Prince William of Gloucester (1941-1972)


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I have also read that Princess Margaret had porphyria, but it's really hard to know since the royals don't usually comment about their health issues. That might have accounted for Margaret's erratic behavior, but I always ascribed her behavior to alcohol and possible depression.
 
Hi, this is my first post here but I've been lurking for a few days now.

I read a short biography of Prince William of Gloucester about 25 years ago. I do remember when he was killed in that plane crash. I remember reading that he worked in Japan for a time too He was great friends with Princess Chichibu who was the widow of the then-Emperor's younger brother.

Regarding porphyria, could it be that Princess Margaret's depression was exacerbated by her porphyria?
 
Prince William of Gloucester

The other Prince William: The uncanny parallels between Wills and the dashing but doomed cousin in whose memory he was named | Mail Online

The other Prince William
The uncanny parallels between Wills and the dashing but doomed cousin in whose memory he was named


Excerpts


Two men named William. Both princes, both pilots. Both polo players with a taste for danger. Both Eton-educated, handsome men of the world. One is destined to be our future king, while the other has been long-forgotten.

Yet it is after Prince William of Gloucester, who died young in 1972, that the Duke of Cambridge was named. Next month, the older prince should have been celebrating his 70th birthday, but his life was cut tragically short. William of Gloucester, son of the Queen’s uncle the Duke of Gloucester, was Prince Charles’s hero — the man upon whom the future king modelled himself, and whose example, in so many things, Charles followed.

William of Gloucester was just 30 when the Piper Arrow single-engine aircraft he was piloting in an air race crashed, killing him and his co-pilot outright. The shock that ran through the Royal Family was colossal, but the person most affected by the loss was his first cousin once removed, Prince Charles, who was 23 at the time.

He was the first member of the Royal Family to gain a university place through open competition, the first to arrive without the shadow of a private detective. When he went up in 1960, college staff were instructed to address him as ‘Prince William, Sir’, though the bedmakers who tidied his rooms soon slipped into calling him ‘Mr Prince William’. William was bold, stylish, different. Like his present-day namesake, he loved skiing, shooting and nightclubs — and drove a high-powered sports car.

He signed up for a course at Stanford University in California, broadening his knowledge with the study of American history, German and Russian affairs, and economics. He then travelled incognito through America and Canada. He took a job at Lazard’s merchant bank but hated it. Then, after three attempts at passing rigorous Foreign Office entrance exams, he won himself a job as Third Secretary at the British High Commission in Nigeria.

It was while here that he became aware of the first symptoms of a rare and incurable blood disease called porphyria — the self-same condition that had seized his ancestor George III, and from whom he had probably inherited it through several generations. And when Alan Bennett wrote The Madness Of King George, his Oscar-winning 1994 film, Prince Charles — having learned at first hand through conversations with his cousin William the perils of the disease — interested himself deeply in the production.

As a result, all royal children are now routinely screened for this rare but pernicious condition.

Despite suffering fevers, nausea, and dizziness, William determined it should not affect his career or his leisure pursuits, and applied for a Second Secretary’s job at the British Embassy in Japan. William later resigned from the Foreign Office and took over the running of the family estate. The porphyria which had developed years before had not gone away, and he suffered increasingly uncomfortable symptoms. To ease the stress which came with those symptoms, he stepped up his flying, entering air competitions in his Piper Arrow.

It was on August 28, 1972, that William took off, accompanied by an experienced co-pilot, Lt-Commander Vyrell Mitchell. They were taking part in the Goodyear International Air Trophy being held at Halfpenny Green near Wolverhampton. Soon after take-off, the plane executed a 120-degree turn towards the first leg of the course. ‘The angle of turn made by the Piper Arrow was observed to be too steep,’ according to his old Cambridge supervisor, Dr Ronald Hyam. ‘The aircraft lost height, cut through the top of a large tree, losing part of its wing, then rolled over, diving inverted into the ground, and burst into flames. Both pilots were killed instantly.’ As Dr Hyam adds: ‘It was a desperately sad and terrible end to the life of a remarkable young man of many talents, admired by all who knew him.’

Prince Charles, for a time, paid his own personal tribute to his cousin by growing the mutton-chop whiskers that were William’s trademark. He emulated his cousin on the polo field, on the ski-slopes, in the air, on the grouse moor — and in the bedroom. His relationship with the then Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles had more than an echo of William’s own passionate love for Zsuzui Starkloff.

But in the naming of his first-born son after Prince William of Gloucester, Charles paid the greatest tribute possible to the man he most admired in the world.
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I would take the fiest part of the story about Charles & William and thier supposed closeness with a huge grain of salt but the rest of the story was interesting.
 
My dear NGalitzine,

Do you know that the two were not that close? I took from the story that Charles was sort of awestruck by his mother's cousin and Charles wanted to emulate him, not that the two were especially close. However, if Charles did name his first born after this man, that indicates a very close relationship.
 
I would take the fiest part of the story about Charles & William and thier supposed closeness with a huge grain of salt but the rest of the story was interesting.


Why would you take that with a grain of salt?

It is not uncommon for young boys to look to an older cousin as a big brother, if they don't have one of their own, and William (along with his younger brother Richard) fitted that bill nicely.


Whether they would have remained close as the 70s unfolded and Charles started to make his own way in the world we will never know but that a young boy/teenager wouldn't be close to an older cousin is perfectly feasible.
 
I would take it with a grain of salt because of their age disparity and the limited amount of time they would have had to know each other. When Charles was quite young William would already have been away at school and then at Cambridge and Stanford. Charles was off at school in Scotland. By the time Charles was at Cambridge William would have been in Nigeria and then Japan. When William returned to England to look after Barnwell due to his fathers failing health Charles was off on active duty with the Royal Navy. William's life was pretty low key as far as public awareness of his existence went (similar to his brother Richard) so I am unclear where the "glamorous prince" angle comes from, other than the fact that he was quite good looking. There would have been pretty limited opportunities for the 2 princes to know each other very well, and meeting other than at perhaps the Trooping of the Colour or some other large family event such as weddings seems unlikely. The Gloucesters spent their free time at Barnwell when not on official duties, while the Queen and her family would be at Windsor/Sandringham/Balmoral.
Charles went to Cambridge because that is where the palace determined he should go, as had his grandfather before him. Charles has talked about how everything was planned out for him and he really didnt have any say in things. Charles played polo because his father played polo. The Duke of Cambridge is named William because it was a name Charles and Diana liked. They said so at the time that they didnt really know anyone named Willam who was close to them, seemingly having forgotten William of Gloucester.

I am not saying the DM story isn't possibly true, I just have my doubts about it......as I do with most items in the DM. It was a nice article though.
 
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:previous:

How interesting to read about Prince William of Gloucester.

Whether Charles and William were that close I do not know. But, oddly enough, I have no difficulty in believing that Charles looked up to William! I am giving my age away somewhat ;), but I did post about Prince William a few months back; I will try to find the post again [think it was on a York thread, oddly enough] but basically, I was describing how, when I was a young schoolgirl, Prince William really was THE handsome, man-about-town debonair, brave action-man Prince of his time. He skied very well [at at time before package market ski holidays had taken off and so the whole thing was imbued with a sort of jet-set glamour]. He could pilot a plane, he drove a fast sportscar. He dated beautiful [but highly eligible] aristocratic 'Park Lane gels' [a form of Sloane Ranger before that species was codified.] As I said when I posted previously, he was a type of 'royal James Bond'. Girls adored him. And, as I also posted at the time, it seemed so odd to be posting as I did, because here in 2011 everyone has all but forgotten all about him..........

Even setting-aside the reservations that people have about the DM, because of the shortage of 'dashing handsome role model princes' of the 1960's, I have no difficulty in believing that Prince Charles really did look up to his cousin as a role-model. Prince Michael was seen as relatively quieter and Prince Richard was even quieter and very studious. Prince Charles, I think,always wanted to model himself on all-action heros [possibly because he so admired Lord Mountbatten] and I really do think that Prince William was the most likely role-model.

Alex
 
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Oh, my, yes, Alex. Prince William was the cat's whiskers. I remember the day his plane crashed. That night at the pub, all us girls were just beside ourselves that he was gone. He was the epitomy of many a girls' dreams of the perfect man. Only 30, and he was gone.
 
I remember a number of the older girls at my school were upset about his death as he was the 'dream boat' prince at the time - more dashing than his brother and Charles was still at uni so not yet fully launched.
 
Excerpts from Prince William of Gloucester Bio

On the eve of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, excerpts from a new biography about her cousin, Britain’s Prince William of Gloucester, who was a page in her wedding and died at age 30 in 1972, have been made available, click: Prince William of Gloucester Book
 

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My dear Jenafran,

Thank you for posting the interesting link. I believe the author of the link made a glaring error -- Prince William was not the son of Marina -- she was his aunt who was married to the Duke of Kent. I think Princess Alice was his mother.
 
Porphyria affected more than one of Victoria's children

It affected at least two more, Princess Vicki and her daughter Charlotte. DNA was done on the bones of Vicki and Charlotte, with the gracious permission of their families. Proved that they had Variegate Porphyria. This is what I read, in any case, in the book The Purple Secret. Supposedly Feodora, Charlotte's daughter, also had it, but this was not subject to DNA scrutiny.

William of Gloucester was diagnosed both in England in the Far East where he was working. I read that his mother, Princess Alice, noticed lesions on his face which can appear in some types of Porphyria, due to sun sensitivity.

Variegate Porphyria (like most porphyria) is a dominant gene, so one of Prince William of Gloucester's parents had it. Sometimes it does not display intense symptomology, because it mostly produces symptoms in the face of "triggers", which can be prescription drugs (not all prescriptions, however) a few foods, many environmental triggers such as new carpeting, new composite cabinetry, herbicides, pesticides, and gasoline fumes, and some endogenous triggers such as hormone changes, especially in women.

It seems unlikely that the present Duke of Gloucester, Richard, or his family, have Porphyria. He did not seem to inherit. Inheritance is at 50% on average.
 
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I have also read that Princess Margaret had porphyria, but it's really hard to know since the royals don't usually comment about their health issues. That might have accounted for Margaret's erratic behavior, but I always ascribed her behavior to alcohol and possible depression.

Why is it that anyone unstable in the BRF is doomed to be under suspicion of porphyria ,when there could be so many other reasons...
 
Excellent thinking, Auntie. Porphyria IS hard to diagnose in some cases, because of tests that may not be done properly, but there ARE tests, especially for those in the royal family who may have the same DNA in this area. There are very good testers in France, for instance, at the French Porphyria Institute.
Although I have thought some other royals may have the disease, from symptoms and sometimes behavior (not all porphs "act out" in noticeable behavior) I have only mentioned those who are actually diagnosed by some medical means, whatever was available in modern times or in, say, the time of James I/VI of England and Scotland.

I do not have any knowledge of Princess Margaret having had porphyria. But if she was depressed or erratic, it could possibly have been the combination of drinking alcohol and having a Porphyria trait just waiting to be triggered by alcohol. Porphyria patients cannot drink ANY alcohol. If they do, and if they can remain conscious during it, they will inevitably become erratic and/or deeply depressed. It is a biological reaction.
 
Thank you for those wonderful pictures of Prince William of Gloucester and his family, and even his girlfriend, also amazing looking. The YouTube presentation, with music, is marvelous, don't miss that one even if you have seen other pictures. As he got older (closer to 30, his final year) he looked a little heavier, a little tiny bit like the actor Liam Neeson when he was younger...that's not a perfect comparison but one can't help comparing. He was beginning to look a little more like his father Henry, but still had the chiseled features of his mother Princess Alice.
This is the first time I've taken a good look at Prince William of Gloucester, and I am impressed. Can't thank you enough.
The only other YouTube presentation I have seen similar to this is one of Guillaume of Luxembourg, also with great music. It is called just Prince Guillaume. Guillaume is also now 30 years of age.
 
How the Queen sabotaged my passionate affair with her cousin: Zsuzsi Starkloff tells the story of how Prince William of Gloucester fell for her and scandalised the royals in the process
Forty years on, she still wears the prince’s ring on a chain around her neck, its weight and royal insignia a daily reminder of what might have been. She could have married into the Royal Family, but instead she lives a modest existence on a mountain-top in Colorado, many thousands of miles from the world and the intrigues of the House of Windsor which caused her downfall. Otherwise, Hungarian-born Zsuzsi Starkloff could have been Duchess of Gloucester, with a sprawling estate in Northamptonshire and a grace-and-favour apartment in Kensington Palace. Her natural modesty and cool good looks would have won her many admirers and a place in the nation’s heart.
 
No doubt somewhat overstated, but for what it's worth...

MailOnline, 25 August 2012

How the Queen sabotaged my passionate affair with her cousin: Zsuzsi Starkloff tells the story of how Prince William of Gloucester fell for her and scandalised the royals in the process

excerpts

Forty years on, she still wears the prince’s ring on a chain around her neck, its weight and royal insignia a daily reminder of what might have been. She could have married into the Royal Family, but instead she lives a modest existence on a mountain-top in Colorado, many thousands of miles from the world and the intrigues of the House of Windsor which caused her downfall.

Otherwise, Hungarian-born Zsuzsi Starkloff could have been Duchess of Gloucester, with a sprawling estate in Northamptonshire and a grace-and-favour apartment in Kensington Palace. Her natural modesty and cool good looks would have won her many admirers and a place in the nation’s heart. Instead, the unseen forces of the Establishment and a fatal plane crash put paid to a love which, though it remained largely secret, shook the royal court to its core.

Today, surrounded by mementos and photographs of her ill-starred affair, 78-year-old Mrs Starkloff has broken her decades-long silence to talk to the Mail about the love of her life. In August, 1972, her lover, the spectacularly handsome Prince William of Gloucester, died instantly, aged just 30, when his Piper Arrow light aircraft stalled on a tight turn in an air race and crashed to the ground. A grandson of King George V, he was the Queen’s first cousin and the most dazzling royal of his generation. Clever, cool, athletic and muscular, William was a hero-figure to the young Prince Charles, who modelled himself on his older cousin and, ten years later, named his first-born after him.

But despite his natural gifts, the prince’s one fatal flaw was that he had fallen for an older woman who was both a divorcee and a foreigner. The prince could have anything he wanted in life, but not her. For the powers-that-be at Buckingham Palace had already labelled Zsuzsi Starkloff ‘the new Mrs Simpson’ and were out to break the romance in any way they could.

The rules surrounding royalty back in the 1970s were very different. On the plus side, Prince William took his royal position extremely seriously. For him, the idea of being caught with his trousers down, a la Prince Harry, would be repugnant. On the minus side, the nation’s first family was propped up by a cant and hypocrisy which extended all the way up to the Queen herself. In 1972, William’s clear intention to wed a divorcee was greeted with apoplectic horror, and yet only six years later his cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, did just that, marrying a Czech-born divorcee with the full approval of the Queen and court.

Today, Mrs Starkloff looks back with a surprising lack of rancour at the way she was forced out of her lover Prince William’s life. She says: ‘He explained to me that it was his family’s fear that he would be likened to the Duke of Windsor. They wanted an end to the affair.’ ‘William had a huge loyalty to his family — he wanted to do the right thing — and of course I supported him in that,’ says Mrs Starkloff, lightly shrugging off the Mrs Simpson parallel. ‘He had to make up his own mind, and he did that without influence from me.’

The couple met when William, aged 27 and on attachment to the Foreign Office, was working as a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Tokyo. Tall, slim and beguilingly charming, he’d had a string of girlfriends but became smitten by Zsuszi, a Hungarian ex-model, after the pair met at a party. ‘He was quite a man,’ recalls Mrs Starkloff. ‘He was very manly, very passionate. And mature beyond his years.’

From the start, the prince was transfixed. He wrote home to his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, asking what their reaction
‘They were against it,’ Zsuzsi says. ‘It came as no shock to me. I was seven years older than William for a start, divorced, and a different religion. I knew it was doomed.’ Even so, still he persevered. His old schoolfriend, Giles St Aubyn, recalled: ‘She was witty, intelligent, attractive. William sparkled in her company. ‘But the relationship overshadowed everything else. It resulted in a period of great anguish for him, for it involved him in disagreements with his friends and family.’ One friend from that time, businessman Shigeo Kitano, recalls seeing the couple together: ‘Prince William was obviously deeply in love with her. She was very beautiful.

Zsuzsi recalls: ‘He organised a trip to Scotland to visit his uncle, the Duke of Buccleuch, and we spent some time there before going to the Prince’s country home, Barnwell. His father had suffered a stroke and was very ill. He was in a wheelchair. ‘I had a wonderful welcome from the Duchess (of Gloucester). She was warm and friendly, sitting with her flowers and her needlework, and we chatted. But she was very reserved and it was hard to know what she was really thinking.’ Much the same as all the other royals, no doubt? ‘She didn’t show it, but I’m sure that it was there,’ says Mrs Starkloff.

Mrs Starkloff is in no doubt that, having twice apparently deserted her, it was now William’s intention to show his commitment by proposing marriage. However, it was not to be. On August 28, 1972, he climbed into the pilot’s seat of his Piper Cherokee Arrow at an air race near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, and perished when his plane crashed and burst into flames within minutes of take-off. He died wearing a replica of the ring that he gave Zsuzsi — made for him by craftsmen at her special request. Two years later, when his father died, the royal dukedom that should have come to him passed instead to his younger brother, Richard. What caused the pilot error which took the life of both Prince William and his co-pilot Vyrell Mitchell will never be known.

‘Perhaps my fondest memory is of a formal dinner, with many tables,’ she says now. ‘We had only met once before. He walked slowly across the room and came up to me and asked: “May I borrow Cinderella for a dance?” ‘He died wearing my ring. And I still think about him every day.’
 
This is such a tragic, romantic story. To think that just six years later, a marriage between a royal (duke of Kent) and a divorced Catholic was sanctioned. But true tragedies cannot have "happy endings", but it's happy in the sense that she still wears his ring around her neck and remembers him with love.
Concerning Prince Williams diagnosis of porphyria, this is how I read it. One story says it was first dx'd in Africa where he was working, and this rings true, since African doctors are usually more capable of dx'ing porphyria, since the type William had is so common in South Africa that I've read that one out of five hundred people have it (from a Dutch gene). I also read that the first hint of it was when Princess Alice saw a lesion on his face and had him tested--she obviously had some knowledge of lesions occurring on skin in VP, particularly with sun exposure. And a British doctor then diagnosed him on the basis of symptoms and on the basis also of having read the new book, written by two physicians who were mother and son, about how George III and others in the family probably suffered from porphyria.

I have recently read the book, The Purple Secret, about porphyria in the royal family, and I have to amend my above post (written some time ago) about the DNA studies on the bones of Queen Victoria's daughter Vicki and Vicki's descendant Feodora. These studies seemed positive for Vicki (but not absolute, due to age of the bones) but were impossible to succeed with Feodora, due to mixing of her remains with that of her husband, with whom she had been buried. However, this book does give an exhaustive study of the symptoms which led the authors to believe in the existence of porphyria in the royal family.

I myself have porphyria, and I can attest that their explanation of symptoms is accurate, exhaustively so. Perhaps only someone like me could be interested enough to read these exhaustive accounts of others in the family, in modern times, who probably had porphyria, or were indeed diagnosed with it (the diagnosed ones were not the more famous royals of modern times, but were relatives).

Obviously I had feel an especial attraction to the Gloucestors because of this, and am particularly interested in two things. I enjoy the Scottish descent of Princess Alice, who was more the Scots/Hungarian type, like the Stewart family, than the other Germanic royals. My porphyria line is also Scottish, and goes back to the middle ages and connection to the Stewarts, discovered only after my diagnosis prompted me to take a look at my roots.
Secondly, I am here to say that probably the present Duke of Gloucester and his descendants (Richard) are free of porphyria. He shows no signs, nor do his children, from what I've read, which is of course not like knowing them first hand. What a dandy family!

Probably William got his porphyria from his father, who has been written up in one post here as being constantly ill as a youngster. But Princess Alice's descent from the Stewarts and their relations is very suggestive, as is her knowledge of what is an outward sign of porphyria ( a lesion). Probably Princess Alice did not have it, but simply had read a lot about it, because of family knowledge of it. The fact that she lived to be very old does not preclude it, as porphs can often live to ripe old ages, especially if they know what triggers to avoid and what lifestyle is best for them.
Prince William seems to have been very active and capable, and could have lived a long life had he not been smitten by "fate".
 
The Queen could not have sabotaged her affair with Prince William if she dated him for 2 years and he was going to propose but he died.

None story, he was 6th in line when he died. No comparison to Edward.
 
Well it's quite unexpected.
A bit far fetched too, and the number of inaccuracies is quite appealing (well it's the DM). I really doubt this lady would have been a "popular minor royal", look at the present Duchess of Gloucester , practicaly unknown from the public.
40 years later the lady seems a little bit bitter...
 
There's something about contemporary tabloid-type journalisam which not only raises the hackles but casts doubt on the credibility of what is claimed to have happened, or what is claimed to be the attitudes of various individuals involved. I'd expect experienced journalists to be aware of the obvious pitfalls (surely they don't knowingly undermine the credibility of their own reports?) but this article contains a few examples of those warning or "treat with caution" signals.

Did the Queen really "sabotage" or even "attempt to sabotage" Prince William's relationship?
Was any member of the Royal Family in the least "scandalised" by William's relationship?
Apart from rolling out the tanks into the streets, what "forces" of The Establishmenrt are visible?
Was the royal court really "shaken to the core" by William's "largely secret" love?
Why is Prince William's "falling for an older woman who was both a divorcee and a foreigner" described as "a fatal flaw"?
Did "the powers-that-be" at Buckingham Palace really label Zsuzsi Starkloff "the new Mrs Simpson"? [attaching the label of "the new..." to anything has always seemed to me to be entirely a media creation.]
In 1972 was William's intention to wed a divorcee really "greeted with apoplectic horror"? [note that it is unstated exactly whose horror was apoplectic]
...and so on.

The question of a non-Anglican royal marriage continues to perplex many journalists who are willing to trot out inaccurate furphies but who never attempt to rationalise or even explain them...
Zsuzsi's Jewishness is touched upon in the article which claims that it was considered a problem or obstacle. That may or may not have been the case a tthe time but there is no explaantion of how or why it would be a problem or obstracle, or who considered it to be as such.
There's nothing in the Act of Settlement or Royal Marriage Acts that debars Jewish people from marrying into the Royal Family, or for a Royal to convert to Judaism for that matter. It falls into the same category of often-claimed but never-explained assertions such as "they couldn't allow Diana to marry a Muslim" or "if she had a child by Dodi it would mean William and Harry had a Muslim half brother or sister" or "if Diana converted to Islam it would mean the future King's mother was a Muslim." Yes, it probably would, and?

The meeting with the Duchess of Gloucester is not treated as well as I believe it should have been by an attentive journalist. Zsuzsi is quoted as stating "‘I had a wonderful welcome from the Duchess (of Gloucester). She was warm and friendly, sitting with her flowers and her needlework, and we chatted. But she was very reserved and it was hard to know what she was really thinking.’ Any Royal Watcher worth their salt would be aware that the Duchess of Gloucester was notorious for being "very reserved", and Cecil Beaton had commented on her personality in much less diplomatic language.

Anyway, these examples are just meant to highlight how I believe writers and journalists can undermine their own credibility by preferring repetitive and obvious hyperbole to calm and factual description.
On a lighter note, it can also be used in a pejorative manner; one article I read this week about Prince Harry referred repeatedly to his being seen in the company of young women "wearing skimpy bikinis". As if bikinis came in any other size! :)
 
Warren, I agree that Prince William and Zuzu (I can't spell her name, although I knew another Zuzu who was Jewish) would have married had he not died. He could have had a morganatic marriage if the crown did not want his title to descend to his children, and his newly married brother Richard could have had children who inherited the title. It's interesting that the Act of Settlement does not preclude marriage to a Jew, only marriage to a Catholic. I had not known that. Yes, the tabloids make big frou-frous of things. The Queen probably did not stop a marriage, and would not have done so. So there you are quite right!

Zuzu and her two children would have been an ideal family for William, had he desired to not pass his Porphyria gene on to children. She already had a family. We know today that children from a prior relationship can be integrated in a royal family, as in the case of Marius with the Norwegian royal family, the "natural son" of the Crown Princess. I have admiration for the Norwegian family for handling this well.
And their reward: the beautiful Ingrid-Alexandra. Well, I'm frou-frouing like a tabloid myself. We porphs are known to be emotional, although most of us are NOT mad like George III. We tend to talk too much...or laugh unexpectedly like Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Prince William's father.
 
^^^^^
There is no such thing as a morganatic marriage in the UK.
If permission to marry had been denied (unlikely) all William would have lost would have been his place in the line of succession. Nothing could have prevented him, as the eldest son, from inheriting the dukedom and his male line descendents would have followed him in succession to the dukedom.
 
Thanks for that information about morganatic marriages not existing in the UK, NGalitzine. That seems to have been the path chosen by the Luxembourg ducal family when their son Louis had an out-of-wedlock child and then married the mother, Tessy and had another child. He gave up his right to succession. It seems almost ridiculous that he gave up this right for this reason. His wife is a commoner, but then his mother was a commoner too, is that not right? Prince Louis and Princess Tessy are in almost all pics of the royal family at work, seemingly being hard working royals, and their cute children are also featured, the only children in that generation so far. So giving up one's right to succession seems to be based not on whether one is "equal" in the sights of some dynastic arbiter, such as Carlos of Bourbon Parma, who irritated Duke Jean of Luxembourg mightily when he commented on the marriage of Maria Teresa and Prince Henri of Luxembourg as "unequal." She was definitely not dynastically equal, nor are most of the royal brides of Europe and the UK today. So Tessy and Louis, the most successful worker-bee pair in the present ducal family, should be back in the "lineup". Not that they are likely ever to become "grand duke and duchess", with several ahead of them, but it would be nice to remove the stigma. Or is it not a stigma in royal circles?
Commenters on this forum all seem to love Tessy, and she seems to sail along as a prominent member of the family (as far as pictures go). The girl has grit!
 
:previous:
You will be pleased to hear that rehabilitation of sorts has already occurred.
Louis and Tessy married in September 2006 when she became Tessy de Nassau. On National Day in June 2009 Grand Duke Henri created her HRH Princess Tessy of Luxembourg; at the same time their sons Gabriel de Nassau (born 6 months prior to his parent's wedding) and Noah de Nassau were each created HRH Prince of Nassau.

Louis did not regain his place in the line of succession but more importantly his wife and children were raised in rank and style, making the family happily royal highnessed. :)
 
Thanks for that information about morganatic marriages not existing in the UK, NGalitzine. That seems to have been the path chosen by the Luxembourg ducal family when their son Louis had an out-of-wedlock child and then married the mother, Tessy and had another child. He gave up his right to succession.

That is exactly the point - at least that was considered to be the reason Louis gave up his place in the succession. While his father could create the firstborn son a HRH Prince of Nassau, the Grand Duke could not add this child to the line of succession as his parents were not yet married when he was born. Thus little Gabriel could never be Louis' heir when it came to the succession rights but his younger brother could. Now the two brothers are equal in title which is IMHO an important thing when it come to family dynamics. In all other aspects Tessy and her sons are officially recognised as part of the Grand Ducal family and I believe Louis' parents have come to like her very much.
 
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