Of course, Mafalda could have married without any Catholic blessing, in which case she would have been regarded as "living in grave sin" (like Queen Anne of Romania later on) -- or worse, possibly excommunicated.
That being said, my understanding is that in Germany, the terms for a dispensation for interfaith marriages involving Catholics have been different from the rest of the world. The practice has been uneven and inconsistent. I've heard that at times, all the children were raised in the religion of their father. At others, sons followed their fathers while daughters followed their mothers.
If it came to that, the requirement that both parties promise to raise all the children as Catholics didn't even become official in canon law until 1910. As it was, it was strongly resisted in Germany, and the pope had to make an exception there. Perhaps that's what happened ...
Do you know for sure that Philipp and Mafalda received a dispensation for their marriage, and that all the children were raised as Lutherans? Or were they perhaps raised Catholics, and later generations reverted to Protestantism?
No they are protestant. And the -Cassel part was already dropped in 1803 when the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel became Eklectopr of Hesse.
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