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royalty-nobility

Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, later Queen of Prussia and Empress of Germany (1811-1890)

Artist: Anton Hähnisch (Austrian, 1817-1897)

Date: 1861

Medium: Watercolour on ivory laid on card

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811 - 1890) was Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the wife of William I, German Emperor.

A member of the Grand Ducal House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and closely related to the Russian Imperial House of Romanov through her mother Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, in June 1829, Augusta married Prince William of Prussia. The marriage was tense; Wilhelm actually wanted to marry his cousin, Elisa Radziwiłł, who was judged to be unsuitable by the Prussian court, and the political views and intellectual interests of the two spouses were also far apart. Despite personal differences, Augusta and William often worked together to handle correspondence and social gatherings at court. In 1831 and 1838, they had two children, Frederick William and Louise. After the death of her father-in-law King Frederick William III of Prussia in 1840, Augusta became the wife of the heir presumptive to the Prussian throne.

royalty-nobility

Louisa, Queen of Prussia (1776-1810)

Artist: Peter Edward Stroehling (German, 1768-c. 1826)

Date: c.1797-1803

Medium: Oil on copper

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1776 – 1810) was Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III. The couple's happy, though short-lived, marriage produced nine children, including the future monarchs Frederick William IV of Prussia and William I, German Emperor.

Her legacy became cemented after her extraordinary 1807 meeting with French Emperor Napoleon I at Tilsit – she met with him to plead unsuccessfully for favorable terms after Prussia's disastrous losses in the War of the Fourth Coalition. She was already well loved by her subjects, but her meeting with Napoleon led Louise to become revered as "the soul of national virtue". Her early death at the age of thirty-four "preserved her youth in the memory of posterity", and caused Napoleon to reportedly remark that the king "has lost his best minister". The Order of Louise was founded by her grieving husband four years later as a female counterpart to the Iron Cross. In the 1920s, conservative and nationalist German women founded the Queen Louise League.

royalty-nobility

Germany, Crown Princess Cecilie of, née Duchess of Mecklenburg

Artist: Philip de László (Hungarian, 1869-1937)

Date: 1908

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Public Collection, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten, Berlin-Brandenburg

Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Cecilie Auguste Marie, Duchess of Mecklenburg, was born at Schwerin on 20 September 1886, the youngest daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851-1897), and his wife Anastasia (1860-1922), only daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaievitch of Russia and the granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I. When Cecilie was only ten years old her father died and her mother, who had never felt at home in Mecklenburg, decided from then on to spend the winters in Cannes and the summers in her Russian homeland. The future Crown Princess grew up in a climate of artistic and cultural open-mindedness, made extensive journeys with her mother and spoke several languages.

From the day the young Cecilie first appeared in Potsdam in 1904 she became renowned for her grace, charm and beauty. Countess Mathilde Keller, one of the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting, noted in her diary: “… very dutiful, intelligent, charming, despite her youth she knows how to deal with people … tall, slender, dark intelligent eyes and dark hair.”[6] At six foot Cecilie was as tall as her future husband. She not only impressed the Prussian court but particularly won the hearts of the Prussians.

On 6 June 1905 Cecilie married Wilhelm, the eldest son of the Emperor Wilhelm II. A year after the marriage, on 4 July 1906, their first son, Wilhelm, was born. Five more children were to follow: Louis Ferdinand (born 1907), Hubertus (born 1909), Friedrich (born 1911), Alexandrine (born 1915) and Cecilie (born 1917). Although the marriage seemed happy and harmonious, Cecilie was hurt deeply by her husband’s numerous affairs. She found her fulfillment in charitable work and in 1913 she founded the “Cecilienhilfe”, a charity whose highest aim was “to enable an appropriate education and instruction for children and young people, as well as the care of old persons or people in need of help.”

royalty-nobility

Caroline Amalie, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg, born Princess of Hesse

Artist: Josef Mathias Grassi (Austrian, 1757-1838)

Date: 1805

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Friedenstein Castle, Gotha, Germany

Princess Karoline Amalie of Hesse-Kassel

Karoline Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1771 - 1848),, was a German princess and member of the House of Hesse-Kassel by birth, and Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg by marriage.

She was the second daughter of Landgrave (later Prince) William I of Hesse by Princess Wilhelmina Caroline of Denmark and Norway, daughter of King Frederick V.

royalty-nobility

Prince Louis and Princess Alice of Hesse with Three of their Children

Artist: Christian Karl August Noack (German, 1822-1905)

Date: 1871

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

Prince Louis of Hesse, son of Charles, Prince of Hesse, and Elisabeth, third daughter of Prince William of Prussia, succeeded his uncle, Louis III, as Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1877. He married, in 1862, Princess Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria, by whom he had two sons and five daughters.

In this family portrait, Louis, the Grand Duke of Hesse is seated, surrounded by his family. He wears the uniform of an officer in the Hessian contingent of the Prussian army, decorated with the star of the Garter and the Iron Cross. His wife Alice (the Grand Duchess, Queen Victoria’s second daughter) is seated beside him with Prince Frederick on her lap. Princess Victoria stands to the left and Prince Ernest leans against his mother, holding his hat, and looking out at the viewer.

royalty-nobility

Portrait d'Auguste Amélie de Bavière

Artist: Andrea Appiani (Italian, 1754-1817) Date: 19th century Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: National Museums of Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaisson, France

Princess Augusta of Bavaria

Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (1788 - 1851), was the second child and eldest daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. By marriage, she was a French princess and vicereine of Italy. She was the aunt of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and, by marriage, of Emperor Napoleon III.