August von Senarclens de Grancy

Baron August Ludwig von Senarclens de Grancy (19 August 1794 - 3 October 1871) was born at Schloss Etoy, the son of Baron Cesar August von Senarclens. He became Grand Master of stables of the Grand Duke of Hesse, Major General, Knight of Honor and Devotion in the Order of Malta. It is also likely that he was the biological father of four of his employer's wife's children and, thus, an ancestor of the current King of Spain and the current heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom.

Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse, bought the area of Heiligenberg near Jugenheim in 1820 for his chamberlain, Senarclens de Grancy, to live, and after the acquisition Grand Duchess Wilhelmina no longer lived with her spouse. Senarclens's identity as the father of the later children of Wilhelmina of Baden was strongly suspected: correspondence detailing this involved many government ministers, ambassadors and sovereigns, including Tsar Nicholas I and Queen Victoria.

By Wilhelmina, he is believed to have fathered four children:

• Infant (b&d 1820)
• Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt (1821-1826)
• Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt (1823-1888)
• Princess Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824-1880)

Alexander and Marie were the only two to survive childhood and were deemed to be the legal children of Wilhelmina's husband, Grand Duke Louis II. They are ancestors of the later Tsars of Russia, as well as the Battenbergs (now known as the Mountbattens).

After 1836, he married Luise von Otting und Fünfstetten (1810-1876).

He died at Jugenheim.

[edit] References

• "Ahnenreihe of the last Grand Ducal Children of Hesse and by Rhine”, Darren Shelton, The European Royal History Journal, Issue VI, July-August 1998, p. 19-22.
• Lord Lambton, The Mountbattens, 1989
• "800 ans d'histoire de la famille de Senarclens et de sa branche de Grancy" by Jean de Senarclens, Slatkine, 2004

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