Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

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Donatus
Head of the House of Hesse
Tenure23 May 2013 – present
PredecessorMoritz, Landgrave of Hesse
Heir apparentMoritz
Born (1966-10-17) 17 October 1966 (age 57)
Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
SpouseCountess Floria Franziska Marie-Luisa Erika von Faber-Castell
IssueMoritz, Hereditary Prince of Hesse
Princess Paulina
Prince August
Names
Heinrich Donatus Philipp Umberto
HouseHesse
FatherMoritz, Landgrave of Hesse
MotherPrincess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

Donatus, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (legally Heinrich Donatus Philipp Umberto Prinz und Landgraf von Hessen; born 17 October 1966) is a German businessman and the head of the House of Brabant and the House of Hesse.

Background[edit]

He is the eldest son and successor of German aristocrat Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, and his former wife, Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (b. 1940).[1] A great-grandson of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, he is named in part after Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse. He is also a descendant of Queen Victoria, Frederick III, German Emperor, and of King Nicholas I of Montenegro.[2] He is a relative of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose funeral he attended.[3] The two are related through the Duke's British-born mother and a Princess of Battenberg by birth, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and the marriages of Philip's sisters Cécilie and Sophie into the House of Hesse.

Donatus's father became the head of the Hesse-Cassel line on the death of his own father, Landgrave Philipp in 1980.[4] Having also been the adopted son and heir of his distant cousin, Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine,[5] the latter's death in 1968 as the last male of the Hesse-Darmstadt branch left Moritz head of the entire House of Hesse, to which Donatus is the successor.

Profession[edit]

Donatus directs the Hessische Hausstiftung (Foundation of the House of Hesse), a foundation (see below) established to curate and showcase the cultural heritage and history of the House of Hesse,[6] a dynasty which ruled the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel until 1866, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine until 1918, and whose male-line antecedents and co-lateral ties include the Protestant leader Philip the Magnanimous, the Swedish king Frederick I, Russia's last tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the exiled Spanish queen Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, and Britain's last viceroy of India, the assassinated Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

Donatus also manages Prinz von Hessen, a winery specializing in production of varietal vintages on his 45 hectare vineyard.[6]

Marriage and issue[edit]

Donatus married Countess Floria Franziska Marie-Luisa Erika von Faber-Castell (born 14 October 1974, Düsseldorf) in a civil ceremony in Wiesbaden on 25 April 2003. The bride is a communications professional and a niece of Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, chairman of the board of the famous Faber-Castell pen-and-pencil company headquartered near Nuremberg and scion of the eponymous family, which is a morganatic branch of the Castell-Rüdenhausen princely family.[6] Prince Donatus and Floria Franziska are 6th cousins, as both descended from Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and his first wife Princess Mary of Great Britain.

The couple's religious wedding ceremony took place on 17 May 2003, attended by royalty and aristocrats.[7][better source needed] Held at the Johanneskirche and followed by a grand ball in the Green Salon, state room of the former Friedrichshof palace in Kronberg (now a luxury hotel and golf course owned by the House of Hesse's family foundation) where Donatus's ancestress, the German Empress Frederick, Princess Royal, lived in widowhood, more than 300 guests were present.[6] Among them was Caroline, Princess of Hanover, Princess Benedikte of Denmark, aunt of the bridegroom and sister of Queens Margrethe II and Anne-Marie of Greece; and Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis.

Landgrave Donatus and his wife have a daughter and two sons:[8]

  • Princess Paulina Elizabeth Adelhaid Tatiana Suzanne (born 26 March 2007, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) twin sister of Moritz[8]
  • Hereditary Prince Moritz Ludwig Georg Wolf (born 26 March 2007, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) twin brother of Paulina[8]
  • Prince August Siegfried Hubertus Felix (born 24 August 2012, Frankfurt am Main, Germany).[8]

Representative appearances[edit]

In 2021, Donatus was one of only 30 mourners at Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh's, funeral at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.[9] He also attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, London, on 19 September 2022.[10] King Charles III appointed Donatus his personal representative to the funeral of his first cousin Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, on 13 January 2023.[11]

Although, as a descendant of Queen Victoria, he is only a distant relative of today's British royals who are more closely related to some other princes of Hesse, descendants of Prince Philip's sister Sophie, there is a close connection to the British royal family through Donatus' adoptive grandparents, Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine, and his wife Margaret Campbell Geddes, who were relatives and close friends of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, as Philip's sister Cecilie had been married to Louis' elder brother Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse.[12][13] The late Queen, Prince Philip and Charles (then Prince of Wales) have visited Wolfsgarten on several occasions.[14][15][16] In London's Westminster Abbey Donatus and his wife also attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in 2023.

Ancestry[edit]

Foundation of the House of Hesse[edit]

Founded in 1928, the Foundation of the House of Hesse is the successor institution of a family trust that had been established in 1830, confiscated by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866, and re-established after partial restitution in 1878. The foundation manages the family fortunes including forests, agricultural estates, castles, hotels and an art collection.[17] The latter is mainly shown at Fasanerie Palace in Eichenzell, Hesse, a former summer palace of the Prince Abbots of Fulda that had been taken over by the Landgraves of Hesse after the secularization and mediatisation of the Prince-bishopric of Fulda in 1803. Schlosshotel Kronberg and (until 2020[18]) Grandhotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt are hotels operated by the foundation, the Weingut Prinz von Hessen a winery in Johannisberg which was purchased in 1957, while Schloß Wolfsgarten south of Frankfurt am Main and Panker estate in Schleswig-Holstein are used as private seats of the family. Other castles have been sold, such as Schloss Philippsruhe in Hanau (in 1950), Schloss Rumpenheim in Offenbach am Main (in 1965) and Tarasp Castle in Switzerland (in 2016). The Landgrave and his family live in Wolfsgarten and Panker.

References and notes[edit]

  1. ^ Burke's Royal Families of the World ISBN 0-85011-023-8, p. 202.
  2. ^ https://www.genealogics.org/pedigree.php?personID=I00021348&tree=LEO&parentset=0&display=standard&generations=8
  3. ^ "Prince Philip: The 30 guests at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral". Sky News. 17 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  4. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels; Furstlich Hauser Band XVI. Limburg-an-der-Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke. 2001. pp. 24–25, 33. ISBN 3-7980-0824-8.
  5. ^ Urbach, Karina (2008). Royal Kinship. Anglo-German Family Networks 1815-1918. Walter de Gruyter. p. 148. ISBN 9783598441233. Retrieved 5 December 2022. The first two branches united in 1997 of the result of the last prince and princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, who were childless, adopting the current head of the house of Hesse-Cassel, Landgrave Moritz. This took place in 1960, and the death of Margaret ("Peg") von Hessen-Darmstadt in 1997 (Ludwig died in 1968) left Landgrave Moritz as the head of both houses.
  6. ^ a b c d "Hessen-Prinz heiratet Faber-Castell-Gräfin". Stern. 18 May 2003. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Mariage chez les Faber-Castell". PurePeople.com. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  8. ^ a b c d https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/donatus-landgrave-of-hesse/
  9. ^ "Prince Philip: Duke's four children to walk alongside coffin at funeral". BBC News. 15 April 2021.
  10. ^ "Landgraf von Hessen reist zur Trauerfeier für Queen - Großneffe von Elizabeth II". Fuldaer Zeitung 16 September 2022.
  11. ^ "Europas Adel nimmt Abschied von Max Markgraf von Baden", Südwestrundfunk SWR aktuell, 13 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Obituary: Princess Margaret of Hesse and the Rhine". The Independent.. 30 January 1997
  13. ^ "Visit by Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Wolfsgarten Castle". 20 May 1965.
  14. ^ "Visit by Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Wolfsgarten Castle". 20 May 1965.
  15. ^ Germany: Funeral Service for Prince Margaret of Hesse and Rhein. AP Archive. Retrieved 25 October 2019 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Charles III and his connection to Darmstadt", Darmstädter Echo, 26 January 2022
  17. ^ Website of Hessische Hausstiftung (in German)
  18. ^ «Prinz von Hessen» schließt Luxus-Hotel an Frankfurter Messe The Prince closed Grandhotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt after the corona crisis in 2020.
Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse
Born: 17 October 1966
Regnal titles
Preceded by Head of the House of Hesse
23 May 2013 – 		Incumbent
Heir:
Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Hesse
— TITULAR —
Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
23 May 2013 –
Reason for succession failure:
Grand Duchy abolished in 1918
— TITULAR —
Elector of Hesse
23 May 2013 –
Reason for succession failure:
Electorate annexed by Prussia in 1866
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