The Children of Emperor Frederick III of Germany

Emperor Wilhelm II and His Seven Royal Siblings

Sep 17, 2009

Emperor Frederick III of Germany and his wife Victoria of Great Britain had eight children, including the future Emperor Wilhelm II, who affected European royal history.

Emperor Frederick III of Germany and his wife, the former Princess Victoria of Great Britain and daughter of Queen Victoria, had eight children. Although they did not get along with their oldest children, who tended to side with their politically conservative grandparents, Frederick and Victoria delighted in their younger children. Their descendants are alive today in deposed royal families throughout Germany, particularly in the Prussian Hohenzollern royal family, and in the Greek royal family.

Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany (1859–1941)

Married 1st (1881) Princess Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg

Children: Wilhelm, Eitel-Friedrich, Adalbert, August Wilhelm, Oskar, Joachim, Viktoria Luise

Wilhelm admired his politically conservative and militaristic grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I, and the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Although he was English through his mother, his estrangement from his parents meant that he always resisted any involvement with Great Britain, eventually causing a break between the Prussian and British royal families. When he became Emperor Wilhelm II, his political views and militarism partly plunged Germany into World War I. He was deposed in 1918 after Germany lost the war, and he spent his exile in Holland.

Wilhelm married the politically uncontroversial and slightly dim Princess Auguste. “Dona” was a perfectly supportive wife, and they had seven children, the descendants of whom are now pretenders to the Prussian and Hanover thrones.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1860–1919)

Princess Charlotte was a nervous and sullen child whom her parents initially thought was stupid. She turned out to be very intelligent and witty, but her political conservatism caused an estrangement from her parents that never healed. Her marriage to Duke Bernhard III of Saxe-Meiningen produced Queen Victoria’s first grandchild, Princess Feodora.

Prince Henry of Prussia (1862–1929)

Prince Henry went into the navy, and lived his life in the shadow of his older brother. He initially did not get along with his parents, but gradually grew closer to them after his marriage. He married his cousin, Princess Irene of Hesse, theirs being the first marriage between two of Queen Victoria’s descendants. Of their three sons, two had hemophilia, marring an otherwise happy and content marriage.

Prince Sigismund of Prussia (1864–1866)

Prince Sigismund was adored by his parents, but unfortunately died at twenty-one months from meningitis.

Princess Victoria of Prussia (1866–1929)

Princess Victoria, “Moretta,” was close with her parents, and they supported her wanting to marry Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who had been elected reigning Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria. But Bismarck and certain members of the Hohenzollern royal family, particularly Wilhelm, were against such a politically controversial marriage, and the engagement was broken off.

Princess Victoria eventually married the uncontroversial Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, with whom she unhappily had no children. After his death, she married the Russian refugee Zoubkoff, causing an estrangement from her family. They were in the process of divorcing when she died two years later.

Prince Waldemar of Prussia (1868–1879)

Prince Waldemar died young of diphtheria, and his mother was crushed by the death of her beloved son.

Princess Sophia of Prussia (1870–1932)

Children: King George II, King Alexander I, Helen, King Paul I, Irene, Katherine

Princess Sophia was one of her parents’ favorite children, and they supported her marriage to the future King Constantine I of Greece. They were concerned about the political instability of Greece, a concern proved correct when her husband was deposed during World War I, partly because of unfounded suspicions that the couple was siding with Germany. They were invited back after the death of their son King Alexander I, only to be deposed again in 1922.

All three sons of King Constantine I and Queen Sophia of Greece became kings of Greece. Furthermore, their daughter Helen became Queen Helen of Romania, and the husband of their daughter Irene, Prince Aimone of Savoy, was the King of Croatia for a time.

Princess Margarete of Prussia (1872–1954)

Princess Margarete, “Mossy,” was one of Empress Victoria’s favorite children. The then-widowed Empress Victoria encouraged Princess Margarete’s marriage to Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, who became her favorite son-in-law. In 1917 Finland elected him king, but he declined two months later and the country decided to become a republic.

Margarete and Frederick Charles had a happy marriage and six children, including two sets of twins. Unfortunately, the family faced tragedy during World War II, during which her sons Prince Philip and Prince Christoph embraced Nazism.

Source:

Eilers, Marlene A. Queen Victoria’s Descendants. Falkoping, Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books, 1997.

The copyright of the article The Children of Emperor Frederick III of Germany in German History is owned by Emily Chauviere. Permission to republish The Children of Emperor Frederick III of Germany in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.