Frederick III, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg

Frederick III James of Hesse-Homburg (born: 19 May 1673 in Cölln; died: 8 June 1746 in 's-Hertogenbosch) was a Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg

Life
Frederick III James was the second son of Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Homburg (1633–1708), the famous Prince of Homburg, from his marriage with Louise Elisabeth (1646–1690), daughter of the Duke Jacob of Courland (1610–1662). He received a thorough education in the culturally and spiritually progressive atmosphere of the Electoral Court in Berlin, where his father served as commander of the Brandenburg troops,.

After his confirmation in 1687, he joined the Knight academy in Wolfenbüttel. Later, he joined a Cavalry Regiment in Württemberg. In 1690, he was Captain in the Dutch States Army; in 1692, he was Colonel of the Groningen cavalry regiment. He kept being promoted: to Brigadier in 1701, to Major General in 1704 and after Battle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704, to Lieutenant General. He remained in the Dutch service until the Peace of Utrecht, and then took up government in Bad Homburg.

Frederick III could not contribute much to the administration of his territory while he was in Dutch service. Worth mentioning, however, is the foundation in 1721 of the orphanage in Homburg, which still exists as a "Landgraviate Foundation". The archives of the Foundation were transferred to the Bad Homburg city archives in August 2010.

Frederick tolerant religious policies permitted the publication in Homburg of the book Ein Geistlicher Würtz-Kräuter und Blumen-Garten oder des Universal-Gesang-Buchs ("A religoious herbs-and-flower garden, or the universal song-book") by Christoph Schütz.

After the public debt in Hesse-Homburg had grown considerably, Frederick was forced by an imperial debit commission to again take service in Holland in 1738. He was governor of the Belgian city of Liège, then governor from 1741, governor of Breda. In 1742, he was promoted to General of the Cavalry.

He died in 1742, as governor of 's-Hertogenbosch and was buried in the crypt of Bad Homburg Castle. Since none of his children survived him, he was succeeded as the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg by Frederick IV, the son of his younger brother Casimir William.

Marriage and issue
Frederick III was married twice: in 1700, he married Elisabeth Dorothea of Hesse-Darmstadt (1676–1721), with whom he had seven children. Children from this first marriage (not counting three stillborn children):
 * Friederike Dorothea (1701–1704)
 * Frederick William (1702–1703)
 * Louis John William Gruno (1705–1745), Russian Field Marshal
 * married in 1738 Princess Anastasia Trubezkaya (1700-1755)


 * Louise Wilhelmine (1703–1704)
 * John Charles (1706–1728)
 * Ernestine Louise (1707-1707)
 * Frederick (1721-1721)

In 1728 he closed a second marriage with Christiane Charlotte of Nassau-Ottweiler, the widow of Count Charles Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken; this marriage remained childless.