Henry, Duke of Doncaster and Inverness

Prince Henry, Duke of Doncaster and Inverness (1890-1947) was the second son of James V of England and Scotland and the younger brother of Prince Victor Albert, Duke of Kent and Rothesay. A fun-loving and intellectually sophisticated person, he was also something of a playboy. In 1913, he was named in a notorious divorce scandal and his father insisted the young man go abroad. He did so, serving in the diplomatic corps of the Federated Kingdoms with great distinction. Among his postings were to Louisianne and Egypt as well as Xliponia. He never married, but did become engaged to marry Rosemary O'Kinneide during the Second Great War in 1946 while serving as Ambassador to the NAL. The match was a considerable scandal among some, including the bride-to-be's parents and England's First Lord Sherrinford Bell, not least because of their great age difference (he was 56, and she was 28). Unfortunately, the marriage never took place. In 1947, Henry was crossing the Atlantic aboard the H.M.S. Gloriana when the ship was sunk by a U-boat attack, one of the last successful such of the war. The aging prince was not among the survivors.

The love affair between the two has been dramatized at least twice: First in a play titled Summer in Inverness which premiered on the New Amsterdam stage in 1958 and has been popular ever since, and again in a made-for-television film Henri et Rosemarie produced in Louisianne in 1992. The latter was controversial for a variety of reasons, including the positive portrayal of royalty (an issue among more hard-core republicans and Anti-Snorists) and the depiction of the relationship of a passionately sexual one. The second House of Plantagenet has refused comment on the latter production.