Marriage
She and Frederick William were married on 14 July 1769 at the Charlottenburg Palace, immediately after his divorce from Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Frederick William called her his "Hessische Lieschen", or "Hessian Lizzie".
She became queen of Prussia upon her husband's accession to the throne in 1786, and kept her position for eleven years. The marriage was not happy, and Fredrick had numerous lovers, most notably Wilhelmine von Lichtenau, with whom he had a relationship from the same year he married Frederika Louise until his death. In 1787, her spouse committed bigamy by marrying her lady-in-waiting Julie von Voß, and in 1790, he committed bigamy again by marrying her lady-in-waiting Sophie von Dönhoff. Queen Frederika Louisa was not considered attractive and has been described as eccentric. It was claimed that she saw ghosts and apparitions, and for this reason she kept reversed hours, sleeping by day and waking by night, a behaviour which worsened after Frederick William died. Frederika Louisa was noted for her great generosity, especially to those in need.
From 1788, she spent her summers in Freienwalde, which greatly contributed to the economic and cultural development of the city. Especially as a Queen Dowager, several buildings were constructed in the city to house her and her court during their stays. In 1799, a summer palace was built for her there by David Gilly.
The Swedish Princess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte described her at the time of her visit in 1798:
The Queen Dowager had invited us at déjeuner, and we left for Montbijou, a very simple manor slightly outside of Berlin, where she resides all year. It is sweet and well tendered but terribly small. She hade it built herself as well as the parc and the garden. She is a small, very fat, middle age lady, who walks so crocked that she looks like and old woman. You could mistake her for one of these fairies from an ancient tale. She is very polite and talkative and shines of a goodness which gives the witness of a kind heart and a noble characther.
She became a widow in 1797. During the summer she lived in Bad Freienwalde where she was often visited by her children and grandchildren and died in Berlin in 1805 having suffered a stroke.
Read more about this topic: Frederika Louisa Of Hesse-Darmstadt
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“Our home has been nothing but a play-room. I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child. And the children have been my dolls in their turn. I liked it when you came and played with me, just as they liked it when I came and played with them. That’s what our marriage has been, Torvald.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)
“That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“What is any respectable girl brought up to do but to catch some rich man’s fancy and get the benefit of his money by marrying him?—as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing!”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)