He was born in
Kassel to First Lieutenant (later Royal-Prussian Major General) Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Freiherr von Schenk zu Schweinsberg (died 5 October 1877, Kassel) and his wife Tusnelda von Eschwege (died 1886). One of his father's brothers was
Ludwig Johann Schenck zu Schweinsberg. After preschool in Kassel, he attended the Hohe Landesschule in
Hanau. He then became a cadet in the Hessian army at Kassel, serving from 1860 in the Leibgarde-Regiment. After Hesse was defeated in the
Austro-Prussian War in 1866, he renounced an offer to transfer to the
Prussian Army and instead began studying law and history at the
University of Giessen. These studies were interrupted by the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870, during which he was an officer in the 1. Großherzoglich Hessischen Leibgarde-Regiment and was wounded at the
Battle of Gravelotte. After the war he returned to his studies and graduated as a doctor of law in 1873 and a doctor of philology. He remained in Giessen as a Regierungsakzessist in Hesse's civil service, before moving to the Duchy's state archive at Darmstadt in the same position in 1875. In 1876 he became secretary to the
Grand Duchy of Hesse Historical Society, becoming its Chaiman in 1890. He was made chairman of the archives in 1877, with the job title 'Haus- und Staatsarchivar', and in 1886 its director. In the meantime, in 1879,
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse made him his chamberlain. In 1902 he designed a new coat of arms for Hesse. He also served from 1907 to 1911 as a state member of the
Grand Duchy of Hesse Historical Commission. He was a member of the Grand Duchy's first-ever 'Denkmalrat' (Monuments Commission), formed by Hesse's 1902 Monument Protection Act, Germany's first-ever modern law for the protection of historic monuments. He retired from his archives post at his own request in 1911 and died eleven years later in
Fronhausen. ==Marriage and issue==