Charlotte of Hesse-Darmstadt

The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – The life and death of Charlotte of Hesse-Darmstadt

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’s mother, Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt, died following childbirth in 1782 at the age of 29. Her father remarried Friederike’s sister, Charlotte, in 1784. Charlotte was born on 5 November 1755 as the fifth but fourth surviving child of Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg and Prince George William of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was [read more]
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – The life and death of King Frederick William IV of Prussia (Part three)

Read part two here. King Frederick William IV remained in ill health, but in February 1858, Victoria, Princess, who had recently married William’s son Frederick, wrote to her mother, Queen Victoria, “At Bellevue we saw the King and Queen. If I had not known that the King had been ill, I should certainly never have [read more]
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar

The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: “Her life closed in a merciful way” (Part eight)

Read part seven here. Augusta continued to do what she could, from her wheelchair or even from her sickbed. Her lady-in-waiting wrote, “Her mind is more active than ever.” Her son, Fritz, also became ill. In 1887, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. The growth was at first believed to be harmless, but he could [read more]
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – The life and death of King Frederick William IV of Prussia (Part two)

Read part one here. Frederick William’s father’s health began to decline after his 60th birthday. In the end, a prolonged fever caused his death on 7 June 1840. He died at the palace at Unter den Linden, surrounded by his family. In his will he wrote, “The position that Prussia occupies in the general system [read more]
Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – The life and death of King Frederick William IV of Prussia (Part one)

On 15 October 1795, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Crown Princess of Prussia, gave birth to her second child, the future King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Louise’s first child had tragically been stillborn. As such, Frederick William was their eldest surviving child. His younger brother, the future William I, German Emperor, was only 18 months younger [read more]