Frederick William I (20 August 1802 – 6 January 1875) was, between 1847 and 1866, the last Prince-elector of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel).
Contents
Early life
He was born at Hanau on 20 August 1802. He was the son of Prince William, later William II, Elector of Hesse, and Princess Augusta of Prussia, daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia. During the French occupation of Hesse-Kassel from 1806 to 1813, he stayed with his mother in Berlin. Reportedly, he had a poor relationship with his father because of his father's affair with Emilie Ortlöpp.
Frederick was educated at Marburg and Leipzig.
Career
On 30 September 1831, he became co-regent and, in 1847, Prince-elector. Under influence of his minister Hans Daniel Ludwig Friedrich Hassenpflug, he conducted a reactionary policy, which made him very unpopular. He was forced to give in to the demands of the March Revolution, but reinstated Hassenpflug in 1850 after the revolution had been crushed.
In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he chose the side of Austria. His capital, Kassel, was occupied by Prussia, and, as a consequence of his refusal to negotiate, he was transferred as a prisoner to Stettin on 23 June. Hessen-Kassel was annexed by Prussia in the same year.
Frederick William never accepted the Prussian dominance over his territory. Even after the creation of the unified German Empire in 1871, he tried to regain his throne.
Personal life
On 26 June 1831, Frederick William was morganatically married to Gertrude Falkenstein Lehmann. She had been born in Bonn and was the daughter of apothecary Johann Gottfried Falkenstein and Magdalena Schulz. When Frederick William met Gertrude, she was the wife of Lt Karl Michael Lehmann (married in 1822) and the mother of two sons. Gertrude and her husband were divorced in 1830/31, but already by this time, some children had been born to her and Frederick William. They were married in 1831, after which they had further children.
In 1831, Frederick William's father William II made Gertrude Her Illustrious Highness Countess of Schaumburg. In 1853, she was made Princess of Hanau and to Horowitz. All of the nine children that she bore to Frederick William, whether born before or after their marriage, were made Princes of Hanau, and granted the style of Serene Highness in 1862:
Augusta Marie Gertrude (Niederdorfelden, 21 September 1829 - Halle an der Saale, 18 September 1887; bur Wächtersbach), who married Ferdinand Maximilian III, Prince of Isenburg-Büdingen in Wächtersbach (Wächtersbach, 24 October 1824 - Wächtersbach, 5 June 1903) in Wilhelmshohe on 17 July 1849.
Alexandrine Friederike Wilhelmine (Fulda, 22 December 1830 - Lindau, 20 December 1871; bur Kassel), who married Prince Felix Eugen Wilhelm Ludwig Albrecht Karl zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen (Oehringen, 1 March 1818 - Asnières, 8 September 1900), youngest son of August, Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, in Kassel on 12 June 1851.
Friedrich Wilhelm (Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, 18 November 1832 - Horowitz, 14 May 1889), who married, morganatically, twice, Auguste Birnbaum (Kassel, 9 November 1837 - Cannstatt, 29 June 1862), daughter of Karl Birnbaum and Maria Sargany, in London on 23 September 1856 and divorced, and Ludowika Gloede (Hamburg, 6 May 1840 - Munich, 20 April 1912), daughter of Reverend Friedrich Gloede and Maria Dorothea Goldbeck, in Vienna on 8 April 1875; their children were Counts von Schaumburg, but post-1918 descendants bear the title Prince and Princess von Hanau; the head of this line was Prince of Hanau, but the eldest son, Friedrich Wilhelm, and his issue were bypassed until all other sons and their issue male had died.
Moritz Philipp Heinrich, 1st Prince of Hanau and Horowitz, Count of Schaumburg (Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, 4 May 1834 - Horowitz, 30 March 1889), who married, morganatically, Anne von Lossberg (Kassel, 14 August 1829 - Horowitz, 27 October 1876), daughter of Karl Wilhelm Jeremias von Lossberg and Marianne von Wangenheim, in Freiburg on 15 April 1875; they had no children.
Honours
Grand Cross of the House Order of the Golden Lion
18 June 1821: Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle
1837: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen
April 1844: Knight of the Order of St. Andrew the First-called
15 February 1846: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
29 January 1848: Knight of the Order of the Elephant
13 August 1865: Grand Cross of the House Order of the Wendish Crown