Karl Anselm Franz Joseph Wilhelm Louis Philippe Gero Maria, 4th Duke von Urach, Count von Württemberg (born 5 February 1955) is the former head of the

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

Urach branch of the

House of Württemberg The House of Württemberg is a German dynasty and former royal family from Württemberg. History County The House probably originated in the vicinity of the Salian dynasty. Around 1080 the ancestors of modern Württemberg, which was then called ...

. He was the third

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...

to the defunct Lithuanian throne following the death of his uncle, Karl Gero.

Biography

He was born in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

, West Germany, the son of Prince Eberhard von Urach and Princess Iniga of Thurn and Taxis. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. "

Burke's Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Bri ...

Royal Families of the World: ''Volume I Europe & Latin America'', 1977, pp. 184, 187-188. He is a grandson of Wilhelm, Duke von Urach, who was from 11 July 1918 to November 1918 the King-elect

Mindaugas II of Lithuania Prince Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 2nd Duke of Urach (''Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius''; German: '' Fürst Wilhelm von Urach, Graf von Württemberg, 2. Herzog von Urach''; 30 May 1864 – 24 March 1928), was a German prince ...

.de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. ''Le Petit Gotha''. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery. Paris. 2002. pp. 159-163 (French) The title "Duke of Urach" was abolished alongside all other noble privileges in Germany in 1919, with hereditary titles thereafter being relegated to surnames. He became an engineer, having studied

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

. Karl Anselm succeeded his childless uncle Karl Gero as fourth Duke von Urach following his death in 1981. He held the defunct ducal title until 9 February 1991 when he married a commoner and renounced it. His brother Wilhelm Albert succeeded him as head of the Urach branch of the House of Württemberg. Karl Anselm lives at

Niederaichbach Niederaichbach is a municipality in the district of Landshut in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russ ...

Castle, Bavaria, and is the owner of Greshornish Forestry estate in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Marriage and issue

He married Saskia

Wüsthof Wüsthof (also known as Wüsthof Dreizackwerk (German) and Wüsthof Trident (English); sometimes spelled ''Wusthof'' or ''Wuesthof'') is a knife-maker based in Solingen, Germany. Family owned for seven generations, the company's main products ar ...

(born 1968) on 9 February 1991 at

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. They had two children before divorcing in 1996. * Wilhelm Karl Gero Eberhard Peter Maria Prinz von Urach, born 8 July 1991 * Maximilian Emanuel Wolfgang Luitpold Robert Prinz von Urach, born 5 May 1993 He married Uta Maria Priemer (born 1964, whose daughter Teresa von Bülow married Count Ferenc Kornis von Göncz-Ruszka, grandson of Prince Rasso of Bavaria) on 2 September 2014.

Ancestry

References

Property website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karl Anselm Of Urach, Duke 1955 births Living people People from Regensburg Dukes of Urach German Roman Catholics Princes of Urach