Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover
Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover (Welf Ernst August Andreas Philipp Georg Wilhelm Ludwig Berthold Prinz von Hannover), Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (born 25 January 1947 at Schloss Marienburg, Nordstemmen, Lower Saxony, Germany; died 10 January 1981 in Poona, Maharashtra, India) was the eldest son of Prince George William of Hanover and his wife Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Welf was a first cousin of Charles, Prince of Wales. The prince used the name Welf Prinz von Hannover.
Personal life
Born in Lower Saxony at the Hanover family seat of Schloss Marienburg, Welf was raised in Munich. In 1969, the prince married Wibke van Gunsteren. Welf and his wife became followers of a syncretic movement led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In 1975, Welf and Wibke, along with their five-year-old daughter Tania Saskia, made a pilgrimage to Poona, India to live in a ashram with other followers of Bhagwan. Once there, Bhagwan gave Welf the name Vimalkirti ("Spotless splendour") and WibkeTuriyä ("Spiritual love").
Welf died at the age of 33 at a clinic in Poona from a cerebral haemorrhage after collapsing during a morning karate practice session and becoming paralyzed at the ashram.
Marriage and issue
Welf married Wibke van Gunsteren (born 26 November 1948 at Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), daughter of Dr. med. Hans Daniel Christians and Ursula Schmidt-Prange, on 23 May 1969 in a civil ceremony. They were remarried two days later in a religious ceremony at Essen-Bredeney in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Welf Ernst and Wibke were divorced in 1979. They had one daughter:
- HRH Princess Tania Saskia Viktoria-Luise of Hanover (born 24 July 1970 at Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). Princess Saskia's first husband was Michael Alexander Naylor-Leyland (born 14 July 1956 in London) whom she married on 6 July 1990. The couple had two children:
- Jake John Naylor-Leyland (born 22 September 1993 at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London)
- Gabriel George Naylor-Leyland (born 26 March 1996 at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London)
Princess Saskia married her second husband, Edward Hooper, on 27 January 2001. They had one son:
- Louis Ivan Welf Otto Hooper (born 6 April 2007)
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 25 January 1947 – 10 January 1981: His Royal Highness Prince Welf Ernst of Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Ancestry
Patrilineal descent |
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Patrilineal descent, descent from father to son, is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that the historically accurate royal house of monarchs of the House of Hanover was the House of Lucca (or Este, or Welf). Descent before Oberto I is from 1 and may be inaccurate. This is the descent of the primary male heir. For the complete expanded family tree, see List of members of the House of Hanover.
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References
nl:Welf Ernst van Brunswijk