Marianne now began to pursue an official divorce, and her only demand was that she would like to see her children for part of the year. She wrote to the Prussian King, “If it is true that the thoughts of me being his wife are fatal to the father of my children, I must agree to divorce so as not to have his death on my conscience.”1 She had even missed Charlotte’s confirmation due to Albert’s dislike of her. To keep the peace, she had stayed away. On 28 May 1849, the divorce was officially pronounced in Berlin, and Albert was deemed the “guilty” party. Shortly before the divorce had been settled, Marianne wrote to the Prussian King, “You are very kind in wishing to continue to regard me as your sister-in-law and as the lawful wife of Prince Albert, but he is legally dead to me, and according to my conscience I have been a widow since 1842.”2
The Dutch court had bigger things to worry about, as Marianne’s brother, King William II, had died suddenly on 17 March 1849, and his successor was abroad. Marianne’s divorce was not talked about, and so Marianne officially informed the new King of her divorce. In May and June, her children came over from Berlin to spend time with her. When they left, Marianne wrote to King Frederick William III of Prussia that she intended to travel to the Holy Land. On 4 July 1849, Marianne boarded a steamship, but she would need to make a stop first.
On 30 October 1849, Marianne gave birth to a son in Cefalu, Sicily. He was named Johannes Willem, and his father was Johannes van Rossum. He had joined her on her trip to the Holy Land, which continued when Marianne had recovered. Johannes was married to Catharina Wilhelmina Keijzer, and they would never divorce. The return journey from the Holy Land took quite some time, and the party did not return to the Netherlands until July 1850. Little Johannes had remained behind on Sicily, but Marianne had brought along another child, a black boy she had purchased on the slave market.
Marianne had also missed her daughter Charlotte’s wedding, as it had taken place during this return journey. Charlotte had married Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen. However, this marriage would make contact with Charlotte easier as she was no longer under the guardianship of the Prussian King and Queen. Marianne, who not been in contact with Queen Elisabeth Ludovika since 1847, wrote to her, “It is true that I no longer bear the name nor the Arms of the House of Prussia, but my mother has given me the blood of this illustrious house, and I have given it a prince and two princesses, through which I can never be a stranger, and in times of adversity I feel this most strongly.”3 Contact between the two women was restored, even though Marianne was still hiding little Johannes from the public. In 1852, little Johannes was installed in Villa Mattei in Rome, which his mother had bought.
In 1853, Prince Albert made a morganatic marriage with his long-time mistress, Rosalie von Rauch. She was created Countess of Hohenau by Charlotte’s father-in-law, the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, but she could still not appear as Albert’s wife in Prussia. Marianne and Albert finally met again in 1855 under tragic circumstances. Charlotte had given her husband, George, four children in quick succession, and she died in childbirth following the birth of their fourth child, a short-lived son. Their second son had died two months before Charlotte, leaving two surviving children. Marianne and Albert met at Charlotte’s funeral, which had been a “comfort.”4
Marianne needed a last name for her young son, but she knew that she would not be able to count on her nephew, King William III, who still stubbornly referred to her as Princess Albert of Prussia. In the end, Adolphe, Duke of Nassau (and later Grand Duke of Luxembourg), who was a descendant of King William I’s sister, Carolina, came through and named the boy von Reinhartshausen after a castle Marianne bought in 1855. The villa in Rome was sold off, and the boy moved to Reinhartshausen. He was not welcome in the Netherlands, and once, when he was in the carriage, when Marianne went to meet her brother, Frederick, he was aghast. He wrote an angry letter which said, “If I ever see you, my sister, with the boy again, or if you continue to show yourself with him in public, I will not see you in my house any more.”5
Tragedy struck in 1861. Little Johannes, then 12 years old, returned home to Rheinhartshausen for Christmas after he had been sent to tutor in Dauborn. Shortly after his arrival home, he fell ill, and he began to have trouble breathing. There was nothing the physicians could do. Johannes died in his mother’s arms on 25 December 1861 of scarlet fever. A devastated Marianne wrote to his tutor in Dauborn, “The Lord gave me my son, the Lord took him away from me, blessed be the name of the Lord, whatever is good is well done, His will is just. As you know, I have had many concerns about this child’s future, but the Lord has taken them from me. I wanted to raise Johannes Willem for Him; He has taken him away. […] Now he has entered into the rest of his and our Saviour, and I feel that I must live, and I know what I must do to live worthy of Johannes Willem.”6
The day after her son’s death, Marianne signed the foundation charter for an evangelical church in Erbach in memory of her son. The church was ready in 1865 and contained a crypt with room for three people. The coffin of Johannes van Reinharthausen was placed inside shortly before the consecration of the church.
Part five coming soon.
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