Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine

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Louis
Prince of Hesse and by Rhine
Luís de Hesse (filho de Ernesto).JPG
Born(1908-11-20)20 November 1908
Darmstadt, German Empire
Died20 May 1968(1968-05-20) (aged 59)
Frankfurt, West Germany
Burial6 June 1968
Neues Mausoleum, Park Rosenhöhe, Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1937)​
Names
Ludwig Hermann Alexander Chlodwig
HouseHesse-Darmstadt
FatherErnest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
MotherPrincess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine (Ludwig Hermann Alexander Chlodwig, 20 November 1908 – 30 May 1968) was the youngest son of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse by his second wife, Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. He was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

He succeeded his brother Georg Donatus as the titular Grand Duke of Hesse after his death. He married Margaret Campbell Geddes, daughter of Auckland Campbell Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes in 1937, on the day after the Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash, in which his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephews were all killed on the way to the wedding. They had no issue. After the death of his older brother, he adopted his niece, Johanna (b. 1936), but the little girl died in 1939.

In 1964, he stood as godfather to Prince Edward. In 1960, Prince Louis adopted his distant cousin, Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse.[1][2] With the death of Prince Louis in Frankfurt in 1968, he was succeeded by Moritz's father, Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1980) as head of the house. Moritz (d. 2013) in turn was succeeded by his son, Donatus (b. 1966).

He introduced the British composer Benjamin Britten (1913–76) to the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843). Britten dedicated his 1958 song cycle Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente to the Prince.[3]

Ancestry[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ "Moritz Landgraf von Hessen". www.darmstadt-stadtlexikon.de. Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  3. ^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1992). Benjamin Britten: A Biography. London: Faber and Faber. p. 388. ISBN 0-571-14324-5.
Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine
Born: 20 November 1908 Died: 30 May 1968
Titles in pretence
Preceded by — TITULAR —
Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
1937–1968
Reason for succession failure:
Grand Duchy abolished in 1918 		Succeeded by
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