Prince Paul of Württemberg

Prince Paul of Württemberg (German: Prinz Paul Heinrich Karl Friedrich August von Württemberg; St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, 19 January 1785  – Paris, France, 16 April 1852) was a German prince and the fourth child and second son of Frederick I of Württemberg and Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Early life

Soon after Paul's birth, his mother separated from his father during a stay in Russia with Frederick's sister's mother-in-law Catherine II of Russia. Augusta died in exile in Koluvere, Estonia in 1788. In 1797, Frederick married Charlotte, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of George III of the United Kingdom, and she supervised the education of Paul and his two surviving siblings Wilhelm and Catherine. Charlotte regarded Paul as 'a very comical boy and, in my partial eyes, his manners are like Adolphus [Charlotte's younger brother]".^[1]

As Paul grew up, her opinion changed. During a visit to London in 1814, Paul, along with many other princes, was taken to visit the Ascot races by the Prince Regent. He behaved badly, getting the Prince of Orange blind drunk. "For thirteen years he has done nothing but offend his father with the improprieties of his conduct", his stepmother wrote.^[1]

Illegitimate daughter and issue

Shortly before his marriage he had a mistress named Friederike Porth (Halberstadt, 22 August 1776 - Frankfurt am Main, 9 June 1860), daughter of Johann Carl Porth (Barchwitz, Schlesien, 1748 - Weimar, 18 June 1794) and his wife Caroline (c. 1752 - Weimar, aft. 1797), who had been married before 1776.

Paul and Friederike had a daughter named Karolina or Karoline von Rothenburg (Frankfurt am Main, 28 November 1805 - Frankfurt am Main, 13 February 1872), who was born shortly after her father's marriage. She married in Augsburg on 16 February 1836 Karl, Freiherr von Pfeffel (Dresden, 22 November 1811 - Munich, 25 January 1890)[2].

Karoline and Karl had at least one son Hubert, Freiherr von Pfeffel, born in Munich on 8 December 1843, who married Helene von Rivière, born on 14 January 1862.

Their daughter Marie Luise, Freiin von Pfeffel was born in Paris on 15 August 1882, and married Stanley F. Williams of Bromley, Kent.

Marie and Stanley's daughter Irene Williams, married Osman Ali Wilfred Kemal, alias Wilfred Johnson, born in Bournemouth, Dorset, in 1909, who was the son of Ali Kemal Bey (1867 - murdered, İzmit, 6 November 1922), Interior Minister, and his first wife (m. London, 1903) Winifred Brun, daughter of Mr. Brunn and wife Margaret Johnson.

Irene and Wilfreds son, Stanley Patrick Johnson (born Penzance, Cornwall, 18 August 1940), married and divorced Charlotte Fawcett, daughter of Sir James Fawcett (1913–1991) and wife, later Mrs. Wahl, and had at least four children; he later married Jennifer Kidd and had two further children.

The children of Stanley and Charlotte are:

• Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born New York, New York County, 19 June 1964), Mayor of London, for a four year term commencing on 4 May 2008.[3][4];
• Rachel Johnson (born 1965), a journalist, married to Ivo Dawnay, the communications director of the National Trust, and has three children;
• Joseph Edmund "Jo" Johnson (born 1971), Conservative MP for Orpington and Head of Lex at the Financial Times, married to Amelia Gentleman, a journalist for The Guardian and the daughter of artist and designer David Gentleman, and has two children, Rose and William;
• Leo Johnson, an entrepreneur.

Marriage and children

On 28 September 1805 in Ludwigsburg, Paul married Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen (17 June 1787 Hildburghausen – 12 December 1847 Bamberg), second daughter of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. They had five children:

• Friederike Charlotte Marie (9 January 1807 – 2 February 1873); married Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia
• Frederick Karl August (21 February 1808 – 9 May 1870); married his cousin Princess Catherine Frederica of Württemberg and was the father of William II of Württemberg.
• Paul Friedrich (7 March 1809 – 28 May 1810)
• Pauline Friederike Marie (25 February 1810 – 7 July 1856); married William, Duke of Nassau; mother of Sophia of Nassau, wife of Oscar II of Sweden. Through Pauline, Paul is an ancestor of the present Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Luxembourg, Norwegian and Swedish Royal families.
• August (24 January 1813 – 12 January 1885); married (morganatically) Marie Bethge, with issue.

Later life

In 1815 Paul moved from his home in Stuttgart to Paris, leaving his wife and two sons, but taking his daughters with him. There he led a relatively modest life, but was frequently in the company of intellectuals such as Georges Cuvier. Paul's family did not approve of this, and ordered him to return to Württemberg, but he refused.^[2] While in Paris, he fathered two illegitimate daughters by mistresses.

Shortly after the death of his wife in 1847 Paul went to England with his long-term mistress Magdalena Fausta Angela de Creus (or Creux) y Ximenes or Madeleine Creux, the widow of Sir Sandford Whittingham, KCB (1772–1841), and they were married in the Parish Church of St Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex, 26 April 1848.^[3] She died in Paris, 27 December 1852. Their daughter Pauline Madeleine Ximenes, who had been born in Paris, 3 March 1825, was created Gräfin von Hohenfelsen or Helfenstein in 1841. She married Rodolphe Auguste Gustave, comte de Mentessuy or Montessuy in Paris on 24 August 1843 and died in Paris on 24 February 1905.^[4]

Paul died in Paris aged 67.

Ancestry

References