Mary Victoria Hamilton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton1 (December 11, 1850 – May 14, 1922) was the Lanarkshire-born, Scottish-German-French great-grandmother of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, the fashion designer Egon von Fürstenberg, and the socialite and actress Ira von Fürstenberg.
[edit] Ancestry
She was the daughter of William Alexander Anthony Archibald Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton and of his wife, Princess Marie Amelie Elizabeth Caroline of Baden.
Her paternal grandparents were Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton and his wife Susan Euphemia Beckford (14 May 1786 - 27 May 1859). Her maternal grandparents were Karl Ludwig Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden and Stéphanie de Beauharnais, a relative of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, first husband of Empress Josephine of France. Stéphanie became an adopted daughter of Napoleon I of France and an Imperial Princess of the French.
Her paternal grandmother was daughter of William Thomas Beckford and Lady Margaret Gordon, daughter of Charles Gordon, 4th Earl of Aboyne and Margaret Stewart. Margaret was herself a daughter of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway and Catherine Cochrane, a daughter of John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald and Anne Murray. Anne Murray was a daughter of Charles Murray, 1st Earl of Dunmore and Catherine Watts, daughter of Richard Watts of Hertfordshire.
[edit] Marriages
Her first marriage, on 21 September 1869, was to Prince Albert I of Monaco. They were divorced on 28 July 1880. Mary Victoria bore Prince Albert a single son, Louis II, Prince of Monaco who would take the throne of Monaco upon his father's death.
Her second marriage, on 2 June 1880, was to Tassilo, Count Festetics von Tolna. It is through this marriage that the von Fürstenbergs are descended.
[edit] Notes
1 Her name is often mistakenly given as Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton: in fact it was her brother, not her father, who adopted the surname Douglas-Hamilton in place of Hamilton.
