Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt

Friederike
Duchess consort of Württemberg
Tenure20 May 1795 – 23 December 1797
Born(1736-12-18)18 December 1736
Schwedt
Died9 March 1798(1798-03-09) (aged 61)
Stuttgart
Spouse
(m. 1753; died 1797)
IssueFrederick I of Württemberg
Duke Louis
Duke Eugen
Sophie Dorothea, Empress of Russia
Duke William
Duke Ferdinand
Friederica, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp
Elisabeth, Archduchess of Austria
Duke Alexander
Names
Friederike Sophia Dorothea
HouseHohenzollern
FatherFrederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
MotherPrincess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia
ReligionReformed

Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt (Friederike Sophia Dorothea; 18 December 1736 – 9 March 1798) was Duchess of Württemberg by marriage to Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg.[1] She is an ancestress to many European royals of the 19th and 20th centuries.[2]

Biography

Duchess Friederike and her younger sister Landgravine Philippine, by Johann Heinrich Tischbein, 1773

Friederike was a daughter of Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt[1][3] and Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia. Her mother was a sister of Frederick the Great, thus making Friederike a niece of King Frederick.[3] Her siblings included Elisabeth Louise, Princess Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia and Philippine, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel.[4]

On 2 November 1753, she married Frederick Eugene of Württemberg.[4] He would succeed his brother in 1795, making her Duchess consort of Württemberg.[1]

Friederike was described as witty and charming.[by whom?] She belonged to the reformed faith,[5] while her husband was Catholic; however, she brought up her children as Lutheran[5][6] upon agreement with the Lutheran council,[5] from whom she received an allowance.[6] This condition was set by King Frederick himself.[5]

From 1769, she lived at Montbéliard, which was being managed by her husband.[citation needed] In 1792, she abandoned Montbéliard because of the French Revolution.[citation needed] Her husband inherited the Duchy of Württemberg in 1795.[7]

Issue

She and Frederick had twelve children:[3]

Honours

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "DNB, Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek". portal.dnb.de. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
  2. ^ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh, ed. (1977). Burke's Royal Families of the World, 1st edition. London: Burke's Peerage. pp. 184–186. ISBN 0-85011-023-8.
  3. ^ a b c d "BLKÖ:Württemberg, Friedrich Eugen Herzog – Wikisource". de.wikisource.org (in German). Retrieved 2025-09-06.
  4. ^ a b Ammon, Christoph Heinrich von (1768). Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans, reduite en 114 tables ... (in French). Aux Depens de L'Auteur, Se Vend Chez Etienne de Bourdeaux. p. 21.
  5. ^ a b c d Köstlin, Reinhold (1839). Wilhelm der erste König von Wirtemberg und die Wirtembergische Verfassung (in German).
  6. ^ a b c Historische Commission bei der königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften (1878), "Friedrich Eugen, Herzog von Würtemberg", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 8, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1. ed.), München/Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, p. 53, retrieved 2025-09-06
  7. ^ "Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart - Findbuch G 236: Herzog Friedrich Eugen (1732-1797) - Einführung". www2.landesarchiv-bw.de. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
  8. ^ "Кавалеры ордена Святой Екатерины" [Knights of the Order of Saint Katherine] (PDF). truten.ru (in Russian). p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2025-09-11.
  9. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 21.