Duke Philipp of Württemberg

He was the son of Duke Alexander and of Princess Marie d'Orléans, a daughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French.[1] His mother died when he was a few months old, causing him to be raised by his grandparents in Paris. When he was ten, the Royal family of France had to flee from France, staying in exile in Great Britain.

Duke Philipp became engaged to Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, sister of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria. But the Duke dissolved the engagement. He married Archduchess Maria Theresia and the couple had a splendid palace built at the Ringstrasse in Vienna. They moved in in 1865, but as Duchess Marie Therese never liked the palace it was sold to a banker and investor in 1871. Two years later, the renovated palace was opened on the occasion of the 1873 Vienna World's Fair as the Hotel Imperial. To this day it remains one of the most famous hotels in the world, and while renovated multiple times it has retained many elements of the original neo-Renaissance elements in the Ducal Palace.

After selling their palace in Vienna the couple bought a much smaller city palace named Strudelhof. They had a very big villa built at Altmünster on the shore of the Traunsee, not far away from the Emperor's summer residence at Bad Ischl. Around 1900, the couple moved to Stuttgart where they lived near their sons, at the Prinzenbau.

Upon the death of his cousin Duke Nicholas of Württemberg in 1903,[2] he became heir presumptive to the royal throne of Württemberg until his death in 1917. But he was ten years older than King Wilhelm II of Wuerttemberg, and so his eldest son Duke Albrecht (1865-1939) was considered and raised as successor to the throne. On 29 November 1918 Württemberg's monarchy was abolished in the collapse of the German Empire following World War I, while his kinsman of the senior branch of the dynasty, Wilhelm II, was still king (and lived, after his abdication, until 2 October 1921).[2]

In 1865 Philip of Württemberg married Archduchess Marie-Thérèse of Teschen (1845–1927) (daughter of Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen and Princess Hildegard of Bavaria). They had five children:[1]

• Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg (23 December 1865–31 October 1939) he married Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria on 24 January 1893. They have seven children[2].
• Duchess Marie Amélie of Württemberg (24 December 1865-16 December 1883) died at the age of seventeen.
• Duchess Maria Isabella of Württemberg (30 August 1871–24 May 1904) she married Prince Johann Georg of Saxony on 5 April 1894.
• Duke Robert of Württemberg (14 January 1873–12 April 1947) he married Archduchess Maria Immakulata of Austria on 29 October 1900.
• Duke Ulrich of Württemberg (13 June 1877-13 June 1944)

Philip of Württemberg belonged to the fifth branch (called the "Ducal branch") of the House of Württemberg, descended from the seventh son of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg.[2] On the extinction of the eldest branch in 1921, the Catholic ducal line remained the only dynastic branch of the formerly reigning family. The House of Württemberg's two morganatic branches - that of the Dukes of Teck (extinct in the male line in 1981), and of the Dukes of Urach - were genealogically senior to the Ducal branch, but had been ineligible to succeed to the throne.[2]

Philip is the direct ancestor of the current claimant to the Kingdom of Württemberg: Carl, Duke of Württemberg.[1]

• Ilse Feller and Eberhard Fritz: Württemberg zur Königszeit. Die Fotografen des Herzogs Philipp von Württemberg (1838-1917). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990. [German]