Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | |||||
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Hereditary Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | |||||
![]() Pauline in 1868 | |||||
Born | Stuttgart | 25 July 1852||||
Died | 17 May 1904 Orte | (aged 51)||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue | |||||
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House | Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | ||||
Father | Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | ||||
Mother | Princess Augusta of Württemberg |
Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Pauline Ida Marie Olga Henriette Katherine; 25 July 1852 – 17 May 1904) was the wife of Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.[citation needed]
Early life
[edit]She was a daughter of Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife, Princess Augusta of Württemberg.[citation needed]
Hereditary Grand Duchess
[edit]On 26 August 1873 at Friedrichshafen, Baden-Württemberg, Pauline married Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.[1] They were second cousins, as she was the paternal granddaughter of Prince Bernhard, younger brother of the Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the grandfather of Karl August.
Pauline and Charles Augustus had two sons:
- Wilhelm Ernst Karl Alexander Friedrich Heinrich Bernhard Albert Georg Hermann, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Weimar, 10 June 1876 – Heinrichau, 24 April 1923); married firstly Princess Caroline Reuss of Greiz (no issue), and secondly Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen (had issue).
- Prince Bernhard Karl Alexander Hermann Heinrich Wilhelm Oscar Friedrich Franz Peter (Weimar, 18 April 1878 – Weimar, 1 October 1900); died unmarried at the age of 22.
Charles Augustus died on 22 November 1894 of inflammation of the lungs, at the age of 50.[2] He never succeeded as Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Consequently, Pauline was always known as Hereditary Grand Duchess, or after his death, Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess. Their elder son William Ernest succeeded as Grand Duke.
Widowhood
[edit]In her final years, Pauline spent a lot of time in Italy, and was a frequent visitor to the Italian court.[citation needed] It was rumored that she entered into a morganatic marriage with her chamberlain.[citation needed] This marriage did not appear in the Almanach de Gotha, and was not approved by her son the Grand Duke. Consequently, the marriage was not sanctioned by the Saxe-Weimar government.[citation needed] She continued to be styled as Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess only by courtesy, as she was unpopular with her family and her son's subjects.[citation needed]
Though she lived much of her widowhood away from the Saxe-Weimar court, Pauline "contributed even from a distance, to create the difficulties which rendered the position of her daughter-in-law, the present Grand Duchess, so extremely difficult during the first few months of marriage".[citation needed] She was described as "extraordinarily fat, and one of the most plain-featured princesses of Germany, her homeliness being of the crabbed and sour order rather than of a genial nature".[citation needed]
On 17 May 1904, Pauline died suddenly of heart disease while on a train en route from Rome to Florence.[1][3] Her body was taken to Florence.[3]
Honours
[edit]Russian Empire: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Catherine, in Diamonds[4]
Württemberg: Dame of the Order of Olga, 1871[5]
Ancestry
[edit]Ancestors of Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach |
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References
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ a b "Memorial Notices", The Manchester Guardian, Rome, 18 May 1904
- ^ "Hereditary Grand Duke Dead", The New York Times, Berlin, 22 November 1894
- ^ a b "Grand Duchess Dead" (PDF), The New York Times, Rome, 18 May 1904
- ^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1900), "Genealogie" p. 3
- ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg (1896), "Königliche Orden" p. 136