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Princess Margaret of Prussia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Princess Margarete of Prussia (Margarete 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 (1840-1901), daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Margaret, or "Mossy" as she was known in the family, was the youngest of eight children. Together with her sisters, Princess Viktoria and Princess Sophie, Mossy was very close to her mother and embraced English ways.
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On January 25, 1893 she married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse ('Fischy'), future head of the Hesse-Cassel dynasty and future elected king of Finland. He was a relative of hers, his mother having also been a Prussian princess. The marriage was very happy.
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Margaret and Frederick had six children, including two sets of twins:
- His Highness Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Sigismund of Hesse-Cassel (23 November 1893 Frankfurt, Germany – 12 September 1916 Romania); killed in action WWI
- His Highness Prince Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm Georg of Hesse-Cassel (20 October 1894 Offenbach, Germany – 13 October 1914 France); killed in action WWI
- His Highness Prince Philipp of Hesse-Cassel (1896–1980), married to Princess Mafalda of Savoy
- His Highness Prince Wolfgang Moritz of Hesse-Cassel (1896–1989), married Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden
- His Highness Prince Christoph Ernst August of Hesse-Cassel (1901–1943), married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, had issue
- His Highness Prince Richard Wilhelm Leopold (14 May 1901 Frankfurt, Germany – 11 February 1969 Frankfurt, Germany)
Margaret's family was a unique one among the descendants of Queen Victoria; she bore six children with four pregnancies, having two sets of twins, Philipp and Wolfgang and Christoph and Richard.
Both Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian served and were killed during the First World War. Prince Maximilian was serving near Aisne when he was seriously wounded. 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. His older brother, Friedrich Wilhelm died two years later at Kara Orman in Romania.
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 Fyodorovna of Russia (who was also Grand Duchess Consort of Finland). Later, her husband succeeded his brother as the head of the House of Hesse-Cassel.
Mossy was the last of Emperor Frederick's children to die.
Her ancestry is presented at Ahnentafel of Wolfgang of Hesse.
- Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret of Prussia
- Her Royal Highness Princess Frederick of Hesse-Cassel