Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (Karl Emich Nikolaus Friedrich Hermann Prinz zu Leiningen), was born on June 12, 1952. He is the eldest son of Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen

Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen

Emich Kyrill, Prince of Leiningen was the son of Karl, Prince of Leiningen. He was the titular Prince of Leiningen from 1946 until his death.-Early life:...

 and his wife Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg, and is an elder brother of Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.

Marriages and children

He married Princess Margarita of Hohenlohe-Oehringen on June 8, 1984. He had one daughter by this marriage, Princess Cécilia of Leiningen (b. 1988). Princess Margarita died in 1989 in a car accident.

On May 24, 1991, Prince Karl Emich married Dr. Gabriele Renate Thyssen. After an inheritance dispute, he abdicated and gave way to his younger brother Prince Andreas of Leiningen. He is excluded from the line of succession to the British throne

Line of succession to the British Throne

The line of succession to the British throne is the ordered sequence of those people eligible to succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom and the other 15 Commonwealth realms. By the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, the succession is limited to the descendants of the Electress Sophia of...

, because his then wife was a Roman Catholic at that time. They had one daughter, Theresa Anna Elisabeth Prinzessin von Leiningen (b. 1992) In 1998, Karl Emich and Gabriele were divorced.

Law suit

In 2000, Karl Emich began the final round of a lawsuit to inherit ₤100 million worth of castles, property, and a Mediterranean island that had been previously denied him by his family because he chose to marry Thyssen. Karl Emich was disinherited shortly after his 1991 wedding, as his mother, father, and brother Andreas disapproved of her birth. He also broke a 1897 family edict which stipulates that its members may only marry aristocrats of equivalent status. Karl remarked about the whole affair,

"From the very beginning of our marriage I was turned into an enemy. We were both subjected to enormous pressure. No marriage can withstand that sort of thing in the long term. I had hoped things would improve when our child arrived. But after our daughter was born, nothing happened. My mother has refused to speak to me since the wedding".

Karl Emich has insisted that the stress this feud put upon his marriage is the reason why Thyssen left him, converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, and ran off with Aga Khan IV

Aga Khan IV

Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV, NPk, NI, KBE, CC, GCC, GCIH, GCM is the 49th and current Imam of the Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims. He has held this position under the title of Aga Khan since July 11, 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan...

.

Marriage to Egloffstein

He married Countess Isabelle of Egloffstein in a civil ceremony on 8 September 2007 in Amorbach

Amorbach

Amorbach is a town in the Miltenberg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany, with some 4,100 inhabitants .- Location :...

, and in a religious ceremony on 7 June 2008 in Pappenheim

Pappenheim

Pappenheim is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, 11 km south of Weißenburg in Bayern.- Notable people :The architect and professor Eduard Mezger was born in Pappenheim....

. In 2010, they had a son, Prince Emich of Leiningen.

Ancestry

Further reading

• "Aga Khan's wife sues for divorce", Daily Mail, 8 October 2004.
• Monarchies of Europe Leiningen Royal Family