The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Auguste von Harrach – The “little stepmother” (Part four)

Read part three here.

Their last trip together took place in the summer of 1839. King Frederick William’s health declined quickly in the spring of 1840. Bishop Eylert, who had married the couple, wrote, “The ruler’s seventh decade was near, a high stage he had reached, when he began to age and visibly deteriorate. His shoulders became high, his legs thin, his clothes loose, his steps unsteady, his back hollow, his face changed, his cough tormented, his expectoration heavy, his appetite weak, his sleep short and interrupted.”¹ When he could not finish his meal, he asked Auguste to eat it, so that the doctors believed he had eaten.²

By the middle of May 1840, the situation had become so serious that Auguste felt compelled to inform the King’s sons of his deteriorating health. On 1 June, Auguste was asked to officially greet a delegation attending the laying of the foundation stone for a monument for King Frederick the Great. It was her first official duty. The King watched from the window for a few minutes before he asked to be helped back to bed. Auguste was always by his side in those last days. Bishop Eylert wrote, “On the third day, I was back at the palace and sent word to the Princess of Liegnitz at an opportune hour. She arrived as if by magic, with a sad and broken expression, directly from the sickbed. She said the following words: ‘The King has grown sicker. Whatever the doctors prescribe, nothing seems to help anymore. Now he lies unconscious in slumber; I fear it is the sleep of death.'”³

From 3 June, daily bulletins were issued on the King’s health. Several of his children gathered close by and received hourly updates. In the morning of 7 June, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia also arrived. One observer wrote, “He bent over his father’s [in-law] hand to kiss it; then felt its pressure in his own, and the soft words ‘Je suis très mal’ [I am very sick], showed him that he recognised his son-in-law, with whom he had always spoken French, a language in which he liked to express himself, and especially beautifully.”⁴

The King’s granddaughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, witnessed his last hours. She later wrote, “A few hours later, we were all summoned. While we knelt around the dying man, the clergyman recited the prayers for the dying. Princess Liegnitz stood at the head of the bed and sprinkled cologne on the temples of the heavily breathing man. A great sigh – silence – it was over. The princess kissed his forehead, closed his eyes, and disappeared to make room for the children. Everyone sobbed, even the person physician Grimm, the old valet Kynast; it was the passing of a patriarch. For me, it was the first deathbed I had ever stood at. The Crown Prince, who was now king, searched with his eyes for the Princess Liegnitz, who had withdrawn completely into the background of the room. He thanked her warmly for all the love she had for his father, and assured her of the respect and gratitude of the entire family.”⁵

King Frederick William died on 7 June 1840 at the age of 69.

Auguste was not at the funeral. One observer wrote, “It was not known what place should be given to her, and therefore the faithful nurse, to whom the new King and Queen had otherwise shown much love, was denied the place where she belonged.”⁶ He was interred next to his first wife, Louise, in the mausoleum at Charlottenburg Palace.

Auguste was given the choice of residence in her widowhood, and she eventually chose Schönhausen and the New Palace in Potsdam. The new King Frederick William IV was fond of her and often called her his “little stepmother” in his letters.⁷ She devoted herself to her needlework again to pass the time.⁸ Around the first anniversary of her husband’s death, she wrote, “The pain of losing our dear, departed King will only leave me in my coffin.”⁹ In 1841, Auguste also lost her father.

Read part five here.

1. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.118
2. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.118
3. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.119
4. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.120
5. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.120-121
6. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.122
7. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.124
8. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.125
9. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.132