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Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
Hereditary Princess of Baden
Spouse	Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden
Issue	Katharine Amalie Christiane Luise Karoline, Queen of Bavaria Louise, Empress of Russia Frederica, Queen of Sweden Marie, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Karl Friedrich Karl, Grand Duke of Baden Wilhelmine, Grand Duchess of Hesse
House	House of Hesse-Darmstadt House of Zähringen
Father	Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Mother	Henriette Karoline of Palatine-Zweibrücken

Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt (June 20, 1754, Prenzlau – June 21, 1832, Bruchsal) was the daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Henriette Karoline of Palatine-Zweibrücken.

Marriage and issue

Amalie married her first cousin, Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden on July 15, 1775. He was the son of Margrave Karl Friedrich (who in 1806, after his death, became the 1st Grand Duke of Baden) and Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt, the daughter of Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Issue:

• Katharine Amalie Christiane Luise (July 13, 1776-October 26, 1823)
• Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine (July 13, 1776-November 13, 1841) married on March 9, 1797 the then Duke Maximilian of Zweibrucken as his second wife (and became grandmother of Empress Sisi). In 1799 her husband became Elector Palatine and Elector of Bavaria, and in 1804 King of Bavaria (her titles accordingly being Duchess, then Electress, then Queen).
• Luise Marie Auguste (January 24, 1779-May 16, 1826) married on October 9, 1793 Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
• Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmine (March 12, 1781-September 25, 1826) married on October 31, 1797 king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. They divorced in 1812.
• Marie Elisabeth Wilhelmine (September 7, 1782-April 29, 1808) married on November 1, 1802 Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
• Karl Friedrich (September 13, 1784-March 1, 1785)
• Karl, the future 2nd Grand Duke of Baden (June 8, 1786 in Karlsruhe-December 8, 1818 in Rastatt)
• Wilhelmine Luise (September 10, 1788-January 27, 1836) married on June 19, 1804 her first cousin Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse.

Biography

Amalie was brought to Saint Petersburg with her mother in 1772 to visit the Russian court as one of the candidates for a marriage with the Russian Crown Prince Paul; Paul, however, decided upon her sister Wilhelmine. during her marriage, she complained about the coldness of the Margrave Karl Friedrich and the childish behavior of her spouse. She also missed the Prussian and Russian courts. She served ceremoniously as the first lady of the court from the death of her mother in law in 1783 until the marriage of her son in 1806. In 1801, she visited her daughter the Russian Empress in Russia with her family, and thereafter her second daughter, the Swedish Queen, in Sweden in September 1801. During her stay in Sweden she was described as witty, intelligent and correct and fully dominated her spouse . They visited Drottningholm Palace and Gripsholm and Amalie befriended Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, which was disliked by the King, and reprimanded her daughter about her stiff and unfriendly manners in public. Her spouse died due to an accident before their departure, and she remained in Sweden with her family until May 1802. Shortly before her departure, she was inducted in the secret mystic society of Adolf Boheman, by him referred to as a branch of the Freemasons. During her visits in Russia and Sweden she made attempts to reconcile her son-in-laws, the Russian and Swedish monarchs with each other. In 1803, she received the royal Swedish family as guests in Baden, during which it was said that she had the chance to gain influence over her son-in-law, as she was lovable and amusing, had a lively interest in politics and the same views as him. It was said of Amalie that : "The Landgravine of Baden could in power hunger and will force measure up to that of Catherine II" . As an opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte, she had tried to prevent the wedding of her son to Stéphanie de Beauharnais, and after their wedding in 1806, she retired to her widow estate in Bruchsal. In 1807, Amalie sent her daughter, the Queen Frederica of Sweden, a letter from her second daughter, the Empress of Russia, in an attempt to convince Frederica to use her influence to persuade her spouse to make peace between Sweden and Napoleon, which did not succeed. In 1809, she received her daughter Frederica and her family upon the deposition of her son-in-law from the Swedish throne. In 1811, she tried to persuade Gustav Adolf not to divorce Frederica, but when it proved necessary, she arranged for her daughter's economic independence and the custody of her grandchildren. In 1815, her grandson Gustav of Sweden was referred to as "Prince of Sweden" in an announcement from the Baden court, which caused protests from Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who believed it to have been instigated by Amalie, as she had a reputation for plotting, in an attempt to secure a throne for her grandson. During the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Amalie, by her influence upon her son in law Tsar Alexander I, contributed to the fact that Baden where allowed to remain a Grand Duchy without loss of territory.

Ancestry

Sources

• Template:Equivalent

References

1. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 140. ISBN 362103.
2. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 145. ISBN 362103.
3. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 504. ISBN 362103.
4. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 181. ISBN 362103.
5. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 275. ISBN 362103.
6. Cecilia af Klercker (1936). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VIII 1800-1806) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag Stockholm. p. 275. ISBN 362103.
7. Cecilia af Klercker (1939). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok IX 1807-1811 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte IX 1807-1811) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag. p. 108. ISBN 412070.
8. Cecilia af Klercker (1939). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok IX 1807-1811 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte IX 1807-1811) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag. p. 502. ISBN 412070.
9. Cecilia af Klercker (1939). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok IX 1807-1811 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte IX 1807-1811) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag. pp. 758, 763. ISBN 412070.
10. Cecilia af Klercker (1942). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok IX 1812-1818 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte) (in Swedish). P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag. p. 419. ISBN 412070.

Template:Persondata

• 1754 births
• 1832 deaths
• People from Prenzlau
• House of Hesse-Darmstadt
• Hereditary Princesses of Baden
• House of Zähringen
• Princesses of Baden
• Landgravines of Hesse-Darmstadt