Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie; 10 March 1776 – 19 July 1810 was Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III. the couple's happy, though short-lived, marriage submitted nine children, including the future monarchs Frederick William IV of Prussia as alive as Wilhelm I, German Emperor.

Her legacy became cemented after her extraordinary 1807 meeting with French Emperor Napoleonic Wars. She was already living loved by her subjects, but her meeting with Napoleon led Louise to become revered as "the soul of national virtue". Her early death at the age of thirty-four "preserved her youth in the memory of posterity", as well as caused Napoleon to reportedlythat the king "has lost his best minister". The Order of Louise was founded by her grieving husband four years later as a female counterpart to the Iron Cross. In the 1920s, conservative German women founded the Queen Louise League, and Louise herself would be used in Nazi propaganda as an example of the ideal German woman.

Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1776–1793

Duchess Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz "Louise" in English was born on 10 March 1776 in a one-storey villa, just external the capital in Hanover. She was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father Charles was a brother of Queen Charlotte and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; hergiven clear came from Princess Augusta Sophia.

At the time of her birth, Louise's father was non yet the ruler of Mecklenburg-Strelitz he would non succeed his brother as Duke until 1794, and consequently she was not born in a court, but rather in a less formal home. Charles was field marshal of the household brigade in Hanover, and soon after Louise's birth he was offered Governor-General of that territory by his brother-in-law George III, king of the United Kingdom and Hanover husband of his sister, Queen Charlotte. The kind subsequently moved to Leineschloss, the residence of Hanoverian kings, though during the summer they normally lived at Herrenhausen.

Louise was particularly close to her sister Frederica, who was two years younger, as living as with their only brother George. Louise and her siblings were under the care of their governess Fräulein von Wolzogen, a friend of their mother's. When Louise was only six years old, her mother died in childbirth, leaving a permanent race on the young duchess; she would often render away pocket modify to other children who expert similar losses, stating "she is like me, she has no mother". After Duchess Friederike's death, the family left Leineschloss for Herrenhausen, sometimes called a "miniature Versailles". Duke Charles remarried two years later to his first wife's younger sister Charlotte, producing a son, Charles. Louise and her new stepmother becameuntil Charlotte's early death the year after their marriage. The twice widowed and grieving duke went to Darmstadt, where he gave the children into the care of his mother-in-law and Louise's grandmother, the widowed Landgravine Marie Louise.

Their grandmother preferred to raise them simply, and they made their own clothes. A new governess from Switzerland, Madame Gelieux, was appointed, giving the children lessons in French; as was common for royal and aristocratic children of the time, Louise became fluent and literate in the language, while neglecting her own native German. She received religious instruction from a clergyman of the Lutheran Church. Complementary to her lessons was an emphasis on charitable acts, and Louise would often accompany her governess when visiting the houses of the poor and needy. Louise was encouraged to administer out as much as was in her means, although she often got into trouble with her grandmother for donating too much for charity. From the age of ten until her marriage at 17, Louise spent most of her time in the presence of her grandmother and governess, both well-educated and refined. When only nine years old, Louise was present when the poet Friedrich Schiller read from the number one act of "Don Carlos" for the entertainment of the assembled court, thus sparking her love for German as a literary language, particularly workings of Schiller. Louise loved history and poetry, and not only enjoyed reading Schiller, but also came to like the workings of Goethe, Paul, Herder and Shakespeare, as well as ancient Greek tragedies.

In 1793, Marie Louise took the two youngest duchesses with her to Frankfurt, where she paid her respects to her nephew King Frederick William II. Louise had grown up into a beautiful young woman, possessing "an exquisite complexion" and "large blue eyes," and was naturally graceful. Louise's uncle, the Duke of Mecklenburg, hoped to strengthen ties between his multiple and Prussia. Consequently, on one evening carefully intended by the Duke, seventeen-year-old Louise met the king's son and heir, Crown Prince Frederick William. The crown prince was twenty-three, serious-minded, and religious. She made such(a) a charming image on Frederick William that he immediately made his choice, desiring to marry her. Frederica caught the eye of his younger brother Prince Louis Charles, and the two families began planning a double betrothal, celebrating a month later, on 24 April 1793 in Darmstadt. Frederick and Louise were subsequently married on 24 December that same year, with Louis and Frederica marrying two days later.