Frederick William III, Landgrave of Hesse

Frederick William (III), Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl, 15 October 1854 – 14 October 1888) was (titular) Elector of Hesse-Kassel.

Frederick William III of Hesse
Head of the House of Hesse-Kassel
Tenure14 October 1884 – 14 October 1888
PredecessorFrederick William II
SuccessorAlexander Friedrich
Born(1854-10-15)15 October 1854
Copenhagen
Died14 October 1888(1888-10-14) (aged 33)
at sea between Batavia and Singapore
HouseHouse of Hesse
FatherFrederick William of Hesse
MotherPrincess Anna of Prussia

Early life

He was the eldest son of Frederick William George Adolph of Hesse-Kassel-Rumpenheim and his second wife Princess Anna of Prussia. His father's first wife was Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia but she died in childbirth delivering a son who also died. From his parents marriage, his siblings were Princess Elisabeth (who married Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Anhalt),[1] Prince Alexander Frederick (who married Baroness Gisela Stockhorner von Starheim), Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse (who married Princess Margaret of Prussia), Princess Marie-Polyxene (who died young), and Princess Sybille (who married Friedrich Alexander Henry Robert Carl Albert, Baron von Vincke).[2]

His father was the only son of Wilhelm I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel-Rumpenheim and Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark. His maternal grandparents were Prince Charles of Prussia and Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.[2]

Like his father he was raised in Denmark.[2]

Landgrave of Hesse

His father died in 1884,[2] and he inherited the title of Landgrave which provided an allowance of £25,000 a year from the German government in addition to his extensive estates in Holstein and Hesse Castle.[3]

Death

Frederick William III died on 14 October 1888 during a trip aboard the steamship Volga from Batavia to Singapore.[4] He was traveling with Barons von Hugo, von Trott and von der Schulenburg.[5] According to his obituary he died:

"under circumstances that leave no room for doubt whatever as to the death of his Royal Highness. His Royal Highness, who had been a long time traveling in the tropics, had in the course of his wanderings reached Java. The only possible conclusion which could be come to was that, overcome by some sudden mental disturbance, to which his previous illness may have made him susceptible, his Royal Highness had, quite unconscious of what he was doing, gone through the port of his cabin, and had dropped into the sea. He could not merely have fallen through, as the window was so narrow that a person could only pass through by dint of some exertion. The idea of premeditated suicide is entirely without foundation."[4]

As was not married and had no children, he was succeeded by his brother, Alexander Frederick, who was an accomplished musician despite being nearly blind.[3][6] Upon his brother and heirs morgantic marriage in 1925, he abdicated in favor of their younger brother, Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, who had been elected King of Finland in 1918 but renounced the throne two months later. Prince Frederick married Princess Margaret of Prussia, youngest sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.[7]

Honours and awards

He received the following awards:[8]

Ancestors

References
  1. "Untitled". Western Daily Press. 18 February 1884. p. 3. Retrieved 22 June 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. "Deaths of note". The Ipswich Journal. 21 October 1884. Retrieved 22 June 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. "PERSONAL AND POLITICAL". The Burlington Free Press. 22 December 1888. p. 4. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  4. "DEATH OF THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE AT SEA.MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE". The Yorkshire Herald and the York Herald. 17 November 1888. p. 16. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  5. "SUICIDE OF THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE". The Age. 5 December 1888. p. 5. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  6. Diplomat, A. Veteran (4 September 1910). "FOREIGN ROYALTY VISITING IN AMERICA HAS SPECIAL RIGHTS; Immigration Laws Will Be Waived When the Landgrave of Hesse Arrives, and Other Visitors of Rank Get Special Immunities". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  7. "FRIEDRICH KARL DIES; LANDGRAVE OF HESSE; German General in World War Refused Throne of Finland". The New York Times. 2 June 1940. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  8. "Genealogie", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogs Hessen, Darmstadt: Im Verlag der Invalidenanstalt, 1886–1888, p. 6 – via hathitrust.org
  9. "Ludewigs-orden", Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1885, pp. 4, 33 – via hathitrust.org
  10. "Königlich Preussische Ordensliste", Preussische Ordens-Liste (in German), Berlin, 1: 8, 1038, 1886 – via hathitrust.org
  11. Pedersen, Jørgen (2009). Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009 (in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 465. ISBN 978-87-7674-434-2.
  12. Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Großherzogtums Oldenburg: 1879. Schulze. 1879. p. 34.
  13. Württemberg (Kingdom). Statistisches Landesamt (1877). Staatshandbuch für Württemberg. Druck von W. Kohlhammer. p. 23.
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