Prince August von Hohenstaufen-Lanza (1928-2007) was a senior member of the Royal Byelorussian Orders, being a Knight Nobilis Excubitor of the Byzantine Order of Leo the Armenian, a Knight of the Order of the Sacred Cup, Prince of Nissyros in the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios, and a friend both of our late Royal Patron Prince Kermit of Miensk and of the Archbishop of Great Britain in the Apostolic Episcopal Church, Count George Boyer. He was also closely associated with the late Prince-Archbishop Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki.

Prince August was born in Germany as Franz von Schwaben in 1928, and just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War came with his mother, who was Scottish, to seek refuge in London. He adopted as an Anglicized version of his name Francis Robert Forsyth, Forsyth being his mother’s maiden name. His father was killed in a German air-raid on Poland during the war.

Early on, as a result of adoption by his mother’s new husband, he became known by the name Peter Austin de Lanza, under which name he became a successful professional photographer resident in the Kensington area of London. On 24 March 1979, he reverted to his former name of Francis Robert Forsyth. According to his own account, he had married and had children, but his wife and children were killed in a car crash in South Africa.

During the late 1960s, Prince August became associated with the esoteric bishop and noted spiritual teacher Richard, Duc de Palatine (1916-78). The Duc de Palatine had been ordained and consecrated bishop under the auspices of the Order of Antioch by Mar Georgius of Glastonbury in 1953, and was the leader of the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church, which was subsequently absorbed with other esoteric and Gnostic bodies under the aegis of the Sovereign Imperium of the Mysteries. The Duc de Palatine ordained Prince August priest under the name Peter de Lanza on 17 August 1969 and on 11 October 1970 de Lanza was consecrated bishop by the Duc de Palatine assisted by John Martyn Baxter. In the Duc de Palatine’s Open Letter to All Members of mid-1970 he announced his relocation to California and that the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church would now be known as the Church of the Gnosis; “As from July 4^th, 1971, The Headquarters of the Pleroma, The Disciplina Arcani, and the Church of the Gnosis will be located in Los Angeles, in the State of California, within the United States of America.  The Archon in charge for the United Kingdom, South Africa, Nigeria, and other parts of the world, will be the Revd. Peter de Lanza, who will act in our Name. Revd. De Lanza will be created a Bishop in October, which will grant him more power and authority to act in our name.”  It was also said of Prince August that he had had involvement with the Golden Dawn via their group in Hertfordshire.

Prince August came to devolve his church responsibilities increasingly on Archbishop George Boyer, a leading assistant to the Duc de Palatine, and in due course in the 1980s left the Palatine organization altogether. After leaving, he initially assumed appointment as Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Church of Avalon and in 1989 became Patriarch of Glastonbury in the Ecclesia Gnostica, both inner churches with an esoteric ministry whose authority had been transmitted to him by the late William Bernard Crow (Mar Basilius Abdullah III). However, he was also at this time given to stating that his religious identity was simply that of a Roman Catholic layman and denying strenuously to others that he had been ordained.

At this time, he completed the research into his ancestry that led to his confirmation that he was descended from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen and was heir to his titles, namely Head of the Name and Arms of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen, Head of Line and Principal Lineal Descendant of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and as such Head of Line Pretender to the Thrones of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem, Duke of Swabia, of Apulia, and of Calabria, Prince of Taranto, Count of Beuren, Count of Lecce, and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon.

In due course, Prince August obtained a German passport in the name of von Hohenstaufen.

His descent was traced through a Russian lineage and was published around the turn of the century in a small book entitled “The Hohenstaufen Heritage”. This recounted that his ancestors had travelled into Russia in 1472 as part of the entourage of Princess Zoe Palaeologina’s marriage to Czar Ivan III, and were known thereafter as the Princes von Schwaben. Prince August’s grandfather, Prince Adolph Karlovich von Schwaben (b. 1875) had received recognition from the government of the Czar as the principal noble of his district and was endowed with a country estate of some 4,500 acres. In 1996, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Prince August was appointed an Honorary Member of the Russian College of Arms, which college also matriculated his arms.

Prince August adopted as his son and heir Francesco (now Prince Franz von Hohenstaufen), son and heir of the late HRH Prince Prof. Dr Don Mario Paciotti di Montefabbri.

In a remarkable and hitherto unprecedented course of events, the Roman Catholic authorities were approached and after investigation accepted Prince August’s nobiliary and ancestral claims. This led to Prince August being granted a personal audience with Pope St John Paul II.

On 10 October 2000, the feast-day of St Gereon, in the Basilica of Saint John (where Hohenstaufen ancestors were crowned), in The Lateran, a solemn Pontifical Mass was celebrated in the Corsini Chapel. Prayers were said for the past members of the Hohenstaufen family, and Benediction was said for all present members of the family, including the Head of the House of Hohenstaufen, Prince August, and the Heir Designate, Prince Francesco.

The Mass was concelebrated by H.E. Mons. Mario Rizzi, Papal Nuncio and titular Archbishop of Balneoregio; Mons Francesco Saverio Salerno, President of the Supreme Segnatura Apostolica; and The Rev. Don Roberto Modica, Chaplain of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Prayers were also said for all present members of the Sovereign Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon. Those present included H.I.H. Prince Francesco von Hohenstaufen; Mons. Franco Camaldo, Master of Ceremonies to His Holiness The Pope; Baron Marco Marrone di Castelsilano, Mayor of Nettuno; and members of the Roman Nobility. In July 2000, His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Palazzine (1912-2000) was appointed Spiritual Grand Protector of the Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon, and H.E. Mons. Mario Rizzi (1926-2012) was appointed as Spiritual Grand Prior. Sadly Cardinal Palazzini died on October 11th and was immediately replaced by His Eminence Henri Cardinal Schwery (1932-2021). Such appointments placed the Order of Swabia in a position regarding the Holy See that had otherwise only been granted to the Order of Malta.

Prince August established the College of Arms of the Sovereign Military Order of Swabia, Knights of St Gereon, and the Swabian Imperial House of Hohenstaufen. In addition, he revived the International Council of Chivalric Orders, known as the Pactio Secreta, in which he served as Imperator. During these years his home was a flat in a fashionable area of London, on the Fulham Road in Chelsea. He appointed as his Chancellor Professor Frederick Trowman-Rose, who has served a number of Royal Houses in similar roles as well as holding office in the City of London.

Prince August received numerous chivalric and nobiliary appointments, including Grand Cross of Justice in the Sovereign Order of the Oak, the Order of the White Eagle and Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Polish Government-in-exile). He was also appointed to various honours in the United States, where he served as Patron of PeaceWorks, a nonprofit that provided relief to children in war zones.

The International Knightly Order of St George under the late General Janos Karászy-Kulin was admitted to membership in the Pactio Secreta on 21 February 1998, and Prince August was appointed to honorary military rank in the Hungarian National Guard. Through the late General Karászy-Kulin a meeting with Prince August was planned with the future Prince Edmond de San Luigi around 2004, but unfortunately this did not take place.

Prince August formed a number of productive friendships, and Prince Kermit of Miensk regarded him fondly. Prince August bestowed the title of Prince of Hohenheim upon Prince Kermit (who reciprocated this honour, creating Prince August Prince of Nissyros in the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios) and elevated Archbishop George Boyer to the rank of Count. The present Prince-Abbot of San Luigi succeeded Prince Kermit as the second Prince of Hohenheim in 2015, while Archbishop Boyer’s title of count was inherited by his nephew when he died in 2008. Prince August bestowed other titles of nobility including the title of Prince of Montis Regalis upon George Howarth (d.2013), Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of the Oak.

With others, relations were at times more difficult. Prince August had an intelligent and cultured outlook on life but did not suffer fools or those who he perceived as having taken advantage of him. His biography stated that he “has taken an active role in maintaining traditional Western values and in defence of the West when faced with the Soviet drive for power.” He was also a strong opponent of homosexuality.

A 1991 letter to Prince Kermit in our archives finds Prince August complaining “As things are, I desperately need some highly intelligent, non-cranky, people to represent me in different parts of Europe, particularly in view of the very fluid situation politically. I received a very nice letter from the King of Spain in response to an enquiry I addressed to him about a bogus Bourbon. It does no harm to let these people know that one is not quite extinct.”

When the Polish government-in-exile led by Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki came to an end with the fall of Communism and the re-establishment of Polish democracy in 1990, it became necessary to seek a means of continuing the Order of St Stanislas, which had hitherto been highly active but was not a subject of interest of the new Polish republic. It was decided that in order to achieve this and establish the Order’s independence, the Order would be elevated to a sovereign entity, and accordingly Prince August raised Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki to the rank of Prince on 24 March 1991. Prince August received the first Grand Collar of the Sovereign Order of St Stanislas.

Sokolnicki had previously received Holy Orders in the Apostolic Episcopal Church in 1983, and had been appointed to office in Great Britain (as a deputy to Archbishop George Boyer) with a special commission towards the Polish community there. He had made substantial plans for his church mission, but was deterred from continuing these when Prince August ridiculed him in front of others.

Prince August died on 28 February 2007 and was succeeded in his titles by Prince Franz, the current Head of the Imperial House.