Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe


Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe was the son of George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and member of the House of Lippe.

Early life and ancestry

William was born at Bückeburg, Schaumburg-Lippe on 12 December 1834. He was the seventh child, and third son, of George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, and Princess Ida of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Among his siblings were Prince Adolphus I and Princess Adelheid.
His paternal grandparents were Philip II, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe and Landgravine Juliane of Hesse-Philippsthal. His maternal grandparents were George I, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and Princess Augusta of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.
The closest person to him was his mother, Princess Ida, and little Prince William also attached himself to her with deep love, a familiar, close relationship that lasted until the princess's death.
Several trips with his royal parents had pleasantly interrupted the young prince's years of teaching and service. The related princely courts were visited and Prince William accompanied his parents several times to Náchod and Ratibořice Castle, which Prince Georg Wilhelm had purchased from his relative, Count Oktavio of Lippe-Weissenfeld in 1842. Prince William was last in Ratibořice with his parents and Princesses Ida and his sister, Elisabeth in the summer and autumn of 1853. Princess Ida traveled back to Bückeburg in August, the others still stayed in Ratibořice and had to postpone their departure because first, his father, George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe himself fell ill with a fever, which soon passed, but then Prince William became seriously ill with rheumatic fever, which degenerated into a malignant nervous fever.

Military career

Prince William served as an officer in the Austrian Imperial Army.

Personal life

On 30 May 1862, William was married to Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau at Dessau. The Princess was a daughter of Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau, and his wife, Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.
Together, they were the parents of eight children:

Death

Prince William and his daughter-in-law, Princess Louise of Denmark, died on 4 April 1906, five hours apart at the family castle in Náchod, Bohemia. His cause of death was from heart trouble while, hers was from meningitis.
His body was, along with the one of his daughter-in-law Louise, interred in the Vojenský Hřbitov, Nachod, Bohemia, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Honours