Princess Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent FLS (born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of the British royal family who is of German, Austrian, Czech and Hungarian descent. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of King George V. Princess Michael of Kent was an interior designer before becoming an author; she has written several books on European royalty.
Early Life and Ancestry
Princess Michael was born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, on 15 January 1945, in Karlsbad, a town then in German-populated Sudetenland, now known as Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. She was born at the family estates of her Austrian maternal grandmother, Princess Hedwig von Windisch-Graetz (1878-1918), shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany and end of World War II in Europe. The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia followed that year.
By birth she is a member of the Reibnitz family uradel Silesian nobility who can trace their noble ancestry from 1288.
The ancestral seat of the family was Reibnitz Castle. On her father's side, Princess Michael is a descendant of the Burggrafen von, Herrand III von Trauttmansdorff and Nostitz family, who are also ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II.
She is the younger daughter of Baron Gunther Hubertus von Reibnitz (1894-1983) by his second wife, Countess Maria Anna Carolina Franziska Walburga Bernadette Szapary von Muraszombath, Szechyaziget und Szapar (1911-1988), who was the daughter of Count Friedrich Szapary von Muraszombath, Szechysziget Szapar, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Saint Petersburg at the outbreak of World War I.
Princess Michael's father was a Nazi Party member and served as a cavalry officer in the Waffen-SS during World II. In response to the advances of the Red Army near the end of the war, the family abandoned their estates and moved to Bavaria, which was part of the American-occupied zone of Germany. Her parents divorced in 1946 and, along with her mother and elder brother Baron Friedrich von Reibnitz (born 1942), Princess Michael moved to Australia, where she was educated at Convent of the Sacred Heart, Rose Bay (now Kincoppal-Rose Bay). In the early 1960s, she lived with her father on his farm in Mozambique. She then went from Vienna to London to study History of Fine and Decorative Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Marriages
Her first husband was the English banker Thomas Troubridge (1939-2015), younger brother of Sir Peter Troubridge, 6th Baronet. They met at a boar hunt in Germany and were married on 14 September 1971 at Chelsea Old Church, London. The couple separated in 1973 and were civilly divorced in 1977. The marriage was ecclesiastically annulled by Pope Paul VI in May 1978.
One month after the annulment, on 30 June 1978, at a civil ceremony in Vienna, Austria she married Prince Michael of Kent, the son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
Prince Michael is a grandson of King George V. Marie-Christine has named Lord Mountbatten as their matchmaker.
Michael presented Marie-Christine with a two-stone sapphire-and-diamond ring made from stones that belonged to his mother, Princess Marina. For the ball held after the wedding, she wore the City of London diamond fringe tiara and a cream dress from Bellville Sassoon.
Upon their marriage, she was accorded the style and title of Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, the female equivalent to her husband’s title. After receiving Pope John Paul II’s permission, the couple later received a blessing of their marriage in a Roman ceremony on 29 June 1983 at Archbishop’s House, London.
Since the Act of Settlement 1701 prohibited anyone who married a Roman Catholic from succeeding to the throne, Prince Michael of Kent (at that time, 15th in the line of succession) lost his succession rights upon marrying Marie-Christine. Prince Michael was reinstated to the line of succession to the British throne on 26 March 2015 with the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. Their children are members of the Church of England and have retained their rights of succession since birth.
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have two children:
-Lord Frederick Windsor, born 6 April 1979 at St Mary’s Hospital, London. He married Sophie Winkleman on 12 September 2009 and they have two daughters: Maud (born 15 August 2013) and Isabella (born 16 January 2016).
-Lady Gabriella Kingston, born 23 April 1981 at Mary’s Hospital, London. She married Thomas Kingston on 18 May 2019
Titles
15 January 1945-14 September 1971 Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, Mrs. Thomas Troubridge
15 January 1945-30 June 1978 Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz
30 June 1978 Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent
