Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe arrives in US with American bride

November 4, 1939

The newly married Prince and Princess Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst arrived today in New York aboard the Italian liner Vulcania, reports the New York Times.

The "tall and fair haired" 21-year-old prince, a Polish national, is in the United States to "assume his duties as an assistant military attached to the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C.  His wife is the former Boyce "Peggy" Schulze, 18, stepdaughter of Antony Drexel Biddle, Jr., the American ambassador to Poland.

The couple were married in Paris on October 14 after a "four-month courtship which began like many another courtship before it -- on a Summer day."  Their relationship did not come to an end even after they had been "separated by the war."  Miss Schulze had "undergone bombing and machine-gunning" before she was able to escape from Poland.

Prince Alexander knew it was "serious" from the first time they met.  On June 30, shortly after their first meeting, he was sent "away on army maneuvers." They saw each other every weekend until August 15, when he was able to obtain leave, and the couple were able to make plans for their future.  On August 31,  the prince was mobilized, and Peggy remained in Warsaw with her stepfather and her mother, the former Margaret Boyce Thompson Schulze.

The Prince is half-American.  He is the son of Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst and Catherine Britton, who died in 1929.

She remained with her mother and stepfather at their villa just outside Warsaw to "escape bombing," but they were bombed three times by a single German plane before being evacuated  on September 5 with other government officials.

It took twelve days to travel by a "motor caravan across Poland to Romania," during which time they were under constant bombardment by German plans.

"We reached Bucharest on Sept. 17," the  princess said.  "I had no word of my fiance. I didn't know if he was alive or dead."

Two days later,  Alexander telephoned her when he reached Budapest.  He joined her in Bucharest on September 20.   They left for Paris, a journey which took four days.  

The Prince and Princess were married three weeks later at the City Hall in the Sixth Arrondissment.