Sunday, July 26, 2020

QVD Engagement - Prince Frederick von Preussen and Mathilda Johnson



Prince Frederick Nicholas Stormont von Preussen and Miss Mathilda Noel Johnson are engaged to be married.   Fritzi, as he is known to family and friends, is the youngest of four children -- and only son - of  HRH (Frederick) Nicholas von Preussen and his former wife, the Hon. Victoria Mancroft, daughter of Stormon Mancroft Samuel Mancroft and Diana Elizabeth Lloyd.

Fritzi was born on June 11, 1990, at the Churchill Clinic in London.  He has three older sisters:  Beatrice, Florence (the Hon. Mrs. James Tollemache), and Augusta (Mrs. Caspar Helmore).


Prince Nicholas Von Preussen, Fritzi Von Preussen | 2018 Chu… | Flickr
@National Churches Trust   Prince Nicholas and Prince Frederick  (2018)
Miss Johnson is the daughter of Rupert C F Johnson, a company director, and his wife, Simonetta Barber.  She is a mentee at Turning Point Film and is in training for set decorating and costume making.   She was born in London in September 1989.

Her parents live in Sturminster Newton in Dorset.

Embed from Getty Images 

 Fritzi is a student at West Dean College, where he is working toward his Graduate Diploma in Conservation of Furniture and Related Objects.

He is a grandson of Prince Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Christoph of Prussia 1911-1966) and Lady Brigid Guinness,  youngest daughter of Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh.   Prince Friedrich was the fourth son of Crown Prince Wilhelm and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Prince Friedrich was living in Cambridge when the second world war broke out.  In May 1940, he was arrested and interned in the United Kingdom before being sent to an internment camp in Quebec.  In 1947, he renounced his German citizenship, using the Sophia Naturalization act, and acquired British nationality. He adopted the surname von Preussen.  For a brief time, he also used the name, George Mansfield.

The royal title is used socially in the United Kingdom but it is not a recognized title and Prince Friedrich's male-line descendants have the legal surname von Preussen.   Prince Friedrich's marriage to Lady Brigid Guinness was considered equal.  However, Nicholas' marriage to the daughter of a baron was not accepted as equal by the then head of the house of Prussia, HI & RH Prince Louis Ferdinand, the second son of Crown Prince Wilhelm.



Victoria - Victoria - Wilhelm II - Wilhelm - Friedrich - Nicholas - Fritzi





3 comments:

- said...

Thank you for the update. However, I believe you are wrong about Prince Frederick's acquisition of British nationality through the 1705 Act. He was naturalised before it was decided by the Lords that eligible descendants of Electress Sophia are British by birth. See this debate records from the Commons, where the MPs discuss Mr von Preussen's claims to a compensation for property seized in Poland and of the topics is his status as British subject and way of his naturalization.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1961/oct/19/foreign-compensation-mr-von-preussen

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The SNA was noted at the time of his naturalization - and mentioned in the press coverage of it

- said...

Well, but the 1705 Act was only a claim at the time and there was no legal ground for granting (or confirming) British nationality of the Prince until the said Lords' ruling.