Wilhelm II (Hessen-Wanfried-Rheinfels)

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Wilhelm "the Younger" (II.) Von Hessen-Wanfried (born August 25, 1671 in Langenschwalbach ; † April 1, 1731 in Paris and also buried there) was a son of Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Wanfried (1649-1711) and his first wife Sophie Magdalene von Salm-Reifferscheid († 1675). He followed his father as Landgrave of Hessen-Wanfried and as Landgrave of Hessen-Rheinfels (Hessen-Wanfried-Rheinfels). After 1711 he called himself Landgrave von Hessen-Rheinfels.

Life

Wilhelm the Younger, who was canon in Cologne and Strasbourg at first, is described as "poor in understanding and stunted in an evil environment". After his father's death in 1711, he appeared in Wanfried, where his younger half-brother Christian had now taken over the rule. It came to a dispute, which of Emperor Charles VI. was arbitrated. Christian renounced the landgraviate, but received the residential palace in Eschwege , which was released for this purpose in 1713 from its pledge made in 1667 to the house of Braunschweig-Bevern , as well as an annual appanage of 7,500 guilders. Wilhelm ruled from 1711 to 1731. He was mostly traveling, often at the Viennese court. In 1718 the emperor also took possession of Rheinfels Castle , where troops of Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel had successfully repulsed three heavy sieges by the French.

In 1719, with the approval of the Pope, Wilhelm had himself returned to the laity due to the threat of extinction of the Hessen-Wanfried line . The emperor brokered the wedding of the 48-year-old landgrave with Ernestine Theodora , daughter of Duke Theodor Eustach von Pfalz-Sulzbach , on September 19, 1719. The marriage remained childless. After Wilhelm's death, his widow initially stayed at Rheinfels Castle, but then became prioress of the Carmelite monastery in Neuburg / Donau , where she died on April 5, 1775.

Wilhelm's younger half-brother Christian, who called himself Christian von Hessen-Eschwege since 1711, became Landgrave of Hessen-Wanfried and Hessen-Rheinfels in 1731.

literature

predecessor Office successor
Karl Landgrave of Hesse-Wanfried-Rheinfels
1711–1731
Christian