Prince Henry (Heinrich) of Prussia, his family and descendants

[grandduchessella]

I was reading Camera and the Tsars (GREAT book!) and in a photo of GD Michael Michaelovich it says that before he married Countess Torby, he "believed himself in love" and proposed to both Irene of Hesse and Louise of Wales (at separate times of course!) and was turned down by both. Does anyone have any more information on this? Was Irene's heart already set on Henry of Prussia and did Queen Alexandra have anything to do with Louise's refusal? Ihad never read any of this before.

[Ilana]

They just probably thought he was a yutz.  Miche-Miche, in my opinion, was in love with love.  He was a ripe apple falling off a tree, and thought by his relatives to be an idiot.

Anyhow, I understand that he flirted with Princess Victoria of Hesse as well.

He later wrote a book about his love affairs, fictionalized, and his brothers pooled together to buy the entire edition... though one or two slipped out of their hands.

He constantly wrote to NII for money, living as he did in exile in England.

[Penny_Wilson]

He later wrote a book about his love affairs, fictionalized, and his brothers pooled together to buy the entire edition... though one or two slipped out of their hands.

The University of California owns a copy of this book -- it's in their NRLF/SRLF collection.  I have read it and it's pretty sucky.  His style is florid and dramatic, but he doesn't hide the true identity of his characters very well at all, so it's kind of a fun read!  I read somewhere that Xenia Alexandrovna had no problems picking herself out and was pretty pissed about it...  

[grandduchessella]

From other boards where I asked this, I gathered the following:

Yes, he seemed to fall in and out of love rather alarmingly.  

He proposed to Louise of Wales first, then Irene and even approached the Duke of Teck regarding his daughter, the future Queen Mary, and several others! Luckily, I guess these princesses either saw through him or their parents' did.

Wasn't he independently wealthy though until the Revolution? I thought he had a good deal of money, but it was kept in Russia which is where it was lost.

[LisaDavidson]

He would have received an annual allowance that would have allowed him to live in a degree of luxury and comfort. In addition, he may have received monies from his parents during their lifetime and from the Tsar from time to time.

Wealth is a rather relative adjective. If he spent everything he got and never bought property, then he probably was chronically short of funds. His daughter Anastasia married a very wealthy man in the teens (1915?) and it is likely that she helped him, though I don't know if this is the case or not.

[Martyn]

Mikhail Mikhailovitch's daughters both made matches, which if not quite royal, commanded a mixture of financial security and social status. Nadejda married the Marquess of Milford Haven, eldest son of Louis and Victoria Battenberg, thus status if not money.  Anastasia married Sir Harold Wernher, who was indeed quite wealthy and lived at Luton Hoo, which I believe has some rather nice Imperial artefacts.
Mikhail's marriage was nonetheless a morganatic marriage and I am pretty sure that one of the reasons that he and his wife lived in England was because Sophie would never have been accepted by the IF back in Russia.  Did the Tsar punish him in the same way that Kyrill and Ducky were punished, ie loss of rank and income?
I'm sure that I also read somewhere that after the revolution that Mikhail and his family, like so many others, were obliged to live off the proceeds of the sale of his wife's jewels; in spite of this the current Marchioness still owns a wonderful taira set with rubies and diamonds that certainly belonged to Nadejda and may have belonged to her mother.

[Ilana]

Just to emphasis a point that Martyn made... Nada and Georgie did not marry for money.  As a matter of fact, Louis and Victoria made it quite clear to Miche-Miche that Georgie (relatively speaking) would be making his own way.

Cool that you got to see the goofy book, Penny!

[Greg_King]

King George V complained to Nicholas II several times at having to receive Miche-Miche, and how he always howled about needing more money.  As far as I can tell, though, he lived pretty well-Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, where he lived-has a lot of records and documents related to his time there, and they show he certainly wasn't lacking funds!

Greg King

[kensue]

Grandduchessella,

I have read that Irene wasn't attracted to the Russians the way Ella and Alix were.  She really wanted to stay "closer to home" and marry a German.  Queen Victoria was very happy with her decision!

[Ilana]

...happy with her decision not to marry a Russian, but not particularly happy with Henry.  That took the Queen a little bit longer!

[gem_10]

Do you have any informations about Princess Irene of Hesse and Prince Henry Prussia? about their courtship and how Irene changed Henry's attitude?

[Martyn]

Henry and Irene were married in the private chapel of Charlottenburg Palace on 24th May 1888, which also happened to be her grandmother Queen Victoria's birthday.  Ella and Serge came from Russia and the Pce of Wales from England for the wedding.
I think that Irene actaully achieved a rapprochement between Henry and his mother; Vicky was very fond of Irene although the latter came into conflict with her mother-in-law over Ernie's divorce, as Vicky seemed to take Ducky's side, believing her to be more deserving of symapthy and support.

[grandduchessella]

She certainly wasn't! I went into that on another thread, but while I was looking through my books, I found this:
QV to VMH Feb 1886: [annoyed at Louis taking Irene to St Petersburg] ...and then for poor Irene, is is most awkward for no end of reports have been spread & I KNOW that Olga Cecile (wife of GD Michael N.) is BENT upon Micha's marrying her! I shall NEVER forgive it, is she also is to go to that horrid, corrupt Country--& I shld. break with Papa if he did it! I feel SO STRONGLY about it that you must not be suprised if I express myself as I do.
Good thing poor Louis wasn't around for the N&A match. Wonder if QV's reaction would've been different then it was if he'd been alive? She may have indeed been angered if he didn't prevent it, but cut them 'some slack' since Alix was orphaned.

[Ilana]

Think QV mostly annoyed that she had to read about the engagement in the papers.  Also, though Irene was sneaky about the whole thing.

[grandduchessella]

Yeah, she definitely didn't like being 'out of the loop'. She goes on and on about how it was done behind her back, that Irene broke her word, etc...Poor Irene though--no one likes to be called sneaky or manipulative. She was just in love! I wouldnt have been surprised if they'd tried to let her know and QV didn't want to hear it and heard/saw what she wanted. Just assumed everyone would fall in line. I pity poor VMH. That letter had so many italics which represent underlining in the original letters. I just have the feeling that she got pages of underlines! I think I read once that QV once underlined a passage 6 times.