Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Prince George of Battenberg to marry countess

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May 23, 1916

Prince George of Battenberg, the elder son of Prince and Princess Louis of Battenberg, is to marry Countess Nada Torby, the "younger of the two very pretty daughters" of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and his morganatic wife, Countess Sophie Torby, reports the Marquise de Fontenoy.

The engagement was recently announced in London, and it is not a real surprise, as the couple "have long been devoted to one another."

The match between Prince George, who serves in the Royal Navy aboard the "great warship" New Zealand, and Countess Nada is "very suitable from every point of view."   Both are "of morganatic issues," and Countess Nada, 20, will inherit one-third of her father's very large fortune. 

Prince George's father, Prince Louis, served as Lord Admiral until the end of 1914.  Princess Louis, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, is the eldest sister of the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Henry of Prussia,  Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Russia, and Empress Alexandra of Russia.

Prince George is a first cousin of Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, whose father, Prince Henry, was a younger brother of Prince Louis.  George's older sister, Alice, is married to Prince Andrew of Greece.

Countess Nada Torby has spent most of her life in England, apart from a "few months each year on the French Riviera." Her father owns a large villa in Cannes.   Through her mother,  Nada is the great-granddaughter of the famed Russian poet, Pushkin.

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