Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken

Caroline
Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt

Portrait of Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken
Born 9 March 1721
Strasbourg
Died 30 March 1774 (aged 53 years)
Darmstadt
Spouse Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Issue Caroline, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg
Frederika Louisa, Queen of Prussia
Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse
Amelie, Hereditary Princess of Baden
Wilhelmina Louisa, Grand Duchess of Russia
Luise, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Landgrave Frederick
Landgrave Christian
House Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Father Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
Mother Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken

Caroline of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Henriette Caroline Christiane Louise; 9 March 1721 30 March 1774) was wife of the Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt and one of the most learned women of her time.

Biography

Henriette Caroline was the daughter of Christian III, Duke of Zweibrücken and his wife Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken.

She married on 12 August 1741 in Zweibrücken, Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. The marriage was arranged and unhappy: Caroline was interested in music and literature, while her consort was interested in military matters, and she lived separated from him at Buchsweiler. She founded a factory to ease the states economy. In 1772, she promoted the politician Karl Friedrich von Moser.

Caroline was better known as The Great Landgräfin, a name given to her by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She was befriended to several writers and philosophers of her time, such as Johann Gottfried Herder, Christoph Martin Wieland and Goethe. Wieland wished he had the power to make her Queen of Europa. She also had contact with Frederick II of Prussia, and she was one of the few women that the Alte Fritz respected. He called her once the Glory and Wonder of our century and after her death he sent to Darmstadt an urn with the text femina sexo, ingenio vir (A woman by sex, a man by spirit), which can still be seen today. Through her daughter she is an ancestor to the royal house of Prussia, Germany and the Netherlands.

Issue

NamePortraitBirthDeathNotes
Caroline
Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg
2 March 1746 18 September 1821 Married Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, had issue
Frederika Louisa
Queen of Prussia
16 October 1751 25 February 1805 Married in 1769 Frederick William II of Prussia, had issue.
Louis I
Grand Duke of Hesse
14 June 1753 6 April 1830 Married in 1799 Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, had issue
Amalie
Hereditary Princess of Baden
20 June 1754 21 June 1832 Married in 1775 Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden, had issue
Wilhelmina Louisa
Grand Duchess Natalia Alexeievna of Russia
25 June 1755 15 April 1776 Married in 1773 the future Emperor Paul I of Russia, no surviving issue
Louisa Augusta
Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
30 January 1757 14 February 1830 Married in 1775 Charles Augustus of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, had issue
Frederick
1759 1802
Christian
Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
25 November 1763 17 April 1830 Died unmarried

Ancestry

Literature

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caroline of Zweibrücken.
Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken
Cadet branch of the House of Wittelsbach
Born: 9 March 1721 Died: 30 March 1774
German royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach
Landgravine consort of Hesse-Darmstadt
17 October 1768 - 30 March 1774
Vacant
Title next held by
Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
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