Lord Leopold Mountbatten

Lord Leopold Mountbatten, GCVO (Leopold Arthur Louis; 21 May 1889 – 23 April 1922) was a descendant of the Hessian princely Battenberg family and the British Royal Family, a grandson of Queen Victoria. He was known as Prince Leopold of Battenberg from his birth until 1917, when the British Royal Family relinquished their German titles during World War I and changed their name to Mountbatten.

Early life

Prince Leopold was born on 21 May 1889. His father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julie Therese née Countess of Hauke. His mother was Princess Henry of Battenberg (née The Princess Beatrice), the fifth daughter and the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

As he was the product of a morganatic marriage, Prince Henry of Battenberg took his style of Prince of Battenberg from his mother, Julia von Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. As such, Leopold was styled as His Serene Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg from birth. In the United Kingdom he was styled His Highness Prince Leopold of Battenberg under a Royal Warrant passed by Queen Victoria in 1886.

Leopold was a haemophiliac, a condition he inherited from his mother.

Relinquishment of titles

During World War I, anti-German feeling in the United Kingdom led Leopold's first cousin, George V to change the name of the royal house from the Germanic House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more English-sounding House of Windsor....
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