Name Prince of | House House of Hesse | |
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Born 16 June 1887
Louisenlund Castle ( 1887-06-16 ) Spouse Elizabeth Reid Rogers
Ann Pearl Everett Issue Princess Elisabeth Auguste of Hesse
Prince Richard Christian of Hesse
Prince Waldemar of Hesse
Princess Marie Louise Olga of Hesse Father Prince Wilhelm of Hesse Mother Princess Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg Died October 19, 1971, Geneva, Switzerland Children Princess Elisabeth Auguste of Hesse | ||
Prince Christian of Hesse (Christian Ludwig Friedrich Adolf Alexis Wilhelm Ferdinand; 16 June 1889 – 19 October 1971) was a member of the House of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld and a German naval officer until he resigned his commission during World War I in protest at Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
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As a member of the House of Hesse, he was styled His Highness Prince Christian of Hesse. In order to distinguish between the various branches of the house, the designation -Philippsthal-Barchfeld was sometimes added to the end of the princely title.
Early life
Prince Christian, the youngest of Prince Wilhelm of Hesse's ten children, was born at Louisenlund Castle in Güby, Schleswig-Holstein. He was the only child from his father's fourth marriage with Princess Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the eldest daughter of Duke Friedrich. Prince Christian was closely related to the British, Danish, Greek and Russian royal families through his mother, who was a first cousin of Queen Alexandra, King Frederik VIII, King George I and Empress Maria Feodorovna. His half-sister Princess Bertha was married to Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe.
In 1905, Prince Christian's elder half brother Prince Chlodwig inherited the family's wealth and assets when he succeeded their uncle Landgrave Alexis as head of the House of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld due to the children of their father's first morganatic marriage, the Princes and Princesses von Ardeck, being excluded from the succession. As a younger son Prince Christian was not particularly wealthy, having to live off the money his family granted him.
Prince Christian joined the Imperial German Navy on 20 March 1905. In the summer of 1912 he was a Lieutenant Commander on the SMS Stettin when the ship made an official visit to the United States as part of a squadron commanded by Admiral Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz.
During the First World War the prince wrote an open letter to Emperor Wilhelm II criticising Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, before resigning his commission in protest.
First marriage
Prince Christian was a relative of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, their mothers being first cousins, and before the outbreak of the war a marriage between the prince and the Emperor's oldest daughter Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was speculated on, with the match being seen as a way to increase German influence in Russia. However nothing would ever come of this and in December 1914 Prince Christian's engagement with Elizabeth Reid Rogers, the daughter of Richard Reid Rogers, was announced. The couple had first met about a year previously at a ball in Cairo, after which her family travelled to Berlin for an extended stay, enabling the prince to renew his courtship. Unlike other American society girls who had married European royalty and nobility in the 19th and 20th centuries, Prince Christian's fiancée was not particularly wealthy, but was born of influential father.
Prince Christian and Elizabeth were married on 14 January 1915 at the Holy Trinity Church in Berlin. As Elizabeth was not of equal birth, the marriage was morganatic, meaning that she and any future children would be unable to share Prince Christian's title and rank. To compensate for this, on the day of the wedding Prince Christian's kinsman the reigning Grand Duke of Hesse bestowed the title Baroness von Barchfeld on Elizabeth.
Prince Christian and Elizabeth went on to have four children: Elisabeth Auguste (1915–2003), Richard Christian (1917–1985), Waldemar (1919–2002) and Marie Louise Olga (1921–1999). With the permission of his brother Landgrave Chlodwig, on 14 November 1921 it was declared that Prince Christian's wife and children were permitted to title themselves Prinz/Prinzessin von Hessen (Prince/Princess of Hesse).
Post war
After the war Prince Christian and his family lived for a time in Switzerland and the United States, before acquiring a villa in Cannes. The prince was close to the British Royal Family both before and after the First World War. In 1925, after attending the funeral of his cousin Queen Alexandra, he became the first person of German origin in the post-war period to dine with King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace.
With Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, a number of Prince Christian's Hessian relatives, including various nephews and nieces, joined the Nazi party. However the prince and his family were not among them and in 1941 the Nazis stripped Prince Christian, his wife and their children of their German citizenship, although no reason was given in the announcement. Prince Christian would later acquire Swiss nationality.
On 2 February 1957, Prince Christian's wife Elizabeth died at Cannes. He was married for a second time in Cannes on 25 June 1958 to fellow widow Ann Pearl Field, née Everett (1906-1972), the civil wedding having taken place 15 days earlier in Geneva. His second marriage was childless.
Prince Christian spent his last years travelling, visiting his second wife's native Australia in 1962. He died aged 84 while holidaying with his wife in Geneva.