Princess Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
Friederike Amalie of Hesse- Darmstadt ( born June 20, 1754 Prenzlau, † July 21, 1832 in Bruchsal ) was by marriage Hereditary Princess of Baden.
Life
Amalie was a daughter of the Landgrave Ludwig IX. of Hesse- Darmstadt (1719-1790) and his wife Henriette Karoline (1721-1774), daughter of the Count Palatine and Duke Christian III. of Zweibrücken- Birkenfeld. The princess was born in Prenzlau, where her father was stationed in the Prussian service, and was brought up by her mother, the so-called " Great Countess " in Buchsweiler. In 1772, she traveled with her mother and her sisters Wilhelmine Luise and to Saint Petersburg so that afterwards became the Czar Paul could choose a bride among the sisters. He chose Wilhelmine.
Amalie married on July 15, 1774 in Darmstadt her cousin, the Crown Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden ( 1755-1801 ). She felt in her home country Baden initially uncomfortable. With her aunt and mother, the Countess Karoline Luise, she came out not very good. She complained about the coldness of the Margrave Karl Friedrich and the childish behavior of her husband. They also missed the splendor and dignity that they had met, for example, the Prussian and Russian court.
After the death of her mother in 1783 Amalie was the first lady at court. After the death of her husband, in 1801, whose body was transferred to a copper coffin from Sweden to Karlsruhe, Margrave Karl Friedrich in memory of the late Crown Prince in 1802 by Friedrich Weinbrenner a chapel build the so-called Gothic tower and a bath cabinet for Countess Amalie, in which the copper coffin came as Bath honor. Amalie retained the position of First Lady until 1806, when Stéphanie de Beauharnais married his son Charles. As an opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte, she had tried to stop the wedding of their son Karl Ludwig Friedrich with Napoleon's niece and adopted daughter Stéphanie later. Neither with her new daughter- still with Karl Frederick's second wife Luise of Hochberg she understood what caused them to move into the Bruchsal Castle.
Napoleon told her the former residence of the prince-bishops of Speyer in Bruchsal - this was in 1803 fell to Baden - a widow seat to. Amalie received an appanage of 120,000 florins a year. In the castle at Heidelberg Rohrbach they had their summer residence. The castle was a gift from her son- Maximilian of Bavaria. Here they received in addition to Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Francis I. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Amalie had contributed during the Vienna Congress by their strong influence on her son Tsar Alexander I to that created by Napoleon Grand Duchy of Baden was preserved without loss of territory.
Progeny
Amalie is known as " in-law of Europe", as they wed by skillful acting their daughters to influential princely courts. From their marriage Amalie had six daughters and two sons:
- Amalie Christiane (1776-1823), unmarried
- Caroline (1776-1841), twin sister of Amalie Christiane,
- Luise (1779-1826)
- Friederike (1781-1826)
- Marie (1782-1808)
- Karl Friedrich (1784-1785)
- Karl (1786-1818), Grand Duke of Baden
- Wilhelmine (1788-1836)