Alexandra, Princess of Leiningen


Alexandra of Hanover, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Princess of Leiningen, is the wife of Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.
Born in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, Alexandra is the youngest daughter of Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover, and his wife, Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Her eldest brother is Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, current head of the House of Hanover and her sister-in-law is Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Marriage and issue

Alexandra married Andreas on 5 October 1981 at Amorbach, Germany, in a civil marriage. They were remarried six days later in a religious ceremony at Gmunden-am-Traunsee, Upper Austria, Austria.
In 1997 this marriage was cited as the most recent example of intra-marriage among the descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX. Alexandra was loaned a tiara, an heirloom of the House of Welf, by her cousin Elizabeth II for the wedding. Alexandra and Andrea have three children:
In addition, members of her birth family claim the style Prince/Princess of Great Britain and Ireland according to a 1931 declaration by the Head of House Hanover, which is contrary to British Letters Patent of 1917 which restrict these titles to children and grandchildren of British sovereigns.