November 16, 1797: Accession of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia

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Alexander I of Russia, Congress of Vienna, Franz of Austria, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia, House of Hohenzollern, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Morganatic Marriage, Napoleonic Wars

Friedrich Wilhelm III. (August 3, 1770 – June 7, 1840) was King of Prussia from November 16, 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until August 6, 1806, when the Empire was dissolved.

Friedrich Wilhelm was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt was the daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken. She was born in Prenzlau. Her sister Louise who married Duke (later Grand-Duke) Charles Augustus of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Her brother was Ludwig X, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1806 Ludwig X was elevated to the title of a Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and joined the Confederation of the Rhine, leading to the dissolution of the Empire. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, Ludwig had to give up his Westphalian territories, but was compensated with the district of Rheinhessen, with his capital Mainz on the left bank of the Rhine. Because of this addition, he amended his title to Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

Friedrich Wilhelm was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations, distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech subsequently came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers. He was neglected by his father during his childhood and suffered from an inferiority complex his entire life.

As a child, Friedrich Wilhelm’s father (under the influence of his mistress, Wilhelmine Enke, Countess of Lichtenau) had him handed over to tutors, as was quite normal for the period. He spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Heinrich. They thus grew up partly with the Count’s son, who accompanied them on their Grand Tour in the 1780s.

Friedrich Wilhelm was happy at Paretz, and for this reason, in 1795, he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a melancholy boy, but he grew up pious and honest. His tutors included the dramatist Johann Engel.

As a soldier, he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a lieutenant colonel in 1786, a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794.

On December 24, 1793, Friedrich Wilhelm married his cousin Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Louise’s father, Charles, was a brother of Queen Charlotte of Great Britain, wife of King George III, and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta Sophia. Louise bore Friedrich Wilhelm ten children.

In the Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince’s Palace) in Berlin, Friedrich Wilhelm lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, including the King himself.

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Prussia

Reign

Friedrich Wilhelm succeeded to the throne on November 16, 1797. He also became, in personal union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel (1797–1806 and again 1813–1840). At once, the new King showed that he was earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the royal establishment’s expenses, dismissing his father’s ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign.

He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it. Too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he greatly reduced the effectiveness of his reign since he was forced to assume the roles he did not delegate. This is the main factor of his inconsistent rule.

Disgusted with his father’s court (in both political intrigues and sexual affairs), Friedrich Wilhelm’s first and most successful early endeavor was to restore his dynasty’s moral legitimacy. The eagerness to restore dignity to his family went so far that it nearly caused sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow to cancel the expensive and lavish Prinzessinnengruppe project, which was commissioned by the previous monarch Friedrich Wilhelm II.

At first, Friedrich Wilhelm and his advisors attempted to pursue a neutrality policy in the Napoleonic Wars. Although they succeeded in keeping out of the Third Coalition in 1805, eventually, Friedrich Wilhelm was swayed by the queen’s attitude, who led Prussia’s pro-war party and entered into the war in October 1806.

On October 14, 1806, at the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt, the French effectively decimated the Prussian army’s effectiveness and functionality; led by Friedrich Wilhelm II, the Prussian army collapsed entirely soon after. Napoleon occupied Berlin in late October. The royal family fled to Memel, East Prussia, where they fell on the mercy of Emperor Alexander I of Russia.

Alexander, too, suffered defeat at the hands of the French, and at Tilsit on the Niemen France made peace with Russia and Prussia. Napoleon dealt with Prussia very harshly, despite the pregnant Queen’s interview with the French emperor, which was believed to soften the defeat. Instead, Napoleon took much less mercy on the Prussians than what was expected. Prussia lost many of its Polish territories and all territory west of the Elbe and had to finance a large indemnity and pay French troops to occupy key strong points within the Kingdom.

Although the ineffectual King himself seemed resigned to Prussia’s fate, various reforming ministers, such as Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, and Count August von Gneisenau, set about reforming Prussia’s administration and military, with the encouragement of Queen Louise.

On July 19, 1810, while visiting her father in Strelitz Queen Louisevdied in her husband’s arms from an unidentified illness. The queen’s subjects attributed the French occupation as the cause of her early death. “Our saint is in heaven”, exclaimed Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Louise’s untimely death left her husband alone during a period of great difficulty, as the Napoleonic Wars and need for reform continued. Louise was buried in the garden of Charlottenburg Palace, where a mausoleum, containing a fine recumbent statue by Christian Daniel Rauch, was built over her grave

In 1813, following Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, Friedrich Wilhelm turned against France and signed an alliance with Russia at Kalisz. However, he had to flee Berlin, still under French occupation. Prussian troops played a crucial part in the victories of the allies in 1813 and 1814, and the King himself traveled with the main army of Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, along with Emperor Alexander of Russia and Emperor Franz of Austria.

At the Congress of Vienna, Friedrich Wilhelm’s ministers succeeded in securing significant territorial increases for Prussia. However, they failed to obtain the annexation of all of Saxony, as they had wished. Following the war, Friedrich Wilhelm turned towards political reaction, abandoning the promises he had made in 1813 to provide Prussia with a constitution.

Prussian Union of churches

Frederick William was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of churches. The merging of the Lutheran and Calvinist (Reformed) confessions to form the United Church of Prussia was highly controversial.

The crown’s aggressive efforts to restructure religion were unprecedented in Prussian history. In a series of proclamations over several years, the Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the majority group of Lutherans and the minority group of Reformed Protestants. The main effect was that the government of Prussia had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognized as the leading bishop.

In 1824 Friedrich Wilhelm III remarried (morganatically) Countess Auguste von Harrach, Princess of Liegnitz. They had no children.

At the time of their marriage, the Harrach family was still not recognized as equal for dynastic purposes. Later, in 1841, they were officially recognized as a mediatized family (a former ruling family within the Holy Roman Empire), with the style of Illustrious Highness, which allowed them to have equal status for marriage purposes to those reigning royal families. Thus, in 1824 when the marriage occurred, it was treated as morganatic, so she was not named Queen, but was given the title Princess von Liegnitz (modern-day Legnica) and Countess von Hohenzollern. Friedrich Wilhelm III reportedly stated that he did not wish to have another queen after Queen Louise.

In 1838 the king distributed large parts of his farmland at Erdmannsdorf Estate to 422 Protestant refugees from the Austrian Zillertal, who built Tyrolean style farmhouses in the Silesian village.

Death

Friedrich Wilhelm III died on June 7, 1840 in Berlin, from a fever, survived by his second wife. His eldest son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, succeeded him.

Friedrich Wilhelm III is buried at the Mausoleum in Schlosspark Charlottenburg, Berlin

October 14, 1872: Death of Prince Albrecht of Prussia

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Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Emperor Wilhelm I, House of Orange-Nassau, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Morganatic Marriage, Prince Albert of Prussia, Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, Wilhelmstraße, Willem I of the Netherlands

Prince Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht of Prussia (October 4, 1809 – October 14, 1872) was the fifth son and youngest child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and she was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’s father, Charles, was a brother of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of the United Kingdom, and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Louise’s maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta Sophia.

At the time of her birth, Louise’s father was not yet the ruler of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (he would not succeed his brother as Duke until 1794), and consequently she was not born in a court, but rather in a less formal home.

Prince Albrecht’s parents fled to East Prussia after the occupation of Berlin by Napoleon, and Albrecht was born in Königsberg. Two of Albrecht’s elder brothers were Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

In 1819 Albrecht joined the Prussian Army as a lieutenant and held the rank of a general of cavalry in 1852. He took part in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War as a cavalry corps commander at the battles of Gitschin and Königgrätz. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 he led a cavalry division at the battles of Wissembourg, Wörth and Sedan.

Prince Albrecht later joined the forces of his nephew Prince Friedrich Charles of Prussia and Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the campaign against the Armée de la Loire.

After the war Albrecht was awarded the title of a Generaloberst. He died in Berlin, where he is buried at the Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum. He was the 74th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

Family

In The Hague, on 14 September 1830 Albert married his cousin Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau the daughter of King Willem I of the Netherlands and Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia the fourth child of eight born to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

The marriage was dissolved on March 28, 1849. They had five children:

Charlotte (1831 – 1855), married the future Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

A son (1832). He was either stillborn or lived only a few hours.

Albrecht (1837 – 1906), married Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, had 3 sons.

Elisabeth (August 27, 1840 – October 9, 1840).

Alexandrine (1842 – 1906), married Duke Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Princess Marianne was a woman who thought and lived very unconventionally for her time. Because she left her unfaithful husband Prince Albrecht of Prussia and had an illegitimate son (she openly recognized him) with her partner Johannes van Rossum (with whom she also lived in a common-law marriage), she was banished from the Kingdom of Prussia.

Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau

In Berlin on June 13, 1853, Albert married secondly, Rosalie Wilhelmine Johanna von Rauch, daughter of Gustav von Rauch, chief of the Prussian General Staff 1812-1813 and Prussian Minister of War 1837–1841. She was created Countess of Hohenau on May 28, 1853. They had two sons:

Georg Albrecht Wilhelm, Count of Hohenau (1854 – 1930). married to Princess Margarethe of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (1865-1940), daughter of Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen.

Bernhard Wilhelm Albrecht Frederick, Count of Hohenau (1857 – 1914).

As this second union was considered a morganatic marriage, the couple temporarily had to avoid the Prussian court. Albrecht acquired a vineyard in Loschwitz near Dresden, Saxony, where he had a residence, Albrechtsberg Castle, erected in 1854.

Aftermath

In 1830 Albrecht had acquired a city palace in Berlin on Wilhelmstraße, then called Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. An adjacent street off Wilhelmstraße laid out in 1891 was named Prinz-Albrecht-Straße. After the Nazi Machtergreifung it became notorious as the seat of the Gestapo and the Reichsführer-SS.

The Prinz-Albrecht-Palais itself from 1934 served as the headquarters of the SS Sicherheitsdienst under Reinhard Heydrich, from 1939 the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. In 1944 the building was heavily damaged by air raids and finally razed to the ground in 1955, leaving the foundations and cellars exposed to the open air. They remain so today, and are used as part of the Topography of Terror project.

August 3, 1770: Birth of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia

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Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Congress of Vienna, Countess Auguste von Harrach, Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia, House of Hohenzollern, Kingdom of Prussia, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Napoleonic Wars, Princess of Liegnitz, Sophie Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Friedrich-Wilhelm III (August 3, 1770 – June 7, 1840) was King of Prussia from 1797 to 1840.

Friedrich-Wilhelm was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, the daughter of Landgrave Ludwig IX of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Caroline of Zweibrücken. Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt was born in Prenzlau. She was the sister of Grand Duchess Louise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, as well as Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine.

Friedrich-Wilhelm III, King of Prussia

Friedrich-Wilhelm was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech subsequently came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers. He was neglected by his father during his childhood and suffered from an inferiority complex his entire life.

On December 24, 1793, Friedrich-Wilhelm married Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father Charles was a brother of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Landgrave Ludwig VIII, of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta-Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta-Sophia.

Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The wedding took place in the Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince’s Palace) in Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelm and Luise lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Luise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, including the King himself. Friedrich-Wilhelm and Luise had ten children.

Friedrich-Wilhelm succeeded to the throne on November 16, 1797. He also became, in personal union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel (1797–1806 and again 1813–1840). At once, the new King showed that he was earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the expenses of the royal establishment, dismissing his father’s ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign.

Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia (Father)

Frederica-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (Mothrr)

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it. Too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he greatly reduced the effectiveness of his reign since he was forced to assume the roles he did not delegate. This is a main factor of his inconsistent rule.

Disgusted with the moral debauchery of his father’s court (in both political intrigues and sexual affairs), Friedrich-Wilhelm III’s first, and most successful early endeavor was to restore the moral legitimacy to his dynasty.

Friedrich-Wilhelm III ruled Prussia during the difficult times of the Napoleonic Wars. Steering a careful course between France and her enemies, after a major military defeat in 1806, he was humiliated by Napoleon, and Prussia was stripped of recent gains and forced to pay huge financial penalties. The king reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege.

Following Napoleon’s defeat, he took part in the Congress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. His major interests were internal, the reform of Prussia’s Protestant churches. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches, to homogenize their liturgy, their organization, and even their architecture.

The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches. The king was said to be extremely shy and indecisive. His wife Queen Luise (1776–1810) was his most important political advisor. She led a very powerful group that included Baron vom Stein, Prince von Hardenberg, von Scharnhorst, and Count Gneisenau. They set about reforming Prussia’s administration, churches, finance and military.

In 1824 Friedrich-Wilhelm III remarried (morganatically) Countess Auguste von Harrach, Princess of Liegnitz. They had no children. At the time of their marriage the Harrach family was still not recognised as equal, although, later in 1841, they were officially recognised as a mediatised family (former ruling family within the Holy Roman Empire), with the style of Illustrious Highness which allowed them having equal status for marriage purposes to those reigning and royal families.

Due to that, in 1824 when the marriage occurred, it was treated as morganatic, so she was not named Queen, but was given the titles Princess von Liegnitz (modern-day Legnica) and Countess von Hohenzollern. Friedrich-Wilhelm reportedly stated, that he did not wish to have another queen after Queen Luise.

Countess Auguste von Harrach, Princess of Liegnitz

In 1838 the king distributed large parts of his farmland at Erdmannsdorf Estate to 422 Protestant refugees from the Austrian Zillertal, who built Tyrolean style farmhouses in the Silesian village.

Death

Friedrich-Wilhelm III died on June 7, 1840 in Berlin, from a fever, survived by his second wife. His eldest son succeeded him as King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. King Friedrich-Wilhelm III is buried at the Mausoleum in Schlosspark Charlottenburg, Berlin.

June 5, 1771: Birth of Ernst-August, King of Hanover.

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Duke of Cumberland, Ernst August of Hanover, Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, George III, King Georg V of Hanover, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

Ernst-August, King of Hanover (June 5, 1771 – November 18, 1851) was King of Hanover from June 20, 1837 until his death. As the fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles-Ludwig-Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1708–1752; known as “Prince of Mirow”) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Ernst-August, King of Hanover

Initially Ernst-August seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son. Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which debarred women from the succession, ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714.

Ernst-August was born in London but was sent to Hanover in his adolescence for his education and military training. While serving with Hanoverian forces near Tournai against Revolutionary France, he received a disfiguring facial wound.

After leaving the nursery, he lived with his two younger brothers, Prince Adolphus-Frederick (later Duke of Cambridge) and Prince Augustus (later Duke of Sussex), and a tutor in a house on Kew Green, near his parents’ residence at Kew Palace. Though King George III never left England in his life, he sent his younger sons to Germany in their adolescence.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover. (Father)

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Mother)

This was done to limit the influence Ernest-August’s eldest brother George, Prince of Wales, who was leading an extravagant lifestyle, would have over his younger brothers. At the age of fifteen, Prince Ernst-August and his two younger brothers were sent to the University of Göttingen, located in his father’s domain of Hanover. Ernst-August proved a keen student and after being tutored privately for a year, while learning German, he attended lectures at the university.

The King’s eldest son, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV), had one child, Charlotte, who was expected to become the British queen, but she died in 1817, giving Ernest some prospect of succeeding to the British throne as well as the Hanoverian one. However, his older brother Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, fathered the eventual British heir, Victoria, in 1819.

Marriage.

Ernst-August married Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Friederike Louise Caroline Sophie Charlotte Alexandrine) (3 March 3, 1778 – June 29, 1841). She was a German princess who became, by marriage, Princess of Prussia, Princess of Solms-Braunfels, Duchess of Cumberland in Britain and Queen of Hanover (in Germany) as the consort of Ernst-August, King of Hanover (the fifth son and eighth child of King George III).

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born in the Altes Palais of Hanover as the fifth daughter of Charles II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and his first wife, Frederica, daughter of Prince Georg-Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father assumed the title of Grand Duke of Mecklenburg on June 18, 1815. Duchess Frederica was the niece of her future mother-in-law, Queen Charlotte, through her father.

Charles II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Frederica’s parents were anxious to arrange advantageous marriages for all their daughters, and used family connections to bring this about. Queen Frederika-Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, wife of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II, was a first cousin of Frederica’s mother. Frederica’s parents broached with the Prussian royal family the idea of marriage between their children, and the Prussians were not averse. On March 14, 1793, the Princesses of Mecklenburg-Strelitz “coincidentally” met the Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm II at the Prussian Theatre in Frankfurt-am-Main. He was immediately captivated by the grace and charm of both sisters, Frederica and Louise. The pending marriage negotiations received traction, and within weeks, the matter was settled: Frederica’s elder sister Louise would marry Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia) and Frederica would marry his younger brother Prince Ludwig.

Prince Ludwig of Prussia.

Louise and Friedrich-Wilhelm and Frederica and Prince Ludwig of Prussia were all married at the same venue. Unlike her sister, Frederica did not enjoy a happy marriage. Although her husband died from diphtheria in 1796, only three years after the wedding, Ludwig was said to have preferred the company of his mistresses and completely neglected his wife.

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (sister of Frederica)

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia

In 1797, Frederica and her cousin Prince Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of King George III of Great Britain by his wife Queen Charlotte (Frederica’s paternal aunt), became unofficially engaged. The Duke of Cambridge asked the consent of his father to the marriage. The King did not refuse his consent but asked his son to wait until the ongoing war with France was over. The relationship eventually ended, with rumors circulating that either Adolphus had offered to release Frederica from the engagement, or – as Queen Charlotte believed – Frederica had jilted him for another man.

In 1798 Frederica became pregnant. The father was Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels, perhaps the man she jilted the Duke of Cambridge for? The prince recognized his paternity and requested her hand in marriage, a proposal that was quickly granted in order to avoid scandal. On December 10, of that year, the couple was married in Berlin and immediately moved to Ansbach.

In May 1813, during a visit to his uncle Duke Charles in Neustrelitz, Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of King George III of Great Britain, met and fell in love with Frederica.

Some time later Frederica asked the Prussian king for approval for her divorce from Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Solms-Braunfels. All parties agreed, including the Prince of Solms-Braunfels, but Friedrich-Wilhelm’s sudden death on April 13, 1814 precluded the need for a divorce. The prince’s demise was considered by some as a little too convenient, and some suspected that Frederica had poisoned him.

In August, the engagement with Ernst-August was officially announced. After the British Prince Regent gave his consent to the wedding, Frederica and Ernst-August were married on 29 May 29, 1815 at the parish church of Neustrelitz. Some time later, the couple traveled to Great Britain and married again on August 29, 1815 at Carlton House, London.

Ernst-August, King of Hanover.

Queen Charlotte bitterly opposed the marriage, even though her future daughter-in-law was also her niece. She refused to attend the wedding and advised her son to live outside England with his wife. Frederica never obtained the favor of her aunt/mother-in-law, who died unreconciled with her in 1818. During her marriage to Ernest Augustus she gave birth three times, but only a son survived, who would eventually become King Georg V of Hanover.

On April 23, 1799, George III created Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Earl of Armagh, and was granted an allowance of £12,000 a year. Though he was made a lieutenant-general, of both British and Hanoverian forces, he remained in England and, with a seat in the House of Lords, entered politics. Ernst-August was an active member of the House of Lords, where he maintained an extremely conservative record. There were persistent allegations (reportedly spread by his political foes) that he had murdered his valet, had fathered a son by his sister Sophia, and intended to take the British throne by murdering Victoria. Following the death of his brother King William IV, Ernst-August became Hanover’s first resident ruler since George I.

Ernst-August had a generally successful fourteen-year reign but excited controversy near its start when he dismissed the Göttingen Seven, including the two Brothers Grimm, from their professorial positions for agitating against his policies. A revolution in 1848 was quickly put down in Hanover. The kingdom joined the German customs union in 1850 despite Ernest’s reluctance. He died the next year and was succeeded by his son Georg.

The Fall of Louis XVI of France and Navarre: Part V

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Austria, Emperor Leopold II, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire, Leopold II, Louis XIV of France, Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette, Tuileries Palace

Part V

Despite the Kings flight from the Palace the Legislative Assembly still favored a constitutional monarchy. After a new Constitution was written and Louis agreed to swear an oath to uphold it, there was still a chance the monarchy could survive. What most people often think is that that the Enlightenment ideals were against a monarchy because the French Revolution came so quickly on the heels of the American Revolution where the former British Colonies said “No” to being ruled by a king. That is not the case. The Enlightenment ideals supported many types of government as long as it was the will of the people and that they had a say in the process of government. While an absolute monarchy, which was the type Louis XVI inherited, was not congenial to Enlightenment principles but a constitutional or limited monarchy was favorable because it limited the powers of the monarch and allowed for elected officials that represented the populace.

However, it seems with what transpired next, it wasn’t so much that a constitutional monarchy was against the Enlightenment or the Revolution, it seems that those in the French government grew tired of Louis. One of the events that lead to the toppling of Louis and his crown was the war between France and the Holy Roman Empire in April of 1792. At this time Marie-Antoinette’s brother, was Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold, along with King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia and French Émigrés issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which declared that in the interest of the all European monarchs of Europe that the well-being of Louis and his family was essential, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Shortly after this deceleration the Legislative Assembly, with the support of Louis, ironically, declared war on the Holy Roman Empire.

This war solidified many factions within the Revolution. To these revolutionaries this war was not about the protection of the Royal Family but against French sovereignty itself. When the leader of the Prussian-Austrian army Prince Carl-Wilhelm-Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick issued a proclamation called the Brunswick Manifesto on July 25, 1792, written by Louis’s émigré cousin, Louis Joseph de Bourbon the Prince de Condé, declaring the intent of the Austrians and Prussians to restore the king to his full powers and to treat any person or town who opposed them as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law, this was the final blow for Louis.

Paris mobs had reached their boiling point. With foreign powers threatening to give Louis his full absolute powers and threatening French sovereignty, Paris mobs marched on the Tuileries Palace where both the Royal Family and the monarchist members of the Legislative Assembly had taken refuge. On August 13, 1792 Louis XVI and his family were formally arrested. The Legislative Assembly was replaced by a National Assembly which formally abolished the Monarchy on September 21, 1792.

It is difficult to evaluate Louis’ actions and figure where did he go wrong? One of Louis’ problems was that he was a kind man yet indecisive. If he had been a powerful presence would the outcome have been the same? I really don’t know. It seems even with a powerful ruler the Revolution was larger than one man. In the light of the revolution many of Louis’ actions are understandable.

As a prisoner in the Tuileries Palace he had but little choice but to go along with the revolutionary government. I don’t think all of his actions with the government were insincere. While he was an absolute monarch at heart he did show some level of willingness to work with the government. I do not really think Louis would have objected to a role as a Constitutional monarch. I do see the radical nature of the Revolutionary assemblies as having much to do with Louis’ downfall. It was not all of his fault.

He did, however, play a role. The two largest issues seem to be his flight from the Tuileries Palace and his plotting with foreign powers to end the revolution and to be restored to his full powers. I do think those were the two major points that brought Louis down. However, I can have empathy for him. I do not blame him for trying to regain power. Who wouldn’t have under those circumstances? Plus after a couple of years being a prisoner in his own palace, I can’t blame him for trying to flee that condition.

For myself, I think the larger problem was the absolute monarchy itself. The seeds were sown and the threads for its downfall were laid in the times of Louis XIV. His hunger for power, territory and war was something his successor Louis XV strived for. In some lesser extent so did Louis XVI. Another key ingredient was by placing the court at Versailles and isolating the King from his people, the monarchy lost touch with the common man and his sufferings. That was the true issue that brought down the monarchy.