BBC News
German prince killed in Northamptonshire riding accident
15 June 2018
Prince Georg Constantin (left) was described as a “fine horseman” (Photo: Alexander Fiske-Harrison)
A German prince has died after falling from his horse in Northamptonshire.
Prince Georg Constantin of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach died on 9 June at Apethorpe Hall, near Oundle.
His friend, Alexander Fiske-Harrison paid tribute to him and said he was a “fine horseman”.

Prince Georg-Constantin of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, was heir presumptive to the hereditary Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the most senior branch of the House of Wettin, also holding the titles of Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely Count of Henneberg, Lord of Blankenhayn, Neustadt and Tautenburg.

Outside of England, in precedence they rank even above the cadet branch of Wettin, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, renamed Windsor in the United Kingdom where they rule, as they do in Belgium under that country’s name, and also did in Portugal, as they did in Bulgaria where His Majesty Simeon II was the last king, and later Prime Minister, and whose grandson and heir, Boris, Prince of Tarnovo, is a dear friend.

Constantin – Con – and I first met in 2014 in The Racing Post public house off the King’s Road through our then girlfriends, Olivia and Sarah.

Sadly, in the way of such things, after that relationship of mine ended the last time I saw him was in 2017, although we had been planning to meet on my return to London from Seville at the end of this month to discuss something horse-related (Riding Andalusia.)

I woke up yesterday morning, sore from my own first day in the saddle since 2016, and my first day playing polo (a sport in which Con had taught me more than one dirty trick) since the year before that, to messages from mutual friends asking if it was true that Con was dead.

Having lost – and written in the Telegraph about the death of – my own brother, I know the importance of memory. In words and photos, like the one above the night he got engaged which I took. And others… I find it odd that I have photos by him, and of him, but none of us together – but then it was always us four. (His photography, like his horsemanship, was always better than mine. The latter so much so that the irony in his manner of death while out for a gentle hack – not even playing polo, hunting or racing – shocks me, but my brother died skiing in a similarly freak accident of an expert doing that at which they are so gifted.) 

Anyway, I wrote the social media post above for our many mutual friends, which was in turn quoted from the BBC to The Daily Telegraph  (along with The Sun and Daily Mail), from ¡Hola! to El Mundo in Spain where I live, from Bunte to Die Zeit where Con’s Grand Duchy lay.

FACEBOOK: Alexander Fiske-Harrison’s post 12 June 2018 Rest In Peace my poor friend Con – Prince Constantin von Saxe-Weimar. It seems like yesterday that we dined like this by candlelight in the hall of Apethorpe Palace and you cooked over the great fire and you got me to help in your subterfuge so you could ask Olivia to marry you, and you nearly dropped the diamond in the dark and I lit the fireworks for you in the park afterwards and set fire to myself in the same grounds where you have fallen. I remember most the quiet nights like the next one when we dined à quatre and the Puligny-Montrachet never ran out. And all those London nights at your place on Lots Road and the Chelsea Ram back when we were neighbours. I remember you riding in that race at Cheltenham and polo in Berkshire and your stories of riding to your hounds in France. That such a fine horseman should go out that way. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Goodbye my friend…

I remember that New Year’s Eve at Apethorpe so well: we had no electricity and cooked and dined using with only the great fire and candlelight, with Con’s best friend – and the new owner of the grandest private palace in England – Jean Christophe, Baron von Pfetten. (Before that it had been the family home of another friend, Burghie, Earl of Westmoreland, whose grandfather had sold it.)

Burghie Westmorland, right, and Alexander Fiske-Harrison, enjoying a ‘bota’ of wine in the bullring of Cuéllar in Old Castile in 2013, where Fiske-Harrison had just run with the bulls in his Eton College Athletics Team ‘colours’ blazer that morning.

Most of all from that time, I remember sitting one night having a quiet drink with Con at Rushton Hall, just the two of us – he newly engaged to be married the night before – both of us dreaming of what we wanted from life.

One of those crystal-quality moments of memory when the rest of the world does not intrude, but two people who think they can dominate life – dominate death even, as we both did – and make plans that will leave a mark on history.

Sarah & Alexander Fiske-Harrison at Con’s house (Photo: Prince Georg-Constantin von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach)

And the gods laughed at us.

Life is cruel sometimes, but crueller still would have been a world without him.

Prost Con, Prost mein Freund. Requiescat in Pace, Princeps

Alexander Fiske-Harrison

Constantin at The Chelsea Ram pub on Lots Road (Photo: Alexander Fiske-Harrison)