Michał Radziwiłł Rudy
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Michał Radziwiłł Rudy (8 February 1870 – 6 October 1955 in
Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...
) was a nobleman and diplomat.


Early life

He was born to
Ferdynand Radziwiłł Prince Ferdynand Fryderyk Radziwiłł (1834 in Berlin – 1926 in Rome) was a Polish nobleman and Polish-German politician. Early life He was the son of Bogusław Fryderyk Radziwiłł and Leontyna von Clary und Aldringen. Through his pate ...
and Pelagia
Sapieha The House of Sapieha (; ; ; ) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Ruthenian origin,Энцыклапедыя ВКЛ. Т.2, арт. "Сапегі" descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk and Polotsk. Vernadsky, George. ...
on 8 February 1870 in Berlin. His great-grandfather was Prince Anton Radziwill and his great-grandmother was
Princess Louise of Prussia (1770–1836) Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for t ...
. He was a member of the
Radziwiłł family The House of Radziwiłł (; ; ; ) is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian origin, and one of the most powerful magnate families originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later also prominent in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. Pa ...
. The nickname "Rudy", or "Red", was a reference to the color of his hair. His friends also called him "Munio", while his relatives often referred to him as just "the Renegade" or "the Degenerate". As a count (''
Hrabia The hierarchy of noble titles in Poland was relatively uncommon throughout most of its history. Polish nobility ''szlachta'' enjoyed the principle of political equality of all its members. For this reason the idea of introducing the noble / aristoc ...
'') whose property was based around the village of Antonin he was also known, especially locally, as the "
Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...
of Antonin (the Przygodzice
ordynacja In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust, established by deed or settlement, that restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents that property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alie ...
)", due to his luxurious and excessive lifestyle. He attained degrees in law and philosophy and worked as a diplomat in the embassy of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
in Paris. He also served as a lieutenant colonel in the German and as a major in the British armies. He was involved in several major scandals which led to him being disowned by some members of his family.


Career

He served as a diplomat in Russian service until the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
in 1917, reputedly speaking eight languages. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the German army and as a major in the British army. He returned to the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...
in 1926, assuming Polish citizenship that year. His activities were a constant source of gossip for the interwar Polish and international press. After he was disinherited by his father, he tried to get back several properties through the Russian government (at that time, those properties were part of the
Russian partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...
). Increasingly distanced from his family, at one point he sued his own father. He retained the Przygodzice ordynacja, which he brought to the brink of
bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
. He closed a family chapel in Antonin, causing a scandal when he attempted to remove some of his ancestors from their burial places in the chapel. Involved in numerous extramarital affairs, once he punched his first wife, throwing her out of a speeding car. One of his cousins,
Krzysztof Radziwiłł Prince Krzysztof Radziwiłł () (22 March 1585, Biržai – 19 November 1640) was a Polish–Lithuanian noble (szlachcic), and a notable magnate, politician and military commander of his epoch. Sometimes referred to as ''Krzysztof Radziwił ...
, in his memoirs described him as a
psychopath Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality Construct (psychology), construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with boldness, bold, disinhibited, and egocentrism, egocentric traits. These traits are often ma ...
; many members of the family referred to him as "degenerate".


World War II

In 1939, on the outbreak of World War II, he is alleged to have attempted to appease the
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
occupiers by offering Antonin to
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. At that time, he also declared himself a German, and welcomed the invaders as "liberators". After his divorce, Michał Radziwiłł had multiple debts and developed an addiction to gambling. When Hitler's army entered Poland Michał Radziwiłł hoped to enter the Volksliste (Nazi Party list classifying inhabitants of the German-occupied territories) and in order to do so, he delivered speeches promoting Polish surrender to the German army. Michał Radziwiłł also wanted to dislocate the family catacombs in the cellars of the Antonin property, and in 1939 is alleged to have offered the castle as the gift to Hitler. This however failed to generate him enough good will with the new authorities, and he was put under
house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...
. In 1940 he was allowed to emigrate to France, where he spent several months in the
French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...
. A new wave of scandals there only confirmed his bad reputation. He spent the remainder of World War II with relatives near Berlin and in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. After the war, he settled in his second wife's estate in
Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...
, where he lived alone in increasing poverty until his death on 6 October 1955. He was also a Knight of Malta.


Personal life

He married three times. He had two children from his first marriage to Maria Nikołajewna de Bernardaky (in 1898). That marriage caused controversy because Maria, a Greek aristocrat, was
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
, and the couple agreed to raise their children in that faith. His frequent beatings once resulted in Maria breaking her leg. He divorced her in 1915. In 1916, he married his second wife, the widow Maria Henrietta Martinez de Medinilla de Santa-Susana. Later he got involved with a nurse Mary Atkinson who committed suicide. He attempted to divorce Maria Henrietta in 1929, but it was never finalized due to technical difficulties; the couple, however, separated. For that reason, his third marriage in 1938 to Harriet Stewart Dawson (the wealthy widow of an Australian businessman), was seen as possibly illegal, and caused him a new wave of legal problems and scandals.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudy, Michal Radziwill 1870 births 1955 deaths Diplomats from Berlin German expatriates in Spain Michal Radziwill Rudy 20th-century Polish nobility 20th-century German military personnel British Army officers Scandals in Poland