The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach – “Angel from heaven” (Part one)

Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was born on 3 February 1808 as the daughter of Charles Frederick, future Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. She was their eldest surviving child as her elder brother, Charles, had died in infancy two years earlier. She also had two younger siblings: Augusta (born 1811) and Charles Alexander (born 1818). Marie was entrusted to the motherly care of the wife of Professor Batsch, “owing to the anxious, unsettled times.”¹

Marie had a bout of ill health in 1810, which was apparently so serious that doctors had given up on her. But she slowly improved, and her tutor wrote to her worried parents, “Everything is going well, the little Princess is happy and well.”²

Augusta was reportedly jealous of her elder sister during their childhood, as she was known to have a more gentle character. Marie was also evidently their mother’s favourite child.³ As such, they were not particularly close during childhood. Both girls were given a comprehensive education, which included training for a “good marriage.”⁴ When they complained of being tired, their mother told them, Princesses are not permitted to be tired.”⁵

The sisters were taken to Russia in 1824 by their mother. It was already Marie’s second visit to their grandmother, Maria Feodorovna (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg). The visit was very overwhelming for the girls, and both longed to be back home. Nevertheless, their governess wrote that they were “behaving excellently, in spite of the unusual indulgence and adulation; they say you look like angels from heaven, that you sing divinely, and so on.”⁶ Maria Feodorovna seemed “very fond of her granddaughters, and they clung tenderly to her.”⁷

In 1826, the two bachelor sons of King Frederick William III of Prussia and the late Queen Louise, William and Charles, came to visit Weimar as possible husbands for the two princesses. The engagement of Marie and Charles was announced at Christmas, and even William appeared to prefer Marie over Augusta, even though he was really in love with Elise Radziwill. He had to be firmly told that Marie was already promised to Charles.⁸

Wilhelm von Humboldt reported on Marie during the engagement festivities, “All circumstances combine to promise her blessing and prosperity. The princess is not only of a very beautiful stature and a very captivating face, but also of the gentlest and best character, and, in addition to the knowledge and outward education one would expect from her position, also possesses the inner German quality, which she was able to maintain particularly well in Weimar.”⁹

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.”¹⁰

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. As Augusta married the elder brother, who would most likely succeed his elder childless brother as King of Prussia, she outranked her elder sister, Marie.

On 20 March 1828, Marie gave birth to her first child, a son named Frederick Charles. He was followed by a daughter named Louise on 1 March 1829. A second daughter named 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.¹¹

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 Marie as “very strange, I don’t know what to make of her and can only feel sorry that she is the Princess’s [Augusta] sister. About 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.”¹² 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.””¹³

Read part two here.

1. Empress Augusta by Clara Tschudi p.43
2. Carl Friedrich by Detlef Jena p.128
3. The first German Empress by John Van der Kiste p.14
4. The first German Empress by John Van der Kiste p.14
5. The first German Empress by John Van der Kiste p.14
6. The first German Empress by John Van der Kiste p.14
7. Carl Friedrich by Detlef Jena p.185
8. The first German Empress by John Van der Kiste p.15
9. Das Weimarer Quartett by Detlaf Jena p. 184
10. Carl Friedrich by Detlef Jena p.184
11. An Uncommon Woman by Hannah Pakula p.94
12. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.42
13. Dearest Child edited by Roger Fulford p.42