Prince Charlotte of Prussia (1831–1855)
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Princess Frederica Louise Wilhelmina Marianne Charlotte of Prussia (21 June 1831 – 30 March 1855) was the eldest daughter of Prince Albert of Prussia and his wife Princess Marianne of the Netherlands.[1] She died before her husband Georg of Saxe-Meiningen could succeed as Duke, making her Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen.
Family and early life
Charlotte's father Albert was a younger son of Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Her mother Marianne was a daughter of William I of the Netherlands and Wilhelmine of Prussia. Charlotte was a sister of Prince Albert of Prussia, a Prussian general field marshal and later regent of the Duchy of Brunswick.
Her parents divorced in 1848, and custody of Charlotte and her siblings was given to her father. In actuality, their childless aunt Queen Elisabeth Ludovika (wife of Frederick William IV of Prussia) took care of them.
Music
Charlotte had a talent for music, and was taught by the likes of Wilhelm Taubert, Theodor Kullak, and Julius Stern in her youth. She wrote a number of military marches, songs, and piano pieces.[1] Her daughter Princess Marie Elisabeth would inherit these interests.
Marriage
As a young woman, Charlotte was highly eligible, due to her Dutch fortune and Hohenzollern connections. In Charlottenburg on 18 May 1850, the nineteen-year-old princess married Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen who was thirty-four years old.[2][3] The only son of Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel, he had led a battalion from Meiningen in support of the Prussians in the First Schleswig War in 1849.[4] After resuming his military career in Berlin, Georg soon became engaged to Charlotte, whose position as a niece of Frederick William IV of Prussia surely recommended her to him. It was a love match and their marriage occurred after a short engagement.[2][3] Among the wedding gifts was an opulent old villa on Lake Como from her mother Marianne, as well as a substantial collection of paintings and sculptures.[2][4] It was renamed the Villa Carlotta in the bride's honour. Due to their Prussian connections, the couple spent the next five years in Berlin and Potsdam but returned to Meiningen for the birth of their children.[2]
The two shared many interests, particularly with the theater, as they were both ardent attendees; during their engagement, they had even acted in amateur court theatricals together.[2] They had four children.[3]
Death
On 27 January 1855, their second son Georg died. Charlotte followed him three months later, dying of childbirth complications on 30 March at the age of twenty-four. Georg was inconsolable, but would eventually remarry to Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in order to provide a mother to his remaining children.[5][3][6] He succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Meiningen in 1866, ten years after Charlotte's death.[7]
Issue
They had four children:
- Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1 April 1851 - 16 January 1928); married Princess Charlotte of Prussia and had issue.
- Prince Georg Albrecht (12 April 1852 - 27 January 1855); died young.
- Princess Marie Elisabeth (23 September 1853 - 22 February 1923); died unmarried.
- An unnamed son (29 March 1855 - 30 March 1855)
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 21 June 1831 – 18 May 1850: Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Prussia
- 18 May 1850 – 30 March 1855: Her Royal Highness The Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen
Ancestors
| Princess Charlotte of Prussia | Father: Prince Albert of Prussia |
Paternal Grandfather: Frederick William III of Prussia |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Frederick William II of Prussia |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||
| Paternal Grandmother: Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | ||
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||
| Mother: Princess Marianne of the Netherlands |
Maternal Grandfather: William I of the Netherlands |
Maternal Great-grandfather: William V, Prince of Orange | |
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange | |||
| Maternal Grandmother: Wilhelmine of Prussia |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Frederick William II of Prussia | ||
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt |
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1831–1855). |
- 1 2 Ebel 1913.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Koller 1984, p. 50.
- 1 2 3 4 Walker 2010, p. 279.
- 1 2 Osborne 1988, p. 15.
- ↑ Koller 1984, p. 51.
- ↑ Lodge 1890, p. 59.
- ↑ Koller 1984, p. 54.
- Works cited
- Ebel, Otto (1913). Women Composers: A Biographical Handbook of Women's Work in Music. Chandler-Ebel.
- Koller, Ann Marie (1984). The Theater Duke: George II of Saxe-Meiningen and the German Stage. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1196-8.
- Lodge, Edmund (1890). The Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage & Companionage of the British Empire. Hurst and Blackett.
- Osborne, John (1988). The Meiningen Court Theatre, 1866-1890. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30394-X.
- Walker, Alan (2010). Hans Von Bulow: A Life and Times. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195368680.
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