Prince of Leiningen

The title of Prince of Leiningen ( _de. Fürst zu Leiningen) was created by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who elevated Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Count of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hartenburg to the rank of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ("Reichsfürst") on 3 July 1779. The family is extant, and all male-line descendants of the grantee bear the title of Prince(ss) of Leiningen ("Prinz(essin) zu Leiningen") with the style of "Serene Highness". The head of the house is styled "the" Prince of Leiningen ("Fürst zu Leiningen") (note the difference between the princely titles at the article "Fürst").

The second prince, Emich Carl, was the first husband of Queen Victoria's mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his children remained close to their half-sister. The fourth prince, Ernst, pursued a career in the British Royal Navy; his marriage to Princess Marie of Baden, a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, meant that their children were in the line of succession to the British throne, though rather far down the list. The sixth prince, Karl, married Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, daughter of Princess Victoria Melita who was in turn daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Queen Victoria's second son. As a result, their descendants today occupy places higher up the British line of succession, in the early hundreds.

In 1991, the Hereditary Prince Karl Emich married, as his second wife, Dr Gabriele Thyssen. As a result, the seventh prince, Emich, disinherited his eldest son. This decision was upheld by the German courts, and so on Emich's death later that year he was succeeded as head of the family by his second son Andreas, who is the eighth and present Prince.

Princes of Leiningen (1779)

*Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, 1st Prince of Leiningen (1724-1807)
*Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen (1763-1814)
*Carl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen (1804-1856)
*Ernst, 4th Prince of Leiningen (1830-1904)
*Emich, 5th Prince of Leiningen (1866-1939)
*Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen (1898-1946)
*Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen (1926-1991)
*Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen (born 1955)
**his heir-apparent, Ferdinand, Hereditary Prince of Leiningen (born 1982)

Sources include:
* http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_raymond/Leiningen_Royal_Family.htm
* http://genealogy.euweb.cz/leiningen/leiningen6.html
* http://www.william1.co.uk/g4.htm
* http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~conqueror/genealogy_html/i1090.html
* http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/leiningen.html