Marriage and Children
Princess Sophie married her first cousin, Charles Alexander, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, at Kneuterdijk Palace in The Hague on 8 October 1842. Their mothers were sisters, daughters of Tsar Paul I of Russia.
They had four children:
- Karl August Wilhelm Nicolaus Alexander Michael Bernhard Heinrich Frederick Stefan, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. Weimar, 31 July 1844 - d. Cap Martin, France, 20 November 1894), who married Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
- Marie Anna Alexandrine Sophie Auguste Helene (b. Weimar, 20 January 1849 - d. Trebschen, 6 May 1922), who married Prince Heinrich VII Reuss.
- Maria Anna Sophia Elisabeth Bernhardine Ida Auguste Helene (b. Weimar, 29 March 1851 - d. Weimar, 26 April 1859)
- Elisabeth Sibylle Maria Dorothea Anna Amalie Luise (b. Weimar, 28 February 1854 - d. Wiligrad, 10 July 1908), who married Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Catherine Radziwill, a contemporary of Sophie's, commented that,
"... was very different from her husband, and, though extremely ugly, was a most imposing Princess. She was clever, too, and upheld the reputation of the Weimar family. She was a Princess of the Netherlands by birth...and kept and maintained at her court the traditions in which she had been reared. Notwithstanding her want of beauty, moreover, she presented a splendid figure, being always magnificently dressed and covered with wonderful jewels, among which shone a parure of rubies and diamonds that were supposed to be the finest of their kind in Europe".
Read more about this topic: Princess Sophie Of The Netherlands
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or children:
“What is marriage, is marriage protection or religion, is marriage renunciation or abundance, is marriage a stepping-stone or an end. What is marriage.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)