Margarita of Greece and Denmark (1905-1981)

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Biography

Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark was born 18 April 1905 in Royal Palace, Athens, Greece to Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1882-1944) and Alice Mountbatten (1885-1969) and died 24 April 1981 Bad Wiessee, Miesbach, Bavaria, Germany of unspecified causes. She married Gottfried Hermann Alfred zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1897-1960) 1931 in Lagenburg, Holtsee, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark was a Greek and Danish princess by birth and Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg by marriage. An elder sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth II), she was, for a time, linked to the Nazi regime.

The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Margarita spent a happy childhood between Athens and Corfu. In her youth, however, she witnessed the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), followed by the First World War (1914–1918) and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). For the young princess and her relatives, these conflicts had dramatic consequences and led to their exile in Switzerland (between 1917 and 1920), then in France and the United Kingdom (from 1922 to 1936).

At the end of the 1920s, Margarita's mother had a mental health crisis which led to her confinement in a Swiss psychiatric hospital. Shortly after, in 1931, Margarita married Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. The couple then moved to Weikersheim Castle, where they raised four sons (Princes Kraft, Georg Andreas, Rupprecht and Albrecht) and a daughter (Princess Beatrix).

Members of the Nazi party from 1937, Gottfried and Margarita used their family connections to promote a rapprochement of Nazism within the United Kingdom, though without success.

Widowed in 1960, Margarita witnessed a fire at Langenburg Castle in 1963. The princess died in 1981 and her body was buried in the Hohenlohe-Langenburg family mausoleum. Margarita was the paternal aunt of the Prince of Wales, who later became King Charles III.

Children

Offspring of Gottfried Hermann Alfred zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1897-1960) and Princess Margarita
Name	Birth	Death	Joined with
Prinzessin zu Hohenlohe Langenburg (1933-1933)
Kraft Alexander Ernst Ludwig Georg Emich zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1935-2004)
Beatrix Alice Marie Melita Margarete Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1936-1997)
Georg Andreas Heinrich Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1938-2021)
Rupprecht Sigismund Philipp Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944-1978)
Principe Albrecht Wolfgang Christoph Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1944-1992)

Siblings

Offspring of Andrew of Greece and Denmark (1882-1944) and Alice Mountbatten (1885-1969)
Name	Birth	Death	Joined with
Margarita of Greece and Denmark (1905-1981)	18 April 1905 Royal Palace, Athens, Greece	24 April 1981 Bad Wiessee, Miesbach, Bavaria, Germany	Gottfried Hermann Alfred zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1897-1960)
Theodora of Greece and Denmark (1906-1969)	30 May 1906 Old Royal Palace, Athens, Attica, Greece	16 October 1969 Konstanz, Konstanz, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany	Berthold Friedrich von Baden (1906-1963)
Cecilie of Greece and Denmark (1911-1937)	22 June 1911 Athens, Attica, Greece	16 November 1937 Oostende, Oostende, West Flanders, Belgium	Georg Donatus von Hesse-Darmstadt (1906-1937)
Sophie of Greece and Denmark (1914-2001)	26 June 1914 Villa Mon-Repos, Corfu, Kerkira, Ionian Islands, Greece	24 November 2001 Schilersee, Miesbach, Bavaria, Germany	Christopher Ernst August von Hessen (1901-1943) George WIlhelm of Hanover (1915-2006)
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021)	10 June 1921 Corfu, Greece	9 April 2021 Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom	Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926-2022)

Residences

Notable Ancestors

Descendants of Christian IX of Denmark

References

Footnotes (including sources)

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