Prince George (1869-1957) and Princess Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962)

[maria-olivia]

I read the book " Marie : la dernière des Bonapartes " but I lost it.
I remember how sad she was when she discovered the close relationship of her husband with his uncle Prince Waldemar of Danamark.

The Royals are not happier people than commoners..To tell the thuth , I don't admire them I am only interested in royal jewelery but not at all about their glittering events.

 

[snowflower]

George 's relationship with Waldemar is a rather complicated issue . It was quite the common secret in the family- even their children after a certain age started understanding the true nature of their " friendship" . Personally, I am quite disgusted that Waldemar developped this kind of relationship with his (then) underaged nephew.Btw, it was also the reason that Marie turned to psychoanalysis, in order to find something to keep her busy and save her from depression. And she found her true calling there....

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

What was the nature of this relationship? Homosexual?

 

[snowflower]

Yes, according to various sources and relatives ( even in the memoirs of their wives) they had developped a sexual realtionship since George moved in Denmark in his teen. He felt very lonely there, away from home , very insecure and Waldemar took him under his wing. And that is the part that bothers me, not the fact that it was a homosexual relationship, but the fact that Waldemar developped a relationship , with his lonesome, underaged and vulnerable nephew. It doesn't sound right at all.

 

[maria-olivia]

Snowflower , I like your comments and your pictures. In Paris twice a year at Drouot there is an action about royals and the prices are not expensive at all. Every time I buy a small thing.
At one auction they were paintings from Princess Marie de Guise, Princess Waldemar of Danemark. She was an artist. I wonder if Marie de Guise and Marie Bonaparte, both french Princesses were close to-gether ?

 

[snowflower]

Marie d' Orleans ( Waldemar's wife) was indeed a very talented person with many artistic interests. She had a spacious atelie in her home , which was quite an attraction for guests ( and it would cause German royals a headache because Marie , who was a fervernt patriot, had placed a huge French flag hanging from the ceiling on one wall). The two Maries became quite close , and used to support one another whenever their husband had a fight and things would become melodramatical fro both families . Marie d'Orleans also tried to make Marie Bonaparte to start having a different attitude towards her husband. She herself stopped reacting after a few years and the phrase " let them gossip, I don't care" sort of became her motto.
Here are the two couples together ( with some of their children, but I am not sure who is who in order to identify them)

 

[maria-olivia]

Snowflower , What a picture ! The children are Axel , Harald, ? and Margaretha who maried a Prince of Bourbon Parme, Marie and Waldemar's 4 children.
Marie de Guise must have had eye's problems.

 

[Vlaha Karatsokaros]

Margaretha married Renέ de Bourbon-Parma and her daughter is Queen Anne de Roumanie

 

[snowflower]

The other child must be Aage - didn't Marie and Valdemar had a son named Aage? I found this picture to be quite interesting - Valdemar and George are seated side by side holding hands, Marie Bonaparte looks as if she wished she was a thousand miles away and the other Marie had this "cool" expression sort of saying " I really don't care anymore"....

It might be my idea but Valdemar seems to me the link in why George V and Nicholas looked so much alike - I see a great resemblance here to their uncle.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

I did not even notice the two men had their arms linked. You don't see that in a lot of photographs of the time!

 

[maria-olivia]

Therefore I said : "what a picture"...

 

[MAfan]

Valdemar and Marie's eldest son was Aage; he was born in 1887, and married in 1914 to Matilde Calvi, the daughter of the Count of Bergolo and sister of Carlo, the husband of Princess Jolanda of Savoy. His marriage was considered as morganatic, therefore he lost his succession rights. Aage and Matilde had a son, Valdemar; they divorced in 1939, and Aage died the following year.

 

[snowflower]

Photos from their religious marriage in Greece

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

Snowflower,

Thanks for posting the photographs. Queen Olga looks so proud and happy walking into the church. George is only 13 years older than his bride but he looks so much older to me.

 

[snowflower]

Queen Olga was extremely happy that George was finally getting married, she thought it would never come. By that time all the other children except Christopher were married, and she had kind of lost hope over George who was nearly 40 . It seems from the pictures that Olga and Marie arrived together in Church. I know that Olga rode with Sophie when she was a bride and it seems that she also accompanied Marie.
From Marie's memoirs, it is revealed that George was under extreme stress on his wedding day and he spent half the wedding night in Valdemar's bedroom because he needed encouragement before going to meet her and consumate the marriage.I guess that's why he looks kind of old in the pictures, it was not an easy day for him.

 

[maria-olivia]

Queen Olga was happy because of the "Blanc/casino" money.
I read Marie's memoirs too , but she discovered later her husband 's relationship with his uncle not on her weddingday

 

[Russian]

Was the marriage of Marie Bonaparte and Prince George morganatic? Really Marie Bonaparte wasn't from a royal family.

 

[roimat]

I think that "morganatic" refears when a princess marries a non-royal, not the opposite...

 

[roimat]

EOA-HeNAA - Τεκμήριο D2517

A wonderful video about Prince George and princess Marie..
It was a visit at Crete, for a ceremony of the inaguration of a statue

 

[fandesacs2003]

Was the marriage of Marie Bonaparte and Prince George morganatic? Really Marie Bonaparte wasn't from a royal family.

She was from an Imperial family from her father. She had the predicate of imperial highness, and still the descendants of Napoleon are titled Imperial Highnesses. So her marriage was not morganatic at all, she was fully titled.

 

[roimat]

Marie's granddaughter Tatania Radziwil is very close with the greek royals. Young she was really wonderful. She married a french doctor and has a normal and happy life.

The greek royal Princes often married very rich women such as Marie Bonaparte and others . Nowdays Pavlos and Nicolas are doing the same.

This in not a true, as far as for Nikolaos. Tatjana isn't rich..

 

[fandesacs2003]

EOA-HeNAA - Τεκμήριο D2517

A wonderful video about Prince George and princess Marie..

Magnificent. Thanks

Did Princess Marie learn greek? She spent most of her life out of Greece.

 

[maria-olivia]

Fandesacs , you are right , her father was a Bonaparte but her mother was Miss Blanc , (owner of all the casinos).

 

[Warren]

Neither Prince Roland Bonaparte nor his daughter Princess Marie had styles - they were Prince and Princess only, there was no HIH or HH. Marie only gained a style (Royal Highness) on her marriage.

Prince Roland's father, Pierre Bonaparte, was a Prince français, Imperial Highness at birth and recognised as Prince Bonaparte, Highness in 1853. Pierre led a highly disreputable life which included being expelled from Rome and being tried twice for murder.

Marie's mother, also Marie, was the daughter of François Blanc, Director of the Casino at Baden and later of the Société des Bains de Mer at Monaco.

 

[snowflower]

Was the marriage of Marie Bonaparte and Prince George morganatic? Really Marie Bonaparte wasn't from a royal family.

No they didn't considered it as a morganatic marriage , they viewed it as a dynastic one. Marie Bonaparte wasn't from an old Royal of Princely family , but she was a Princess and a very rich girl . If we also add that George has reached a certain age by that time, she was probably the best match he could find.
The odd thing about GRF and morganatic marriages is that although they were quite strict about marrying equally, they didn't have the power to declare a marriage moganatic officially , because the Greek Constitution had many gaps in that area, meaning that it was nowhere stated that the monarch had the power to determine the rank of his relatives . So morganatic marriages was a complex issue from that family because until the 60s only three marriage between a princeof the GRF and a commoner occured and the family reacted differently to each one of them

 

[maria-olivia]

What has this to do with George and Marie of Greece?
Warren, thanks for your information about their children. It is terrible what happened with their son Peter after this wedding with Irene O. I hope they were happy.

 

[snowflower]

What has this to do with George and Marie of Greece?

Not much I guess, but discussions in boards are bound to stray a little from time to time

Warren, thanks for your information about their children. It is terrible what happened with their son Peter after this wedding with Irene O. I hope they were happy.

They got married for love and they were quite happy. George had a terrible terrible time when he learned that his darling son and heir had decided to marry a russian divored commoner in her mid 30s .Hardly an acceptable combination for any royal bride at the time ! Peter was very determined over this and disobeyed all the family and had his way. George had considered a few princesses as potential matches before that for Peter and one of them was Frederika of Hannover - the very same woman who married later on his cousin Paul and went on to become a Queen of the Hellenes. Their relationship was far from loving , they practically had declared war on each other for years in a way that was serious but it also seems somehow comic nowadays. One of the best parts of that "war" was when Peter had a press conference after Constantine and Anne Marie got married were he said more all less that he was the legitimate heir to the throne and not Princess Irene , that he was illegally pushed back in the succesion line and that he hoped that , for the country's and the monarhy's sake, someone would kick that disaster of a Queen mother out of the country - of course he used more gentle words , but that is pretty much the meaning !

 

[Vlaha Karatsokaros]

I, too, must acknowledge that the discussion deviated somewhat and I am also guilty for that. But I felt that Warren's remark of "unequal" marriages being treated differently, at least by the Greek Royal House was/is quite a challenging historic fact and a case for analysis. The standards used and adopted by the Greek royal family varied widely and wildly - from utterly strict (Peter's case) to profoundly relaxed (Christopher's case), to suit the circumstances, I guess.
This discussion, however, was/is very pertinent to Prince Peter who was the heir to Prince George and Princess Marie. Prince Peter was no ordinary royal personage. Apart from his imposing elegant appearance, he was a highly educated and sophisticated man with tremendous culture and anti-conformist - like mother like son.
Although he was maintaining the Aixoni Palace [Ανάκτορα Αιξωνής], in the Glyfada area, just north of the old Hellinikon International Airport in Athens, he would come and go without anyone knowing his whereabouts. In the 20 years from Paul's ascent to the throne (April 1947) to the royal family's departure abroad (December 1967), the only public and official appearance of Prince Peter was at the funeral of King Paul - he walked with the cortege standing to the right of Princess Irene (then Diadoch) as next in the Line of Succession. I understand in fact, that even in the solemn swearing-in ceremony of Constantine as king conducted by the Archbishop, at the Athens Palace, Princess Irene and Prince Michael were also in attendance, but not Prince Peter. It is, therefore, crystal-clear that he was banned or, at least, ostracized from and by the Palace.

By the way, Prince Peter was quite popular among the Greek people due to his education and culture and the way he was treated [or perceived to be treated] by the Palace was yet another reason [fair or unfair] that fed into the people's negative attitude toward Queen Frederika.

 

[Warren]

The lengthy digression into the status of various marriages and spouses has been moved to a new thread, Marriage Issues

 

[Warren]

To further expand the Greek Royal History subforum, all posts relating to Prince Peter have been moved to a new thread:
Prince Peter (1908-1980) & Irina Ovtchinnikova (1900-1990)