Battenberg family

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Battenberg
Coat of arms
Parent house	Hesse-Darmstadt branch of the House of Hesse
Place of origin	Grand Duchy of Hesse
Members	Princess Julia of Battenberg, Princess Marie of Battenberg, Prince Louis of Battenberg
Connected members	Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Princess Louise of Battenberg, Prince George of Battenberg
Connected families	House of Windsor
Cadet branches	Mountbatten family

The Battenberg family is a non-dynastic cadet branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, which ruled the Grand Duchy of Hesse until 1918. The first member was Countess Julia von Hauke, whose brother-in-law Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse created her Countess of Battenberg in 1851, along with the style of Illustrious Highness (H.Ill.H.), at the time of her morganatic marriage to Grand Duke Louis's brother Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. The name of the title refers to the town of Battenberg in Hesse. In 1858, the countess' title was elevated to Princess of Battenberg, with the style of Serene Highness (H.S.H.).

In 1917, most members of the family had been residing in the British Empire and had renounced their Hessian titles, due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British during the First World War. At that point, they changed the family name to Mountbatten, an anglicised version of Battenberg. However, Juan, Count of Barcelona, a son of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain, bore the surname of Borbón y Battenberg until his death in 1993. The last born member of the House of Battenberg who had not changed the name was the youngest son of the Princess of Battenberg, Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg, who died childless in 1924, but his widow, Princess Anna of Battenberg also kept using the name of Battenberg until the end of her life.