Engagement: Lord Nicholas Hamilton and Miss Tatiana Kronberg

[Turenne]

The engagement is announced between Lord Nicholas Hamilton, son of the
5th Duke of Abercorn and Lady Mary Crichton d. of Viscount Crichton
and grandaughter of the Earl of Erne, and Miss Tatiana Kronberg d. of
Mr Evgeni Kronberg and Mrs Irina Grichtchenko, of Denver, Colorado.

Evgeni Kronberg sounds like a Baltic name: Latvia? Estonia?

Richard Lichten

[Michael Rhodes]

Richard, the 5th Duke's wife is the beautiful Alexandra Anastasia
Phillips, of splenid Russian descent herself. The 4th Duke married a
Crichton.

[Turenne]

Sorry: mega cockup on my part!!

Correction: Alexandra Anastasia Phillips, daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold
Pedro Joseph Phillips and Georgina Wernher (daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir
Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Bt. and Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby,
Countess de Torby).

Richard

[JonnyK]

I understand that Nicholas is a photographer and lives and works
mainly in the United States, but has his own place back in Northern
Ireland, the splendid Belle Isle Castle in County Fermanagh, which his
father bought for him a few years ago.

http://www.belleislecastle.com/

A few fascinating facts about the dukedom from Brian Masters'
excellent book The Dukes:

The Duke of Abercorn represents the junior branch of the House of
Hamilton, lives in Ireland and has an Irish dukedom; yet he is the
heir male of the original line and is therefore head of the family,
not his relation the Duke of Hamilton. Hamilton is the much older
Scottish dukedom and he represents the senior branch of the family,
but is descended in the female line and so is not head of the family.
He is, however, heir male of the House of Douglas and is head of that
family.

Confusingly both the Duke of Abercorn and the Duke of Hamilton are Duc
de Chatelherault in France; Abercorn's entitlement dates from the
reign of Henri II and is "legit" whereas successive Hamiltons
challenged it in the courts and eventually persuaded no less than
Napoleon himself to grant their family the title as well.

The Duke of Abercorn is the only nobleman to have titles in the three
peerages of Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland.

And lastly, owing to the complicated and overlapping ties between
their families, the present Duke of Abercorn is the Duke of
Westminster's godfather, second cousin and brother-in-law all at once.

Most fascinating of all, such are the complicated ties between both
the

[JonnyK]

More info on the engagement from the Daily Telegraph's Mandrake, June
24: http://tiny.cc/qGwgB

"James Hamilton, the Duke of Abercorn, one of Ireland's biggest
landowners who, with his wife Sasha, has frequently holidayed in the
Caribbean with the Duke of Edinburgh, is a happy man today. His son,
Lord Nicholas Hamilton, 29, is marrying Tatiana Kronberg, 31, who
until recently worked at the auction house Christie's.

The pair are passionate photographers and met at the International
Center of Photography in New York four years ago. The Duke tells me:
'She is a beautiful and highly intelligent girl and I couldn't be more
delighted by his choice'.

Nicholas, for his part, adds that he and Tatiana plan to set up a
studio residency programme for photographers at their home at Belle
Isle near Lisbellaw in Co Fermanagh. They will marry in New York at
the end of August."

Another website informs me that the bride to be is Russian born and
moved to the United States with her family as a teenager, and has an
undergraduate degree from New York University.

[Peter FitzGerald]

On 26 June, 13:09, JonnyK <j_kennedy1...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The Duke of Abercorn is the only nobleman to have titles in the three
> peerages of Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland.

This isn't true - the Earl of Verulam is Baron Verulam in Great
Britain, Viscount Grimston and Baron Dunboyne in Ireland, and Lord
Forrester in Scotland (as well as being Earl of Verulam and Viscount
Grimston in the United Kingdom and a Baronet (of Little Waltham, Co.
Essex) in England).

[Turenne]

JonnyK wroye:

>Confusingly both the Duke of Abercorn and the Duke of Hamilton are Duc
>de Chatelherault in France; Abercorn's entitlement dates from the
>reign of Henri II and is "legit" whereas successive Hamiltons
>challenged it in the courts and eventually persuaded no less than
>Napoleon himself to grant their family the title as well.

The 12th duke of Hamilton happened to be third cousin of the French
emperor Napoleon III through his mother, Mary-Caroline of Baden.
While
he was a minor, she made a request for confirmation of the title in
favor of her son on March 12, 1864; the request was considered by the
"conseil des sceaux" and approved by the Emperor by decree of April
20, 1864 (published on Aug. 25): "The duke of Hamilton has been
maintained and confirmed by decree of Apr 20, 1864 in the hereditary
title of duc de Châtellerault created by the king of France Henri II
in 1548 (old style) in favor of James Hamilton, earl of Arran." Note
that the text is rather strange: it is not a creation, but a
confirmation of an existing title (the Almanach de Gotha calls it a
new creation by way of confirmation!), in spite of the fact that the
original title was hereditary through males and females, and that the
duke of Hamilton was not heir to the general line, and could not be
confirmed in a title he could not claim.

Richard Lichten