Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark

Infobox Greek Royalty
name =Princess Sophie
title = Princess Christoph of Hesse
Princess George William of Hanover


imgw =
spouse = Prince Christoph of Hesse (1930 - 1943)
Prince George William of Hanover (1946 - 2001)
issue = Princess Christine of Hesse
Princess Dorothea of Hesse
Prince Karl of Hesse
Prince Rainer of Hesse
Princess Clarissa of Hesse
Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover
Prince Georg of Hanover
Princess Friederike of Hanover
full name =
titles ="HRH" Princess George William of Hanover
"HRH" Princess Christoph of Hesse
"HRH" Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark
royal house =House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
House of Hesse-Kassel
House of Hanover
father =Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
mother =Princess Alice of Battenberg
date of birth =birth date|1914|6|26|dy=yes
place of birth = Villa Mon Repos, Corfu, Greece
date of death =death date and age|2001|11|3|1914|6|26|dy=yes
place of death = Munich, Bavaria, Germany
date of christening =
place of christening =|

Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (26 June 1914–3 November/24 November 2001) was the fourth child and youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Sophie was born at Villa Mon Repos on the island of Corfu in Greece.

Ancestry and family

Through her father, Sophie was a grandchild of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinova of Russia. Through Queen Olga of Greece, she was a great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Through her mother she was a great-great-granddaughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Albert, Prince Consort. Her mother was a granddaughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Sophie was the sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband and consort of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. She also had three sisters, Princess Theodora, Princess Cecilie, and Princess Margarita.

First marriage

Sophie was first married to Prince Christoph of Hesse on 15 December 1930 in Kronberg, Berlin, Germany; she was 16. The son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia, Christoph was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through their eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, wife of Frederick III, German Emperor.

They had five children:
* Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 10 January 1933), married firstly in Kronberg im Taunus on 2 August 1956 and divorced in London, Greater London, in 1962 Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia, and had issue, and married secondly in London, Greater London, on 3 December 1962 and divorced in 1986 Robert Floris van Eyck a London Poet, Artist and Art Restorer, [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/hoor009ahil01_01/hoor009ahil01_01_0153.htm (in Dutch)] [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/gres002svan02_01/gres002svan02_01_0658.htm (in Dutch)] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939908-1,00.html] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835176,00.html?promoid=googlep] brother of Architect Aldo van Eyck and son of Poet, Critic, Essayist and Philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Jewish and Latin origin born and raised in Suriname, [http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn1/eijk (in Dutch)] [Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987), page 167] [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Fallece/Aldo/van/Eyck/arquitecto/clave/estructuralismo/holandes/elpepicul/19990116elpepicul_6/Tes/ (in Spanish)] and had issue
* Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse (b. Schloss Panker, 24 July 1934), married civilly at Schliersee, Upper Bavaria, on 31 March 1959 and religiously in Munich on 1 April 1959 to Friedrich, Prince zu Windisch-Grätz (Heiligenberg, Baden, 7 July 1917 - Gersau, 29 May 2002), and had issue
* Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse (b. Berlin, 26 March 1937), married at The Hague civilly on 26 March 1966 and religiously on 18 April 1966 to Yvonne, Gräfin Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (b. Budapest, 4 April 1944), and had issue, two children:
** Prince Christoph of Hesse (b. Munich, 18 June 1969), unmarried and without issue
** Princess Irina Verena of Hesse (b. Munich, 1 April 1971), married civilly in Berlin on 30 April 1999 and religiously at Heusenstamm on 29 May 1999 to Alexander, Graf von Schönburg-Glauchau (b. Mogadishu, Somalia, 15 August 1969), and had issue
* Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 18 November 1939), unmarried and without issue
* Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 6 February 1944), married in Paris on 20 July 1971 and divorced in 1976 to Claude Jean Derrien (b. Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, 12 March 1948), son of Jean Guillaume Derrien and wife Jacqueline Laine, without issue; she had a bastard daughter by an unknown father:
** Johanna Sophia/Sophie von Hessen (b. Munich, 25 August 1980)

On 7 October 1943 Prince Christoph died in an airplane accident in the Apennine hills near Forlì, in Italy. His body was found two days later. The Almanach de Gotha, however, states that he was killed in action during the German Invasion of Italy.

econd marriage

Sophie then married Prince George William of Hanover on 23 April 1946 in Salem, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. George was the son of Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick and his wife Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and Princess Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein.

Together they had three children:

Death

infobox greekroyalty
royal name=Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark
dipstyle=HRH|Her Royal Highness
offstyle=Your Royal Highness
altstyle=Ma'amSophie died on 3 November 2001 in Munich, Germany. She was survived by her husband.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

*26 June 1914 – 15 December 1930: "Her Royal Highness" Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark
*15 December 1930 - 23 April 1946: "Her Royal Highness" Princess Christoph of Hesse
*23 April 1946 - 3 November 2001: "Her Royal Highness" Princess George William of Hanover

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boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
1= 1. Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark
2= 2. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
3= 3. Princess Alice of Battenberg
4= 4. George I of Greece
5= 5. Olga Konstantinovna of Russia
6= 6. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven
7= 7. Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
8= 8. Christian IX of Denmark
9= 9. Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
10= 10. Grand Duke Konstantine Nicholaievich of Russia
11= 11. Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg
12= 12. Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
13= 13. Julia von Hauke
14= 14. Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse
15= 15. Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
16= 16. Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
17= 17. Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel
18= 18. Prince William of Hesse
19= 19. Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark
20= 20. Nicholas I of Russia
21= 21. Princess Charlotte of Prussia
22= 22. Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
23= 23. Amelia of Württemberg
24= 24. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
25= 25. Princess Wilhelmina of Baden
26= 26. Count Johann Moritz von Hauke
27= 27. Sophie de la Fontaine
28= 28. Prince Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt
29= 29. Princess Elizabeth of Prussia
30= 30. Albert, Prince Consort
31= 31. Victoria of the United Kingdom

References

External links

* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/hesse.html Landgravial House of Hesse-Kassel]
* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/greece.html Royal House of Greece]