The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – The life and death of Prince Charles of Prussia (Part two)

Read part one here.

There was some disappointment in the choice for Charles, as it had been hoped that Marie would marry a future ruler. It was Marie’s grandfather who had written in 1824, “I learned that Marie’s parents did not believe that Prince Charles’s position in the Prussian state was such that they would desire this union.”¹

Marie and Charles were married on 26 May 1827 in Charlottenburg. Her parents and her sister attended the wedding. Augusta would have to wait a little longer for her wedding – she married William on 11 June 1829.

On 20 March 1828, Marie gave birth to her first child, a son named Frederick Charles. He was followed by a daughter, Louise, on 1 March 1829. A second daughter, Anna, was born on 17 May 1836. The family spent the winters at the Palais Prinz Carl in Berlin and the summers at Glienicke Palace. Although their marriage was considered to be happy, Marie and Charles resented their inferior position at the Prussian court. While Charles redirected his frustration to womanising and political scheming, Marie vied with her sister in clothes, wigs and jewels. Compared to her sister and brother-in-law, Marie’s household was fashionable and filled with society figures.²

Augusta and William went on to have two children together, the future Frederick III and Princess Louise, later Grand Duchess of Baden. When Frederick’s bride, Victoria, Princess Royal, arrived in Berlin in 1858, she described Prince Charles. She wrote, “Her husband has got (perhaps I ought not to say so) a wicked expression, and from what I hear now, and what I heard before, it must be his character also.”³ About their youngest daughter Anna, she wrote, “Princess Anna is very pretty, the most splendid figure you ever saw, but I do not like her style quite, her gowns are a good deal fuller than the Empress’s and so low, I cannot bear that; and I do not like to see the Princesses dacning about with everbody, but of course I keep all these observations to myself.””⁴

Victoria had a point about Charles’s wicked expression. During the Revolution of 1848, he had tried to manoeuvre his older brothers out of the succession to establish himself as regent for the then-16-year-old Frederick. Augusta had already disliked her brother-in-law, but this had now turned into full-blown hatred. Charles’s brother, Frederick William, was quoted as saying, “If we had been born the sons of a petty official, I should have become an architect, William an NCO (Noncommissioned Officer), Charles would have gone to prison, and Albert would have become a drunkard.”⁵

Anna was the first of Charles’s children to marry. She married the future Frederick William II, Landgrave of Hesse, on 26 May 1853, which was also her parents’ wedding anniversary. His first grandchild, the future Frederick William III, Landgrave of Hesse, was born the following year. On 27 June 1854, Louise married Alexis, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld, but this marriage ended in divorce six years later. On 29 November 1854, his son married Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau, and their daughter, born the following year, was named Marie.

Victoria lived in fear of Prince Charles’s jokes and wrote to her mother that she sat “on pins and needles the whole time for either of these worthy uncles [Charles and Albert] should make ill-timed, improper jokes or quarrel with some of the rest, which they are always inclined to do, particularly when they think themselves under no restraint.”⁶ She later added that Charles’s only joke had been about his granddaughters, whom he called The Three Graces.⁷ Her mother urged her to protest against Charles’s jokes.⁸

A few months later, Victoria was again next to Prince Charles at dinner, and she later wrote, “What a dreadful man he is, I feel miserable when I sit next to him!”⁹ When Victoria’s brother, the Prince of Wales, visited her the following month, she wrote, “Fritz [her husband] never lets him be with his uncle alone for a moment,”¹⁰ Following the death of Charles’s sister, Charlotte, Victoria wrote, “Prince Charles is as if nothing had happened joking as usual. I do not believe that horrid man has a heart at all – laughing and joking when he heard of his sister’s death, whom he professed to be so fond of.”¹¹

In early 1863, Victoria reported to her mother that Prince Charles was “ill in bed with erysipelas.”¹² When one of Charles’s grandsons [Alexander Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse] was born with a visual impairment that year, Queen Victoria wrote, “It is a visitation on her [Anna], the poor thing, for the sins of its father and grandfather [Charles] I am sure!!”¹³

In 1864, Prince Charles became Governor of Mainz, and Victoria wrote, “Heaven knows what sudden burst of patriotism or military ardour has come over him to risk his precious and careful life for his country!”¹⁴ His tenure ended two years later, and unfortunately for Victoria, he was not harmed.

Read part three here.

1. Carl Friedrich by Detlef Jena p.184
2. An Uncommon Woman by Hannah Pakula p.94
3. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.42
4. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.42
5. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.17
6. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.66
7. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.67
8. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.81
9. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.38
10. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.148
11. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.277
12. Dearest Mama edited by Roger Fulford p.156
13. Dearest Mama edited by Roger Fulford p.218
14. Dearest Mama edited by Roger Fulford p.303