Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Antoinette Ernestine Amalie

Princess Antoinette, oil on canvas, 1794
Born (1779-08-28)28 August 1779
Coburg, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Died 14 March 1824(1824-03-14) (aged 44)
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Spouse Duke Alexander of Württemberg
Issue Marie, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Paul of Württemberg
Alexander, Duke of Württemberg
Ernest of Württemberg
Frederick of Württemberg
Full name
Antoinette Ernestine Amalie
House House of Wettin (by birth)
House of Württemberg (by marriage)
Father Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Mother Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf

Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Antoinette Ernestine Amalie; 28 August 1779 – 14 March 1824) was a German princess of the House of Wettin. By marriage, she was a Duchess of Württemberg. Through her eldest surviving son, she is the ancestress of today's (Catholic) House of Württemberg.

Born in Coburg, she was the second daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. She was also the elder sister of King Leopold I of Belgium and the aunt of both Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. Her maternal grandparents were Heinrich XXIV, Count Reuß-Ebersdorf and Karoline Ernestine von Erbach-Schönberg, and her paternal grandparents were Ernst Friedrich and Antoinette of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.


Life

Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld as Duchess of Württemberg.

In Coburg on 17 November 1798, she married Alexander of Württemberg. The couple settled in Russia, where Alexander, as a maternal uncle of both Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I made a military and diplomatic career.

Antoinette, who was regarded as influential,[1] was bearer of the Grand Cross of the Imperial Russian Order of Saint Catherine.[2]

Antoinette died in St. Petersburg. She was buried in the Ducal crypt of Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha, where her husband and sons Paul and Frederick found their final resting place.

According to Queen Louise of Prussia, Antoinette could have had an illegitimate child. Her brother George wrote on 18 May 1802: "[...] The Württemberg couple didn't speak to each other in 2 years, but she was with child and certainly the father was some Herr von Höbel, a Canon. I know all this from the Duke of Weimar, and is holy true."[3]

Issue

Notes

  1. Charles Grey: Die Jugendjahre des Prinzen Albert von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, Perthes, 1868, p. 4.
  2. Königlich-Württembergisches Hof- und Staats-Handbuch, Guttenberg, 1824, p. 10. online
  3. Königin Luise von Preußen: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen 1786-1810. Kunstverlag, 2010, p. 188.

Ancestry

Bibliography

External links

Media related to Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld at Wikimedia Commons

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