Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg

Countess Maria Louise Albertine
Princess George William of Hesse-Darmstadt
Marie Louise Albertine of Hesse-Darmstadt in a painting around 1753
by Johann Christian Fiedler
Born (1729-03-16)16 March 1729
Obrigheim, Electorate of the Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire
Died 11 March 1818(1818-03-11) (aged 88)
Neustrelitz, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German Confederation
Spouse Prince George William of Hesse-Darmstadt
Issue
among others...		 Prince Louis George Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt
Friederike, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg
Prince George Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt
Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louise, Grand Duchess of Hesse
Augusta Wilhelmine, Duchess of Zweibrücken
House Leiningen
Father Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg
Mother Katharina Polyxena of Solms-Rödelheim

Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg (16 March 1729 – 11 March 1818); also known as Princess George, was heiress to the barony of Broich and by marriage Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the grandmother and educator of Princess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who later became Queen consort of Prussia.

Life

Maria Louise Albertine was a daughter of Count Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg (1695–1766) and his wife Countess Katharina Polyxena of Solms-Rödelheim (1702–1765). After the death of her father, she was heiress to the barony of Broich and began with the architect Nicolas de Pigage, the restoration and expansion of the Broich Castle. In 1806, the government of Broich was dissolved by Napoleon in 1815 and Broich was annexed by Prussia.

On 16 March 1748, she married Prince George William of Hesse-Darmstadt, the brother of the reigning Landgrave Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt in Heidesheim am Rhein. As Louis IX stayed almost exclusively in Pirmasens, she felt obliged, after the death of his wife in 1774, to represent the territory in the capital Darmstadt.

Her daughters Friederike and Charlotte were the first and second wives of Prince Charles II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. They both died in childbirth. Charles then ended his service as governor-general in Hannover and moved with his children to his mother in Darmstadt. Princess George was a widow since 1782 and took over the education and care of Charles's children.

Charlotte did not move with her father to Darmstadt. At the age of 16, she had been married the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. His father visited his two sons frequently and moved to Hildburghausen with his oldest daughter in 1787, after he became president of the local imperial debit commission. Thus, Maria Luise cared primarily for Louise and her sisters Therese and Frederica for whom she provided a secure and largely informal home in the "Old Palace" at the market square in Darmstadt. She employed regional educational methods.[1]

In 1790 she traveled with Louise, Frederica and George to Frankfurt to see the coronation of Emperor Leopold II. She stayed here with Catharina Elisabeth Goethe. In 1791, she joined an educational trip to the Netherlands. In 1792 she fled for the advancing French army and took the children from Darmstadt to her granddaughter Charlotte in Hildburghausen, where she remained until March 1793. On the return trip to Darmstadt, she traveled via Frankfurt, where a meeting between Louise and her future husband Frederick William III of Prussia had been arranged. In 1793 she accompanied Louise and Frederica to their wedding in Berlin.

She is one of the rare instances of a European royal living to see the birth of a great-great-grandchild. Her maternal great-great-granddaughter Princess Pauline of Württemberg (1810-1856) was eight years old at the time of Maria Louise's death.

Maria Louise was described as a magnificent person, warm hearted, cheerful all the time and usually speaking the Palatinate dialect.[2] The proximity and warmth she has as a surrogate mother during the formative years of her granddaughters passed on to them.

Issue

NamePortraitBirthDeathNotes
Ludwig Georg Karl17491823Married morganatically in 1788 Friederike Schmidt, Baroness von Hessenheim
Georg Friedrich1750
Friederike Caroline
Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz		20 August 175222 May 1782Married in 1768 Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had issue
Georg Karl14 June 175428 January 1830
Charlotte Wilhelmine
Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz		5 November 175512 December 1785Married in 1784 Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had issue
Karl Wilhelm Georg
17571797
Friedrich Georg August
17591808Married morganatically in 1788 Karoline Luise Seitz, Baroness von Friedrich
Louise Henriette Caroline
15 February 176124 October 1829Married in 1777 Louis X of Hesse-Darmstadt, had issue
Auguste Wilhelmine
Duchess of Zweibrücken		14 April 176530 March 1796Married in 1785 the future King Maximilian I of Bavaria, had issue

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Karin Feuerstein-Praßer: The Prussian Queen. Munich: Piper 2005, p. 252
  2. ↑ http://www.zeit.de/1992/05/Eine-geborene-Koenigin
  • Claudia von Gélieu and Christian von Gélieu: The teacher of Queen Louise: Salomé de Gélieu, Regensburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7917-2043-2
  • Carsten Peter Thiede and Eckhard G. Franz: Years with Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Archive for History of Hesse and Archaeology, Vol 43, Darmstadt 1985
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