| Prince Karl of Leiningen | |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria |
| Issue | |
| Prince Boris Prince Hermann |
|
| Full name | |
| Karl Vladimir Ernst Heinrich | |
| House | House of Leiningen |
| Father | Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen |
| Mother | Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia |
| Born | 2 January 1928 Coburg, Germany |
| Died | 28 September 1990 (aged 62) Vered Hagalil, Israel |
Karl Vladimir Ernst Heinrich, Prince of Leiningen (2 January 1928 – 28 September 1990) was the son of Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen (1898–1946) and Maria Kirillovna of Russia. Maria was the daughter of Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a paternal granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. As such, Karl was a great great grandson of Queen Victoria and Alexander II of Russia.
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Karl was born in Coburg, Germany.[1] As a young man, he worked mainly as a salesman in Paris.[1]
Karl met Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria in Madrid, where she was living with her mother.[1] She was the only daughter of Boris III of Bulgaria by his wife Princess Giovanna of Italy. Karl announced his engagement to Marie Louise in December 1956.[1] They married in a quiet civil ceremony in Amorbach on 14 February 1957.[1][2] Amorbach had been the residence of the House of Leiningen 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 richest German noble families.[1] As of 1957, his family's fortune was valued at $1,5000,000.[1] The couple also married in a Greek Orthodox religious ceremony in Cannes on 20 February 1957.[2]
After the couple's wedding, they lived in Madrid until June 1958.[3] Karl traveled to Canada early in their marriage, and decided to settle there.[3] Karl and Marie Louise then arrived in Canada, with plans to journey to Toronto, where he hoped to go into business.[3] The marriage produced two sons:
The marriage was unhappy, and Karl and Marie Louise divorced on 4 December 1968.[4] Later in life, Carl reminisced, "Princes are expected to marry princesses, so I married Maria-Luisa, the daughter of Bulgarian ex-King Boris III".[4] After the divorce, Marie Louise and their two sons moved to the United States, where the boys were educated in a military academy.
Carl moved to Toronto, where he entered finance and became an executive in a brokerage firm. He eventually became a naturalized Canadian citizen.[4] He next moved to Zurich. Persuaded by some Jewish friends to visit Israel, Karl eventually found a job through the help of some 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.[4]
