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Mediatized Noble Families / Etiquette between Reigning/Sovereign Houses and Mediatized Houses

« on: September 02, 2011, 03:11:46 PM »

I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge about etiquette rules in Germany (prior to 1918) surrounding relations between mediatized and sovereign/reigning houses.  For example: Would the wife of a mediatized prince be expected to curtsey before a prince/princess of a reigning family?   Another example: If two princes from reigning and mediatized families were friends, would the mediatized prince have been expected to use the German formal form of "you" - Sie - when speaking to the prince from the reigning family?  Just curious...

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Mediatized Noble Families / Princess Luise zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen (1867-1945)

« on: January 18, 2010, 01:05:38 PM »

I am curious about Princess (Marie) Luise zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen (1867-1945).  She seems to have had an interesting life!

She was daughter of Prince Felix zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen (1818-1900) and his wife, Princess Alexandrine von Hanau (1830-1871), daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Hessen.  Luise was first married in 1886 to a much older widower, Prince Albrecht zu Waldeck und Pyrmont (1841-1897), who had children by his first marriage.  They had three children together, 2 of whom died in infancy, and one son, Prince Karl Alexander who met an untimely death at the age of 19 in 1910.  Based on her children and first husband's death birth and death information, I would imagine they lived primarily in Germany.  I wonder why her son Karl Alexander died?  Were there genetic issues involved with the deaths of their children? 

Somewhere around September (I'm guessing) of 1913 (at the age of 46!), she became pregnant again.  In December of 1913, she married the 33 year old George Granville Hope-Johnstone in Vierfontein, South Africa.  He was from an aristocratic Scottish noble family (who today are the Clan Chiefs of Clan Johnstone and the Earls of Annandale and Hartfell in the peerage of Scotland).  According to The Peerage website, he lived in Johannesburg, South Africa.  In June 1914, right as WWI was beginning, she gave birth to a son in Serfontein, South Africa, who was named William Augustus Ludwig Vernon Alexander Hope-Johnstone.  He was known as Vernon.  Sometime in 1915, Luise and George divorced.  I wonder where Luise and George met?  I wonder why they divorced?  Was it merely a marriage of temporary convenience or did WWI tear them apart?  I wonder where their son was raised and who had custody of him?

George died in 1938 in Nottingham, England.  Luise died in 1945 outside of Munich, Germany.  This means that they both left South Africa.  Their son Vernon Hope-Johnstone (1914-1993), went on to serve in the British military during WWII and was a Major-General in the Grenadier Guards.  He married the niece of the 10th Duke of Devonshire and has surviving issue.

I wonder what his relationship was like with his mother?  Were they estranged when she died in 1945?  It seems like Princess Luise had an interesting and often tragic life.  At 43, she had outlived her husband and all of her children.  She then moves to South Africa, marries again, and has another son, only to be torn from him by war....   I wonder how her family and her first husband's family reacted to her remarriage?

Here is an article from the New York Times, that mentions George Granville Hope-Johnstone....   I wonder if this is the same man?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B00E6DE153FE633A25756C2A9609C946296D6CF

I wonder if anyone has any other information about Luise and her life?  Does anyone else find this story intriguing?  Please correct any information that I've gotten wrong.