- Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark
Louise Auguste of Denmark, Duchess of Augustenborg (
July 7 ,1771 -January 13 ,1843 ) was officially daughter of KingChristian VII of Denmark and Queen Caroline Mathilde. Unofficially it is widely accepted that her natural father wasJohann Friedrich Struensee , the king’s royal physician and "de facto "regent of the country at the time of her birth. She was referred to sometimes as "la petite Struensee".Life
She was born at
Hirschholm Palace in present day Hørsholm municipality,Denmark . After the arrest of Struensee and Queen Caroline Mathilde onJanuary 17 ,1772 , and the subsequent execution of Struensee and the banishment and imprisonment of her mother, she was raised at the Danish court residing atChristiansborg Castle ,Copenhagen along with her three-year old brother, Crown Prince Frederik under the supervision of the Dowager Queen Juliane Marie.In February 1779 the nation's foremost statesman, Chief Minister Andreas Peter Bernstorff, hatched an ingenious plan for the young princess. Since a male child of hers could inherit the throne some day, it would be advantageous to arrange a marriage early, and to marry the "half-royal" back into the family, to the Hereditary Prince of
Augustenborg . This plan not only had the positive effect of more closely connecting the Danish royal house’s two lines, the ruling House of Oldenborg and the offshoot House of Augustenborg, thus discouraging the threat of a breakup of the kingdom, but also the prevention of her marriage into the Swedish royal house (the latter danger was rather low, however: at that time, there were Swedish princes only twenty years or more her senior, and her first cousin, the futureGustav IV Adolf of Sweden had just been born when she already was seven).Her future husband was a prince with an exceptionally high dose of recent Danish ancestors, his maternal grandmother, paternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother having been, respectively, born Countess of
Reventlow , Countess ofDanneskiold -Samsoe and Countess ofAhlefeldt -Langeland . He was closely related to all important families of the thenhigh nobility of Denmark. The binding agreements were made a year later, and in spring 1785 the 20 year old duke Frederik Christian II came to Copenhagen. The engagement was announced then, and a year later, onMay 27 ,1786 the 14 year old Louise Augusta was married at Christiansborg Castle.They lived at the Castle for many years until the Christiansborg Castle fire of 1794 and the death of the elder
Duke of Augustenborg (Frederik Christian I, 1721-94), when her husband inherited the estate and the Duchy. The princess was often the center of court activities, and was proclaimed the “Venus of Denmark”. After 1794 they lived during the summer on the island of Als and atGråsten .They had three children:
* Caroline Amalie (b. Sept. 28, 1796 - d 9.3.1881), who would become Queen of Denmark as consort to Christian VIII
* Christian August (b. July 19, 1798 - d 11.3.1869), the Duke of Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (who was to become a pivotal figure in theQuestion of Schleswig-Holstein in 1850's and 1860's). In order to hold to potential Danish feelings, he was married to a Danish relative, Countess of Danneskjold-Samsoe.
* Frederik Emil August (b. Aug. 23, 1800 - d 2.7.1865), the “Prince” of Nør (Noer)Over the years there developed conflict between her husband and her brother, especially over the relationship of the double-duchies of
Schleswig-Holstein and his small appanage aroundSonderborg there on one hand and the Danish monarchy on the other. She remained loyal to the Danish Royal House throughout the differences. In 1810 she worked actively to stop the Duke's attempts to be chosen as successor to the Swedish throne, which were linked with the duke's younger brotherCharles August of Augustenburg becoming chosen by Swedes and then dying, after which Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte,Marshal of France and Prince of Ponte Corvo, got elected.Their relationship eventually fell apart, and Frederik Christian tried to legally limit her influence over their children’s future. He died on
June 14 ,1814 , and Louise Auguste took control of the Augustenborg estates and the children’s upbringing. The estate was turned over to the eldest son, Christian August, on his return from an extended foreign tour in 1820. From then on she resided in the Augustenborg Castle, where she established an eccentric court. In 1832 in order to give her youngest son, Frederik Emil August, better income possibilities she purchased the estate Nør and Grønwald inDänischwold nearEkernførde Fjord in SouthSchleswig .She died at Augustenborg in 1843, when her brother's reign in Denmark had already ended and Christian VIII, her son-in-law, ascended - she thus deceased as the mother of the then Queen of Denmark.
Two portraits of her were painted by Danish artist
Jens Juel . The first from 1784 is inThe Royal Collection ,London , and the second from 1787 is in the Frederiksborg Palace Museum. Another portrait of her byAnton Graff is in Sønderborg Castle.Danish author Maria Helleberg has written a best-selling
historical novel based on the life of Louise Augusta called "Kærlighedsbarn" ("Love Child"), which inspired a special biographical exhibition on the life of the princess atRosenborg Castle .Among the currently reigning monarchs of the world, only King
Charles XVI Gustav of Sweden is a direct descendant of Louise Auguste. Constantine II, King of the Hellenes, was also, however he reigns no longer.Queen Sofia of Spain , Louise's descendant, is the consort of a currently reigning monarch, and the mother of theheir-apparent Don Felipe, Prince of Asturias .
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