Death of the Head of All the House of Hesse
HRH Landgrave Moritz of Hesse died today afternoon
(1926-2013)
He was 86 years old.
AKTUELL! Landgraf MORITZ VON HESSEN am Nachmittag 86-jhrig verstorben
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Moritz Friedrich Karl Emmanuel Humbert, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse, was born in 1926 in Racconigi castle in Piedmont, Italy.
He succeeded his father, Philip, in 1980 as Head of All the House of Hesse.
Philip was the Head of the Hesse-Cassel branch and on the death of the Head and last surviving male of the Hesse-Darmstadt branch, Ludwig, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine in 1968, the two main branches of the House of Hesse were united. To facilitate the union, and in agreement with Moritz's father, Prince Ludwig formally adopted Prince Moritz in 1960.
As Head of All the House of Hesse, Moritz took the traditional title of Landgrave of Hesse.
Landgrave Moritz was the eldest son of Philip of Hesse and Princess Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. He was a grandson of Emperor Frederick III and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Referred to in his youth as Maurizio d'Assia, Moritz spent his early years in Rome and in Cassel. After the death of his mother in 1944 in the Buchenwald concentration camp, he grew up on in Kronberg im Taunus.
He brought a considerable portion of the family assets of both houses to the Hessian House Foundation and served as chairman of the foundation managing the historic cultural property. Many valuable exhibits from numerous castles of the family were collected and exhibited in the former Hesse-Cassel hunting lodge at Fulda. Other assets of the foundation include the 5-star hotels Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt and the Schlosshotel Kronberg, the winery 'Prince of Hesse' in Geisenheim / Rheingau, and the castle and stud Panker in Holstein.
Landgrave Moritz was seen as an important patron of the arts in Hesse and in 1999 was awarded the highest honor of the State of Hesse, the Georg-Augustin medal. He was also active for the Institute for New Technical form in Darmstadt and promoted the Kronberg Academy.
In 1964 Prince Moritz married Princess Tatiana, daughter of the 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleberg (and whose brother, Richard, the 6th Prince, married Princess Benedikte of Denmark). They were divorced in 1974 but often appeared together in public thereafter.
They had four children:
HRH Heinrich Donatus, now
Landgrave of Hesse, Head of All the House of Hesse (b 1966)
married 2003 Countess Floria Franziska von Faber-Castell (b 1974); their children:
HRH Moritz Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Hesse (-Cassel) (b 2007)
HH Princess Pauline (twin with Prince Moritz Ludwig)
August (b 2012)
HH Prince Philipp (b 1970), married witrh two children
HH Princess Mafalda (b 1965) married 3 times, 4 children
HH Princess Elena (b 1967) unmarried, 1 daughter
Landgrave Moritz is also survived by his only sister Elisabeth, Countess von Oppersdorff (b 1940)
The Hesse-Cassel connection with the present British Royal Family comes through the Duke of Edinburgh's last surviving sister, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (d 2001), who married Prince Christoph of Hesse (-Cassel) (ka 1943), a younger brother of Moritz's father Landgrave Philipp.
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Moritz, HRH Landgrave of Hesse, 2010
Image courtesy of Wikipedia; released into the public domain without restriction.
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