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Admiral of the Fleet Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (24 May 1854 – 11 September 1921), formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a British naval officer and German prince related to members of the British Royal Family. Although born in Austria, and brought up in Italy and Germany, he enrolled in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy at the age of fourteen. Queen Victoria and her son King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, occasionally intervened in his career: the Queen thought that there was "a belief that the Admiralty are afraid of promoting Officers who are Princes on account of the radical attacks of low papers and scurrilous ones".〔Queen Victoria to First Lord of the Admiralty Lord George Hamilton, 5 September 1891, Royal Archives E5 6/45〕 However, Louis welcomed battle assignments that provided opportunities for him to acquire the skills of war and to demonstrate to his superiors that he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours arranged by the Queen and Edward actually impeded his progress, as his promotions were perceived as royal favours rather than deserved. After a naval career lasting more than forty years, in 1912 he was appointed First Sea Lord, the professional head of the British naval service. With World War I looming, he took steps to ready the British fleet for combat, but his background as a German prince forced his retirement once the war began, when anti-German sentiment was running high. He changed his name and relinquished his German titles, at the behest of King George V, in 1917. He married a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and was the father of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who also served as First Sea Lord from 1954 to 1959. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, is his grandson. ==Early life== Louis was born as Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg in Graz, Austria, the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia von Hauke. Because of his morganatic parentage, Louis was denied his father's rank in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and from birth his style of ''Illustrious Highness'' and title of Count of Battenberg instead derived from the rank given to his mother at the time of her marriage. On 26 December 1858, he automatically became ''His Serene Highness'' Prince Louis of Battenberg when his mother was elevated to Princess of Battenberg with the style of ''Serene Highness'', by decree of her husband's brother, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse.〔 Shortly after Louis's birth, his father was stationed with the Austro-Hungarian Army of occupation in Northern Italy during the Second Italian War of Independence. Louis's early years were spent either in the north of Italy or at Prince Alexander's two houses in Hesse, the castle of Heiligenberg in Jugenheim and the Alexander Palace in Darmstadt. His mother spoke French to him and he had an English governess, and as a consequence grew up trilingual. Among the visitors entertained at Heiligenberg were Prince Alexander's relations, the Russian imperial family, and his cousin, Prince Louis of Hesse.〔Hough, p. 20〕 Influenced by his cousin's wife, Princess Alice, a daughter of Queen Victoria, and by Prince Alfred, another of Queen Victoria's children, Battenberg joined the Royal Navy on 3 October 1868 at the age of fourteen and thus became a naturalised British subject.〔〔 He was admitted by the Board of Admiralty without the production of a medical certificate, which was contrary to the usual regulation.〔 He was enlisted as a naval cadet aboard HMS ''Victory'', Nelson's old flagship, then used as a permanently moored training ship.〔Kerr, pp. 7–8〕 In January of the following year, the Prince and Princess of Wales cruised the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the frigate HMS ''Ariadne'', and the Prince of Wales requested that Louis be appointed to the vessel,〔Kerr, pp. 9–10〕 before his training was complete.〔Hough, p. 61〕 As part of the same tour, Louis also accompanied them on a visit to Egypt, where they visited the construction site of the Suez canal. As was traditional, the Khedive bestowed honours on the party and Louis received the Medjidie (Fourth Class).〔Kerr, pp. 14–16〕 In April, he received the Osmanie (Fourth Class) from the Ottoman Sultan.〔Kerr, p. 18〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prince Louis of Battenberg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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