Agnes the Secret Princess

About the Book

In 1824 Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Princess Elisa Radziwill were very much in love, but they had been forbidden to marry. Their story is known as one of the most tragic royal romances of the nineteenth century. But were they in fact lovers, and did they have a child? A young woman named Agnes immigrated to Australia in 1848 to become the matriarch of a family in which it was whispered that she was a princess. Such stories abound as old-wives tales and most of them are unfounded, but this particular story is true. How did this happen, and how did it remain a secret until now? This book attempts to answer these questions and, in doing so, throws light on the history of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in which Kaiser Wilhelm I and his successors would play a vital role in the creation of modern Europe. This book connects an Australian dynasty to controversial, historical events in Europe, and it represents twenty years of research into our own family history. It includes expert DNA analysis alongside a personal journey wrapped up in a ripping yarn.

About the Author

Belinda Dettmann has been a research scientist in the fields of biometry, genetics, agriculture and wildlife biology. She is now a family historian, member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG), and an expert on the use of DNA tests to investigate ancestry. Jane Stevens is an interior designer and colour consultant, with a flair for asking the right questions and an uncanny degree of intuition about the answers. Belinda and Jane are sisters, and great great grandchildren of Agnes Dettmann, the Secret Princess.