Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (11 September 1747 – 20 May 1837) was a younger member of the dynasty that ruled the Landgraviate of

Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the L ...

(or Hesse-Cassel) and a Danish general. He was born as the youngest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (the future Landgrave Frederick II) and

Princess Mary of Great Britain Princess Mary of Great Britain (5 March 1723 – 14 January 1772) was the second-youngest daughter of George II of Great Britain and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach, and Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel as the wife of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Ka ...

. He was the last surviving legitimate grandchild of

George II of Great Britain George II (George Augustus; german: link=no, Georg August; 30 October / 9 November 1683 – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover, Hanover) and a prince-ele ...

, dying one month before

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

(granddaughter of his first cousin

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

) ascended to the throne.

Youth

His father, the then hereditary prince (who reigned from 1760 and died in 1785) had in 1747 left the family and soon converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and in 1755 formally ended his marriage. The young prince Frederick, together with his two elder brothers, were with their mother the Landgravine Mary and became fostered by Protestant relatives in 1747. Soon the family moved to Denmark to be guests of her sister

Louise of Great Britain Louise of Great Britain (originally Louisa; 1724 – 19 December 1751) was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1746 until her death, as the first wife of King Frederick V. She was the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain ...

, who died in 1751. His two elder brothers married Danish princesses - their first cousins - in 1763 and 1766 respectively. They remained in Denmark, becoming important lords and royal functionaries. Only his eldest brother returned to Kassel, in 1785 when ascending the landgraviate. In 1815, the prince was in command of the Royal Danish Auxiliary Corps mobilized as part of the

Seventh Coalition The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...

against Napoleonic France.

Marriage

On 2 December 1786 in Biebrich, he married

Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen , house =Nassau-Usingen , father = Karl Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau-Usingen , mother =Countess Caroline Felizitas of Leiningen-Dagsburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Biebrich, Nassau-Usingen , death_date = , death_place =Rum ...

(4 April 1762 Biebrich - 17 August 1823 Offenbach), a remarkable heiress of a family which became extinct in male line. 1781 he bought

Rumpenheim Castle Rumpenheim Castle is a '' Schloss'' located in the banks of the Main river in the German city of Offenbach am Main. History The origin of the palace dates back to the manor house of Johann Georg Seifert von Edelsheim, a politician serving the C ...

, Offenbach, from his brother Carl, and it became the family's seat. He became known as

Landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' (" margrave") ...

of Hesse-Kassel-Rumpenheim, and his descendants are known as the Hesse-Kassel-Rumpenheim branch of the House of Hesse, one of only two branches that survived to the present day.

Children

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(24 December 1787 – 5 September 1867), married

Louise Charlotte of Denmark Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark ( da, Charlotte af Danmark; 30 October 1789 – 28 March 1864) was a Danish princess, and a princess of Hesse-Kassel by marriage to Prince William of Hesse-Kassel. Princess Charlotte was a significant figu ...

(1789–1864) and was the father of

Louise of Hesse-Kassel da, Louise Wilhelmine Frederikke Caroline Auguste Julie , succession = Queen consort of Denmark , image = Louise of Hesse-Kassel.jpg , reign = 15 November 1863 – 29 September 1898 , spouse = , issue = , house = ...

(wife of

Christian IX of Denmark Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein- ...

). * Karl Friedrich (9 March 1789 – 10 September 1802) * Friedrich Wilhelm (24 April 1790 – 25 October 1876) * Ludwig Karl (12 November 1791 – 12 May 1800) * Georg Karl (14 January 1793 – 4 March 1881) * Luise Karoline Marie Friederike (9 April 1794 – 16 March 1881), married Graf Georg von der Decken (1787–1859), King's Hanoverian General of the Cavalry (Germany) * Marie Wilhelmine Friederike (21 January 1796 – 30 December 1880), married

George, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz George (german: Georg; 12 August 1779 – 6 September 1860) ruled the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz as Grand Duke of Mecklenburg from 1816 until his death. Early life Duke George Frederick Charles Joseph of Mecklenburg was born in Hanover, the eig ...

(1779–1860) * Augusta Wilhelmine Luise (25 July 1797 – 6 April 1889), married

Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, (Adolphus Frederick; 24 February 1774 – 8 July 1850) was the tenth child and seventh son of the British king George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He held the title of Duke of Cambridge from 18 ...

(1774–1850) and was the maternal grandmother of

Mary of Teck Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 186724 March 1953) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King- ...

(wife of

George V of the United Kingdom George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick Of Hesse-Cassel, Landgrave 1747 births 1837 deaths House of Hesse-Kassel Military personnel from Kassel Knights Commander of the Military Order of William Danish military commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Royal reburials