Heinrich VII, Prince de Reuss
(1825-1906)

The principality of Reuss comprised 165 square miles of wooded hills & modest farmland, with about 20,000 inhabitants. Its capital was Ebersdorf on the Saale, a town of about 1200 people. Confusingly, the name Heinrich was used by all male members of the ruling family, a tradition that began in order to honour the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VI who first appointed them Imperial Stewards. Every few generations the numbering system had to start again from scratch. Disdéri's catalogue for 1861 mentions a portrait of 'Henri VII, Prince de Reuss.'

Heinrich VII, Prinz Reuss zu Köstritz, was born on 14 July 1825. He was the son of Heinrich LXIII, Fürst Reuss zu Köstritz. In 1876 he married Marie Anna of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Their sons were Heinrich XXXII, XXXIII & XXXV. (presumably another Reuss couple had a son, named and numbered Heinrich XXXIV, between the births of Heinrich VII's second and third sons.)

Heinrich VII died at Trebschen on 2 May 1906 at the age of eighty.