Mountbatten family
Mountbatten family
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Mountbatten family

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Mountbatten family

The Mountbatten family is a British family that originated as a branch of the German princely Battenberg family. The name was adopted by members of the Battenberg family residing in the United Kingdom on 14 July 1917, three days before the British royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor. This was due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British public during World War I. The name is a direct Anglicisation of the German name Battenberg, which refers to a small town in Hesse. The Battenberg family was a morganatic line of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, itself a cadet branch of the House of Hesse.

The family includes the Marquesses of Milford Haven (and formerly the Marquesses of Carisbrooke), as well as the Earls Mountbatten of Burma. The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, adopted the surname of Mountbatten from his mother's family in 1947, although he was a member of the House of Glücksburg by patrilineal descent. Another prominent member of the family was Lady Louise Mountbatten, who became Queen consort of Sweden after her husband ascended the Swedish throne as King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1950.

The Mountbatten family is a branch of the German house of Battenberg. The latter family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, which formerly ruled the Grand Duchy of Hesse in what is now Germany. The first member of the Battenberg family was Julia Hauke, whose brother-in-law (Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse) created her Countess of Battenberg with the style of Illustrious Highness (HIllH) in 1851, on the occasion of her morganatic marriage to Grand Duke Louis' brother, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. In 1858, Julia was elevated in title to Princess of Battenberg, with the style of Serene Highness (HSH).

Two of Alexander and Julia's sons, Prince Henry of Battenberg and Prince Louis of Battenberg, became associated with the British royal family. Prince Henry married The Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. Prince Louis married Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, and became First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy.

Due to anti-German feelings prevalent in Britain during World War I, Prince Louis, his children and his nephews (the two living sons of Prince Henry) renounced their German titles and changed their name to the more English-sounding Mountbatten. (They had considered an alternative translation, "Battenhill", but later rejected it.) Their cousin George V compensated the princes with British peerages. Prince Louis became the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry's eldest son, became the 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke.

The Marquessate of Milford Haven was created in 1917 for Prince Louis of Battenberg, the former First Sea Lord, and a relation to the British Royal Family. He was at the same time made Earl of Medina and Viscount Alderney, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Princess Alice of Battenberg never took the name Mountbatten as she married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903; her son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, took the name upon becoming a naturalised British citizen.

The heir apparent to the marquessate is the present holder's son Henry Mountbatten, Earl of Medina (b. 1991)

The 1st Marquess's youngest daughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten, married the crown prince of Sweden in 1923. On his accession in 1950 as Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, Louise became Queen consort of Sweden.

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