Tag Archives: Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen

The Life of Princess Charlotte of Prussia

01 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Empire of Europe, Featured Royal, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Uncategorized, Usurping the Throne

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Princess Charlotte of Prussia (June 21, 1831 – 30 March 30, 1855) was by birth a Princess of Prussia and member of the House of Hohenzollern. By marriage she became Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen.

She was the daughter of Prince Albrecht of Prussia and his wife and first cousin Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau who was the youngest child of King Willem I of the Netherlands and Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia. Princess Wilhelmine was the fourth child of eight born to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Princess Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia

Prince Albrecht of Prussia the fifth son and youngest child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Two of Prince Albrecht’s elder brothers were King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and King Wilhelm I of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

This meant Princess Charlotte of Prussia was the granddaughter of both King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and King Willem I of the Netherlands.

Her parents’ marriage was unhappy due to Prince Albrecht’s several affairs, and finally was dissolved on March 28, 1849 after which Princess Marianne began to live with her former coachman Johannes van Rossum, with whom she had a son, Johannes Wilhelm of Reinhartshausen.

The custody of Charlotte and her two surviving siblings Albrecht and Alexandrine was given to their father; however, their childless aunt Queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Prussia took care of them, moreover after Prince Albrecht’s second and morganatic marriage in 1853 with Rosalie von Rauch, who bore him two sons, Count William and Count Frederick of Hohenau.

Marriage

Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen

As a young woman, Charlotte was highly eligible, due to her Dutch fortune and Hohenzollern connections. In Charlottenburg on May 18, 1850, the nineteen-year-old princess married Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, who was twenty-four years old.

The Hereditary Prince was the only son of Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Princess Marie of Hesse-Cassel. Hereditary Prince Georg had led a battalion from Meiningen in support of the Prussians in the First Schleswig War in 1849.

After resuming his military career in Berlin, Georg soon became engaged to Charlotte, whose position as a niece of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia surely recommended her to him.

It was a love match and their marriage occurred after a short engagement. 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.

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.

The two shared many interests, particularly with the theatre, as they were both ardent attendees; during their engagement, they had even acted in amateur court theatricals together.

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. Her daughter, Princess Marie Elisabeth, would inherit these interests.

Death

On January 27, 1855, their second son, Georg died. Charlotte followed him two months later, dying of childbirth complications on March 30 at the age of twenty-three.

Georg’s second wife Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, c. 1860. Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Georg was inconsolable, but would eventually remarry to Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in order to provide a mother to his remaining children. He succeeded his father as Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen in 1866, ten years after Charlotte’s death.

Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen’s second wife, Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, was a daughter of Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the youngest of six children. Her mother, Princess Feodora of Leiningen,
was an older half-sister to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, thus making the younger Feodora a niece of the Queen.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia and her husband, the then Hereditary Prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen, had four children. The eldest was Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen who married his second cousin, another Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of German Emperor Friedrich III and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and she was both a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and German Emperor Wilhelm I.

The Life of Princess Adelaide “Adi” of Saxe-Meiningen

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Empire of Europe, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Princess Adelaide “Adi” of Saxe-Meiningen (August 16, 1891 – April 25, 1971), later Princess Adalbert of Prussia, was a daughter of Prince Friedrich Johann of Saxe-Meiningen and his wife Countess Adelaide of Lippe-Biesterfeld.

Family

Adelaide (original German: Adelheid). Adelaide’s father, Prince Friedrich Johann was a younger son of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen by his second wife Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. She had five siblings, including Prince Georg a prisoner of war killed during World War II, and Prince Bernard.

Adelaide’s mother, also named Adelaide, was the eldest child of Ernst, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld, who was the Regent of the principality of Lippe for seven years (1897–1904).

Princess Adelaide had family connections with both the British Royal Family and the Prussian Royal Family. Princess Adelaide and her husband Prince Aldalbert of Prussia were third cousins.

Adelaide and her husband Adalbert were both descendants of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

I will address Princess Adelaide’s descent first. She was a great-great granddaughter of Princess Victoria through Princess Victoria’s first marriage to Prince Emich Charles of Leiningen.

Princess Victoria and Prince Emich Charles had a daughter, Princess Feodora, who married Prince Ernst I of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and they in turn had a daughter, also named Princess Feodora, who married Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. Thier son, Prince Friedrich Johann, was the father of Princess Adelaide.

Now I will address Prince Adalbert’s descent from Princess Victoria.

Prince Adalbert of Prussia was also a great-great grandson of Princess Victoria Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld through both her first and second marriages.

Through Victoria’s first marriage to Prince Emich Charles of Leiningen they had a daughter Princess Feodora as mentioned above. And as previously mentioned Princess Feodora married Prince Ernst I of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and they in turn had a daughter, also named Princess Feodora.

Princess Feodora also had a sister, Princess Adelaide, who married Duke Friedrich VIII of Schleswig-Holstein and they in turn had a daughter Princess Augusta Victoria who married Emperor Wilhelm II; who are Prince Aldalbert’s parents.

Empress Augusta Victoria was not only Princess Adelaide’s mother-in-law, she was her father’s first cousin… therefore she was Adelaide’s first cousin once removed.

Prince Aldalbert was a descendant of Princess Victoria through her second marriage with, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; and from this union came Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, was married to Emperor Friedrich III and they were the parents of Aldalbert’s father, Emperor Wilhelm II.

Marriage

On August 3, 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Adelaide married Prince Adalbert of Prussia at Wilhelmshaven, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He was the third son of German Emperor William II. Adelaide’s father would die within a month, on August 23, 1914. Less than a month after their marriage, Prince Adalbert was reported to have been killed in battle in Brussels. This was only a rumor however, and the prince had been unharmed. In March 1915, he was promoted to Captain in the navy and Major in the army.

She and Prince Adalbert had three children:

1. Princess Victoria Marina of Prussia (stillborn, September 4, 1915) she died soon after birth, although Adelaide was reported to have been in “satisfactory condition”.
2. Princess Victoria Marina of Prussia (September 11, 1917 – January 21, 1981) she married Kirby Patterson (July 24, 1907– June 4, 1984) on September 26, 1947.
3. Prince Wilhelm Victor of Prussia (February 15, 1919 – February 7, 1989), he married at Donaueschingen on July 20, 1944 Marie Antoinette, Countess of Hoyos (June 27, 1920 – March 1, 2004). They had two children, five grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Later life

After Emperor William II abdicated in 1918 at the end of World War I, Prince Adalbert sought refuge on his yacht, which had been maintained by a loyal crew. Princess Adelaide and their children soon attempted to follow, travelling by train from Kiel. They were delayed however, and eventually came to be staying in southern Bavaria with Prince Henry of Bavaria (a grandson of Ludwig III of Bavaria) and his wife. She and Prince Adalbert were later reunited.

Princess Adelaide died on April 25, 1971 in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland. Her husband had died 23 years earlier, on September 22, 1948 at the same location.