Prince George, Duke of Southampton

Prince George
Duke of Southampton
Born	George William Leopold (1869-05-07)7 May 1869 Buckingham Palace, London
Died	30 December 1962(1962-12-30) (aged 93) Montpelier, Vermont
Burial	22 January 1963 Westminster Abbey, London
Spouse	Grand Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (m. 1889; died 1920) Gloria Swanson (m. 1930; div. 1931) Rita Hayworth (m. 1942)
Issue	Prince Nicholas, Duke of Southampton Prince George Prince Peter Princess Mary Princess Julianne
Full name George William Leopold
House	Hanover
Father	William V
Mother	Charlotte of Belgium
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	1887-1921
Rank	Admiral
Battles/wars	Anglo-Zanzibar War Cretan Revolt Boxer Rebellion First World War

Prince George, Duke of Southampton (George William Leopold; 7 May 1869 - 30 December 1962) was a British prince and a noted Royal Navy officer. A lifelong enthusiast in exploration, George himself was notable for having taken part in a large number of expeditions to multiple spots across the world, ranging from the islands of the Caribbean to the islands far east in the Pacific region. Since then, the duke's own recollections of his international travels have been compiled together from his personal memoirs into an official publication, titled The Travels of the Duke of Southampton.

Having first been married to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, with whom he had three children, he was then briefly remarried to the American actress, Gloria Swanson in 1930, before a subsequent divorce took place just a year later. Later on, in his third and final marriage, George was married to another American actress, Rita Hayworth, with whom he was married until his eventual death. His third marriage, which in contrast to his first, proved to be a source of considerable notoriety, particularly due to the couple's differing Christian denominations (George was an Anglican while Hayworth was a Catholic), along with the noticeably large age difference between the two. Nevertheless, he later fathered two children with the actress, both of whom were initially disqualified from the line of succession due to their mother's Catholic faith, but were later restored to the line of succession decades after the prince's death in 1962, thanks to the Succession to the Crown Act 1997 spearheaded by his grand nephew, King Charles III.

Prior to his death on December 1962, he was the last living legitimate children of the late King William V, having also been the youngest of the King's four legitimate children. However, in overall terms, he was otherwise succeeded by his half-brother, Frederick FitzRoy, 1st Viscount FitzRoy, whom passed away in 1992 at the age of ninety-six, and whom was also the youngest illegitimate child of his father and British socialite, Alice Keppel.

Before major reforms concerning the Kingdom of Hanover werr undertaken by his nephew, King Frederick, Geoege was himself the last serving viceroy and administrative head of the kingdom until around 1924, when he was then subsequently replaced by the kingdom's first elected minister-president.

Early Life

George was born on May 7th 1869 as the youngest child of King William V and his wife, Queen Charlotte, formerly known as Princess Charlotte of Belgium. Named George William Leopold by his parents, the prince was successively named after his older brother, the future King George V, followed by his own father, and later his maternal grandfather, King Leopold I of Belgium.

In the first few years of his life, having grown up in a mostly male-majority environment, the young George was quick to replicate his father's somewhat militaristic character. On the other hand, while he did compulsorily learned the subjects in the liberal arts, as stressed by his mother, the young prince in particular quickly developed more of a personal interest in ships and navigation, an interest greatly encouraged by the King whom upon being aware of his youngest son's interest, promptly took the latter along on frequent trips by either boat or ships along the coasts of the United Kingdom, during which, a young George would also be extensively taught in fishing, which he then rather excelled at in just a short while of training.

Adulthood

Joining the Royal Navy

At the age of eighteen, having already inhibited much sense of passion and interest in ocean-related matters, George decidedly joined the Royal Navy, where he was first commissioned as a Midshipman. However, despite an exemplary record as a junior commissioned officer from the beginning, George would saw little to no active combat for almost a decade long, prior to the onset of the Anglo-Zanzibar War on August 27th 1896, which the prince himself participated in, thereby earning a subsequent promotion to the rank of Lieutenant. Nevertheless, during the interregnum prior to the war, George mostly resided at the strategic Royal Navy base at Malta, located in the center of the Mediterannean Sea. Then, in the following year after the war, George further participated in the Cretan Revolt, orchestrated by locals at the island of Crete, seeking to establish an independent state out of the Ottoman Empire in the east. During this conflict, he successively earned another promotion from his superiors, this time to the rank of Commander.

George the Navigator

Aside from his compulsory military service as part of the Royal Navy, George also extensively used the opportunity to undertake either personal or coordinated expeditions with fellow seamen or friends to various places across the globe. For instance, on his very first international trip abroad, the prince, along with approximately five close friends of his embarked on a private trip to the Caribbean island colony of Jamaica, where they were said to had interacted extensively with the locals there, with the prince himself in particular personally drawing up a roughly accurate map depicting the island, having surveyed a majority of the area on the island during the following days.

Marriage

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna

At the age of twenty, in a mostly arranged manner, George was married off to the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. The union itself, in addition to its mostly arranged manner, was also rather intended as a conciliatory gesture, which meant that neither Maria Alexandrovna nor George himself had much significant time to bond with another. Thus, the immediate complications surrounding their hastily arranged marriage promptly led to some initial disagreements between the two, with Maria Alexandrovna in particular opting more for the comfort of George's similarly named older brother, the Prince of Wales, whom the grand duchess already had much feelings for, amidst their inability to actually marry one another, as the former was instead married off to Princess Sophia of Prussia, daughter of the German Emperor, Frederick III. Paradoxically, the cold nature of the relationship between the prince and the grand duchess soon led him to become more acquainted or close with his sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales instead whom, like George, was skeptical of the grand duchess's relationship with the Prince of Wales.

Nevertheless, after at least a couple of years long period, the couple's mutual animosity towards one another had apparently lessened, when Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to their eldest son and child, Prince Nicholas, whom was born on February 5th 1891, Soon after this, despite the lack of a fully mutual understanding or compassion for one another, the couple's relationship was nevertheless accepted as having generally improved over time, in contrast to the previous years before. Then, just three years later, following the birth of their second son, Prince George, which was subsequently followed by a third one, Prince Peter, just two years after, the couple was generally described of having shown "much compassion, respect, and love that was previously unheard of in the first few years of their marriage", with Maria Alexandrovna in particular being mostly labeled as the dominant partner in their relationship, perhaps due to her naturally tomboyish attitude since her youthful years.

Then, during the First World War, which saw the prince being part of the Royal Navy's dreadnought fleet that participated in the famous Battle of Jutland against the German High Seas Fleet, both George and his wife wrote a large number of letters to one another, most of which were said to had been of a rather romantic nature, during the prince's absence abroad.

Ultimately, on October 24th 1920, while residing together at the royal-owned country house of Anmer Hall in Norfolk, England, Maria Alexandrovna passed away in her sleep at the age of sixty seven. The prince, whom had then been just fifty one years of age, was then described by his nephew, the later King Frederick, as a "man whose lifelong character had been erased completely in just a matter of seconds".

Interregnum

In the years following his wife's passing, George mostly remained at his Norfolk residence, presumably out of a sense of attachment to the residence itself, whilst being occasionally visited by either his own relatives, or a number of his closest friends. Then, sometime on February 1921, George briefly caught the attention of his contemporaries when his personal pistol, a Colt New Service revolver went off in the living room, partly damaging the house's wall. An incident initially thought to had been the prince scaring off an unexpected intruder, it was later believed that the former had attempted suicide but failed to do so midway. As a consequence, by the mutual agreement between his contemporaries and members of the royal family themselves, George was forcibly relocated back to Buckingham Palace, where he was placed under much strict supervision, with his personal gun having been immediately confiscated.

Over time, following a series of regular checkups and examinations done by professional doctors and alike, the prince's mental condition in particular, was generally thought to had improved in the following months since his relocation to Buckingham Palace. At the same time, as to further alleviate the trauma surrounding his beloved wife's death, George was also taken to, at times against his own will, on regular traveling routines on ships by either his contemporaries or close relatives, a habit that he had previously enjoyed and mostly identified with, primarily in his youth and so on.

Gloria Swanson

Around January 1924, on behalf of his nephew, the new King Frederick, George was chosen to undertake an official visit to the United States, where he met then-President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, whom had been elected into office just a few months prior. While the royal visit itself was mostly successful in its objective, George, whom had found himself somewhat attracted to the American scenery and landscape during his said royal visit, then proved quick to consider a permanent relocation to the North American country, where by his own words, was a "suitable place to start afresh as George the American, and not to live further as George the Brit".

Soon enough, just a few days after the end of the visit, and upon his return to the United Kingdom, the prince, whom having first made known his intention to his nephew, the King, promptly departed back for the country, along with a rather small entourage accompanying him along for the journey. Then, upon his arrival at the Port of New York and New Jersey, he subsequently took up residence in New York City itself. Soon after this, perhaps due to his much publicised royal status, George quickly became a notable figure among the New York elite, with whom he would often reportedly attend high-end social events and alike.

On June 22nd 1930, in a highly exquisite and publicised wedding ceremony hosted in New York City, George was married for a second time in his life, namely to the rising American actress, Gloria Swanson, whom at the time of their marriage, was notably thrice divorced, and whom was also thirty years the prince's junior. Nevertheless, despite an initially promising start, the two ultimately sought for a divorce roughly eleven months later, with the divorce being finalised on May of the following year. Reportedly, while the two would only go on to see one another on only a few select occasions following their divorce, George himself in particular later spoke of his brief marriage to the actress in a somewhat positive light, having seemingly referred to it as a "lifelong lesson and guide in marrying an American commoner".

Rita Hayworth

During much of the 1930s, following his divorce from Swanson, George remained mostly unmarried in the following years, while at the same time, he was also rumoured to had been involved in several discreet romantic relationships with several leading Hollywood actresses at the time. Then, for a brief period during the latter half of the 1930s, he was reportedly said to had harboured some romantic interest in actress, Katharine Hepburn, although this was never exactly requited by the latter, whom around that same time, began courting George's much younger grand nephew, the later King Charles III, with whom Hepburn remained close friends until her passing in 2003.

On April 20th 1942, in the midst of the Second World War in Europe, George was once more married for a third and final time to leading American actress, Rita Hayworth, whom the prince had prior known from the actress's largely successful movies during the previous years. At the same time, when it was made public his decision to marry Hayworth, he received considerable criticism from both the British government and members of his own royal family, most of whom generally took issue with Hayworth's Catholic denomination, which meant that the couple's union was largely forbidden as per the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which strictly forbade marriages between an Anglican royal with a partner of the Catholic faith. However, in the days immediately following the prince's open declaration of his intended marriage, it was soon "approved of" by both the British government and monarch, particularly his nephew, Frederick, whom declared that the marriage was to proceed as usual, with the notable trade-off being that any children he would legally have with Hayworth, regardless of their own Christian denominations, would be excluded from the line of succession for as long as George's wife chose not to convert to Protestantism instead, a decision Hayworth herself stood by for the rest of her life.

Throughout the following years, despite the almost fifty years age difference, with George being seventy three and Hayworth herself being only twenty four years old at the time of the wedding, the two notably exhibited a lifelong mutual sense of respect and love for one another throughout most of their marital years, while the birth of their two children together, Princess Mary and Princess Julianne, were notably referred to by a New York Times article as "a double miracle", since it was perceived by many that George's rather advanced age meant that it would be impossible for Hayworth to be impregnated. In addition to mostly supporting his wife's acting career in the form of financial provisions, George's own personal interests in both exploration and traveling persisted well into his last few years, with the prince often taking his wife on various tours around the globe on his personal ship at any given opportunity. As a result, one media outlet at the time reportedly niconamed both George and Hayworth "George Nelson" and "Rita Nelson", in a reference to the famed Royal Navy admiral, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, while another media outlet dubbed Hayworth "the actress who sailed the seven seas".

Amidst rumours alleging that Hayworth had been discreetly unfaithful to the prince due to his much more advanced age compared to herself, the actress promptly denied the accusations, going so far as to declare the elderly prince her "beloved husband and friend", while George himself would also refer to Hayworth as "the light of my elderly life", along with a number of other equally positive descriptions of the actress. Later on, when George himself passed away at the age of ninety three while visiting a friend in Vermont, he in turn had all of his personal wealth amassed to that point bequeathed solely to Hayworth and their two children together. Later on, following her own death on May 14th 1987, almost twenty five years later, the actress was buried together with the prince at the traditional site of Westminster Abbey, amidst initial controversy surrounding the fact that she had died a Catholic, thereby becoming one of the few Catholic occupants of the Anglican church and burial site.

Titles & Honours

• 7 May 1869 - 11 January 1889 His Royal Highness The Prince George
• 11 January 1889 - 30 December 1962 His Royal Highness The Duke of Southampton

Ancestry

Ancestors of Prince George, Duke of Southampton

8. George III of the United Kingdom 4. William IV of the United Kingdom 9. Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 2. William V of the United Kingdom 10. George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen 5. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen 11. Luise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg 1. Prince George of the United Kingdom 12. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 6. Leopold I of Belgium 13. Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf 3. Charlotte of Belgium 14. Louis Philippe I of France 7. Louise of Orléans 15. Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily