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Admiral of the Fleet Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG, PC (24 May 1854 - 11 September 1921), formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a minor German prince who married a granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria and pursued a distinguished career in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, becoming a protégé of his future king, Edward VII. Although the Queen felt he was discriminated against because of his princely title and therefore occasionally intervened to promote his career, Louis welcomed battle assignments that provided opportunities for him to acquire the skills of war and to demonstrate to his superiors that he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours actually impeded his progress, but it would have been ungrateful as well as unwise to demur. He eventually served as First Sea Lord from 1912 to 1914. He was the father of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and of Queen Louise of Sweden, and was the maternal grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II. One of his younger brothers, Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1857-1893), was selected with the approval of Europe's Great Powers to mount the throne of Bulgaria, where he reigned as sovereign Prince from 1879 to 1886. Early life His Illustrious Highness Count Louis (Ludwig) Alexander of Battenberg was born in Graz, Austria, the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1823-1888) by his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia von Hauke (1825-1895). Denied his father's dynastic rights and rank in Hesse, from birth he shared the countly title and "Illustrious" style conferred upon his mother at the time of her marriage, automatically becoming His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg when she was elevated to Princess of Battenberg with the style of Serene Highness by decree of her husband's brother, Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hesse and by Rhine on 21 December 1858. Shortly after his birth, Louis's father was stationed with the Austro-Hungarian Army of occupation in Northern Italy during the Second Italian War of Independence, and Louis's early years were spent either there or at Prince Alexander's house in Hesse, Heiligenberg. His mother spoke French to him but he had an English governess, and as a consequence grew up trilingual. Early naval career Influenced by his cousin's wife, the future Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, a daughter of Queen Victoria's, and Prince Alfred, another of Queen Victoria's children, Louis became a naturalized British subject and joined the Royal Navy in October 1868, at the age of fourteen. He was enlisted as a naval cadet aboard HMS Victory, Nelson's old flagship. In January of the following year, the Prince and Princess of Wales cruised the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the frigate Ariadne, and the Prince of Wales requested that Louis be appointed to the vessel. As part of the same tour, Louis also accompanied them on a visit to Egypt, visiting the construction site of the Suez canal. As was traditional the Khedive bestowed honours on the party and Louis received the Medjidieh (Fourth Class). In April, he received the Osmanieh (Fourth Class) from the Ottoman Sultan. Having returned to Britain in May, in June he was appointed to the Royal Alfred, the flagship of the North America and West Indies station, where he was rated as midshipman in October. From June to September 1870 he took leave in Germany, coinciding with the Franco-Prussian war. He spent the next three-and-a-half years in the Americas, returning to Europe in early 1874, he was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant and posted to the shore establishment HMS Excellent. In 1875, again at the invitation of the Prince of Wales he joined the Serapis, the ship which conducted the Prince of Wales on an official tour of India, 1875-1876. The Prince asked Louis to stay with him at Marlborough House for the summer of 1876, but wishing to gain further experience at sea, Louis turned him down and instead accepted an offer to join Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh as a Lieutenant onboard the Sultan. In addition to acting as the Duke's equerry, Louis had to continue with his naval duties. He did not enjoy the position, as the Duke was rather touchy and Louis's cabin was infested with rats, one of which he caught with his bare hands in bed as it ran across his chest. The Sultan toured the Mediterranean from July 1876. In late February-early March 1878 Louis was still serving on the Sultan as it lay in the Bosphorus during the Russo-Turkish war. He was criticized for visiting his brother, Prince Alexander, who was serving with the Russian forces, but an investigation cleared both of them and Prince Alfred of any wrongdoing. For the next two years he served on the Agincourt and on the Royal Yacht Osborne. But in October 1879 he refused further service on the Royal Yacht, saying it was damaging his professional career, and requested half-pay until he could be given an active duty. On August 24, 1880 Louis was posted to the Inconstant, the flag-ship of the Flying Squadron, which included Bacchante on which Princes Albert Victor and George were serving. The ship sailed to South America, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, before returning to South Africa in April 1882. Seven months after Prince Louis of Battenberg had left Britain on the voyage, actress Lillie Langtry allegedly bore him an illegitimate daughter, Jeanne Marie Langtry. Mrs. Langtry was also a one-time mistress of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. As to whether Prince Louis was in fact the father has never been completely verified but a financial settlement was made. From South Africa the Inconstant sailed to St Helena, and the Cape Verde Islands, where the squadron received orders to proceed to Gibraltar, and from there to Malta and Egypt to take part in the 1882 Egyptian intervention. On 11 July Alexandria was bombarded and in the next two weeks Louis served in the Flying Squadron delivering shells and ammunition to the battle fleet, and then as a guard to the Khedive at Ras Al Teen Palace. He was decorated with the Egyptian Medal and the Khedive Bronze Star. In November 1882 he left the Inconstant, spent Christmas in Darmstadt, and in March the following year visited his brother, Prince Alexander, in Bulgaria, where Alexander had just been made Sovereign Prince. Louis accompanied his brother on a state visit to Turkey and then on a Turkish navy tour of Cyprus and the Holy Land, during which Louis was appalled at the lack of seamanship - the Turkish captains were unable to navigate and had to hug the coast in order not to get lost, when they did leave the coast they became so disoriented they were unable to steer for Jaffa. On its return journey the ship they had travelled on grounded. Marriage and Children In September 1883, Queen Victoria appointed him to her yacht, Victoria and Albert. On 30 April 1884 in the presence of the Queen, Prince Louis married Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (5 April 1863-24 September 1950) at Darmstadt. His wife was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria's second daughter Alice (26 April 1843-14 December 1878), by Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (12 September 1837-13 March 1892). Prince and Princess Louis of Battenberg were first cousins once removed. Louis and Victoria invariably spoke English to each other. Their marriage produced four children: HSH Princess Alice (15 February 1885-5 December 1969) m. HRH Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (2 February 1882-3 December 1944). Among her children is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; HSH Princess Louise, later styled Lady Louise Mountbatten (13 July 1889-2 March 1965) m. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, later King Gustaf VI Adolf (11 November 1882-15 September 1973); HSH Prince George, who became George Mountbatten, Earl of Medina in 1917, and succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven in 1921, (6 November 1892-4 April 1938) m. Countess Nadejda (Nada) de Torby (28 March 1896-22 January 1963); and HSH Prince Louis Francis, later 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma and 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900-August 27, 1979) m. Edwina Ashley (28 November 1900-21 February 1960). Later naval career On his penultimate day aboard the Queen's yacht, August 30, 1885, he was promoted to Commander. The next four years were spent on half-pay, in Excellent and Vernon, at HMS Cambridge very briefly at Milford Haven in August 1886, and onboard HMS Dreadnought in the Mediterranean. Irish nationalist Member of Parliament Willie Redmond questioned the appointment to Dreadnought in the British House of Commons, suggesting it was due to royal favour - a suggestion denied by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord George Hamilton. On October 3, 1889 he was appointed to his first independent command - HMS Scout, a torpedo-cruiser, which saw service in the Red Sea. On December 31, 1891 Prince Louis rose to the rank of captain and became an aide-de-camp to the Queen, a post he would retain under both King Edward VII and King George V. At the beginning of the following year, he was appointed naval advisor to the inspector-general of fortifications. His role was to liaise between the navy and the military in order to ensure a co-ordinated defence. Traditionally, there was a great deal of friction between the two services, but Prince Louis exercised his social skills in the role, leading Prince George, Duke of Cambridge to write to him, "You have produced a mutual feeling of goodwill and unanimity which I have always wished to see established, and which, by your tact and sound judgement, you have brought about to the fullest extent." By February 1894 this role was further developed when he was appointed joint secretary of the naval and military committee on defence, which was later renamed the Committee of Imperial Defence. Prince Louis captained the Cambrian in the Mediterranean Fleet from October 1894 to May 1897 and the Majestic in the Channel Fleet from June 1897. His careful study of both naval and military defence, as well as its interaction, led to his appointment as Assistant Director of the Naval Intelligence Division in June 1899. After a year as captain of HMS Implacable in the Mediterranean, Prince Louis was appointed as Director of Naval Intelligence in November 1902. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1904, in which year his family connections to the royal courts of Europe help resolve the Dogger Bank incident peacefully. The following February he was given command of the second cruiser squadron, with HMS Drake as his flag ship. During a successful two years the squadron visited Greece, Portugal, Canada, and the United States, where the American press commented favourably on Prince Louis's courtesy, unassuming manner and democratic nature. After further visits to Spain (where his niece Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was Queen) he was appointed second-in-command of the Mediterranean fleet as acting vice-admiral after two years at the head of the second cruiser squadron. After less than six months in post his flag was transferred to HMS Prince of Wales as Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet in August 1907. In 1909 he published a translation of Commander Vladimir Semenoff's Rasplata (The Reckoning), a memoir of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, and witnessed the first crossing of the English Channel by air by Louis Blériot. He was appointed as commander of the newly constituted Third and Fourth Divisions of the Home Fleet two years later in 1911. In December that year he returned to the Admiralty as Second Sea Lord. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (K.C.B.) in the military division in 1908, having received the K.C.B. and Knight Grand Cross (G.C.B.) in the civil division of the same order in 1884 and 1887, respectively. On 8 December 1912, Prince Louis assumed the post of First Sea Lord, the senior uniformed officer in the Royal Navy, in succession to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, who had retired in ill-health. In that capacity, he was responsible to the First Lord of the Admiralty (at the time, Winston Churchill) for the readiness of the fleet and the preparation of naval strategy. On the eve of World War I he unilaterally made the crucial decision to cancel the scheduled dispersal of the British fleet following practice manoeuvres in order to preserve the Royal Navy's battle readiness, despite the fact that this was likely to be construed as a provocative act by Germany. Nonetheless, with the outbreak of war, rising anti-German sentiment among the British public, newspapers, and elite gentlemen's clubs (where resentment was inflamed by Admiral Lord Charles Beresford despite Churchill's remonstrances) drove Churchill to ask Prince Louis to resign as First Sea Lord on 29 October 1914, which he did amidst an outpouring of appreciation from politicians and his naval comrades. The King swore Louis in as a Privy Councillor in a public show of support. Labour party politician and trade union leader, J. H. Thomas wrote to The Times: "I desire to express my extreme regret at the announcement that Prince Louis of Battenberg has, by his resignation, pandered to the most mean and contemptible slander I have ever known … I was simply astounded to hear the base suggestions and rumours current, and I am afraid that his action will simply be looked upon as a triumph for the mean and miserable section of people, who, at a time of national trial, is ever ready to pass a foul lie from lip to lip without a tittle of evidence." Admiral of the Fleet John Hay thought that the "ingeniously propagated lies" originated from Germany. Prince Louis held no official post for the remainder of the war and lived in retirement at Kent House on the Isle of Wight. He occupied his time in writing a comprehensive encyclopedia on Naval Medals published in three large volumes, which became the standard reference work on the subject. His naval career had been characterised by industry, invention and intellect; he introduced mechanical calculators to compute navigations and a cone signalling apparatus. Although assured that he would be returned to command post-war, he was asked to retire from the Navy's active list in 1918. Adoption of the Surname Mountbatten Persistent rumors that the British Royal Family must be pro-German given their dynastic origins and many German relatives, prompted the King to abandon his subsidiary German dynastic titles and adopt an English surname. At the behest of King George V, Louis relinquished the title Prince of Battenberg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, as also the style of Serene Highness, on 14 July 1917. At the same time, Louis also anglicized his family name, changing it from "Battenberg" to "Mountbatten," having considered but rejected "Battenhill" as an alternative. On 17 July, the king created him Marquess of Milford Haven, Earl of Medina, and Viscount Alderney in the peerage of the United Kingdom. The King's British relatives in the Teck, Schleswig-Holstein and Gleichen families underwent similar changes. Louis's wife ceased to use her own title of Princess of Hesse and became known as the Marchioness of Milford Haven. His three younger children ceased to use their princely titles and assumed courtesy titles as children of a British marquess; his eldest daughter, Princess Alice, had married into the Greek royal family in 1903, and never had occasion to use the surname Mountbatten. However, her only son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, adopted the name when he became a British subject in 1947. While the transition in names and titles was being effected, Louis spent some time at the home of his eldest son, George, who had married Countess Nadejda (Nada) de Torby the year before. After anglicizing his surname to Mountbatten and becoming Marquess of Milford Haven, Prince Louis wrote in his son's guestbook, "Arrived Prince Hyde, Departed Lord Jekyll". During the war two of Louis's sister-in-laws were murdered by the Bolsheviks in Russia. Eventually, in January 1921, after a long and convoluted journey, the body of his sister-in-law Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia was interred in Jerusalem in Prince and Princess Louis's presence. In 1919 the Mountbattens had to give up their home, Kent House, for financial reasons. He sold his collection of naval medals. All of his financial investments in Russia were seized by the Bolsheviks and his German property became valueless with the collapse of the mark. Lord Milford Haven was appointed a member of the Privy Council and was promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet in recognition of his service to the Royal Navy on 22 August 1921. He died at 42 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, London in the annexe of the Naval & Military Club on 11 September 1921 of heart failure following influenza. After a funeral service at Westminster Abbey, his remains were buried at Whippingham Church on the Isle of Wight. Prince Louis's elder son, George Mountbatten, who received the courtesy title Earl of Medina, succeeded him as 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven. Prince Louis's younger son, styled Lord Louis Mountbatten after 1917, was created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma in 1946 and then Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey in 1947. He served as the last Viceroy of India. One of Prince Louis's younger brothers, Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858-1896), married Princess Beatrice, the youngest child of Queen Victoria, and took up residence with the Queen in Britain so that his wife could continue to serve as her mother's companion and private secretary. His youngest brother, Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg 1861-1924 earned a doctorate based on a dissertation about his brother's reign in Bulgaria, wed HRH Princess Anna Petrovic Njegoš 1874-1971 in 1897, a daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro, and took up residence in Switzerland. His only sister, Princess Marie, wed the head of a mediatized family, Count Gustaf zu Erbach-Schoenberg, who was elevated, along with the couple's male-line descendants, to Prince and Serene Highness by her cousin, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1903. Marie's memoirs have been published in German and English, and include an account of the family's visit to the ruins of the castle of Battenberg in Hesse. Of the family's two residences in Hesse, the Alexander Palace in Darmstadt returned to the grand duchy as part of the appanaged patrimony of Louis's father, Prince Alexander, from which his children by Julie Hauke were debarred. However, the castle of Heiligenberg in Jugenheim had been bequeathed to Prince Alexander as personal property. During the 1870s, Empress Marie Aleksandrovna, née Princess of Hesse, brought her husband, Tsar Alexander II, her numerous children and a large retinue for annual visits to her brother's little chateau at Heiligenberg, evoking visits from foreign kings, diplomats and matchmaking mothers eager to pay their respects to Russia's Emperor without having to actually travel all the way there. Not only did these visits put the Hessian grandduchy "on the map", but they enhanced the prestige of the Battenbergs on the Continent. But joint possession of a German property by Louis and Henry in England with their Continental siblings during the Great War proved an untenable embarrassment, so it was sold.[citation needed] Titles from birth to death His Illustrious Highness Count Louis of Battenberg (1854-1858) His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg (1858-1917) Admiral The Rt Hon. Sir Louis Mountbatten, GCB, GCVO, KCMG (14-17 July 1917) Admiral The Most Hon. The Marquess of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG (1917-1921) Admiral of the Fleet The Most Hon. The Marquess of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG, PC (22 August-11 September 1921) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William B.
