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Monday, June 25, 2012

Happy-Go-Lucky Aristocrat Gone Yonder!

It was reported over the weekend that colorful aristocrat, Robin Grinnell-Milne de La Lanne-Mirrlees, passed away at the age of 87 years old.


Robin, who had a penchant for changing his name as often as he traded in mistresses, was born Robin Ian Evelyn Grinnell-Milne, the son of Captain Duncan Grennell-Milne and French Countess Frances de La Lanne. With time and after countless legal name changes, Robin decided to begin calling himself a Count Grinnell-Milne de La Lanne-Mirrlees, not that he had the right to do so, mind you.


His dalliances were legendary and among his conquests were Fiona Campbell-Walker, who eventually married Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, and became the mother of Archduchess Francesca, estranged wife of Archduke Karl of Austria, Head of House.


Another of Robin's loves was Duchess Margarethe of Württemberg, the eldest daughter of Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg (1895-1954) and his wife Princess Nadedja of Bulgaria (1899-1958). As it turns out, Margarethe became pregnant by Robin and in the early 1960s traveled to San Francisco where she was delivered of a baby boy, Patrick Grinnell-Milne de La Lanne-Mirrlees, who was born in 1962. The child was given up to a foster mother and in time setled in Germany where he serves as Mayor of the Town of Delmenhorst, near Bremen. Patrick married Irene Auer in 1988 and has three children by her. Whether he is contact with his birth family is something to pertains to the private realm.

The attached obituary describes Robin as a "descendant of King Louis Philippe" but unless he is so through an illegitimate line, that connection escapes me. Margarethe certainly is an Orléans descendant as her Bulgarian grandfather, King Ferdinand I, was himself the youngest grandson of King Louis Philippe of the French and Queen Marie Amelie.

Further reading...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164294/Dashing-Scottish-aristocrat-bed-hopping-ways-inspiration-James-Bond-dies-aged-87.html

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2008/10/german-mayor-has-royal-connections.html



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