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Louise of Mecklenburg 1776-1810
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Image Above
Luise, Queen of
Prussia
Detail from the
painting by Josef Maria Grassi, 1802 |
Louise, or also spelled Luise, was in full
Louise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Louise's Family
Louise was the third daughter of
Duke (German: Herzog) Karl Ludwig
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and
Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Louise would become the mother
of five princes and three princesses.
Louise's Life
Louise was born on March 10,
1776 at Hanover, Germany, where at the time her father was
governor.
Her mother died in 1782.
In 1785, Louise's father
relocated his family to Darmstadt, where Louise's
grandmother took care of her.
From 1792 to 1793, Louise lived with
her oldest sister Charlotte, the Duchess of Hildburghausen.
On July 14, 1792, Louise
attended the coronation of
 Francis II
at Frankfurt.
On December 24, 1793, Louise
married the crown prince, the later
King Frederick William III of Prussia.
In 1797, Frederick became king,
and hence, Louise became Queen of Prussia.
Upon outbreak of the
War of the Fourth Coalition,
Louise accompanied her husband to Naumburg, and, after the
Battle of Jena, to
Königsberg (Kaliningrad or Królewiec) and Memel (Klaipeda.)
Most famous was her meeting with
Napoleon at Tilsit on
July 6, 1807, which did not render the results Louise had
hoped for. And yes, Louise was a head taller than the French
emperor. But then again, who wasn't.
Napoleon
Receives Queen Louise of Prussia at Tilsit
Painting by Nicolas
Louis Gosse
In 1808, Louise left
Konigsberg and went to visit the imperial family at
Petersburg, Russia, returning on December 23, 1809, to
Berlin.
In 1810 she visited her father.
While staying at the summer palace of Hohenzieritz, she took
ill with a chest fever and died suddenly on July 19, 1910.
Hohenzieritz Castle
Photo Wiki
On July 27, 1810,
Louise's body was brought to Berlin where she
rests at the mausoleum of the Charlottenburg
Castle. Her husband was buried next to her in
1840.
Louise's
Character and Personality
Louise was loved and adored by
pretty much everybody, rich and poor, because of her
openness, kindness, and her always well-disposed nature. And
yes, beauty helped.
Due to the influence of his
wife, Frederick is said to have been occasionally able to
perform above his otherwise average capacity.
Louise,
the Queen of
Prussia
More History
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