Michele

Princess Michele was born in 1938, the second child of Princess Mary and Dr. Michael Viesnieks, who were both well-regarded academics. Michele and her brother, David, grew up more as the children of a university lecturer and researcher than as a Prince and Princess of the Imperial House.

Michele, who was more gifted in art than academics, attended the prestigious Excalbian Design Institute in Landing, graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Art in 1959. The following year, Michele married Janis Blums, the son of the Baron of Latgale. Their first child, Prince Jeremiah, was born in 1963 and their second child, Princess Hope, followed in 1968. In accordance with Excalbian tradition, as the daughter of possible heir to the Sword, Michele had passed the Imperial title to her children. However, similar titles were to be denied their children, unless Michele herself, or one of her children, were to inherit the Sword.

Despite their titles, Michele ensured that Jeremiah and Hope spent their early years as typical children. When her mother ascended the throne as Empress Mary II in 1969, Michele became a possible heir to the Sword. Her life and those of her husband and children quickly became grist for the mill of the tabloid press and the paparazzi.

When the Empress died in 1981 and her brother ascended the throne as Emperor David III, Michele lost her standing as possible heir to the Sword and she and her family were able to resume their private lives with far less attention from the media. Her family's place in the public eye was further diminished when the Sword passed to her nephew, David IV.

Michele’s husband, Baron Janis, died of lung cancer in 2003. Her son, Prince Jeremiah, now administers the baronial estate in Latgale.