His parents' marriage was morganatic, as Julia was not considered a proper wife for a prince of a reigning dynasty, being only a countess. As such, at the time of his birth, Henry could not bear his father's title or name, and was styled His Illustrious Highness Count Henry of Battenberg. He was known as 'Liko' to his family. When his mother was raised to Princess von Battenberg and given the higher style of Her Serene Highness by Alexander's older brother, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse, Henry and his siblings shared in their mother's new rank. He became His Serene Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg, although he remained ineligible to inherit the throne of Hesse or to receive a civil list stipend.
Prince Henry received a military education and took up a commission as a lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of the Rhenish Hussars in the Prussian Army. He served in the Prussian Garde du Corps and was also Honorary Colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment of Bulgaria,[1] where his brother Alexander was Prince.
Beatrice and Henry were married at St Mildred's Church at Whippingham, near Osborne,[5] on 23 July 1885.[6][7]
On the same day, a bill to naturalise Prince Henry a British subject passed the House of Lords. The couple adopted the style Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg.
Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg had four children. By royal warrant of 13 December 1886, the Queen granted their children the style Highness.[10] This style took immediate effect in the United Kingdom and elsewhere except within the German Empire, where, as Princes and Princesses of Battenberg, they were only entitled to the style Serene Highness.[4]
In November 1895, Prince Henry persuaded Queen Victoria to allow him to go to West Africa to fight in the Ashanti War. He served as the military secretary to the commander-in-chief of British forces, Colonel Sir Francis Scott. He contracted malaria when the expedition reached Prahsu, about 30 miles (50 km) from Kumasi, and subsequently died aboard the cruiser HMS Blonde stationed off the coast of Sierra Leone.
His body was repatriated by the cruiser HMS Blenheim from the Canary Islands and his funeral service took place on 5 February 1896, at the same St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham, on the Isle of Wight, where he had been married. Interment followed in what became known as the Battenberg Chapel.[16] The remains of his wife, Princess Beatrice, were placed there in August 1945, and those of his eldest son, the Marquess of Carisbrooke, in July 1961.
Beatrice's sister Louise told Sir James Reid of "Prince Henry's attempted relations with her, which she had declined."[17]
In 1896, Victoria erected a memorial to Prince Henry in the form of a Celtic cross, near Connachat Cottage in the grounds of Balmoral Castle. It is inscribed "Brief Life! In sport and war so keen, morned by these winds in heath and fir as where the falling breakers stir the pains that crowned thy closing scene".[18]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
5 October 1858 – 21 December 1858: His Illustrious Highness Count Henry of Battenberg
21 December 1858 – 20 January 1896: His Serene Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg
In the UK: 22 July 1885 – 20 January 1896: His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg
^ abcdefghijk"Genealogy", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (in German), Darmstadt: Im Verlag der Invalidenanstalt, 1896, p. 5 – via hathitrust.org
^ abGroßherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1894, pp. 5, 36 – via hathitrust.org
^Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) The Knights of England, I, London, p. 67
*Not Mountbatten or Battenberg by birth. Adopted the surname Mountbatten from his maternal line on abandoning his patrilineal Greek and Danish princely titles.
