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| @Eric de Waele |
HH Princess Dorothea of Windisch-Graetz has died at the age of 91. She was the second child of HH Prince Christoph of Hesse and HRH Princess Sophie of Greece. The Princess was a niece of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a paternal first cousin of King Charles III. She died on August 25th in Ghent, Belgium.
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| The death note states she was HRH. This is incorrect. She was HH, her highness. |
Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse was born on July 24, 1934, in Schloss Panker, in Schleswig-Holstein, one of the castles owned by Prince Christoph's father, HRH Friedrich Karl, Landgrave of Hesse.
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| Prince Karl, Princess Dorothea, and Princess Christina of Hesse |
During the Second World War, the princess lived with her parents and grandmother, Margarete, Landgravine of Hesse (nee Princess of Prussia), at Schloss Kronberg. Prince Christoph served with the Luftwaffe Reserve and was killed on active duty in a plane crash in Italy on October 7, 1943. Dorothea's mother, Sophie, was pregnant with her fifth child when her husband was killed.
In April 1945, the United States Army forced the family to evacuate Schloss Kronberg, which was converted into an officers' club. Sophie and her family were invited to Schloss Wolfsgarten in Langen, the home of Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine nd his British wife, the Hon. Margaret Geddes. Ludwig was the younger brother of Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus, who was the husband of Sophie's sister, Princess Cecilie. In November 1937, they were killed in a plane crash en route to London to attend Ludwig's wedding.
Princess Dorothea's mother, Princess Sophie, married Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover in 1946.
In July 1949, Princess Dorotha and her older sister, Princess Christina, spent time with their grandmother, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, in England.
The two sisters joined other family members at Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953. The following year, the Court Circular reported that Dorothea, along with Prince and Princess Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine, visited the Earl and Countess Mountbatten of Burma in Malta.
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| Prince & Princess Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine, Princess Dorothea with Uncle Philip (private collection) |
In 1955, the Princess visited Prince and Princess Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, accompanied by her uncle, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In the mid-1950s, Dorothea, along with her older sister, Princess Christina of Hesse, and their first cousin, Princess Beatrix of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, resided in London, spending time at Buckingham Palace. Before her engagement announcement on August 27, 1958, to Prince Friedrich of Windisch-Graetz, Dorothea worked in a London antique shop.
The prince was 17 years Dorothea's senior.
More than seventy guests attended Princess Dorothea's marriage to HSH Friedrich Karl Hugo Maximilian Maria Cyrillus Felix Hubertus of Windisch-Graetz on April 1, 1959, at St. Georg's Roman Catholic Church in Bogenhausen, a suburb of Munich. The civil ceremony took place the previous day in Schliersee, Bavaria.
The princess, who was baptized Lutheran, converted to Roman Catholicism before her marriage.
Following their marriage, the newlyweds settled in Milan, Italy, where Prince Friedrich Karl worked in the business sector. They had two daughters, Princess Marina Margherita Sophia Leontina Christiana (1960) and Princess Elisabetta Fiore (1966). In their later years, Prince and Princess Friedrich Karl moved to Gersau, Switzerland, where the Prince died on May 29. 2002.
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| Princess Dorothea in the 1980s, Marlene A Eilers Koenig Collection |
After the death of her husband, Princess Dorothea remained in Gersau and was joined by her older sister, who died in 2011. At the end of her life, she relocated to Belgium, where her younger daughter resides.
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2011/12/princess-christina-of-hesse-1933-2011.html
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2019/04/princess-dorothea-of-hesse-weds.html
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2018/08/princess-dorothea-to-marry.html
Princess Dorothea is survived by her daughters, Princess Marina and Princess Clarissa, Mrs. Hoogeboom, six great-grandchildren, Réka and Sophia Jakabffy, Michel, Alexandre, Mathieu, and Rubi de Waele, and seven great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother and sister, Prince Rainer and Princess Clarissa of Hesse, as well as two half-siblings, Prince Georg and Princess Friederike of Hanover, and numerous nieces and nephews.
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| Following the death of her husband, Prince Friedrich Karl |
1 comment:
R.i.p.
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