Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken explained

Caroline
Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt
Birth Date:	9 March 1721
Birth Place:	Strasbourg
Death Date:	30 March 1774 (aged 53)
Death Place:	Darmstadt
Father:	Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken
Mother:	Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken
Issue:	Caroline, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg Frederika Louisa, Queen of Prussia Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse Amelie, Hereditary Princess of Baden Wilhelmina Louisa, Tsarevna of Russia Luise, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Landgrave Frederick Landgrave Christian
House:	Palatinate-Zweibrücken

Caroline of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Caroline Henriette Christiane Philippine Louise; 9 March 1721 - 30 March 1774) was Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt by marriage to Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was famed as one of the most learned women of her time and known as The Great Landgräfin.

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 Friedrich Karl von Moser.

Caroline was better known as The Great Landgräfin, a name given to her by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She befriended 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. She was one of the few women that the Alte Fritz respected, and he famously referred to her as the Glory and Wonder of our century; after her death, he sent an urn to Darmstadt with the text femina sexo, ingenio vir ('A woman by sex, a man by spirit').^[1]

She and her husband became the most recent common ancestors of all current European monarchs in 2022 after the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who was not a descendant; her son, Charles III – a descendant through his father – succeeded her as the King.

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Caroline Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg	2 March 1746	18 September 1821	Married in 1768 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 1777 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	26 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
Friedrich Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt	10 June 1759	11 March 1802	never married, mistress was Catharina Wenedick, 2 illegitimate children: Lisette Thimotee Friedrich (born: 24 January 1799) and Friedrich Friedrich (born around 1800)
Christian Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt	25 November 1763	17 April 1830	Died unmarried

Literature

Marita A. Panzer: Die Große Landgräfin Caroline von Hessen-Darmstadt, Verlag Friedrich Pustet Regensburg, 2005

External links

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Notes and References

Philipp A. Pauli: Darmstadt: Eine historisch-topographische Skizze und Excursionen in die Umgegend. Will, 1815, S. 89.