Sofia Albertina of Sweden, Abbess of Quedlinburg
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Sofia Albertina (Stockholm 8 October 1753-Stockholm 17 March 1829) was daughter of king Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. She thus was princess of Sweden, princess of Holstein-Gottorp and a heir of Norway.
She was given her two names as namesake of her two grandmothers: queen Sofia Dorothea of Prussia (daughter of George I of Great Britain) and Albertina Frederica, princess of Holstein-Gottorp-Eutin.
Her adult life took place during the reigns of her brother Gustav III of Sweden and Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.
Although not described as neither beautiful or intelligent, she played an active part in the ceremonial courtlife of her brother, as one of her younger brothers was not married, and after her mothers death in 1782 she was an eager participant in the vivacous pleasures of the court despite of her lac of beauty.In Stockholm, a palace was built as her residence, known today as Arvfurstens Palats. They where planes of marrying her of early, but nothing came of it. Hovewer, there was a story among the people in Stockholm wich indicate that she was not excluded from having a love life; she was said of having given birth to a baby girl sometime in 1786, fathered by the count Fredrik of Hessenstein, son of king Fredrik I of Sweden and his mistress Hedvig Taube. The daughter was fostered away from its mother, but Sophia Albertina arranged for her to be married of as an adult to a wealthy, but not noble man. This story has never ben confirmed, so it might not be true, but it is repeated from many unofficial sources in much the same way, and if it was true, it would not be confirmed anyway- either way, it is not impossible. Her brother the king, or at least the queen, was said to be informed about this, and the sexual morals of the court was free and liberal; her brother Gustav III had given promission to the ladys of the court to recive male guests in their bed chambers, wich had never ben aloud before.
The year after this is said to have been taken place, she became the Abbess of Quedlinburg, a protestant convent of women in Germany, and as such was the princess-abbess, head of that small state directly under the Holy Roman Empire 1787-1803 until finally deposed. She traveled to Quedlingburg the same year and remained there in three years, when she came back to Sweden, were she spend the rest of her life. In 1802, the mediatization of such smaller states was started by Napoleon.
She remained unmarried and died in 1829.