Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke

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Alexander Mountbatten
Marquess of Carisbrooke
Spouse	Irene, Marchioness of Carisbrooke
Issue
Lady Iris Mountbatten
Full name
Alexander Albert Mountbatten
Detail Titles and styles
The Most Hon The Marquess of Carisbrooke Sir Alexander Mountbatten HH Prince Alexander of Battenburg
Royal house	House of Hesse
Father	Prince Henry of Battenberg
Mother	Princess Beatrice
Born	23 November 1886 (1886-11-23) Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Died	23 February 1960 (aged 73) Kensington Palace, London
Burial	Whippingham Church, Isle of Wight

Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke, GCB, GCVO (formerly Prince Alexander of Battenberg; Alexander Albert Mountbatten; 23 November 1886 – 23 February 1960) was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was a prince from his birth until 1917, when the British Royal Family relinquished their Germanic titles during the First World War.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Marquess of Carisbrooke 3 Marriage 4 Death 5 Titles, styles and honours 6 Ancestry 7 References

[edit] Early life

Prince Alexander was born in 1886 at Windsor Castle in Berkshire and was educated at Wellington College. 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-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, Alexander was styled as His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg from birth. In the United Kingdom he was styled His Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg under a Royal Warrant passed by Queen Victoria in 1886.

[edit] Marquess of Carisbrooke

Anti-German feeling during the First World War led King George V to change the name of the Royal House in July 1917 from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the House of Windsor. He also relinquished, on behalf of his various relatives who were British subjects, the use of all German titles and styles.

The Battenberg family relinquished their titles of Prince and Princess of Battenberg and the styles of Highness and Serene Highness. Under Royal Warrant, they instead took the surname Mountbatten, an Anglicised form of Battenberg. As such, Prince Alexander became Sir Alexander Mountbatten.^[1] On 7 November 1917, he was created Viscount Launceston, Earl of Berkhampsted and Marquess of Carisbrooke.^[2]

[edit] Marriage

On 19 July 1917, he married Lady Irene Denison (4 July 1890 – 16 July 1956), only daughter of the 2nd Earl of Londesborough, at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace. Lord and Lady Carisbrooke had one daughter:

• The Lady Iris Victoria Beatrice Grace Mountbatten (13 January 1920 – 1 September 1982) She married three times: first, on 15 February 1941 (div. 1946), to Hamilton O'Malley; second, on 5 May 1957 (div. 1957), to Michael Bryan; and third, on 11 December 1965, to William Kemp. Lady Iris lived in Canada and died in Toronto. She had one son, Robin Alexander Bryan (born 20 December 1957), from her second marriage.

[edit] Death

Lord Carisbrooke died in 1960, aged seventy-three, at Kensington Palace, and was buried at the Battenberg Chapel in Whippingham Church on the Isle of Wight. He was the last living male grandchild of Queen Victoria. The title 'Marquess of Carisbrooke' became extinct upon his death.

[edit] Titles, styles and honours

• 1886-1910: His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg/His Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg (effective in the United Kingdom, not in Germany)
• 1910-1911: His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg KCVO/His Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg, KCVO
• 1911-1917: His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg GCVO/His Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg, GCVO
• 1917: Sir Alexander Mountbatten, GCVO
• 1917-1927: The Most Hon The Marquess of Carisbrooke, GCVO
• 1927-1960: The Most Hon The Marquess of Carisbrooke, GCB, GCVO

[edit] Ancestry

v • d • e Ancestors of Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke

16. Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse               8. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse                       17. Landgravine Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt               4. Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine                             18. Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden               9. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden                       19. Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt               2. Prince Henry of Battenberg                                   20. Friedrich Karl Emmanuel von Hauke               10. John Maurice von Hauke                       21. Maria Salome Schweppenhäuser               5. Julia von Hauke                             22. Franz Leopold la Fontaine               11. Sophie la Fontaine                       23. Marie-Therese von Kornély               1. Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke                                         24. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld               12. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha                       25. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf               6. Albert, Prince Consort                             26. Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg               13. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg                       27. Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin               3. Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom                                   28. George III of the United Kingdom               14. Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn                       29. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz               7. Victoria of the United Kingdom                             30. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (= 24)               15. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld                       31. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf (= 25)

Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Launceston 1917 - 1960	Extinct
	Earl of Berkhampsted 1917 - 1960
	Marquess of Carisbrooke 1917 - 1960

[edit] References