Lord Leopold Mountbatten
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Lord Leopold Mountbatten, GCVO (Leopold Arthur Louis; May 21, 1889–April 23, 1922) was a descendant of the British Royal Family, a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was known as Prince Leopold of Battenberg from his birth until 1917, when the British Royal Family relinquished their Germanic titles during World War I.
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[edit] Early life
Prince Leopold was born on May 21, 1889. His father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julie Therese née Countess of Hauke. His mother was Princess Henry of Battenberg (nèe The Princess Beatrice), the fifth daughter and the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
As he was the product of a morganatic marriage, Prince Henry of Battenberg took his style of Prince of Battenberg from his mother, Julia von Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. As such, Leopold was styled as His Serene Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg from birth. In the United Kingdom he was styled His Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg under a Royal Warrant passed by Queen Victoria in 1886.
Leopold was a haemophiliac, a condition he inherited from his mother.
[edit] Relinquishment of titles
During World War I, anti-German feeling in the United Kingdom led Leopold's first cousin, King George V to change the name of the royal house from the Germanic House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more English-sounding House of Windsor. The King also renounced all his Germanic titles for himself and all members of the British Royal Family who were British citizens.
In response to this, Leopold renounced his title, through a Royal Warrant from the King, on 14 July 1917 [1], of a Prince of Battenburg and the style His Highness and became Sir Leopold Mountbatten, by virtue of him being a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Under a further Royal Warrant in September 1917 he was granted the style and precedence of the younger son of a Marquess, and became Lord Leopold Mountbatten.
[edit] Later life
Lord Leopold died in 1922, aged thirty-two, during a knee operation.
[edit] Titles, Styles, Honours & Arms
- 1889-1917: His Serene Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg
- 1889-1911: His Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg
- 1911-1914: His Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg, KCVO
- 1915-1917: His Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg, GCVO
- 1917: Sir Leopold Mountbatten, GCVO
- 1917-1922: Lord Leopold Mountbatten, GCVO
