Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was a Finnish military leader and statesman. Mannerheim served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Regent of Finland, commander-in-chief of Finland's defence forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, the sixth president of Finland. Mannerheim made a career in the Imperial Russian Army, he had a prominent place in the ceremonies for Tsar Nicholas II's coronation and had several private meetings with the Russian Tsar. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in civil war between the pro-Bolshevik "Reds" and the "Whites", who were the troops of the Senate of Finland, supported by troops of the German Empire. Mannerheim was appointed the military chief of the Whites. Twenty years when Finland was twice at war with the Soviet Union from November 1939 until September 1944, Mannerheim led the defence of Finland as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces. In 1944, when the prospect of Germany's defeat in World War II became clear, Mannerheim was elected President of Finland and oversaw peace negotiations with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
He resigned the presidency in 1946 and died in 1951. In a Finnish survey 53 years after his death, Mannerheim was voted the greatest Finn of all time. Given the broad recognition in Finland and elsewhere of his unparalleled role in establishing and preserving Finland's independence from Russia, Mannerheim has long been referred to as the father of modern Finland, the Finnish capital Helsinki's Mannerheim Museum memorializing the leader's life and times has been called "the closest thing there is to a national shrine". In addition, he is the only Finn to have held the rank of field marshal, an honorary rank bestowed upon distinguished generals; the Mannerheims from Germany, became Swedish noblemen in 1693. In the latter part of the 18th century they moved to Finland, an integral part of Sweden. After Sweden lost Finland to the Russian Empire in 1809, Mannerheim's great-grandfather, Count Carl Erik Mannerheim, became the first prime minister of the newly-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. His grandfather, Count Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, was an jurist.
His father, Carl Robert, Count Mannerheim, was both a playwright and industrialist, with modest success in both endeavors. Mannerheim's mother, Hedvig Charlotta Helena von Julin, was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. After Mannerheim's father left the family for his mistress in 1880, his mother and her seven children went to live with her aunt Louise, but she died the following year. Mannerheim's maternal uncle, Albert von Julin became his legal guardian. The third child of the family, Mannerheim inherited the title of Baron, he was sent to the Hamina Cadet School, a state school educating aristocrats for the Imperial Russian Army, in 1882. The handsome young Baron towered over his classmates, he was expelled in 1886 when he left without permission. Next he attended the Helsinki Private Lyceum, where he passed the university entrance examinations in June 1887. Besides his Swedish mother tongue, Mannerheim learned to speak Russian, German and some Finnish. From 1887 to 1889, Mannerheim attended the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg.
In January 1891, he joined the Chevalier Guard Regiment in St Petersburg. In 1892, he married a wealthy and beautiful noble lady of Russian-Serbian heritage, Anastasia Arapova. They had two daughters and Sophie. The parents separated in 1902 and divorced in 1919. Mannerheim served in the Imperial Chevalier Guard until 1904. An expert rider, one of his duties was buying horses for the army. In 1903, he was put in charge of the model squadron in the Imperial Chevalier Guard and became a member of the equestrian training board of the cavalry regiments. Mannerheim volunteered for active service with the Imperial Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. He was transferred to the 52nd Nezhin Dragoon Regiment in Manchuria, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he was promoted to Colonel for bravery in the Battle of Mukden in 1905 and commanded an irregular unit of Hong Huzi, a local militia, on an exploratory mission into Inner Mongolia. When Mannerheim returned to St. Petersburg, he was asked to undertake a journey through Turkestan to Beijing as a secret intelligence-officer.
The Russian General Staff wanted accurate, on-the-ground intelligence about the reforms and activities by the Qing dynasty, as well as the military feasibility of invading Western China: a possible move in their struggle with Britain for control of inner Asia. Disguised as an ethnographic collector, he joined the French archeologist Paul Pelliot's expedition at Samarkand in Russian Turkestan, they started from the terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway in Andijan in July 1906, but Mannerheim quarreled with Pelliot, so he made the greater part of the expedition on his own. With a small caravan, including a Cossack guide, Chinese interpreter, Uyghur cook, Mannerheim first trekked to Khotan in search of British and Japanese spies. After returning to Kashgar, he headed north into the Tian Shan range, surveying passes and gauging the stances of the tribes towards the Han Chinese. Mannerheim arrived in the provincial capital of Urumqi, headed east into Gansu province, he followed the Great Wall of China, investigated a mysterious tribe known as Yugurs.
From Lanzhou, the provincial capital, Mannerheim headed south i
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for "dynasty" may include "family" and "clan", among others; the longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", which may be styled as "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" etc. depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of numerous nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties; as such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, to describe events and artifacts of that period. The word "dynasty" itself is dropped from such adjectival references; until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.
Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter established a new dynasty in her husband's ruling house; this has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant; the earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother's dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
Less a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession. Not all feudal states or monarchies were/are ruled by dynasties. Throughout history, there were monarchs. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; the word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team; the word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to "power", "dominion", "rule" itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, "power" or "ability", from dýnamai, "to be able". A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a "dynast", but this term is used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne.
For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication. In historical and monarchist references to reigning families, a "dynast" is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy's rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Duke Maximilian was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position; the term "dynast" is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles. He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain's Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, where its capital was Berlin; the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a great power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia, which became a military power under Frederick William, known as "The Great Elector". Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great, the third son of Frederick William I. Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War, holding his own against Austria, Russia and Sweden and establishing Prussia's role in the German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power.
After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a major power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles, many wars; because of its power, Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule, although whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain was an ongoing question. After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of the German Confederation, the issue of more unifying the many German states caused revolution throughout the German states, with each wanting their own constitution. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful member states and Austria; the North German Confederation, which lasted from 1867 to 1871, created a closer union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War but many of its laws were used in the German Empire.
The German Empire lasted from 1871 to 1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony, this was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. The war united all the German states against a common enemy, with the victory came an overwhelming wave of nationalism which changed the opinions of some of those, against unification. In 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the legal predecessor of the unified German Reich and as such a direct ancestor of today's Federal Republic of Germany; the formal abolition of Prussia, carried out on 25 February 1947 by the fiat of the Allied Control Council referred to an alleged tradition of the kingdom as a bearer of militarism and reaction, made way for the current setup of the German states. However, the Free State of Prussia, which followed the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of World War I, was a major democratic force in Weimar Germany until the nationalist coup of 1932 known as the Preußenschlag.
The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has become one of the largest cultural organisations in the world. In 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire. After the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states, including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia; the towns were poverty stricken, with the largest town, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was caused by Prussia's neighbours, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns could not compete; these issues led to feuds, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these towns gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west, allowed the urban middle class of Brandenburg to prosper.
It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, as it faced two dangers that the other German territories did not, partition from within and the threat of invasion by its neighbours. It prevented partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea, which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories; the second issue was resolved through expansion. Brandenburg was surrounded on every side by neighbours whose boundaries were political. Any neighbour could consume Brandenburg at any moment; the only way to defend herself was to absorb her neighbours. Through negotiations and marriages Brandenburg but expanded her borders, absorbing neighbours and eliminating the threat of attack; the Hohenzollerns were made rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1518. In 1529 the Hohenzollerns secured the reversion of the Duchy of Pomerania after a series of conflicts, acquired its eastern part following the Peace of Westphalia. In 1618 the Hohenzollerns inherited the Duchy of Prussia, since 1511 ruled by Hohenzollern Albrecht of Brandenburg Prussia, who in 1525 converted the Teutonic Order ruled state to a Protestant Duchy by accepting fiefdom of the crown of Poland.
It was ruled in a personal union with Brandenburg
Prince Christoph of Hesse
Christoph Ernst August of Hesse was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was a German SS officer and was killed on active duty in a plane crash during World War II, his brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, fought on the British side and married the future Queen Elizabeth II after the war. Prince Christoph of Hesse was born in Frankfurt, the fifth son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia, his father, Frederick Charles, a scion of the House of Hesse, was elected King of Finland in 1918, when Finland declared its independence after the collapse of the Russian Empire. However, the overwhelming Republican victories in the 1919 Finnish parliamentary election ended any ambitions for a Finnish monarchy. Christoph's mother was the daughter of Emperor Frederick III and of Princess Royal. Prince Christoph was thus a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Christoph had several brothers, including Prince Wolfgang, his two eldest brothers, Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian, both died in World War I.
Prince Christoph was a director in the Third Reich's Ministry of Air Forces, Commander of the Air Reserves, held the rank of Oberführer in the SS. His brother Prince Philipp joined Hitler's SA, they were not the only family members to embrace Nazism. The historian Hugo Vickers claims that Prince Christoph was "disenchanted" with the Nazi Party by the time of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, he told his mother: "The death of a certain dangerous and cruel man is the best news I had in a long time."Prince Christoph served in the Luftwaffe Research Office and in 1942 he joined the staff of the Jagdgeschwader 53. He was based in Tunisia and Sicily, with missions to Malta. After the Allied Invasion of Italy, he never made it home. On 7 October 1943, he was killed when his plane, a Siebel 104, collided with a hill in the Apennine Mountains near Forlì, Italy, his body and the body of his copilot were found two days and they were buried on the site. Christoph married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark on 15 December 1930 in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.
Princess Sophie was the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, the sister of the future Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They had five children: Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse, married Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia on 2 August 1956 and divorced in London in 1962, they had two granddaughters. She remarried Robert Floris van Eyck on 3 December 1962 and had two further children and two granddaughters. Princess Maria Tatiana of Yugoslavia married Gregory Thune-Larsen on 30 June 1990 and had two daughters: Sonia Tatiana Thune-Larsen Olga Kristin Thune-Larsen Prince Christopher of Yugoslavia Hélène Sophie van Eyck married to Roderick Alan Harman, with whom she has two daughters: Sascha Alexandra Sophia Harman Pascale Olivia Harman Mark van Eyck married Joanne Green in 1992 but they separated Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse, married Prince Friedrich Karl zu Windisch-Grätz on 31 March 1959 and had two daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Princess Marina Margarita Sofia Leontina Christina of Windisch-Grätz married Gyula Lajos Jakabffy on 8 May 1988. They have two daughters: Réka Dorothea Sita Jakabffy Sophia Magdolna Jakabffy Princess Clarissa Elisabeth Fiore of Windisch-Grätz married Eric De Waele on 16 November 1985, they have four children and two grandchildren: Michel Jean Henri de Waele married Caroline Libbrecht in 2011. They have two children: Raphaël De Waele Lucy De Waele Alexander Federico Mark de Waele Mathieu Paul Philippe de Waele Rubi Jade de Waele Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse married Countess Yvonne Margit Valerie Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár on 26 March 1966 and had two children: Prince Christoph of Hesse Princess Irina of Hesse, married Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau on 30 April 1999 and have three children: Countess Maria-Letitia Jolanta of Schönburg-Glauchau Count Maximus Carolus Joachim Maria of Schönburg-Glauchau Count Valentin Polykarp Josef Maria of Schönburg-Glauchau Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse and without issue.
Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse married Jean-Claude Derrien on 20 July 1971 and were divorced in 1976. She has an illegitimate daughter: Johanna von Hesse, married Karl-Heinz Dietrich on 12 August 2011, they have four children: Anna Clarissa Dietrich Nikolaus Karl Dietrich Heinz Anton Dietrich Marie Elisabeth Dietrich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany is the common English name for Germany between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party controlled the country through a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a totalitarian state that controlled nearly all aspects of life via the Gleichschaltung legal process; the official name of the state was Deutsches Reich until 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany is known as the Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", the first two being the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire; the Nazi regime ended. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, on 30 January 1933; the NSDAP began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934 and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany.
All power was centralised in Hitler's person and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen; the return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Racism antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime; the Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the master race, the purest branch of the Aryan race. Discrimination and persecution against Jews and Romani people began in earnest after the seizure of power; the first concentration camps were established in March 1933. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, liberals and communists were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed, many leaders imprisoned.
Education focused on racial biology, population policy, fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased Germany on the international stage. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, Hitler's hypnotic oratory to influence public opinion; the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. The Nazi regime dominated neighbours through military threats in the years leading up to war. Nazi Germany made aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if these were not met, it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the USSR, invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. By early 1941, Germany controlled much of Europe. Reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas and a German administration was established in the remainder of Poland.
Germany exploited labour of both its occupied territories and its allies. In the Holocaust, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, or shot. While the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was successful, the Soviet resurgence and entry of the US into the war meant the Wehrmacht lost the initiative on the Eastern Front in 1943 and by late 1944 had been pushed back to the pre-1939 border. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated in 1944 and the Axis powers were driven back in Eastern and Southern Europe. After the Allied invasion of France, Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allies from the west, capitulated in May 1945. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war; the victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.
The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945, while common English terms are "Nazi Germany" and "Third Reich". The latter, adopted by Nazi propaganda as Drittes Reich, was first used in Das Dritte Reich, a 1923 book by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck; the book counted the Holy Roman Empire as the German Empire as the second. Germany was known as the Weimar Republic during the years 1919 to 1933, it was a republic with a semi-presidential system. The Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, contentious relationships with the Allied victors of World War I, a series of failed attempts at coalition government by divided political parties. Severe setbacks to the German economy began after World War I ended because of reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles; the government printed money to make the payments and to repay the country's war debt, but the resulting hyperinflation led to inflated prices for consumer goods, economic chaos, food riots.
When the government defaulted on their reparations payments in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr and widespread civil unrest followed. The National Socialist German Workers' Party (National
Princess Mafalda of Savoy
Princess Mafalda of Savoy was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro. The future King Umberto II of Italy was her younger brother. Mafalda was born in Rome. In childhood she was close to her mother, from whom she inherited a love for the arts. During World War I, she accompanied her mother on her visits to Italian military hospitals. On 23 September 1925, at Racconigi Castle, Mafalda married Prince Philipp of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and grandson of German Emperor Frederick III. Prince Philipp and his brother Christoph, were members of the National Socialist party. Prince Philipp's marriage to Princess Mafalda put him in position to act as intermediary between the National Socialist government in Germany and the Fascist government in Italy. On the evening of the 26 March 1935 she was present at an informal diplomatic dinner given by Adolf Hitler in the Reich President's House in Berlin, she sat next to Anthony Eden. However, during World War II, Adolf Hitler believed Princess Mafalda was working against the war effort.
So did Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who called her "the biggest asshole in the entire Italian royal house". Early in September 1943, Princess Mafalda travelled to Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law, King Boris III. While there, she was informed of Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers, that her husband was being held under house arrest in Bavaria, that her children had been given sanctuary in the Vatican; the Gestapo ordered her arrest, on 23 September she received a telephone call from Hauptsturmführer Karl Hass at the German High Command, who told her that he had an important message from her husband. On her arrival at the German embassy, Mafalda was arrested, ostensibly for subversive activities. Princess Mafalda was transported to Munich for questioning to Berlin, to Buchenwald concentration camp. On 24 August 1944, the Allies bombed an ammunition factory inside Buchenwald; some four hundred prisoners were killed and Princess Mafalda was wounded: she had been housed in a unit adjacent to the bombed factory, when the attack occurred she was buried up to her neck in debris and suffered severe burns to her arm.
The conditions of the labour camp caused her arm to become infected, the medical staff at the facility amputated it. She died during the night of 26–27 August 1944. Eugen Kogon, author of The Theory and Practice of Hell – The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them, page 131. After the air raid of 24 August 1944, the princess was wounded in the arm and Dr. Schiedlausky, camp medical office, performed the arm amputation, but his patient did not survive due to loss of blood, her naked body was dumped into the crematorium, where Father Joseph Thyl, dug it out of the body heap, covered her up, arranged for speedy cremation. Thyl cut off a lock of the princess's hair, smuggled out of camp to be kept in Jena, until it could be sent on to her German relatives, her death was not confirmed until after Germany's surrender to the Allies in 1945. In 1997, the Italian government honored Princess Mafalda with her image on a postal stamp. Mafaldine, a variety of flat pasta, are named after her.
Princess Mafalda married Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse on 23 September 1925 at Racconigi Castle near Turin. They had the following children: Prince Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse married Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Had issue. Prince Heinrich Wilhelm Konstantin Viktor Franz. Prince Otto Adolf Married 1st on 5 April 1965 in Munich and 6 April 1965 in Trotsberg Angela Mathilde Agathe von Doering. No issue. Married 2nd on 28 December 1988 to Elisabeth Marga Dorothea Bönker. No issue. Princess Elisabeth Margarethe Elena Johanna Maria Jolanda Polyxene. Had issue. 2 November 1902 – 23 September 1925: Her Royal Highness Princess Mafalda of Savoy 23 September 1925 – 27 May 1940: Her Royal Highness Princess Mafalda of Hesse, Princess of Savoy 27 May 1940 – 27 August 1944: Her Royal Highness The Landgravine of Hesse House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cordon of the Royal Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Knight Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 3rd First Class
Prince Charles of Prussia
Prince Frederick Charles Alexander of Prussia was a younger son of Frederick William III of Prussia. He served as a Prussian general for much of his adult life and became the first Herrenmeister of the Order of Saint John after its restoration as a chivalric order, he is remembered more for his patronage of art and for his sizable collections of art and armor. Charles was born in Charlottenburg Palace near Berlin, the third son of Frederick William III of Prussia by his wife Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he was named Frederick Charles Alexander at birth, but came to be known as Charles, because there were several other Fredericks in his family at that time. His father was King of Prussia by the time of Charles' birth, both of his elder brothers were to succeed to the throne, while his elder sister Charlotte would marry Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Charles had two younger sisters and Louise, a younger brother, Albert. Prince Charles entered the Prussian army in 1811 at the age of ten, with the rank of lieutenant in a regiment of the guards.
In 1819, he became a member of the Prussian Staatsrat. In 1820, he became a major in the First Regiment of Foot Guards. In 1822, he became colonel of the 12th Infantry Regiment. In 1824, he was promoted to major general. In 1830, he commanded the 2nd Guards Division, he was further promoted to lieutenant-general in 1832 and general of infantry in 1844. He served as Generalfeldzeugmeister and chief of the artillery. Charles served as Governor of Mainz from 1864–1866. In 1852, he became Herrenmeister of the Order of Saint John. On 26 May 1827 in Charlottenburg, Charles married Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. Two years in 1829, Marie's younger sister Augusta would marry Charles' older brother, the future Kaiser. Charles and Marie had three children together: Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. Married Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau. Princess Louise of Prussia. Married Alexis of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfel Princess Anna of Prussia.
Married Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-KasselThe family lived in Wilhelmstrasse, opposite the residence of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In possession of great wealth and a great art collector, his palace contained many art treasures. Charles was a collector of rare weaponry, acquired and preserved knives, daggers, rifles and revolvers from many different countries and time periods; as a result of his vast collection, one source stated his palace was "one of the most famous repositories of bric-a-brac in Europe...his collection of arms and armor is believed to know no rival save in the great State armories at Turin and Vienna". Marie died in January 1877, only five months before what would have been the golden jubilee of their wedding. Although they had married for family and dynastic reasons, their marriage had been happy and harmonious, they had been attached to each other. After her death, Charles aged and grew infirm from ailments typical of advancing age. In 1882, his foot slipped while he was getting up from the dinner table, causing him to fall down and fracture his left thighbone.
The fall and fracture accentuated his ailments, it was reported that survival was unlikely. He died in Berlin a few months on 21 January 1883, aged 81, his last words were "Long live the Emperor."At the time of his death, Charles was the only surviving brother of Emperor Wilhelm I. His death disrupted plans for the celebration of the silver wedding anniversary of his nephew, Crown Prince Frederick, as well as plans for a visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales to Berlin. Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold in 1853. Sweden: Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim in 1873. Kingdom of Hawaii: Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Kalākaua in 1881. Media related to Carl of Prussia at Wikimedia Commons
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant - 24 June 1895[1][2]
Kingdom of Prussia:
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Falcon - 1893[3]
United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross (civil) of the Order of the Bath - 22 June 1897[4]
