Maria von Hanau-Hořowitz


Princess Maria of Hanau and Hořowitz was a German aristocrat.

Early life

Princess Maria was the youngest daughter of Frederick William, Elector of Hesse-Kassel, and his morganatic wife, Gertrude Falkenstein, whom he later elevated to Princess of Hanau and Hořowitz.
Her paternal grandparents were Prince William, later William II, Elector of Hesse, and Princess Augusta of Prussia. Her maternal grandparents were Johann Gottfried Falkenstein and, his wife, wife Magdalena Schulz.

Personal life

asked for Princess Maria's hand, but he was rejected. He eventually married Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg on 11 September 1856.
On 27 December 1857, Maria married Prince William of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld, son of Landgrave Charles. With this marriage, her mother hoped to bind her family closer to the House of Hesse; the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, however, regarded William's marriage as morganatic and refused to acknowledge the five children from this marriage as Hessian princes. The children nevertheless used their father's style and title. They were:
They divorced on 18 March 1872. In August 1873, William married his niece, Princess Juliane of Bentheim and Steinfurt. His third marriage was to Princess Juliane's older sister and his fourth marriage was to Princess Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a daughter of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and niece of King Christian IX of Denmark. They were the parents of Prince Christian of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld. Prince William died at Rotenburg on 17 January 1890.

Later life

She and her two surviving daughters moved to Wiesbaden. She continued to style herself Princess of Hesse, and got into a dispute about her title with Frederick William, the former heir presumptive of Hesse-Kassel, who held that she'd lost the right to use that title due to her divorce. After she lost the court case, she asked Emperor William I to provide her with a new title. The imperial court sent her a list of castles in Nassau to choose from — apparently court officials in Berlin were confused about the various former principalities that made the new Hesse-Nassau province — and she chose Ardeck. Ardeck Castle is a ruin near Holzheim, which is situated in today's Rhein-Lahn-Kreis. From 28 July 1876, she and her children were styled Princess of Ardeck and Princes of Ardeck.
She later moved to Bonn, where she died in 1917.