Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
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Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (born Brunswick, 3 December 1764; died Lohde, 27 September 1788)[1] was a German princess, and first wife of Frederick I of Württemberg.
Augusta was the eldest child of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales. She was also the sister of Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV of the United Kingdom. On 15 October 1780 in Brunswick she married The Hereditary Prince Freidrich Wilhelm Karl of Württemberg, eldest son of Duke Friedrich II Eugen of Württemberg.
Together they had four children :
- Wilhelm (1781-1864), who would later succeed his father as King William I of Württemberg;
- Catherine (1783-1835); who married Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia;
- Sophia Dorothea (1783-1784)
- Paul (1785-1852).
Frederick was reportedly violent towards his wife, and during a visit to Russia in December 1786, Augusta fled to the apartments of Empress Catherine II, mother-in-law of Frederick's sister Maria Feodorovna. Catherine offered Augusta asylum and wrote to Frederick requesting that he leave the Russian court. When Maria Feodorovna protested at the treatment of her brother, Catherine wrote her a curt letter saying "It is not I who cover the Prince of Württemberg with opprobrium: on the contrary, it is I who try to bury abominations and it is my duty to suppress any further ones."
Augusta's father was less sympathetic, and refused his daughter's plea for divorce. In response, Catherine offered Augusta a place to live at one of her imperial estates in Lohde, to the west of Reval.[2]
Augusta died in there in September 1788 at the age of 23. In 1797, Frederick married her cousin Charlotte, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of George III of the United Kingdom.
[edit] Ancestry
| Augusta of Brunswick | Father: Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick |
Paternal Grandfather: Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Antoinette Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel |
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| Paternal Grandmother: Philippine Charlotte of Prussia |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Frederick William I of Prussia. |
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| Paternal Great-grandmother: Sophia Dorothea of Hanover |
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| Mother: Augusta Charlotte of Wales |
Maternal Grandfather: Frederick, Prince of Wales |
Maternal Great-grandfather: George II of Great Britain |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach |
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| Maternal Grandmother: Augusta of Saxe-Gotha |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst |
[edit] References
- ^ Genealogy Index: Welf 6. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
- ^ Rounding, Virginina (2007). Catherine the Great. London: Arrow, pp.419–421. ISBN 9780099462347.
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