Princess Marie Auguste of Hanau und Horowitz, Gräfin von Schaumburg

Princess Maria of Hanau and Hořowitz (22 August 183926 March 1917) was a German aristocrat.

Early life Princess Maria was the youngest daughter of Frederick William, Elector of Hesse (1802–1875), and his morganatic wife, Gertrude Falkenstein (1803–1882), whom he later elevated to Princess of Hanau and Hořowitz . Carl, Prince of Ardeck (1861–1938), who married in 1891 Anne Elise Strehlow. Elisabeth, Princess of Ardeck (1864–1919), who married in 1886 Count Ferdinand of Ysenburg-Büdingen in Philippseich.

Later life She and her two surviving daughters, Elisabeth and Luise, moved to Wiesbaden. She continued to style herself Princess of Hesse, and got into a dispute about her title with Frederick William (not to be confused with her father), the former heir presumptive of Hesse-Kassel, who held that she'd lost the right to use that title due to her divorce. After she lost the court case, she asked Emperor William I to provide her with a new title. The imperial court sent her a list of castles in Nassau to choose from — apparently court officials in Berlin were confused about the various former principalities that made the new Hesse-Nassau province — and she chose Ardeck. Ardeck Castle is a ruin near Holzheim, which is situated in today's Rhein-Lahn-Kreis. From 28 July 1876, she and her children were styled Princes of Ardeck and Princesses of Ardeck.

She later moved to Bonn, where she died in 1917.

Ancestry