Prince Karl Vladimir Ernst Heinrich of Leiningen (2 January 1928 – 28 September 1990) was the second son of Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen (1898–1946) and his wife,

Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia (2 February 1907 – 25 October 1951) was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. She was born in Coburg when her parents were in exile be ...

.Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg''. ICC, Paris, 1996. pp. 699, 703. (French). She was the elder daughter of

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (russian: Кирилл Владимирович Романов; ''Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov''; – 12 October 1938) was a son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Emperor Ale ...

and

Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , later Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia (25 November 1876 – 2 March 1936), was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Grand Duchess M ...

. As such, Karl was a great-great-grandson of both Queen Victoria of Great Britain and

Emperor Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finlan ...

(as Victoria Melita and Kirill Vladimirovich were both grandchildren of Alexander II).

Biography

Career

Born in

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

, Germany, he worked mainly as a salesman in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as a young man. With his wife, Karl subsequently resolved to take up a business career in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. Eventually, he became an executive at a brokerage firm.

Marriage and issue

Karl met

Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria ( bg, Княгиня Мария Луиза Българска; born 13 January 1933, Sofia) is the daughter of Tsar Boris III and Tsaritsa Ioanna and the older sister of Simeon II of Bulgaria. Montgomery-Mass ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, where she was living with her mother. She was the only daughter of

Boris III of Bulgaria Boris III ( bg, Борѝс III ; Boris Treti; 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier) , was the Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1918 until hi ...

by his wife Princess Giovanna of Italy. Karl announced his engagement to Marie Louise in December 1956. They married in a quiet civil ceremony in

Amorbach Amorbach () is a town in the Miltenberg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany, with some 4,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the small river Mud, in the northeastern part of the Odenwald ...

on 14 February 1957. Amorbach had been the residence of the

House of Leiningen The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Impe ...

since 1803, and the town's streets were lined with hundreds of cheering spectators; Karl's family owns huge estates in South Germany, and was considered to be one of the wealthiest of Germany's noble families. As of 1957, his family's fortune was valued at $1.5 billion. The couple also married in a

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...

religious ceremony in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

on 20 February 1957. After the couple's wedding, they lived in

until June 1958. Karl traveled to Canada early in their marriage, and the couple decided to settle there. The marriage produced two sons: *Prince Boris (Karl Boris Frank Markwart) of Leiningen (17 April 1960); married Millena Manov on 14 February 1987 and they were divorced in 1996. They have one son. He remarried Cheryl Riegler on 11 September 1998. They had two children. *

Prince Hermann Friedrich of Leiningen Prince Hermann Friedrich Fernando Roland of Leiningen (; born April 16, 1963) is a Canadian banker and the younger son of Prince Karl of Leiningen and Princess Maria Luisa of Bulgaria. He is 173rd in line to the British throne as of 2011. Life ...

(16 April 1963) he married Deborah Cully on 16 May 1987. They have three daughters. The marriage was unhappy, and Karl and Marie Louise divorced on 4 December 1968. Later in life, Carl reminisced, "Princes are expected to marry princesses, so I married Marie-Louise, the daughter of Bulgarian ex-King Boris III". After the divorce, Marie Louise and their two sons moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where they attended a military academy.

Later life

Karl eventually became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

citizen. He later moved to

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Persuaded by some

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

friends to visit

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Karl eventually found a job through the help of new-found Israeli friends. He subsequently moved there, rarely leaving except for short visits with his family. He lived in Israel until his death on 28 September 1990 in Vered Hagalil.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karl of Leiningen, Prince 1928 births 1990 deaths Leiningen family Princes of Leiningen People from Coburg