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The Museum
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H.R.H. Prince of Battenberg, Louis Alexander
(1854-1921)
His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg, gained his title through the resuscitation of the name after a fourteenth century family of German nobility. His father, Alexander Grand Duke of Hesse had ceded the inheritance of his own title on his morganatic marriage to the Polish countess Julia Theresa von Hauke, who was of considerably lesser rank than he.
Louis was born in Graz, Austria, and became naturalised as a British citizen in 1868. He rose to the rank of Admiral in the British Navy after working in naval intelligence. Before marrying Princess Victoria (granddaughter of Queen Victoria) in 1884, he was father to the daughter of Lillie Langtry, the famed society belle of stunning beauty with whom he had become enamoured while consoling her on her break up with fellow client at Robert Lewis, his cousin The Prince of Wales, to whom she had been a mistress openly accepted by the court.
One can only imagine the conversations and head-shaking which might have taken place had the Prince of Wales and Battenberg met at this time while stocking up on smokes. It is possible the plan to send Lillie back to Jersey to have the child in secret was hatched between the two over a couple of cigars.
Indeed, the Lillie Langtry connection extends to two further clients of ours in Oscar Wilde, who took her under his wing and was responsible for the cultivation of her demure public persona, and her forlorn, cuckolded husband, Edward Langtry.
With such an array of inter-related characters passing through the shop, the quality of discretion was as important to our staff of the time as being able to pick out a good cigar!
In 1912 Battenberg was made First Sea Lord, answering directly to Winston Churchill, then first Lord of the Admiralty. It was their joint decision to retain the entire fleet of reserve ships at Plymouth (criticised by many at the time) that allowed for a full naval mobilisation the day before Britain joined World War 1. His German connections, however, forced him into the resignation of his post shortly afterwards, a victim of the understandable surge in anti-German feeling. At the behest of King George VI, he and his family gave up the name Battenberg, changing it to the anglicised Mountbatten in 1917 whereupon he was created 1st marquess of Milford Haven. Louis Alexander Mountbatten died four years later, in 1921, in London.
JJ Fox & Robert Lewis, 19 St James's Street,
London, SW1A 1ES
Tel:+44 (0)20 7930 3787 Fax:+44 (0)20 7495 0097
