Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

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Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Princess Louise Dorothea Pauline Charlotte Fredericka Auguste of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) (b. Gotha, 21 December 1800 - d. Paris, 30 August 1831), was the wife of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the mother of Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Louise was the only daughter of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his first wife Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Friedrich Franz I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Louise of Saxe-Gotha (her namesake).

In Gotha on 31 July 1817 Louise married her kinsman Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. They had two children: Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

The marriage was unhappy because of Ernst's infidelities and the couple separated in 1824. St. Wendel, in the Principality of Lichtenberg, was assigned as her new residence and Louise was forced to leave her two sons behind and cease to have any contact with them. On 31 March 1826 their marriage was officially dissolved. Seven months later, on 18 October 1826, Louise secretly married in St. Wendel her former lover, the Baron Louis Alexander of Hanstein (later created count of Pölzig and Beiersdrof). With Louis, she took great interest in the social life of the principality and was revered as a regional mother. Nevertheless, this happy life ended on February 1831, when this secret marriage was discovered and she lost her children permanently. She died of cancer when she was only 30 years old.