Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg

Prince Francis Joseph

Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg
Born (1861-09-24)24 September 1861
Padua, Kingdom of Italy
Died 31 July 1924(1924-07-31) (aged 62)
Territet (near Montreux), Switzerland
Spouse Princess Anna of Montenegro (m. 1897)
House Battenberg
Father Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Mother Countess Julia Hauke

Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg, also known as Prince Franz Joseph of Battenberg, (24 September 1861 – 31 July 1924), was the youngest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Countess Julia von Hauke.

Biography

At one time, he was considered for the throne of Bulgaria, which eventually went to his brother Alexander.[1] Francis Joseph nevertheless followed his brother to Bulgaria, where he served as a colonel in the Bulgarian cavalry.[2] In 1891 he published an academic study on Bulgarian economic history, which he dedicated to his brother.[3]

At a family reunion in London in 1894 Franz Joseph met Consuelo Vanderbilt, the daughter of an extremely wealthy American railway tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt. He made a marriage proposal to Consuelo, but she disliked him and turned him down.[1][4]

In 1897 he married Princess Ana Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (1874–1971), daughter of Nicholas I of Montenegro. They had no children.[5]

He was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (Civil Division) by Queen Victoria in 1896.[6]

Ancestry

Notes

  1. 1 2 Stuart, Amanda Mackenzie, Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and Mother in the Gilded Age, Harper Perennial, 2005, p. 101
  2. ↑ "Royal Wedding At Cettinje; Francis Joseph of Battenberg United to Princess Anna of Montenegro", The New York Times, Cettinje, 19 May 1897
  3. ↑ von Battenberg, Franz Joseph (1891). Die volkswirthschaftliche Entwicklung Bulgariens von 1879 bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: Veit.
  4. ↑ Stasz, Clarice (1999). The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour, and Tragedy. Lincoln, NE: toExcel Press. p. 118. ISBN 1-58348-727-1. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Theroff, Paul (2007). "Hesse". An Online Gotha. Retrieved 11 March 2007.
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 26707. p. 718. 7 February 1896.
  7. 1 2 Paget, Gerald (1977), The Lineage & Ancestry of HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Edinburgh and London: Charles Skilton
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