Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Sophie Luise, Duchess of Mecklenburg [- Schwerin ] ( born May 16, 1685 in Grabow, † July 29, 1735 in Schwerin ) was through her marriage to Frederick I, the second queen in Prussia.
Origin
Sophie Luise, sometimes erroneously referred to by their place of birth as Princess / Duchess of Mecklenburg- Grabow, the fourth child and the only daughter of Duke Friedrich of Mecklenburg [- Schwerin ] (called " Prince of Grabow " ) and the Countess Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse was -Homburg. The princess grew after the early death of her father on the farm of her eldest brother Friedrich Wilhelm, who ruled as Duke of Mecklenburg in Schwerin. Apart from French and music lessons she received no special training. The other hand, your restrained and serious nature corresponded to a strict Lutheran upbringing.
Prussian Queen
After 1705 his second wife, Sophie Charlotte, had died of of fifty -year-old King Friedrich I. was afflicted in Prussia by the court party to the influential Prime Minister Count of Wartenberg, to marry again. Dynastic reasons for securing the succession prompted the always ailing monarch to be the not to close. His only son, Frederick William had been no heir to the throne of the kingdom. A new wife for the aging king increased the chance now to change this situation finally.
After searching the suitable marriage candidate was found for the king as the " Mecklenburg Venus" vaunted 23 -year-old Princess Sophie Luise. On November 28, 1708 wedding was gloriously celebrated in Berlin castle. The young queen was the third wife of Frederick I., however, always in the shadow of its predecessor, the intellectual Queen Sophie Charlotte, who had associated with famous scholars and held brilliant court. The real purpose of marriage, to give the country an heir, remained unfulfilled. The marriage remained childless. Thus followed for Sophie Luise soon a full of intrigue, hatred and slander court life, which the young Queen had grown neither mentally nor physically. Especially her antagonist Katharina Countess Kolbe von Wartenberg, born Rickers, the wife of the de facto Prime Minister, made her life difficult.
Resignation to Queen Sophie Louise moved back to her role as a loyal caring nurse her husband, whom she tried to convert from the reformed confession of faith from Lutheranism under the influence of their bigoted maid of honor of Miss Grävenitz. First, Friedrich had them also participate in the representation of tasks; she was allowed to accompany him everywhere and stuff him in the evening in tobacco College, which he had founded the first king in Prussia, the whistle. Over time, however, was transformed under the influence of the teachings of August Hermann Francke their religious zeal in an obsessive pietism.
The queen fell into a deep depression and mental confusion, so that she could no longer participate in court life. Unbearable quarrels between spouses about the "true" faith and increasingly frequent bouts induced the King to part from his insane wife. Totally confused and covered in blood by a cut caused by an injury to have frightened the sick King Palace in Berlin, who believed at first to have the legendary " White Lady " as a death messenger before him who cultivates emerge according to legend, shortly before the death of a family member.
Last years of life
In January 1713 Queen Sophie Luise was then brought by her husband, a few weeks before his death, according to Perwenitz in the Havel country. His successor, King Frederick William I, the sick woman then sent unceremoniously to her family in Mecklenburg back. There she first moved into the castle in Grabow, then a short time in Neustadt- Glewe and later in the Schwerin Castle, where she died in 1735 at the age of fifty years. Sophie Luise found in the shelf St. Nikolai church in Schwerin their final resting place.
In Berlin today still reminds the church of St. Sophia in the Mitte district, which she had founded in 1712 as the namesake, to the unfortunate third wife of the first king of Prussia.