Prince Karl of Hesse

Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse-Kassel (Karl Adolf Andreas Prinz von Hessen; 26 March 1937 – 23 March 2022) was a German prince. He was a first cousin of King Charles III of the United Kingdom through his uncle Prince Philip.

Biography
Karl was born the eldest son of Prince Christoph of Hesse and his wife Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, Prince Karl was born on 26 March 1937, in Berlin. At the time of his birth, his parents had close ties with the Nazi regime and the child was given Adolf among his first names in honor of Adolf Hitler.

The outbreak of the Second World War deprived the prince of his father, who enlisted in the German army in the first months of the conflict and who disappeared in an air accident in 1943. Orphaned by his father, the prince was adopted by one of his paternal uncles, Prince Wolfgang of Hesse, in 1952.

Related to most European dynasties, Karl participated in the major events of the gotha. In 1954, the prince and his family were invited to take part in the Cruise of the Kings, organized by King Paul of Greece and his wife Queen Frederica. In 1960, Karl was invited to Stockholm on the occasion of a grand ball organized in honor of the granddaughters of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden.



In 1966, the prince married, in the, in Netherlands to Countess Yvonne Szapáry von Muraszombath. Two children were born from this marriage:
 * Christopher of Hesse-Kassel (1969), prince of Hesse-Kassel, single;
 * Irina of Hesse-Kassel (1971), princess of Hesse-Cassel, who married, in 1999, Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau (1969). The couple had three children: Maria-Letitia (2001), Maximus (2003) and Valentin (2005)

Their nuptials gave rise to an important gathering of crowned heads (his uncle Prince Philip, Constantine II of Greece, and the future Juan Carlos I of Spain).

Established in Munich with his wife, the prince was known for his interest in oriental philosophies and alternative medicines.

Prince Karl briefly discussed his mother's childhood and her ties to the Nazi regime in a documentary in 2015 about his uncle, Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King (2015).

Karl of Hesse died in Munich, at the age of 84 years, on March 23, 2022.