Landgravine Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt
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Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt (German: Marie Auguste Wilhelmine von Hessen-Darmstadt; 14 April 1765 - 30 March 1796) was the mother of King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Augusta Wilhelmine was born at Darmstadt, the fourth daughter and ninth child of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt (second son of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt) and Countess Luise of Leiningen-Heidesheim.
On 30 September 1785, in Darmstadt, Augusta Wilhelmine married Maximilian, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken (later King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria). They had five children :
- King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786 - 1868); married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
- Princess Augusta of Bavaria (1788 - 1851); married Eugène de Beauharnais
- Princess Amalie of Bavaria (9 October 1790 - 24 January 1794)
- Princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria (1792 - 1873); married King William I of Württemberg, and later Emperor Francis I of Austria
- Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria (7 July 1795 - 16 August 1875)
Maximilian was an officer in the French army stationed at Strasbourg, but the couple also often visited Paris.[1] There Augusta Wilhelmine met Queen Marie Antoinette with whom she maintained an ongoing correspondence.
In 1789 Maximilian's regiment rose in revolt and he and Augusta Wilhelmine fled to her parents' home in Darmstadt.[2] For the next five years they lived mostly in the neighbouring town of Mannheim. In December 1794 the French army attacked Mannheim. Augusta Wilhelmine fled the city when her home was shelled by French artillery.[3]
In April 1795 Maximilian succeeded his brother as reigning Duke of Zweibrücken; however, his duchy was entirely occupied by the French. In March 1796 Augusta Wilhelmine, who had always had delicate lungs, finally succumbed and died at Rohrbach.[4] She was buried in the Schlosskirche in Darmstadt.[5]
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Bibliography
Winkler, Wilhelm. "Die Mutter König Ludwig I. von Bayern nach ungedruckten Briefen", Die Wächter (1924).
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