Michał Radziwiłł Rudy

Michał Radziwiłł Rudy
Born	Michał Władysław Karol Jan Alojzy Wilhelm Edmund Robert Michał Radziwiłł 8 February 1870(1870-02-08) Berlin
Died	6 October 1955(1955-10-06) (aged 85) Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Spouse	Maria Nikołajewna de Bernardaky Maria Henrietta Martinez de Medinilla de Santa-Susana Harriet Dawson
Children	Antoni Radziwiłł Leontyna Radziwiłł zam. hr. Skórzewska
Parents	Ferdynand Radziwiłł Pelagia Sapieha

Michał Radziwiłł Rudy (8 February 1870 – 6 October 1955^[1][2] in Santa Cruz de Tenerife) was a nobelman and diplomat.

He attained degrees in law and philosophy and worked as a diplomat in the embassy of the Russian Empire in Paris. He also served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the German and as a Major in the British armies. He was involved in several major scandals which led to him being dispossessed of property and disowned by his family.

He was also a Knight of Malta.

Biography

He was born to Ferdynand Radziwiłł and Pelagia Sapieha on 8 February 1870 in Berlin.^[1] While of Lithuanian-Polish origin from the szlachta Radziwiłł family, he was also a relative of the House of Hohenzollern.

He served as a diplomat in Russian service from until the Russian Revolution in 1917. He reputedly spoke eight different languages. He also served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the German and as a Major in the British armies. He returned to the newly independent Second Polish Republic in 1926, assuming the Polish citizenship that year.^[2]

The nickname "Rudy", or "Red", was a reference to the color of his hair. His friends also called him "Munio", while his relatives often referred to him as just "the Renegade" or "the Degenerate". As he was a Count (Hrabia) whose property was based around the village of Antonin he was also known, especially locally, as the "Maharaja of Antonin ", due to his luxurious and excessive lifestyle.^[2]

His activities are said to have been a near constant source of gossip for the interwar Polish press.^[2] After he was dispossessed of some of his property (the Olyka ordynacja), he tried to get it back through the Russian government (at that time, those territories were part of the Russian partition).^[1] Increasingly distanced from his family, at one point he sued his own father.^[2] He retained the Przygodzice ordynacja, which he brought on the brink of bankrupcy. He closed a family chapel in Antonin, and he caused another scandal when he attempted to throw some of his ancestors from their burial places in the chapel. He was involved in numerous extramarital affairs.^[2] At one time, he punched his first wife and thrown her out of a speeding car.^[2] One of his cousins, Krzysztof Radziwiłł, in his memoires described him as a psychopath; many members of the family referred to him as "degenerate".^[2]

He married three times and had two children from his first marriage to Maria Nikołajewna de Bernardaky (in 1898).^[2] That marriage was a controversy as well, as Maria, a Greek aristocrat, was Eastern Orthodox, and the couple agreed to raise their children in that faith.^[1] He divorced her in 1915.^[2] In 1916 he married his second wife, Maria Henrietta Martinez de Medinilla de Santa-Susana.^[2] He attempted to get a divorce from her in 1929, but it never was finalized due to technical difficulties; the couple however separated.^[2] For that reason, his third marriage in 1938 to Harriet Dawson was quickly seen as potentially illegal, and caused him a new wave of legal problems and scandals.^[2]

In 1939 on the outbreak of World War II he tried to appease the Nazi Germany occupiers by gifting the palace in Antonin to Adolf Hitler.^[2] At that time he also declared himself a German, and welcomed the invaders as "liberators".^[2] This failed to generate him enough good will with the new authorities, and he was put in house arrest.^[2] In 1940 he was allowed to emigrated to France, where he spent several months in the French Riviera.^[2] A new wave of scandals there only confirmed his bad reputation. He spent the remainder of World War II with relatives near Berlin and in Switzerland.^[2]

After the war he settled on the estate of his second wife in Tenerife where he lived alone in growing poverty until his death on 6 October 1955.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Stankiewicz Waldeemar, potyczki z genealogią". Mm.pl. http://www.mm.pl/~wwmkiewicz/ws/radziwil.htm. Retrieved 4 November 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} Dariusz J. Peśla. "Książę Michał Radziwiłł "Rudy" 1870–1955. Kobiety "antonińskiego maharadży".". Stowarzyszenie "Wielkopolskie Centrum Chopinowskie – Antonin" w Ostrowie Wielkopolskim. http://chopin2010.pl/fileadmin/content/Do_pobrania_-_newsy/ksiaze_michal_radziwill_rudy_1870-1955_dariusz_j.pesla.pdf. Retrieved 2 November 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Rudy, Michal Radziwill
Alternative names
Short description	Germany noble
Date of birth	8 February 1870
Place of birth	Berlin, Germany
Date of death	6 October 1955
Place of death	Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain