Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
between people of unequal
social rank, which in the context of
royalty
Royalty may refer to:
* Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc.
* Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family
* Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...
or other
inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage. The concept is most prevalent in German-speaking territories and countries most influenced by the customs of the German-speaking realms.
Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a
reign
A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Budd ...
ing,
deposed or
mediatised dynasty) and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a
low-ranked noble family or a commoner).
[Webster's Online Dictionary](_blank)
. Retrieved 2008-07-10.[ Diesbach, Ghislain de. ''Secrets of the Gotha'' (translated from the French by ]Margaret Crosland
Margaret Crosland is a Canadian former figure skater from Calgary, Alberta. She is the 1958 and 1959 Canadian national champion. She started skating at age 7, and was coached by the Swiss Olympian Hans Gerschwiler. She represented the Glencoe C ...
). Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London, 1967. pp. 18, 25–26, 35, 179–182, 186–187. Usually, neither the bride nor any children of the marriage have a claim on the bridegroom's
succession rights, titles, precedence, or
entailed property. The children are considered legitimate for all other purposes and the prohibition against
bigamy applies.
[" Hugh Chisholm, editor. ]Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...
. Volume 18. ''Morganatic Marriage''. University Press, 1911, p. 835. In some countries, a woman could also marry a man of lower rank morganatically. As a result of the above, a king deciding to enter into a morganatic marriage who does not have children from a previous marriage thereby gives up the chance of being succeeded by his own children and accepts that succession would pass to his other relatives.
German background
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the heads of both ruling and formerly reigning German dynasties initially continued the practice of rejecting dynastic titles and/or rights for descendants of "morganatic" unions, but gradually allowed them, sometimes retroactively, effectively de-morganatizing the wives and children. This was accommodated by
Perthes' ''
Almanach de Gotha'' (which categorised German princely families by rank until it ceased publication after 1944) by inserting the offspring of such marriages in a third section of the almanac under entries denoted by a symbol (a dot within a circle) that "signifies some princely houses which, possessing no specific princely
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...
, have passed from the first part, A, or from the second part into the third part in virtue of special agreements."
['' Almanach de Gotha'' (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 43, 363–364, 529. French] The ''
Fürstliche Häuser'' ("Princely Houses") series of the ''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels'' ("Genealogical Manual of the Nobility") has followed this lead, likewise enrolling some issue of unapproved marriages in its third section, "III B", with a similar explanation: "Families in this section, although verified, received no specific
decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used f ...
, but have been included by special agreement in the 1st and 2nd sections".
[''«Die in dieser Abteilung nachgewiesenen Familien besitzen kein besonderes Diplom, sondern sind nach besonderer Übereinkunft aus der 1. und 2. Abteilung übernommen worden.»'' ''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XIV. C.A. Starke Verlag, 1991, p. 565. .]
Variations of morganatic marriage were also practised by non-European dynasties, such as the
Royal Family of Thailand, the polygamous
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
as to their non-principal wives, and other families of Africa and Asia.
Etymology
''Morganatic'', already in use in English by 1727 (according to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
''), is derived from the
medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used f ...
''morganaticus'' from the
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in the ...
phrase ''matrimonium ad morganaticam'' and refers to the gift given by the groom to the bride on the morning after the wedding, the
morning gift, i.e.,
dower
Dower is a provision accorded traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support should she become widowed. It was settlement (law), settled on the bride (being gifted into trust instrument, trust) by agreement at the time of ...
. The Latin term, applied to a Germanic custom, was adopted from the
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
term ''*morgangeba'' (modern German ''Morgengabe''), corresponding to Early English ''morgengifu''. The literal meaning is explained in a 16th-century passage quoted by
Du Cange as, "a marriage by which the wife and the children that may be born are entitled to no share in the husband's possessions beyond the 'morning-gift'".
[ Philological Society. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. ''Morganatic''. Clarendon Press, 1908. p. 663.]
The ''morning gift'' has been a customary property arrangement for marriage found first in early medieval German cultures (such as the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
) and also among ancient Germanic tribes, and the church drove its adoption into other countries in order to improve the wife's security by this ''additional'' benefit. The bride received property from the bridegroom's clan. It was intended to ensure her livelihood in widowhood, and it was to be kept separate as the wife's discrete possession. However, when a marriage contract is made wherein the bride and the children of the marriage will not receive anything else (other than the dower) from the bridegroom or from his inheritance or clan, that sort of marriage was dubbed as "marriage with only the dower and no other inheritance", i.e., ''matrimonium morganaticum''.
Examples
Royal men who married morganatically:
*
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr /> Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent) Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin ...
followed the contemporary tradition by taking several morganatic wives in addition to his principal wife, whose
property passed to their youngest son, also following tradition.
* King
Erik XIV of Sweden married the servant
Karin Månsdotter twice - once morganatically in 1567, and again although not morganatically in 1568.
*
Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria
Ludwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Ludwig (surname), including a list of people
* Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and co ...
and actress
Henriette Mendel
Henriette Mendel, Baroness von Wallersee (July 31, 1833 – November 12, 1891) was a German actress, and the mistress and, later, morganatic wife of Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria. By him she was the mother of Countess Marie Larisch von Mo ...
. She was created Baroness von Wallersee, and their daughter,
Marie Louise, Countess Larisch von Moennich
Countess Marie Louise Larisch von Moennich (also known as Countess Marie Louise Larisch-Wallersee and Countess Marie Larisch) (24 February 1858 – 4 July 1940) was
the niece and confidante of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She involved in the May ...
, was a confidante of Empress
Elisabeth ("Sissi") of Austria.
* Archduke
Ferdinand II of Austria, ruler of the
Tirol, first married
Philippine Welser, a
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...
e of a wealthy family in 1557. Their children were given the title Margrave von Burgau, the issue of Ferdinand's second (and equal) marriage being of archducal rank and preferred for purposes of inheritance.
*
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in 1869 married morganatically his principal mistress
Rosa Teresa Vercellana Guerrieri. Popularly known in
Piedmontese as "Bela Rosin" (Little Rosa the Beautiful), she was born a commoner but made Countess di Mirafiori e Fontanafredda in 1858.
*
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine in 1851 married morganatically
Countess Julia von Hauke. Instead of being part of the
House of Hesse-Darmstadt to which their father belonged, their
patrilinear descendants were created
Princes of Battenberg, whose branch living in
Britain later became
House of Mountbatten.
* Late in his life, the widowed ex-king
Fernando II of Portugal
'' Dom'' Ferdinand II ( Portuguese: ''Fernando II'') (29 October 1816 – 15 December 1885) was a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, and King of Portugal ''jure uxoris'' as the husband of Queen Maria II, from the birth ...
married the opera singer
Elise Hensler, who was created Countess von Edla.
* In 1917, the grandson of
Fernando II of Portugal
'' Dom'' Ferdinand II ( Portuguese: ''Fernando II'') (29 October 1816 – 15 December 1885) was a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, and King of Portugal ''jure uxoris'' as the husband of Queen Maria II, from the birth ...
,
Afonso, Duke of Porto, the last
Prince Royal of Portugal, married the twice-divorced American socialite
Nevada Stoody Hayes.
* A list of
morganatic branches of the Russian Imperial Family
* The 1900 marriage of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose subsequent assassination triggered World War I, to
Countess Sophie Chotek von Wognin was morganatic at the insistence of the Austrian Emperor
Franz Joseph I.
* Danish astronomer and nobleman
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was ...
married Kirsten Jørgensdatter morganatically in 1572. He was allowed to do so because he was close friends with
King Frederick II. The king was sympathetic, as he was unable to marry his love due to class differences.
Royal women who married morganatically:
*
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma (by birth an
archduchess of the Imperial
House of Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
, and by her first marriage a French empress) married morganatically twice after the death of her husband,
the emperor
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
Napoleon I. Her second husband was
Count Adam Albert von Neipperg. After his death, she married
Count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New Yor ...
Charles-René de Bombelles
Charles-René de Bombelles (6 November 1784–30 May 1856) was a French émigré nobleman, soldier, and the third husband of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma. Marie Louise was the widow of the French emperor Napoleon, and her marriage to Charles wa ...
, her chamberlain, in 1834.
* Queen
Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies ( it, Maria Cristina Ferdinanda di Borbone, Principessa delle Due Sicilie, es, link=no, María Cristina de Borbón, Princesa de las Dos Sicilias; 27 April 1806 – 22 August 1878) was Queen of Spain from 1829 ...
, regent of Spain after her husband's (
Ferdinand VII) death while their daughter,
Isabella II, was a minor. She married
Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez, 1st Duke of Riánsares, who was one of her guards in a secret marriage.
* Princess
Stéphanie of Belgium, the widow of
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, married
Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény after the death of her first husband. In 1917, Emperor
Charles I of Austria conferred upon
Lónyay a
non-dynastic title of Prince (''
Fürst'').
History
Denmark
Succession to the Danish throne followed the specifications of the ''
Lex Regia'' until the
Danish Act of Succession was passed in 1953. Prominent morganatic marriages include the 1615 marriage of King
Christian IV of Denmark
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian mon ...
to
noblewoman Kirsten Munk. Kirsten was titled "Countess of Schleswig-Holstein" and bore the King 12 children, all styled "Count/Countess of Schleswig-Holstein".
King Frederick VII married the ballerina
Louise Rasmussen
Louise Christine Rasmussen, also known as ''Countess Danner'' (21 April 1815 – 6 March 1874), was a Danish ballet dancer and stage actor. She was the mistress and later the morganatic spouse of King Frederick VII of Denmark. She was not a queen ...
, who was raised to the rank of "Countess Danner" in 1850. There were no children of this marriage. When
Christian IX of Denmark's brother,
Prince Julius of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
married Elisabeth von Ziegesar in 1883, the king granted her the title "Countess af
Røst".
Until 1971, Danish princes who married women who did not belong to a royal or noble family were refused the sovereign's authorization, renouncing their right of succession to the throne and royal title (
Prince Aage of Denmark morganatically
eloped with Matilda Calvi, daughter of Count Carlo Giorgio di Bergolo, in January 1914 but renounced his dynastic rights and titles subsequently).
They were granted the non-royal prefix of "Prince" and their descendants bear the title
Count af Rosenborg in the
Danish nobility.
Neither of the children of
Queen Margrethe II has married a person of either royal birth or of the titled aristocracy. Members of the Royal Family may still lose their place in the line of succession for themselves and their descendants if they marry without the monarch's permission.
France
Morganatic marriage was not recognized as a concept in French law.
[de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le comte de Paris et sa descendance. ''Introduction sur la Maison royale de France''. Du Chaney Eds, Paris, 1998, p. 11. French. .] Since the law did not distinguish, for marital purposes, between ruler and subjects, marriages between royalty and the noble heiresses to great
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...
s became the norm through the 16th century, helping to aggrandize the
House of Capet while gradually diminishing the number of large domains held in theoretical vassalage by nobles who were, in practice, virtually independent of the French crown: by the marriage of
Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
to the future
King Henry II in 1533, the last of these provinces, the
county of Auvergne, came to the crown of France.
Antiquity of nobility in the legitimate male line, not noble
quarterings, was the main criterion of rank in the ''
ancien régime
''Ancien'' may refer to
* the French word for " ancient, old"
** Société des anciens textes français
* the French for "former, senior"
** Virelai ancien
** Ancien Régime
** Ancien Régime in France
{{disambig ...
''.
[de la Roque, Gilles-Andre. Traite de la Noblesse. ]
Du Gentilhomme de nom et d'armes
'. Etienne Michalet, Paris, 1678, pp. 5, 8-10. Unlike the status of a British peer's wife and descendants (yet typical of the nobility of every
continental European country), the legitimate children and male-line descendants of any French nobleman (whether titled or not, whether possessing a
French peerage or not) were also legally noble ''ad infinitum''.
Rank was not based on hereditary titles, which were often assumed or
acquired by purchase of a noble estate rather than granted by the Crown. Rather, the main determinant of relative rank among the French nobility was how far back the nobility of a family's male line could be verifiably traced.
Other factors influencing rank included the family's history of military command, high-ranking offices held at court and marriages into other high-ranking families. A specific exception was made for bearers of the title of duke who, regardless of their origin, outranked all other nobles. But the ducal title in post-medieval France (even when embellished with the still higher status of "peer") ranked its holder and his family among France's nobility and not, as in Germany and Scandinavia (and, occasionally, Italy,
viz. Savoy
Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps.
Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south.
...
,
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
,
Este
Este may refer to:
Geography
* Este (woreda), a district in Ethiopia
* Este, Veneto, a town in Italy
* Este (Málaga), a district in Spain
* Este (river), a river in Germany
* Este (São Pedro), a parish in Portugal
* Este (São Mamede), a par ...
,
della Rovere,
Farnese and
Cybo-Malaspina) among Europe's
reign
A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Budd ...
ing dynasties which habitually
intermarried with one another.
Once the
Bourbons inherited the throne of France from the
House of Valois in 1589, their
dynasts married daughters of even the oldest ducal families of France — let alone noblewomen of lower rank — quite rarely (viz.,
Anne de Montafié in 1601,
Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency in 1609 and, in exile from revolutionary France,
Maria Caterina Brignole in 1798). Exceptions were made for equal
royal intermarriage with the ''
princes étrangers'' and, by royal command, with the so-called ''
princes légitimés'' (i.e., out-of-wedlock but
legitimised descendants of
Henry IV and
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ve ...
), as well as with the nieces of Cardinal-prime ministers (i.e.,
Richelieu
Richelieu (, ; ) may refer to:
People
* Cardinal Richelieu (Armand-Jean du Plessis, 1585–1642), Louis XIII's chief minister
* Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu (1582–1653), French Carthusian bishop and Cardinal
* Louis François Armand ...
,
Mazarin). Just as the French king could authorize a royal marriage that would otherwise have been deemed unsuitable, by 1635 it had been established by
Louis XIII that the king could also legally void the canonically valid,
equal marriage of a French dynast to which he had not given consent (e.g.,
Marguerite of Lorraine, Duchess of Orléans).
[Blet, Pierre. Le Clergé de France et la Monarchie, Etude sur les Assemblées Générales du Clergé de 1615 à 1666. Université Grégorienne, Rome, 1959, pp. 399-439.][Degert, (Abbé). "Le mariage de Gaston d'Orléans et de Marguerite de Lorraine," ''Revue Historique'' 143:161-80, 144:1-57. French.]
Moreover, there was a French practice, legally distinct from morganatic marriage but used in similar situations of inequality in status between a member of the royal family and a spouse of lower rank: an "openly secret" marriage. French kings authorized such marriages only when the bride was past child-bearing or the marrying prince already had dynastic heirs by a previous spouse of royal descent. The marriage ceremony took place without
banns, in private (with only a priest, the bride and groom, and a few legal witnesses present), and the marriage was never officially acknowledged (although sometimes widely known). Thus, the wife never publicly shared in her husband's titles, rank, or coat of arms.
[Pothier, Robert. Traité des successions, Chapitre I, section I, article 3, § 4. French.] The lower-ranked spouse, male or female, could only receive from the royal spouse what property the king allowed.
In secret marriage, Louis XIV wed his second wife,
Madame de Maintenon, in 1683 (she was nearly 50, so no children were likely);
Louis the Grand Dauphin wed
Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin in 1695; Anne Marie d'Orléans (''
La Grande Mademoiselle'') wed
Antoine, Duke de Lauzun in 1682; and
Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans wed the
Marquise de Montesson in 1773. The mechanism of the "secret marriage" rendered it unnecessary for France to legislate the morganatic marriage ''per se''.
Within post-monarchical dynasties, until the end of the 20th century the heads of the Spanish and Italian Bourbon branches, the Orléans of both France and Brazil, and the Imperial Bonapartes have, in exile, exercised claimed authority to exclude from their dynasty descendants born of unapproved marriages — albeit without calling these marriages "morganatic".
German-speaking Europe
The practice of morganatic marriage was most common in the
German-speaking
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is a ...
parts of Europe, where equality of birth (''Ebenbürtigkeit'') between the spouses was considered an important principle among the reigning houses and high nobility.
The German name was ''Ehe zur linken Hand'' ("marriage by the left hand") and the husband gave his left hand during the wedding ceremony instead of the right.
Perhaps the most famous example in modern times was the 1900 marriage of the heir to the throne of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Bohemian aristocrat
Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa. The marriage was initially resisted by
Emperor Franz Joseph I, but after pressure from family members and other European rulers, he relented in 1899 (but did not attend the wedding himself). The bride was made
Princess
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subs ...
(later
Duchess) of
Hohenberg, their children took their mother's new name and rank, but were excluded from the imperial succession. The
Sarajevo assassination
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range while b ...
in 1914, killing both the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, triggered the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
.
Although the issue of morganatic marriages were ineligible to succeed to their families' respective thrones, children of morganatic marriages have gone on to achieve dynastic success elsewhere in Europe.
Descendants of the 1851 marriage of
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine to the German-Polish noblewoman
Countess Julia von Hauke (created Princess of
Battenberg
Battenberg or Battenburg may refer to:
Places
* Battenberg (Eder), a town in Hesse, Germany
* Battenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
* Battenberg Hill, in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica
People
* Batten ...
) include
Alexander, sovereign prince of Bulgaria, queen-consorts of Spain (
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg) and of Sweden (
Louise Mountbatten), and, in the female line,
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
(through his paternal grandmother,
Alice of Battenberg
Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, and the paternal grandmother of King Charles II ...
).
Likewise, from the morganatic marriage of
Duke Alexander of Württemberg and
Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created Countess von Hohenstein) descends
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 186724 March 1953) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King-E ...
, who became Britain's queen in 1911 as the consort of
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...
.
Occasionally, children of morganatic marriages have overcome their non-dynastic origins and succeeded to their family's realms.
Margrave Leopold inherited the throne of Baden, despite being born of a morganatic marriage, after all dynastic males of the
House of Zähringen died out. The son of
Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden, by his second wife
Louise Caroline Geyer von Geyersberg, who belonged to the minor nobility, Leopold became a prince in 1817, at the age of 27, as the result of a new law of succession. Baden's grand-ducal family faced extinction, so Leopold was enfranchised by international treaty and married to a princess, ascending the throne in 1830. His descendants ruled the grand duchy until the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.
Other reigning German families adopted similar approaches when facing a lack of male heirs. In 1896 the Princely
House of Schwarzburg
The House of Schwarzburg was one of the oldest noble families of Thuringia. Upon the death of Prince Friedrich Günther in 1971, a claim to the headship of the house passed under Semi-Salic primogeniture to his elder sister, Princess Marie ...
, with the Sondershausen branch numbering two elderly childless princes and Rudolstadt just one childless prince, recognised
Prince Sizzo von Leutenberg, morganatic son of
Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, as a Prince of Schwarzburg and heir to the two principalities.
The senior line of the dynasty ruling the
Principality of Lippe
Lippe (later Lippe-Detmold and then again Lippe) was a historical state in Germany, ruled by the House of Lippe. It was located between the Weser river and the southeast part of the Teutoburg Forest.
It was founded in the 1640s under a sepa ...
was bordering on extinction as the 20th century approached, prompting a succession dispute between the
Lippe-Biesterfeld and
Schaumburg-Lippe branches of the dynasty which evoked international intervention and troop movements. It centered on whether some ancestresses of the Biesterfeld branch had been legally dynastic; if so, that line stood next to inherit the princely crown according to primogeniture. If not, the Biesterfelds would be deemed morganatic and the Schaumburg-Lippes would inherit the throne. Lippe's Parliament was blocked from voting on the matter by the German Empire's ''
Reichstag'', which instead created a panel of jurists selected by the King of Saxony to evaluate the evidence concerning the historical marital rules of the House of Lippe and render a decision in the matter, all parties agreeing to abide by their judgment. In 1897 and 1905 panels ruled in favour of the dynasticity of the challenged ancestresses and their descendants, largely because, although neither had been of dynastic rank, the Lippes had historically accepted such marriages for the junior lines when approved by the Head of House.
[" Hugh Chisholm, editor. ]Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...
. Volume 16. ''Lippe
Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' ( district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe ...
''. University Press, 1911, pp. 740-741.[Velde, Francois. Heraldica.org. ]
The 1895-1905 Succession Dispute
'' 2 December 2005. Retrieved 2012/5/2.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a few families considered in Germany to be morganatic were considered for crowns elsewhere, constituting unexpected rehabilitation of their status.
The first of these was
Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who in 1877 was agreed upon by the
Great Powers as the best candidate for the new throne of Bulgaria. He was, however, unable to hold onto his crown, and was also unable to obtain the hand in marriage of
Princess Viktoria of Prussia despite the efforts of her
imperial mother and
grandmother.
Wilhelm, Duke of Urach (1864–1928), whose father was the morganatic son of a Württemberg prince, had the distinction of being under consideration for the crowns of five realms at different times: that of the
Kingdom of Württemberg in the 1890s, as the senior
agnate by primogeniture when it became likely that
King William II would die without male descendants, leaving as heir
Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, a more distantly related, albeit dynastic, royal kinsman; the
Principality of Albania in 1913; the
Principality of Monaco at turn of the 20th century, as the next heir by
proximity of blood Proximity of blood, or proximity by degree of kinship, is one of the ways to determine hereditary succession based on genealogy. In effect, the application of this rule is a refusal to recognize the right of representation, a component of primogen ...
following the
Hereditary Prince Louis, until the
Monaco succession crisis of 1918 was resolved as the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
ended; the prospective
Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine in 1917; and his abortive election by the ''
Taryba'' as King Mindaugas II of Lithuania in July 1918. In the event, Duke Wilhelm obtained none of these thrones.
Relying upon the ''
Almanach de Gotha'' to
gazette
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.
In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...
dynastic events, Germany's deposed heads of state continued to notify its editors of changes in family members' status and traditional titles.
In 1919 the morganatic wife and children of
Prince Oskar of Prussia, the counts and countesses von Ruppin, were upgraded to princes and princesses of Prussia by the exiled
Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1928
Georg, Count von Carlow, morganatic son of Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg and commoner Natalia Vanljarskaya, became a duke of Mecklenburg and heir to his uncle
Duke Charles Michael. In 1949, and again in 1999, various morganatic members of the
Bavarian Royal House were recognised as princes and princesses of Bavaria, with the current head of the house,
Franz, Duke of Bavaria, being among the beneficiaries of his father's ruling, having been born of a marriage initially deemed morganatic.
[de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. ''Le Petit Gotha''. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery, Paris 2002, p. 37 (French) ]
In the former Royal Family of Saxony
Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen adopted and designated as his heir his nephew
Alexander de Afif, thus bypassing his
agnatic cousin's morganatic son,
Prince Rüdiger of Saxony
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
, and his three sons.
Luxembourg
When the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg found itself without a male heir at the beginning of the 20th century, the morganatic
counts von Merenberg proposed themselves as heirs, being the last legitimate descendants in the
male line of the
House of Nassau.
Grand Duke William IV
William IV (Guillaume Alexander; ''French: Guillaume Alexandre''; 22 April 1852 – 25 February 1912) reigned as the Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 17 November 1905 until his death. He succeeded his father, Adolphe.
William was a Protestant, the ...
, however, chose to confirm the law of succession stipulated in 1815 by the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
to allow a female descendant in the Nassau male line to become successor to the throne (his own daughter
Marie-Adélaïde) instead.
[Velde, Francois. Heraldica.org. ]
Succession in Nassau and Luxemburg
'. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 2012/5/2.
Russia
Paul I of Russia promulgated a strict new
house law for Russia in 1797, eliminating the sovereign's right to designate the heir to the throne, but requiring that dynasts be born of authorized marriages.
[Beeche, Arturo. ''The Grand Dukes.']
Eurohistory.com
, Berkeley, California, 2010. pp. vi-x, 24, 158. . In 1820 a new law also stipulated that only children of Romanovs born of marriages with persons of equal status, i.e., members of a "royal or sovereign family", could transmit succession rights and titles to descendants.
Alexander III forbade Romanov morganatic marriages altogether by issuance of ''
ukase'' #5868 on 24 March 1889 amending article #63 of the Statute on the Imperial Family in the
Pauline laws. By ''ukase'' #35731, dated 11 August 1911, Nicholas II amended the amendment, reducing application of this restriction from all members of the Imperial Family to grand dukes and grand duchesses only. This decree allowed marriages of the
princes and princesses of the Blood Imperial with non-royal spouses, on the
conditions that the emperor's consent be obtained, that the dynast renounce his or her personal succession rights, and that the Pauline laws restricting succession rights to those born of equal marriages continue in force.
An early victim of the Pauline laws was
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, grandson of
Catherine the Great, and viceroy of Poland. On 20 March 1820 his marriage to Princess
Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was annulled to allow him to morganatically wed his longtime mistress,
Countess Joanna Grudna-Grudzińska, in Warsaw on 24 May 1820, who was elevated to the title "Princess Łowicza" upon marriage, which produced no children.
[Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Pierre le Grand, Tsar de Russie''. Sedopols, Paris, 1983. pp.43, 127. French. ]
One emperor,
Alexander II, married morganatically in 1880. Princess
Ekaterina Mihailovna Dolgorukova, Alexander's second bride, had previously been his long-term mistress and the mother of his three
legitimised children, the
princes and princesses Yurievsky.
[Willis, Daniel. The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain. Clearfield, Baltimore, 2002. pp. 114, 580, 601, 607, 717. .]
Beginning a novel tradition, one of that couple's daughters, Princess Olga Aleksandrovna Yurievskaya (1873–1925), in 1895 married the child of an 1868 morganatic marriage in the
House of Nassau,
George, Count von Merenberg (1871–1965).
His mother was a daughter of renowned author
Alexander Pushkin but, despite being of noble birth, she could not in 1868 dynastically marry the
younger brother of a then-exiled
Duke of Nassau.
The count filed a futile suit to establish that his morganatic status in Germany should not exclude him from succession to the
throne of Luxembourg after the last male of the
House of Orange, King
William III of the Netherlands
William III ( Dutch: ''Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk''; English: ''William Alexander Paul Frederick Louis''; 19 February 1817 – 23 November 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death i ...
, died in 1890 and it became apparent that the House of Nassau faced the imminent extinction of its male members, as well, upon the eventual death of
Grand Duke William IV
William IV (Guillaume Alexander; ''French: Guillaume Alexandre''; 22 April 1852 – 25 February 1912) reigned as the Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 17 November 1905 until his death. He succeeded his father, Adolphe.
William was a Protestant, the ...
.
Olga's brother,
Prince George Aleksandrovich Yurievsky (1872–1913), in 1900 wed Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau (1883–1957), daughter of the morganatic marriage of the Russo-German
Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg
Duke Constantine Frederick Peter of Oldenburg (german: Herzog Konstantin Friedrich Peter von Oldenburg; russian: Константин Петрович Ольденбургский, tr. ; 9 May 1850 – 18 March 1906) was a son of Duke Peter Georgi ...
with Agrafena
Djaparidize.
Merenberg's sister,
Sophia
Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to:
*Sophia (wisdom)
*Sophia (Gnosticism)
*Sophia (given name)
Places
*Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu
*Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana
*Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...
(1868–1927), likewise contracted a morganatic marriage in 1891, with
Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, whose cousin,
Emperor Nicholas II banished them to England, unwittingly saving the couple from the maelstrom of the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
which proved fatal to so many
Romanovs
The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning dynasty, imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastacia of Russia, Anastasi ...
.
[Crawford, Rosemary and Donald. "Michael and Natasha". Scribner, New York, 1997. pp. 111, 131, 147, 182, 204, 228, 389. .] She and her children were made ''counts de Torby'', her younger daughter,
Countess Nada (1896–1963) marrying, in 1916
Prince George of Battenberg
Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, (6 November 1892Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: ''901''; Laufende Nummer: ''150'' – 8 April 1938), born Prince George of Batten ...
, future
Marquess of Milford Haven and scion of the
House of Battenberg, a morganatic branch of the grandducal
House of Hesse
The House of Hesse is a European dynasty, directly descended from the House of Reginar, House of Brabant. They ruled the region of Hesse, one branch as prince-electors until 1866, and another branch as grand dukes until 1918.Burke's Peerage, Bur ...
which had settled in England and inter-married with descendants of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
.
Less fortunate among the Romanovs was
Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovich, who went into exile in Paris to marry a commoner,
Olga Valerianovna Karnovich in 1902.
Paul returned to serve in the Russian army during the First World War, and Nicholas II rewarded his uncle's loyalty by elevating Olga and her children as Princess and Princes Paley in 1915.
Paul's patriotism, however, sealed his fate, and he died at the hands of Russia's revolutionaries in 1919. One of his daughters,
Princess Irene Pavlovna Paley (1903–1990), was married while in exile in 1923, to her cousin,
Prince Theodor Aleksandrovich of Russia, (1898-1968).
Nicholas II forbade his brother,
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович, r=Mikhail Aleksandrovich; 13 June 1918) was the youngest son and fifth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and youngest brother of Nicholas ...
, from marrying twice-divorced
noblewoman Natalya Sergeyevna Wulfert (''née'' Sheremetevskaya), but the couple eloped abroad in 1911.
The Tsar refused his brother's request to grant the bride or their son,
George Mikhailovich (1910–1931) a title, but
legitimated George and incorporated him into the
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire.
Up until the February Revolutio ...
under the surname "Brassov" in 1915: nonetheless he and his mother used the
comital title from 1915, only being granted a princely prefix in exile by
Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia in 1928.
In the throes of the First World War, Nicholas II allowed his sister
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (russian: О́льга Алекса́ндровна; – 24 November 1960) was the youngest child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and younger sister of Emperor Nicholas II.
Olga was raised at the ...
to end her loveless marriage to her social equal,
Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, and quietly marry commoner Colonel
Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky.
Both Michael's and Olga's descendants from these marriages were excluded from the succession.
After the murder of Nicholas II and his children, the Imperial Family's morganatic marriages restricted the number of possible claimants.
Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich
Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (russian: Кирилл Владимирович Романов; ''Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov''; – 12 October 1938) was a son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Emperor Al ...
, Nicholas's cousin, proclaimed himself as Emperor in exile.
Controversy accompanied the marriage of his son
Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich to
Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhransky, a descendant of the deposed Royal House of Georgia.
After the annexation of Georgia in 1801, Leonida's family were deemed ordinary nobility in Imperial Russia rather than royalty, leading to claims that her 1948 marriage to Vladimir (who, however, also belonged to a deposed dynasty by then) was unequal and should be considered morganatic.
As a result, some factions within Russia's monarchist movement did not support the couple's daughter,
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (russian: Мария Владимировна Романова; born 23 December 1953) has been a claimant to the headship of the Imperial Family of Russia (who reigned as Emperors and Autocrats of all ...
, as the rightful heir to the Romanov dynasty.
Sweden
King
Eric XIV of Sweden
Eric XIV ( sv, Erik XIV; 13 December 153326 February 1577) was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1569. Eric XIV was the eldest son of Gustav I (1496–1560) and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg (1513–1535). He was also ruler of E ...
married
Karin Månsdotter, a farmer's daughter, in 1568.
Transkei
Standards of social classification and marital rules resembling the traditions of
dynastic
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
Europe can also be found in a number of sovereign nations in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. Here, a number of its constituent sovereign nations have legalized
traditional authority as manifested in the recognized hereditary transmission of
chieftaincy
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized ...
in historically relevant regions of the continent (e.g., the
Asantehene
The is the title for the monarch of the historical Ashanti Empire as well as the ceremonial ruler of the Ashanti people today. The Ashanti royal house traces its line to the Oyoko (an '' Abusua'', or "clan") Abohyen Dynasty of Nana Twum an ...
of
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
).
An example of the form that morganatic unions tend to take amongst African royalty can be found in the biography of
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...
, the late leader of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
. Mandela, a
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...
by birth of the
Xhosa Thembus that reside in the
Transkei
Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...
region of the Cape coast, was nevertheless unable to ascend the throne of the ''Kumkani'' (or king) of the entire Thembu tribe, even though he descended in the legitimate, male line from the holders of this title. Nearly two centuries ago,
Ngubengcuka (d. 1832), who ruled as the ''Kumkani'' of the Thembu people, married and subsequently left a son named Mandela, who became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. However, because Mandela was only the
Inkosi's child by a wife of the ''Ixhiba'' lineage, a so-called "Left-Hand House", the descendants of his
cadet branch
In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets—realm, ti ...
of the Thembu royal family remain ineligible to succeed to the Thembu throne,
which is itself one of the several traditional seats that are still officially recognized by South Africa's government. Instead, the Mandelas were given the
chiefdom of
Mvezo and made hereditary counsellors to the ''Kumkani'' (i.e.,
privy counsellor
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...
s) in deference to their royal ancestry. Following the loss of this chiefdom (which has since been restored to the family) in the
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era,
the Mandelas retained their positions as nobles of the Transkei. This status entailed, however, a degree of subjugation to the head of the dynasty, in particular in the matter of marital selection, which proved so onerous an issue to Nelson Mandela that it prompted the departure to
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...
that eventually led to his political career. Like the
House of Battenberg in Europe, Mandela's family has since rehabilitated
its dynastic status to some extent: Mandela was still in prison when his daughter
Zenani was married to
Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini in 1973, elder brother of both King
Mswati III of Swaziland and Queen
Mantfombi,
Great Wife of
Goodwill Zwelithini, King of the Zulus.
Travancore and Cochin
In the erstwhile
princely state
A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
of
Travancore
The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...
, in
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
, the male members of the
Travancore Royal Family were, under the existing matrilineal
Marumakkathayam
Marumakkathayam was a system of matrilineal inheritance prevalent in regions what now form part of the southern Indian state Kerala. Descent and the inheritance of property was traced through females. It was followed by all Nair castes, Ambalava ...
system of inheritance and family, permitted to contract marriages with women of the
Nair caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...
only. These were morganatic marriages called
Sambandhams wherein the children gained their mother's caste and family name, due to
Marumakkathayam
Marumakkathayam was a system of matrilineal inheritance prevalent in regions what now form part of the southern Indian state Kerala. Descent and the inheritance of property was traced through females. It was followed by all Nair castes, Ambalava ...
. Although they could not inherit the throne, they did receive a title of
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
,
Thampi (son of the Maharajah) and Kochamma (daughter of the Maharajah). These were the members of the
Ammaveedus and their titles ensured a comfortable lifestyle and all other luxuries. The descendants of these Ammaveedu members were simply called Thampi and Thankachi and they didn't get any other distinguishing privileges.
The Cochin Royal family also followed the system of
Marumakkatayam
Marumakkathayam was a system of matrilineal inheritance prevalent in regions what now form part of the southern Indian state Kerala. Descent and the inheritance of property was traced through females. It was followed by all Nair castes, Ambalava ...
. Traditionally the female members of the family married Namboodiri Brahmins while male members marry ladies of the Nair caste. These wives of the male members are not royalty or didn't receive any royal titles or power, per the matrilineal system but instead get the title of Nethyar Amma. Their position ceases when the Maharaja dies. The children born to Neytharammas will be known by their mother's caste and hold no key royal titles. Currently the family marries mostly within the Kerala Kshatriya class.
United Kingdom
The concept of morganatic marriage has never clearly existed in any part of the United Kingdom, and historically the English crown descended through marriages with commoners as late as the 17th century. Only two of the six marriages
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
made to secure an heir were with royal brides, and
Elizabeth Woodville, queen of
Edward IV of England, was also a commoner.
Another link in the English succession involving marriage with a commoner was between
John of Gaunt and
Katherine Swynford. When they married after co-habiting for several years all children born previously were subsequently legitimated by Act of Parliament.
King Henry IV later declared that they could not inherit the crown, but it is not clear that he had the right to do this. This marriage was important, as
King Henry VII
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort ...
was descended from it, but Parliament still declared that he was king, so some issues remained unresolved.
The marriage of
George IV as Prince of Wales to
Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 is frequently referred to as morganatic: it was in fact doubly in breach of law, as a marriage to a Catholic and one not having been sanctioned by the king.
As in nearly all European monarchies extant in the 21st century, most approved marriages in the
British royal family are with untitled commoners
[Willis, Daniel A., ''The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain'', Clearfield Company, Baltimore, 2002, pp. 48–54 and ''passim''. .] and have been for several generations. In 1923, the future
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...
(then second in line to the throne as
Duke of York
Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs. ...
), was the first future British monarch to marry a non-princess or prince since 1659 when the future
James VII & II eloped with
Anne Hyde. Wives of British peers are entitled to use the feminine form of their husbands' peerages under
English common law
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
Principal elements of English law
Although the common law has, historically, bee ...
, while wives of royal princes share their husbands' styles by custom unless the Sovereign formally objects.
[ Somervell, Sir Donald. Memorandum, Attorney General to Home Secretary, 14 April 1937, National Archives file HO 144/22945.]
For example,
Catherine Middleton, a commoner, became the
Duchess of Cambridge upon her marriage on 29 April 2011 to
Prince William, who had been created
Duke of Cambridge that morning.
Camilla Parker Bowles
Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. She became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the acc ...
, second wife of
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
(as he was at the time), legally held the title "
Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Tywysoges Cymru'') is a Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title used since the 14th century by the wife of the heir apparent to the English and later Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Briti ...
" but at the time that the engagement was announced it was declared that she would be known by the title "
Duchess of Cornwall" and, in Scotland,
Duchess of Rothesay (derived from other titles her husband holds as
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
) in deference, it has been reported, to public feelings about the title's previous holder, the Prince's first wife
Lady Diana Spencer. It was simultaneously stated that at such time, if any, that her husband accedes to the throne, she will be known as "
Princess Consort
Princess consort is an official title or an informal designation that is normally accorded to the wife of a sovereign prince. The title may be used for the wife of a king if the more usual designation of queen consort is not used.
More informal ...
" rather than "Queen", although as the king's wife she would legally be queen.
However in her 2022
Accession Day message, Queen Elizabeth II stated that it was her "sincere wish" for Camilla to be “known as Queen Consort” upon Charles's accession to the throne.
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
On 16 November 1936
Edward VIII informed Prime Minister
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingd ...
that he intended to marry the American divorcée
Wallis Simpson, proposing that he be allowed to do so morganatically and remain king.
[HRH The Duke of Windsor. ''A King's Story''. 1951. London: Cassell and Co., p. 332.] Baldwin expressed his belief that Mrs. Simpson would be unacceptable to the British people as queen due to her status as a divorcee, which contradicted Church of England doctrine at the time, but agreed to take further soundings. The prospect of the marriage was rejected by the
British Cabinet.
[Bloch, Michael (1982). ''The Duke of Windsor's War''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. , p. 346] The other
Dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
governments were consulted pursuant to the
Statute of Westminster 1931
The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets the basis for the relationship between the Commonwealth realms and the Crown.
Passed on 11 December 1931, the statute increased the sovereignty of t ...
, which provided in part that "any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...
." Baldwin suggested three options to the prime ministers of the five
Dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
s of which Edward was also king:
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
,
Australia,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
and the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independ ...
. The options were:
# Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry and she become queen (a royal marriage);
# Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry, but she not become queen, instead receiving some
courtesy title
A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title).
In some c ...
(a morganatic marriage); or
#
Abdication
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
for Edward and any potential heirs he might father, allowing him to make any marital decisions without further constitutional implications.
The second option had European precedents, including Edward's own maternal great-grandfather,
Duke Alexander of Württemberg, but no unambiguous parallel in British constitutional history.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...
(
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as suc ...
),
Joseph Lyons (
Prime Minister of Australia) and
J. B. M. Hertzog (
Prime Minister of South Africa) opposed options 1 and 2.
Michael Joseph Savage (
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The prime minister of New Zealand ( mi, Te pirimia o Aotearoa) is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017.
The prime minister (inform ...
) rejected option 1 but thought that option 2 "might be possible ... if some solution along these lines were found to be practicable" but "would be guided by the decision of the Home government". Thus the majority of the Commonwealth's prime ministers agreed that there was "no alternative to course (3)". On 24 November, Baldwin consulted the three leading opposition politicians in Britain:
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
Clement Attlee,
Liberal leader
Sir Archibald Sinclair and
Winston Churchill. Sinclair and Attlee agreed that options 1 and 2 were unacceptable and Churchill pledged to support the government.
The letters and diaries of working-class people and ex-servicemen generally demonstrate support for the King, while those from the middle and upper classes tend to express indignation and distaste. ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
'', ''
The Morning Post
''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British d ...
'', the ''
Daily Herald
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'', and newspapers owned by
Lord Kemsley, such as ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'', opposed the marriage. On the other hand, the ''
Express'' and ''
Mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
'' newspapers, owned by
Lord Beaverbrook and
Lord Rothermere
Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in t ...
, respectively, appeared to support a morganatic marriage. The King estimated that the newspapers in favour had a circulation of 12.5 million, and those against had 8.5 million.
Backed by Churchill and Beaverbrook, Edward proposed to broadcast a speech indicating his desire to remain on the throne or to be recalled to it if forced to abdicate, while marrying Mrs Simpson morganatically. In one section, Edward proposed to say:
Baldwin and the
British Cabinet blocked the speech, saying that it would shock many people and would be a grave breach of constitutional principles.
Ultimately, Edward decided to give up the throne for "the woman I love," whereupon he and his descendants were deprived of all right to the Crown by Parliament's passage of
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. He was created
Duke of Windsor on 8 March 1937 by his brother, the new
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...
. He would marry Wallis Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. In the meantime, however,
letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, t ...
dated 27 May 1937, which re-conferred upon the Duke of Windsor the "title, style, or attribute of
Royal Highness", specifically stated that "his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute". This decree was issued by the new king and unanimously supported by the Dominion governments. The king's authority to withhold from the lawful wife of a prince the attribute hitherto accorded to the wives of other modern British princes was addressed by the Crown's legal authorities: On 14 April 1937,
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Sir
Donald Somervell
Donald Bradley Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow, (24 August 1889 – 18 November 1960) was a British barrister, judge and Conservative Party politician. He served as Solicitor General and Attorney General from 1933 to 1945 and was briefly ...
submitted to
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
Sir
John Simon a memorandum summarising the views of
Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper,
Parliamentary Counsel Sir
Granville Ram, and himself:
#We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.
#The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.
#We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.
The new King's firm view, that the Duchess should not be given a royal title, was shared by Queen Mary and George's wife,
Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to:
Queens regnant
* Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland
* Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022 ...
. The Duchess bitterly resented the denial of the royal title and the refusal of the Duke's relatives to accept her as part of the family.
Ziegler, Philip
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian.
Background
Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Field ...
(2004
"Windsor, (Bessie) Wallis, duchess of Windsor (1896–1986)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, , retrieved 2 May 2010 (subscription required) In the early days of George VI's reign the Duke telephoned daily, importuning for money and urging that the Duchess be granted the style of Royal Highness, until the harassed King ordered that the calls not be put through. However, within the household of the Duke and Duchess, the style "Her Royal Highness" was used by those who were close to the couple.
Morganatic vs. invalid
The
Royal Marriages Act of 1772 made it illegal for all persons born into the
British royal family to marry without the permission of the sovereign, and any marriage contracted without the sovereign's consent was considered invalid. This led to several prominent cases of British princes who had gone through marriage ceremonies, and who
cohabited with their partners as if married, but whose relationships were not legally recognised. As a result, their partners and children (which would be considered illegitimate) held no titles, and had no succession rights. This differs from morganatic marriages, which are considered legally valid.
England/Scotland
James II/VII and Anne Hyde
It has been suggested that
William, Prince of Orange, expected to have a strong claim to the throne of
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
after the
Duke of York
Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs. ...
during the reign of
Charles II.
[Van der zee and Van der zee, 1688: ''A Revolution in the family''. Viking, Great Britain: 1988. p 52] In fact, the Duke's two daughters from his first marriage,
Princess Mary and
Princess Anne, were considered to have the stronger claim by the English establishment. William's expectation was based on the continental practice of morganatic marriage, since the mother of both princesses,
Anne Hyde, was a commoner and a lady-in-waiting to William's mother,
Princess Mary. It was through his mother, a sister of Charles II and the Duke of York, that William claimed the throne, because, to his mind, the son of a princess had a stronger claim than the daughter of a commoner. It was to shore up his own claim to the throne that he agreed to marry his first cousin, Princess Mary. When James II fled at the
Glorious Revolution, William refused to accept the title of
king consort (which
Philip II of Spain
Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal fro ...
had been granted under
Queen Mary I in the 1550s) and insisted on being named King in his own right. The compromise solution involved naming both to the crown as had rarely happened in the past (see for example
King Henry II and his son
Young King Henry, who ruled England simultaneously).
See also
*
Agnatic seniority
*
Clandestinity (canon law)
* ''
Lex Canuleia The (‘ Canuleian law’), or , was a law of the Roman Republic, passed in the year 445 BC, restoring the right of (marriage) between patricians and plebeians.
Canuleius' first rogation
Five years earlier, as part of the process of establishing ...
''
Unequal marriage
*
Concubinage
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubin ...
*
Courtesan
Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other ...
*
Gold digger
*
Hypergamy
*
Inter-caste marriage
*
Marriage ''à la façon du pays''
*
''Misyar'' marriage
*''
Plaçage''
*
Signare
*
Sugar baby
*
War bride
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morganatic Marriage
Monarchy
Social divisions