birth_date: 1945-01-15 00:00:00
avg_rating: 3.56
name: Princess Michael of Kent
about: Princess Michael of Kent (Marie Christine; née Baroness Marie Christine Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945), is a German-Born member of the British Royal Family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of King George V.Princess Michael is an author, and has published several books on the royal families of Europe. She also undertakes lecture tours, and supports her husband in his public work. The Kents do not officially carry out royal duties, although they have on occasion represented Queen Elizabeth II at functions abroad.Princess Michael of Kent was born on 15 January 1945, in Karlovy Vary (formerly Carlsbad), in then-German-populated Sudetenland, in what is now the Czech Republic, near the family estates o Princess Michael of Kent (Marie Christine; née Baroness Marie Christine Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945), is a German-Born member of the British Royal Family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of King George V.Princess Michael is an author, and has published several books on the royal families of Europe. She also undertakes lecture tours, and supports her husband in his public work. The Kents do not officially carry out royal duties, although they have on occasion represented Queen Elizabeth II at functions abroad.Princess Michael of Kent was born on 15 January 1945, in Karlovy Vary (formerly Carlsbad), in then-German-populated Sudetenland, in what is now the Czech Republic, near the family estates of her Austrian maternal grandmother, Princess Hedwig Windisch-Graetz, prior to the defeat and the end of Nazi Germany and of World War II in Europe, and the following expulsion of the German population later that year. Princess Michael is the only daughter of Baron Günther Hubertus von Reibnitz (of German descent) and his Austro-Hungarian wife, Countess Maria Anna Carolina Franziska Walpurga Bernadette Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár, a daughter of Count Friedrich Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár, an Austro-Hungarian diplomat, who served as Ambassador at St. Petersburg at the outbreak of World War I. The Princess's father also had a daughter named Margarita, born on 18 January 1924, from his first marriage to Margherita, Countess von Seherr-Thoß.Through her mother, the Princess is a descendant of Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II of France, and Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France (his wife), and also of painter Peter Paul Rubens. After her parents' divorce, her father, a Nazi party member who had held the rank of Sturmbannführer or “Assault (or Storm) Unit Leader” in the SS during the Second World War[4], moved to Maforga, Mozambique. Marie Christine, her mother, and her brother, Baron Friedrich (Fred) von Reibnitz (now living in Canberra), moved to Australia, where her mother ran a beauty salon. Friedrich became an Australian Government official. He has a daughter, Princess Michael's niece Maya Scott, born 1978 in Canberra to a fellow civil servant, Mary Scott. Maya Scott is a photographer and artist based in Western Australia. ...more