Lord Leopold Mountbatten

Lord Leopold Mountbatten
Born 21 May 1889
Windsor Castle
Died 23 April 1922(1922-04-23) (aged 32)
Kensington Palace
Full name
Leopold Arthur Louis
Family Battenberg
Mountbatten
Father Prince Henry of Battenberg
Mother Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom

Lord Leopold Mountbatten, GCVO (Leopold Arthur Louis; 21 May 1889 – 23 April 1922) was a descendant of the Hessian princely Battenberg family and 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 German titles during World War I, and the Battenberg family changed their name to Mountbatten.

Early life

Prince Leopold was born on 21 May 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 (née The Princess Beatrice), the fifth daughter and the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

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.

Winchester Cathedral, memorial to Leopold and his brother Maurice.

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.[1]

Leopold was a haemophiliac, a condition he inherited from his mother.

Relinquishment of titles

During World War I, anti-German feeling in the United Kingdom led Leopold's first cousin, 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, dated 14 July 1917, of a Prince of Battenberg 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.[2]

Lord Leopold died on 23 April 1922(1922-04-23) (aged 32), during a hip operation.[3][4] He is buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore. A memorial tablet to him and his brother Maurice is in Winchester Cathedral.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

Honours

Military

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 25655. p. 6305. 14 December 1886.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 30374. pp. 11592–11594. 9 November 1917. Retrieved 15 November 2007.
  3. ↑ "Hesse and by Rhine (Darmstadt) Royal Family; comments to 5.1443 - QVD". Archived from the original on 5 August 2012., Retrieved on 5 June 2010
  4. ↑ Leopold Arthur Louis Mountbatten, Retrieved on 5 June 2010
  5. ↑ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/28297/pages/7567
  6. ↑ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/28654/pages/7687
  7. ↑ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29001/supplements/10559
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