved many government ministers, ambassadors and sovereigns, including Tsar Nicholas I and Queen Victoria.

By Wilhelmina of Baden, he had two children, who were deemed to be the legal children of Wilhelmina's husband, Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse. These children, Alexander (1823-1888) and Marie (1824-1880), are ancestors of the later Tsars of Russia, as well as the Battenburgs and Mountbattens.

After 1836, he married Luise von Otting und Fünfstetten (1810-1876).

He died at Jugenheim.

[edit] References

• "Ahnenreihe of the last Grand Ducal Children of Hesse and by Rhine”, Darren Shelton, The European Royal History Journal, Issue VI, July-August 1998, p. 19-22.
• Lord Lambton, The Mountbattens, 1989