Broken Royal Engagements of Yore: Max of Baden and Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

"Royal Cousins End Engagement."
The Gazette of Montreal, Quebec (9 Sep. 1961).

Max of Baden and Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

On 7 September 1961, Fürst Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg announced that his sister, Princess Beatrix, and her fiancé, Prince Max of Baden, had broken off their engagement by mutual consent. The cause for the end of the couple was given as personal reasons. It was noted that the prince and princess were the nephew and niece of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

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First cousins through their mutual descent from Prince Andreas of Greece and his wife Princess Alice of Battenberg, Max of Baden was twenty-eight at the time while Beatrix zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg was twenty-five. Beatrix was the daughter of Andreas and Alice's eldest daughter Princess Margarita and her husband Fürst Gottfried zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Max was the son of the couple's next daughter Princess Theodora and her husband Margrave Berthold of Baden.

 

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Prince Maximilian "Max" Andreas Friedrich Gustav Ernst August Bernhard of Badenwas born at Salem on 3 July 1933. He was the second child and eldest son of Margrave Berthold of Baden and Margravine Theodora (née Greece), who married in 1931. In September 1966, Max of Baden married Archduchess Valerie of Austria-Tuscany (b.1941), the daughter of Archduke Hubert Salvator  of Austria-Tuscany and Princess Rosemary zu Salm-Salm. Margrave Max and Margravine Valerie of Baden have four children: Princess Marie Louise (b.1969), Hereditary Prince Bernhard (b.1970), Prince Leopold (b.1971), and Prince Michael (b.1976).

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Princess Beatrix Alice Marie Melita Margarete zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg was born at Schwäbisch-Hall on 10 July 1936. She was the second child and only daughter of Fürst Gottfried zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Fürstin Margarita (née Greece), who married in 1931. Beatrix never married. For many years, she functioned as a secretary and companion to Princess Margaret "Peg" of Hesse at Wolfsgarten. Aged sixty-one, Princess Beatrix died on 15 November 1997 at Schwäbisch-Hall.