Imperial Mexico

The arms of Emperor Agustin

Genealogical information on the present-day descendants of Agustín de Iturbide, the first Emperor of Mexico, is limited and seems to have been first published in the 1994 booklet The Imperial House of Mexico: The House of Iturbide which was compiled by Charles Mikos de Tarrodhaza, Teodoro Amcrlincky Zirion and David Williamson. This fact is recognised in the introduction which states:

 

“The ambition of the authors of this booklet is to set the genealogical table straight and to act as a source of record and reference for scholars who may wish to expand upon this neglected subject and dynasty.”

 

The genealogical information contained within the booklet has then been repeated countless times in various genealogical and news sources. Unfortunately, somehow various pieces of information in the 1994 booklet appear to be incorrect. Josef N Kunz and I have investigated the genealogy and attempt to present an accurate account of the Götzen-Iturbide family, the present-day heirs of Agustín de Iturbide.

 

The Imperial House of Mexico was founded by Don Agustín de Iturbide y Arámburu; born 27 September 1783, the leader and hero of Mexico's war of independence. He was proclaimed “by Divine Providence and by the Congress of the Nation, first Constitutional Emperor of Mexico" on 19 May 1822.

Emperor Agustin

On 22 June 1822 the Mexican Congress decreed that the crown was to be hereditary and specified the emperor’s eldest son Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte as heir apparent with the title Prince Imperial (Imperial Highness), the title Mexican Prince/Princess (Highness) was to be borne by the emperor’s other children, the title Prince of the Union (Highness) was bestowed on his father and Princess de Iturbide (Highness) on his sister. Emperor Agustín was crowned on 21 July 1822 at the Mexico City Cathedral before being forced to abdicate early the following year on 19 March 1823. After a period in exile in Europe he attempted to return to Mexico where he was captured and executed by firing squad on 19 July 1824. 

 

Forty years later with the French Army occupying Mexico, conservative and monarchist factions in the country sought to revive the monarchy under Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria who, having renounced for himself and any descendants all rights to the Austrian throne on 9 April 1864, formally accepted their offer of the throne of Mexico on 10 April 1864 as Maximiliano I, Emperor of Mexico.

 

On 16 September 1865 the Emperor Maximiliano signed a decree awarding the ad personam titles of Prince/Princess de Iturbide (Highness) to Don Agustín de Iturbide y Green and his cousin Don Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán, the two grandsons of Emperor Agustín, and to their aunt Dona Josefa de Iturbide y Huarte, the daughter of the late Emperor Agustín. The Emperor also assumed the guardianship of the two princes along with Princess Dona Josefa who was appointed co-guardian.

 

Emperor Maximiliano

Emperor Maximiliano was deposed by republican forces on 15 May 1867 and executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867. Upon his death the Mexican line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine became extinct leaving the descendants of Emperor Agustín as the only possible heirs to the Mexican throne.

 

In 1867 the primogeniture Iturbide heir was the late Emperor’s ward, Prince Don Agustín de Iturbide y Green. Upon his death in 1925 the House of Iturbide became extinct in the male line, the next primogeniture heir was Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide, the eldest and only surviving daughter of Prince Don Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán. Via her first marriage to Baron Johann Tunkl von Aschbrunn und Hohenstadt she had two daughters both of whom carried the Iturbide surname, Maria Anna who never married, and Maria Gisella who had issue via her second marriage with Count Gustav von Götzen.

Prince Agustín de Iturbide y Green

Maria Gisella’s son Maximilian Gustav Richard Albrecht Augustin (known as Richard) is the current heir and carries the Iturbide name as part of his legal surname ‘Graf von Götzen-Iturbide’. In addition to the Iturbide heritage, he is also the senior member of Prussian line of von Gotzen’s who received the title of Count (German: Graf) in the Kingdom of Prussia on 3 May 1794 and later lived in Hungary. Richard studied economics at Oxford University and in 1975 first became involved in the stock markets going onto work for Drexel Burnham Lambert and Michael Laurie Securities. He moved to Hungary in 1989 where he established a property company and later served as chairman of Balanced Asset Management Ltd which was involved in the Hungarian and Central European stock markets. Richard has also written several books and articles on property and the stock markets.

 

Richard was married on 8 December 1998 at the West Surrey Register Office to Annette Rosemarie Radtke (born October 1966), a daughter of Joachim Kurt Richard Radtke. Annette worked as a language teacher and has also owned a health clinic in Budapest. The couple have two children Ferdinand Leopold Maximilian Gustav Salvator; born 26 August 1992 in Cologne, and Isabella Emanuela Helena Charlotte; born 9 September 1997 in Frimley.

  

Ferdinand studied history and political science at the University of Glasgow and European politics at the University of Maastricht and now works in internet marketing. Isabella studied at Leiden University and the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

 

The Götzen-Iturbide family live in Western Europe and do not use any titles, make any claims or participate in any events commemorating Mexico's imperial past. Nor have they ever spoken publicly about how they feel about their famous ancestor or his role in helping Mexico achieve independence. In terms of a national identity, Ferdinand von Götzen-Iturbide has  stated he identifies as being half British and half German, although he does acknowledge he comes from a very mixed background. In day-to-day life the family also tend to just use the surname ‘Götzen’.

Given the void this leaves, many modern-day Mexican monarchists look to Archduke Carlos Felipe of Austria, who was born and resides in Mexico, as the de facto representative and guardian of the imperial legacy of Mexico given he is active in raising awareness of the history of the Mexican Empire. Archduke Carlos Felipe is a descendant of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria, a brother of Emperor Maximiliano. 

 

Given their low profile several false photos purporting to be of Maximilian Gustav Richard Albrecht Augustin Graf von Götzen-Iturbide have appeared online and gained traction. One shows Matthew Festing, the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta, and more recently a photo of Gennadiy Chyzhykov, President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has been used by a Facebook page called “Casa de Götzen-Iturbide // Haus Von Götzen-Iturbide”, which is a hoax. No known public photograph of either Richard or his mother is known to exist.

Matthew Festing

Gennadiy Chyzhykov

Through the Götzen side of the family, Richard’s closet noble cousins are Johannes, Hereditary Prince of Schwarzenberg, Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau and Albert, Prince of Thurn and Taxis. More distantly Richard is a cousin of King Simeon II of Bulgaria, who was interviewed by his son Ferdinand in 2013 while at university, and of the senior line of the House of Orleans and Bragança which is currently headed by Prince Dom Pedro Carlos of Orleans and Bragança.

 

 

House of Gotzen-Iturbide

 

 

Maximilian Gustav Richard Albrecht Augustin Graf von Götzen-Iturbide; born 4 September 1954, Hungary, son of Gustav, Count von Götzen and Maria Gisella de Iturbide, Baroness Tunkl von Aschbrunn und Hohenstadt. Married 8 December 1998 at the West Surrey Register Office, Annette Rosemarie Radtke (born October 1966, Germany), daughter of Joachim Kurt Richard Radtke.

 

Children:

 

a) Ferdinand Leopold Maximilian Gustav Salvator Graf von Götzen-Iturbide; born 26 August 1992, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia.

 

b) Isabella Emanuela Helena Charlotte Gräfin von Götzen-Iturbide; born 9 September 1997, Frimley, Surrey.

Monaco Pretenders - The English Grimaldi's

George Frederick Ernest, 13th Marquess Grimaldi
and his wife Kathleen Elizabeth, Marchioness Grimaldi 

The Monaco branch of the House of Grimaldi died out in the male line on 14 February 1748 with the death of Honoré François Grimaldi (born 1669), Archbishop of Besançon from 1724 to 1731 and then Abbot of the Abbey’s of Saint Maixant and of Vauluisant.

He was the younger brother of Prince Antonie I of Monaco (1661-1731) who was succeeded by his daughter Princess Louise-Hippolyte (1697-1731) and her husband Jacques Goyon de Matignon (1689-1751) who adopted the Grimaldi name and arms and ruled Monaco as Prince Jacques I, firstly alongside his wife then after her death alone until his abdication in 1733 in favour of their son Honoré III.

Their descendants were known in the Almanach de Gotha as the House of Goyon de Matignon-Grimaldi and reigned until the death of Prince Louis II in 1949 when the succession passed via his 1919 legitimised daughter Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois (1898-1977) to her son Prince Rainer III (1923-2005).  He and his son, the present prince of Monaco, Albert II (born 1958), belong to the House of Poliginac in the paternal line (Poliginac-Grimaldi) via Count Pierre de Polignac (1895-1964) the husband of Princess Charlotte, who like the husband of Princess Louise-Hippolyte had also assumed the Grimaldi name and arms and was created a prince of Monaco.

On account of the break with the male line in 1731 with the succession of Princess Louise-Hippolyte, the surviving branches of the House of Grimaldi have at various times publicly asserted a claim to the Principality of Monaco believing salic law should have been adhered too as it was in France, and the succession should therefore not have passed via the female line.

One such surviving branch of the House of Grimaldi are the Marquesses Grimaldi, the title having been created in Genoa in August 1529 for Luca Grimaldi (died 1580) by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in his capacity of King of Italy. The 1st Marquess’ descendant Alessandro, 6th Marquess Grimaldi (1659-1732) commanded the Spanish forces during the French bombardment of Genoa and as a consequence was exiled in 1685 by edict of King Louis XIV of France. The exiled 6th Marquess settled in England and married the granddaughter of Sir Francis Anderson MP, his descendants form the English branch of the House of Grimaldi.

In 1834 Stacey Grimaldi, a descendant of the 6th Marquess, noted with the publication of House of Grimaldi’s pedigree that "The Principality of Monaco is now claimed from the reigning Prince of Monaco by the Marquess Luigi Grimaldi della Pietra on the ground that it is a male fief and ought not to have descended to heirs female and this Pedigree has been compiled to show at Genoa and Turin that the Grimaldis of England are the eldest branch and have a prior claim."

Stacey Grimaldi (1790-1863) however belonged to the junior line of the English Grimaldi’s descending from William Grimaldi (1751-1830), a son of Alexander, 7th Marquess Grimaldi (1714-1800) via his second marriage, while there was also a senior line descending from Alexander Grimaldi (1742-1780), the son of the 7th Marquess’ first marriage. In 1834 and for many decades after, the senior line were either uninterested in their claim to Monaco or without the means to pursue it. Stacey Grimaldi and his younger son Alexander Beaufort Grimaldi (1839-1925) were therefore the initial driving force behind the English Grimaldi’s claims to Monaco and as such this junior line have adopted (or at least been attributed by various sources) the Marquess title and been numbered as though they succeeded on the death of the 7th Marquess.

Descent of the senior and junior lines
from the 7th Marquess Grimaldi

In 1913 the senior line of the English Grimaldi’s registered their pedigree with the College of Arms, having had it verified by the Norry King of Arms, Sir Henry Farnham Burke. The head of the senior line and the rightful 11th Marquess Grimaldi was George Frederick Grimaldi who had been born 18 February 1857 in Islington the son of Alfred, 10th Marquess Grimaldi (1833-1885) and his wife Ann Birch (1832-1888).

The 11th Marquess was the owner of a successful firm of Aberdeen butchers and supplied meat for the coronation of King Edward VII. He was married twice, first in 1883 to Lavina Thomas (1859-1887) with whom he had a son Ernest George Grimaldi (1885-1953), and secondly in 1890 to Elizabeth Darling, nee Devine (1853-1913). Haven proven his ancestry the 11th Marquess pursued an active and serious claim to the throne of Monaco; he left London and moved to the nearby French city of Nice from where he could distribute pamphlets in the principality promoting his claim. In 1916 Messrs Canottieri et Cie, a Nice based firm, placed an advert in a British newspaper stating that a widowed nobleman from an ancient family was looking to re-marry with a lady of any age from a good family who could bring a dowry of between £500,000 and £600,000 to aid his struggle against a "usurper". The nobleman in question was the 11th Marquess, nothing ever came from it though as he would never remarry.

The 11th Marquess’ big push for the throne came in 1922 on the death Prince Albert I of Monaco. As the late prince’s marriage to Lady Mary Hamilton had been annulled in 1880, the 11th Marquess sensed a weakness and argued that the late prince’s son and heir Hereditary Prince Louis was illegitimate and so ineligible to succeed and lobbied the British government and newly formed League of Nations to intervene. He was in Monaco at the time of Prince Albert’s death before being forced to return to his base in Nice due to ill health. With his claims having fallen on death ears and the late Prince Albert’s son declared Prince Louis II, when the 11th Marquess attempted to return to Monaco he was barred from entering by the gendarmerie. His meticulous tracing of his ancestry and pursuit of the throne cost around £1.7 million in today’s money and exhausted the family fortune. He died on 20 September 1924 in Nice and was succeeded by his only son Ernest George Grimaldi as the 12th Marquess Grimaldi.

Ernest George, 12th Marquess Grimaldi was born 3 December 1885 in Highgate but he grew up in Aberdeen where his talent as a cricketer and rugby player saw him play for the Aberdeenshire Cricket Club and the Aberdeen Nomads Rugby Club. He was educated at Edinburgh University before serving an engineering apprenticeship and training as an accountant, before finally establishing himself as a car salesman.  The 12th Marquess was married in Aberdeen to Mabel Joss Gray (1885-1951) with whom he had three sons George Frederick Ernest Grimaldi (1908-1979), John Derek Grimaldi (1914-1992) and Geoffrey Brian Grimaldi (1915-1942).

After succeeding his father he recognised his rights to Monaco, despite having neither the money nor the time to pursue an active claim with the same vigour that his father had done. In 1930 he stated "I grew up to learn the full facts of our unfortunate history. It is now my turn to attempt to establish our rights, but I put my claim forward more as a matter of form than anything else, for what more proof can be submitted than that which was received by the College of Heralds? I am probably a fatalist, but it seems we can do nothing more to establish our rights." On his death in St Albans on 17 February 1953 his eldest son, George Frederick Ernest Grimaldi, succeeded as the 13th Marquess Grimaldi.

George Frederick Ernest, 13th Marquess Grimaldi was born 23 June 1908 in Highgate.  He served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and went on to have a varied career working as an exhibition organiser, a hotelier in Kent, a petrol station owner in Sussex and a car salesman in Bognor Regis. He married Kathleen Elizabeth Cordon (1909-1991) in 1937 and had two daughters Vanessa Grimaldi (born 1944) Anne Serena Grimaldi (born 1946).

Like his father he recognised his claim stating in 1962 "I have more right than Prince Rainer to be ruler of Monaco", however also like his father he could do little to advance it "A tremendous amount of money would be needed to do anything and I just haven’t got it. And it would also need some support from within Monaco". However he expressed his hope that "If I don’t live to become Prince of Monaco I certainly hope that one of my successors will."

The 13th Marquess visited Monaco just the once, which was while on holiday rather than to claim the throne, his visit taking place in 1949, the year Prince Rainer III succeeded. Following the prince’s wedding to Grace Kelly in 1956 the 13th Marquess acting "as head of the family" sent his congratulations and the two corresponded for a time after. Having only two daughters on the death of the 13th Marquess in 1979 he was succeeded by his younger brother John Derek Grimaldi.

John Derek, 14th Marquess Grimaldi was born 26 February 1914 in Edmonton and followed in his father’s footsteps into the car industry working as an engineer. He was married twice, first in 1942 to Frances Margaret Grundy (1914-1946), and secondly in 1947 to Thelma Louise Diffley (1917-1988).

His only child was a son who predeceased him, John Patrick Michael Grimaldi (1955-1983) a musician and a guitarist in the English rock band Argent between 1974-1976 who died unmarried and childless. The 14th Marquess, who never seemed to publicly assert any claim to Monaco, died on 21 September 1992 in Fraddon, Cornwall at which point the male line of the 11th Marquess Grimaldi died out.

In a future post I may revisit the family tree of the English Grimaldi's to explore who succeeded as the 15th Marquess Grimaldi, of Genoa.