Charles was the second son of William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg (1623–1683). Until 1675 his mother ruled as his guardian and regent before Charles was old enough to take over the administration for the next 5 years. His older brother, William VII, had died in 1670 shortly after reaching adulthood, even before he had had the chance to make any changes with the administration.
Policies
Under the reign of Charles, the consequences of the Thirty Years' War in the agricultural county could be overcome more quickly than they were in the more industrialized regions of the Holy Roman Empire. He pushed for the recreation of a large army and put it in the service of other countries in the War of Spanish Succession. His soldiers, he gave, as well as other princes of his time, to foreign service for the Subsidiengelder [ subsidies ]. This policy remained controversial for its dealings with the mercenaries, according to the 1908 Brockhaus (Volume 9, page 96) :
"Dieses System verbesserte die Finanzen, aber nicht den Wohlstand des Landes, und brachte den glänzenden Hof selbst in ausländische Familienverbindungen."
[ This system improved the finances but not the prosperity of the country, and brought to the brilliant court itself foreign familial connections. ]
Charles left in 1685 to his younger brother Philipp as the latter's Paragium a small part of the Landgraviate of Hesse, the so-called Landgraviate of Hesse–Philippsthal, named after Philippsthal [ "Philipp's Valley" ] (formerly Kreuzberg, a place near Vacha on the Werra River).
Economy
Even before the Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685), Charles adopted on 18 April 1685 the Freiheits-Concession [ "Freedom Concession" ],[1] promising the exiles from France, the Huguenots and Waldensians, free settlement and their own churches and schools. In the following years, about 4000 the Protestants fled persecution in their homelands for Northern Hesse and, for example, about 1700 of them settled in Oberneustadt, the newly created borough of Kassel.
Following the ideas of mercantilism, Charles founded in 1679 the Messinghof, one of the first metal-processing plants in Hesse, in Bettenhausen, east of Kassel.
In 1699 Charles founded Sieburg (since 1717 Karlshafen) and also moved some of the Huguenots and Waldensians there. With the construction of the Landgrave-Carl-Canal from the Diemel River to Kassel (and beyond), he tried to circumvent the existing customs borders but, after only a few kilometers, the construction was discontinued.
Culture
Landgrave Charles continued the design of the hillside park, Wilhelmshöhe ("William's Peak") in the Habichtswald ("Hawk Forest"), now a nature preserve west of Kassel. In particular, it was the construction of the Hercules monument that brought the Italian-inspired cascades and other water features to the park. Under his rule, the Moritzaue ("Maurice's Meadow") park near the town was extended over a large area to another park, the Karlsaue ("Charles's Meadow"), which still exists today, and the SchlossOrangerie was built.
With the participation of the Landgrave, who was interested in history, the first archaeological excavations began in 1709 on the Mader Heide.
Family
Charles married his first cousin, Maria Amalia of Courland (1653–1711), the daughter of Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland, and had with her fourteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Their eldest surviving son, Frederick I succeeded his father as Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, while also becoming King of Sweden; their second-eldest surviving son William VIII also became landgrave after his brother's death.
William (29 March 1674 – 25 July 1676), died in childhood
Charles (24 February 1675 – 7 December 1677), died in childhood
Friedrich (28 April 1676 – 5 April 1751), who succeeded his father as Frederick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and became, in 1720, the King of Sweden.
Eleonore Antoine (11 January 1694 – 17 December 1694)
Wilhelmine Charlotte (8 July 1695 – 27 November 1722)
Maria Amalia also suffered many miscarriages:
A miscarried daughter (12 June 1679)
A miscarried daughter (12 April 1681)
A miscarried daughter (12 June 1683)
A miscarried son (12 November 1685)
A miscarriage (12 February 1687)
A miscarried daughter (12 January 1690)
A miscarried son (12 March 1693)
A miscarried son (12 July 1697)
A miscarried daughter (12 May 1698)
A miscarried son (12 June 1699)
A miscarried daughter (12 January 1701)
A miscarriage (12 November 1703)
Other Relationships
After the death of his wife in 1713, Charles had a relationship with Jeanne Marguerite de Frere, Marquise de Langallerie (b. 1685), with whom he had a son, Charles Frederic Philippe de Gentil, Marquis de Langallerie, who died early. Charles secured in the same way the financial security of children who had come with his mistress.
^(in German) Klaus Kühnel, "Ein Beitrag für den freien Glauben : Vor 325 Jahren wurde die "Freiheits-Concession" für französische Glaubensflüchtlinge erlassen [ A Contribution to the Freedom of Religion : 325 years ago, the "Freedom Concession" for French Religious Refugees was Adopted ]", Deutschlandfunk, retrieved 30 December 2013.
(in German) [Theodor] Ilgen, "Karl", "Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [ General German Biography ] (ADB), Band 15 [ Volume 15 ] (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1882), pages 292–296
(in German) Hans Philippi, Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel. Ein deutscher Fürst der Barockzeit [ Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel: A German Prince of the Baroque Times ] (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen, Number 34 [ Publications of the Historical Commission of Hesse, Number 34 ]) (Marburg: Elwert, 1976), ISBN978-3770805648
(in German) Pauline Puppel, Die Regentin. Vormundschaftliche Herrschaft in Hessen 1500–1700 [ The Lady Regents: Reigning Guardianship in Hesse 1500-1700 ] (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2004), ISBN978-0-521-81422-5, pages 236–277
