Duke Louis of Württemberg

Duke Louis of Württemberg
Duke Louis of Württemberg, c.1800
Born (1756-08-30)30 August 1756
Treptow Palace, Treptow an der Rega, Province of Pomerania
Died 20 September 1817(1817-09-20) (aged 61)
Kirchheim unter Teck
Noble family House of Württemberg
Spouse(s) Maria Czartoryska
Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg
Father Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
Mother Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt

Duke Louis of Württemberg (Ludwig Friedrich Alexander Duke of Württemberg) (Treptow an der Rega, 30 August 1756 Kirchheim unter Teck, 20 September 1817) was the second son of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (1732–1797) and Margravine Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1736–1798). His elder brother was Frederick I, the first King of Württemberg, his sister was the Russian Empress consort, Maria Feodorovna. Louis retained the pre-royal title of Duke.

Biography

Life in military

Louis Frederick was a general in the cavalry. He was briefly a high ranking commander the Army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth appointed the commander of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's army, but betrayed the Commonwealth, refusing to fight against Russian troops throughout the Polish–Russian War of 1792, while feigning illness. For his betrayal he was dismissed from his post, but never prosecuted.[1] His Polish wife, Maria Wirtemberska, divorced him shortly afterward after his treason became public knowledge.

Marriages and issue

He married on 28 October 1784 Maria Czartoryska (1768–1854), daughter of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Isabella, Countess Flemming.

They had one child before they divorced in 1793 (Maria initiated the divorce upon the news of his betrayal of Poland):

On 28 January 1797 in Hermitage, near Bayreuth, Louis Frederick was married to Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg (then of Nassau), daughter of Charles Christian, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg and Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau. The couple had five children:

He is an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Charles Napoléon.

Between 1807 and 1810, Duke Louis employed the composer Carl Maria von Weber as his secretary with no musical duties. Weber and the duke's older brother Frederick mutually disliked each other, and the composer was banished from Württemberg after accusations of misappropriating some of the duke's money.

Ancestry

References

  1. Piotr Derdej (2008). Zieleńce - Mir - Dubienka 1792. Bellona. pp. 98–103. ISBN 978-83-11-11039-7. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 https://web.archive.org/web/20091028121418/http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genwurttemberg2.html
  3. Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 111.
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