After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles is the new king of England. For many years he has maintained close relations with his relatives in Darmstadt.
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Princess Margaret died in 1997. The heir to the British throne of the time, Prince Charles (fifth from right) and his father, Prince Philip (second from left), attended the funeral service in the Darmstadt Stadtkirche and the burial. on the Rosenhöhe.
(Archive photo: Jürgen Schmidt)
DARMSTADT The queen is dead, long live the king. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son and previous heir to the throne, Charles, automatically becomes king. He has maintained family ties in Darmstadt, probably not just out of a sense of duty.
Elizabeth was often a guest in the region, for example in Frankfurt, Mainz and Wiesbaden. But she never made it to Darmstadt. Very different son Charles. She has visited Darmstadt a few times, mainly with his father, Prince Philip, who died on 9 April 2021. Charles’s brother Andrew often accompanied them to southern Hesse.
Charles went to his aunt’s birthday in 1983
His first trip to Germany took Charles with his father in 1962 to Frankfurt and from there to southern Germany. It is not known whether they also stopped in Darmstadt. Instead, it was written about clothing and habitus: the two would show “British casual elegance and urban safety”.
Among other things, Charles traveled to celebrate the 70th birthday of his aunt, Princess Margaret of Hesse and near the Rhine (from 1913 to 1997). The celebrations took place in a hotel in Kronberg Castle in 1983. Charles also came to Princess Margaret’s 80th birthday. A photo shows the heir to the British throne sitting next to Margaret in the town church of Darmstadt. A year later, Carlo and Filippo were visiting again. The birthday was a reason for travel. From Wolfsgarten Castle, the company took a bus to Eltville and embarked on a boat trip on the Rhine. “He looked chic: sunglasses, an enviably well-ironed shirt, a casual jacket on his arm and a friendly smile to the amazed passersby.” , said an article on the heir to the throne.
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Margherita died in 1997. Naturally Charles and Philip came to the funeral service in the village church and to the burial on the Rosenhöhe. Of course the Windsors liked him a lot. Charles wrote: “I have known Princess Margaret of Hesse and Rhine forever (she saw me for the first time when I was only a few hours old) and she soon became an important part of my life”.
Charles also lost the words of love about Margaret’s husband, Prince Louis. She referred to him as a “godfather”, who could not be taken as a godfather but rather as a favorite uncle, as editor Michael Horn wrote.
Grand Ducal House of Hesse-Darmstadt closely associated with royalty
The Grand Ducal House of Hesse-Darmstadt, which ceased to exist after Margaret’s death, has on several occasions been related to members of the British nobility. The four familiar lines are sometimes quite complicated.
Prince Philip, consort of Queen Elizabeth, was the son of Princess Alice of Battenberg. He is a daughter of Princess Viktoria of Hesse, the eldest sister of the last Grand Duke, Ernst-Ludwig. His son, Prince Ludwig, married Margaret Campbell Geddes.
