Monday, November 23, 2020

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The younger sister of Louise, Queen of Prussia. From Royal Foibles:

Born a daughter of Charles ll, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Frederica of Hesse-Darmstadt, she was the paternal niece of George lll’s consort, Queen Charlotte. Shortly after her mother’s death when she was 4, her father married her maternal aunt, Charlotte. Alas, she too died on Frederica’s father after only a year of matrimony. Despairing that he could not provide a mother for his offspring, the Grand Duke sent Frederica and her siblings to be reared and educated under the auspices of their maternal grandmother. It was perhaps while a student of the renown Swiss female tutor, Salome de Geliou, that Princess Frederica became imbued with the, at that time, advanced notion of a woman’s self worth that, in the author’s opinion, was among the reasons for her notoriety later in life.

At fifteen her father and King Frederick William lll of Prussia arranged the marriages of Frederica’s older sister Louisa to Prussia’s Crown Prince Frederick William and of Frederica to the Crown Prince’s little brother, Prince Frederick Louis Karl, more commonly known as Louis. Despite having three children with his wife, Prince Louis openly preferred the company of mistresses. It’s rumored that Princess Frederica retaliated by having an affair with his uncle, Prince Louis Ferdinand. Their marital debacle ended in 1796 when Prince Louis died of diphtheria while on active military duty.

By the next year Fredericka became unofficially engaged to her British cousin Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. The betrothal ended when his mother and fiancé’s aunt convinced King George lll to veto the match. Perhaps Queen Charlotte believed the rumor concerning Frederica’s affair? Regardless of her reasons, this thwarted betrothal was the first occasion in which Charlotte displayed the animosity toward her niece that would blow up into open hostility in just a few years time. (Read more.)

 

Read more about Frederica's life, HERE.

 

Image via East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

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