Princess Margaret of Prussia | |
|---|---|
| File:Margaret landgravine von Hesse.jpg | |
| Born | April 22, 1872 |
| Died | January 22, 1954 (aged 81) |
| Parent(s) | Frederick III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal. |
Princess Margaret of Prussia (Margarethe Beatrice Feodora) (April 22, 1872 - January 22, 1954) was the daughter of the future Frederick III, German Emperor (1831-1888) and his wife, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom. She married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse.
Princess Margaret of Prussia, known within her family as "Mossy",[1]
was the youngest of eight children. She was born in the Hohenzollern's New Palace in Potsdam and grew up amid great privilege and formality.[2]
Together with her sisters, Princess Viktoria and Princess Sophie, Margaret was deeply attached to her parents, forming an antagonist group to that of her eldest siblings,William II, Princess Charlotte and Prince Heinrich. She remained close to her mother after the death of her father. Margaret was widely regarded as the most popular of Kaiser Wilhelm II's sisters, and she mantained good relations with a wide array of family members.[2] She was a first cousin of both King George V of England and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, who were like her grandchildren of Queen Victoria.
Princess Margaret had fallen for Prince Max of Baden.[3] He did not reciprocate her affections and therefore she moved on to her second choice, Max's close frriend, Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, future head of the Hesse-Cassel dynasty and future elected king of Finland.[3] They were married on January 25, 1893 at the Hohenzollern Stadtschloss in Berlin.
At the time of the wedding Prince Fredeick Charles was not the head of the House of Hesse-Cassel.[4] The position was held by his older and virtually blind brother Landgrave Alexander Friederich, who relinquished it in the mid- 1920s in order to enter an unequal marraige.[4] Prince Fiederick Charles, as was his title when he married, was addrees as his Highness, while Princess Margaret warranted Royal Highnes. This disparity came to an end in 1925 when Friderich Charles became Landgrave of Hesse and head of the house of Hesse-Cassel.[4]
He was a relative of hers, his mother having also been a Prussian princess. The marriage was very happy. Princess Margaret had a strong personality, she would always seem more secure and grounded than her husband.[3] The couple main residence during the early of marriage was Schloss Rumpenheim. In 1901, princess Margaret inherited Schloss Friedrichshof at the death of her mother.[2] It was highly unconventional for a husband to reside in his wife's home. However, Margaret was comitted to maintain the house of her mother which entailed a great expense and the family moved to Friedrichshof.[2]
In 1918, Margaret's husband accepted the offer of the throne of newly-independent Finland, but due to German misfortunes in World War I, soon renounced it. She would have become the Queen of Finland. Her predecessor as Queen-Consort of Finland was her first cousin, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (who was also Grand Duchess Consort of Finland).
Prince Margaret and her husband Frederick Charles of Hesse had six children, including two sets of twins:
Margaret's elder sons, Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian, were killed in action during World War I. Prince Maximilian, Princess Margaret's second and favorite son, was serving near Aisne when he was seriously wounded by machine gun fire in October 1914.[5] He died soon afterward and his body was secretly buried in the village of Caestre by the local people, who learned he was the Kaiser's nephew. The priest refused to identify the grave until the Germans had left Belgium and a compensation was paid. Max's younger brother Wolfgang appealed for help to the British authorities, and eventually, after an enquiry was made, Maximilian's body was returned to his family. Princes Margaret's oldest son, Friedrich Wilhelm died on September 12 1916 at Kara Orman in Romania. He was killed in close fighting, his thorat was slit by an enemy bayonet.[6]
Two other sons, Philipp and Christoph embraced Nazism. Philipp married Princess Mafalda, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.[7] Due to his close relations with the King of Italy, Philipp was appointed in 1939 to Hitler's personal staff, since he could be an useful channel of communications between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. When he realized the reality of Nazism, he tried to resign, but he was not able to do so. He used his position and his money to provide passports for Jews and help them to escape to Holland. Publicly he continued with his duties and occasionally he made private missions in Italy for Hitler. When Italy capitulated, he personally informed Hitler. Hitler's revenge recalled on Philipp, who was arrested in a concentration camp for political prisoners. Mafalda was taken to Buchenwald, where she died of a hemorrhage caused by the amputation of her arm.[8] Landgravine Margaret's fifth son, Christoph, was a staunch supporter of the German war effort, but after the Battle of Stalingrad, he became frustrated by hte limitations placed on his own role in the conflict, and increasingly critical of the German leadership.[9]. The Nazi regime tuned again his family and he was planning to leave the Nazi party when, in 1943, he died on a plane crash.[10] He was married to Princess Sophie of Greece, a great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a sister of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband.
Landgravine Margaret vey much the matriarch was at the center of her large and dynamic family.[3] During and after World War II, she took care of many of her grandchildren and tried to preserve a center at Friedrichshof as their parents faced various tribulations.[3]
Landgravine Margaret difficult years after 1945 were compounded by the theft from Friedrichshof in November 1945 of the family jewelry, valued at over 2 million pounds.[11] After World War II, Friedrichshof was used as an offier's club by the military authorities during the American occupation. Princess Margaret's son Wolfgang fearing for the jewels had buried them in a sub cellar of the castle.[11] On November 5 1945, the manager of the club, Captain Katlheen Nash discovered the jewels and together with her future husband, Colonel Jack Durant, and Major David Watson, stole the treasure and took the jewels out of Germany.[12] In early 1946 Princess Margaret discovered the theft when the family wanted to use the jewels for the wedding of Princess Sophia who was preparing to remarry. Princess Sophia and Landgravine Margaret denounced it to the Frankfurt authorities; the culprits were imprisoned but not until August 1951, the Hesse family received what had been recovered, only 10 percent of what had been stolen. [13]
Princess Margaret, the last surviving child of Emperor Frederic, died on January 22 1954, 22 years after her husband. She was 81 years old