Prince Antoni Wilhelm Radziwiłł
Prince Antoni Wilhelm Radziwiłł (Polish: Fryderyk Wilhelm Ferdynand Antoni Radziwiłł; 31 March 1833 – 16 December 1904) was a member of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility and a General of the Artillery in the Prussian Army. He was the nephew of Princess Elisa Radziwiłł, the first love of their kinsman King William I of Prussia, who would later become the first German Emperor. Born the eldest son of Prince Wilhelm Paweł Radziwiłł (1797–1870), a General of the Infantry in the Prussian Army, and his second wife Countess Mathilde of Clary und Aldringen (1806–1896), Antoni was a descendant of the powerful magnate family of Radziwiłł, who owned large estates in Silesia and Posen, as well as Russia; his uncle was the Polish statesman Prince Bogusław Fryderyk Radziwiłł. He was also related to the Prussian royal family through King Frederick William I, whose granddaughter Princess Louise was married to Antoni's grandfather Antoni Henryk, Governor of Posen. Upon his graduation from the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1852, Antoni joined the military firstly as part of the Guards Artillery Regiment, before serving an 8-month internship with the 3rd Artillery Regiment in Magdeburg. During that time he accompanied Prince Frederick William to Moscow to witness the coronation of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in August 1856. On 3
October 1857, Radziwiłł married Marie de Castellane, the daughter of French aristocrats Henri de Castellane and Pauline de Talleyrand-Périgord, in Sagan. Between 1858 and 1861 he enrolled in the military academy, rising to the rank of captain. In 1866 Prince Radziwiłł participated in the Austro-Prussian War as part of the General Staff of Prince August of Württemberg's Guard Corps, after which he was appointed personal aide-de-camp to King William I. He became a close confidant of the king, often accompanying him on important events. He would play a major role in the future Franco-Prussian War, as he was the one to deliver the Ems Dispatch to Count Benedetti, as well as announcing the ceasefire after the Battle of Sedan on 2 September 1870 and witnessing the proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles. In 1885, William I appointed him to the rank of Adjutant general. From 1871 to 1888, Prince Radziwiłł was a member of the Prussian House of Lords. He and his wife ran a popular salon in Berlin, where they entertained many Polish politicians and members of the Catholic Center Party. This earned him the distrust of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck during the Kulturkampf, which was exacerbated by the fact that Antoni's cousin Ferdynand Radziwiłł was a member of the Polish Party. He was promoted to General of the Infantry by Emperor Frederick III, upon the latter's accession to the throne, while retaining his position as Adjutant. Upon Frederick's death in 1888, however, he was dismissed by the next Emperor, William II, who on 22 March 1889 granted him the "duty title" of General of the Artillery.
The 1st Foot Guard Regiment (German: 1. Garde-Regiment zu Fuß) was an infantry regiment of the Royal Prussian Army formed in 1806 after Napoleon defeated Prussia in the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. It was formed by combining all previous Foot Guard Regiments, especially the 6th and the 15th Infantry Regiments of the Old Prussian Army, the former were the famous Potsdam Giants of Frederick William I of Prussia, the latter was commanded and led by Frederick the Great as his life guard, and was, from its inception, the bodyguard-regiment of Kings of Prussia. Save William II, who also wore the uniforms of other regiments, all Prussian Kings and most Princes of Prussia wore the uniform of the 1st Foot Guard Regiment. All Princes of Prussia were commissioned lieutenants in the 1st Foot Guards upon their tenth birthdays. The King of Prussia was also the Colonel-in-chief of the regiment, as well as the Chief of the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the regiment. Therefore, the regiment held the highest rank within the Prussian Army, which, among other things, meant that the officer corps of the regiment marched before the princes of the German Empire and the diplomatic corps in the traditional New Year's reception. Unofficially, the regiment was known as the "First Regiment of Christendom" (German: Erstes Regiment der Christenheit).
The House of Radziwiłł (Lithuanian: Radvila; German: Radziwill) is a powerful magnate family originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later also prominent in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The family was founded by Radvila Astikas, but over time it split into many branches, such as the Biržai-Dubingiai and Goniadz-Meteliai lines. However, most of the branches became extinct by the 18th century, with only the Nesvizh-Kleck-Ołyka line surviving to this day. Their descendants were highly prominent for centuries, first in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Prussia. The family produced many individuals notable in Lithuanian, Polish, Belarusian, German as well as general European history and culture. The Radziwiłł family received the title of Reichsfürst (prince) from the Holy Roman Emperor in the mid 16th-century. The Radziwiłł family is a directly descended branch of the extinct Lithuanian noble Astikai family line. Its first notable member, Kristinas Astikas (born 1363), a close associate of the Lithuanian ruler Vytautas, became Castellan of Vilnius. The patronym Radvila arose following its use by his son Radvila
Astikas and grandson Mikalojus Radvila. A legendary version of the patronym's etymology associates it with a child found by krivis Lizdeika in a wolf's den (rado vilko... = "found wolf's...", implying "rado vilko vaikas" = "found wolf's child"). The name has been primarily written in, and recognized by, the polonized version and spelling for several centuries. The family descends from Lithuanian bajorai-ducal courtiers who advanced considerably in the 15th-century politics of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Along with possessions of land near Kernave, the family's traced place of origin, the Radziwiłł family also inherited the Traby coat of arms.
Awards: Collar, sash and star of the Imperial Order of the White Eagle, Insignia and star of the Order of the Black Eagle, Stars of the Order of the Red Eagle and the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.
