Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg

Friedrich Eugen of Württemberg (21 January 1732, Stuttgart – 23 December 1797, Hohenheim), the fourth son of Duke Karl Alexander and Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis (11 August 1706 - 1 February 1756).

Royal duke

He served as Duke of Württemberg from the death of his older brother Ludwig Eugen in 1795 until his own death two years later. After serving with Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War, he lived at and managed his family's exclave of Montbeliard, originally inherited by marriage in 1397, until it was taken over by the short-lived Rauracian Republic in 1792 and then annexed by the French Republic in 1793.

Marriage and children

He married Friederike Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt, a niece of Frederick the Great, by whom he had twelve children :

1. Frederick I (6 November 1754 – 30 October 1816), his successor, who would later become the first King of Württemberg; he was married to a niece, and then a daughter, of George III of England;
2. Louis Frederick Alexander (30 August 1756 – 20 September 1817);
3. Eugene Frederick Henry (1758 – 20 June 1822);
4. Sophie Marie Dorothea (25 October 1759 – 5 November 1828), married to Paul I, Emperor of Russia;
5. William Frederick Philip (27 December 1761 – 10 August 1830); father of Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach
6. Ferdinand Augustus Frederick (22 October 1763 – 20 January 1834), married Princess Kunigunde von Metternich, sister of Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich;
7. Friederike Elisabeth Amalie (27 July 1765 – 24 November 1785), married to Peter, Duke of Oldenburg;
8. Elisabeth Wilhelmine Luise (21 April 1767 – 18 February 1790), married to Francis I, Emperor of Austria;
9. Friederike Wilhelmine Katharina (born and died 1768);
10. Charles Frederick Henry (3 May 1770 – 22 August 1791);
11. Alexander Frederick Charles (24 April 1771 – 4 July 1833), the founder of the fifth branch of Württemberg, from which today's head of the House, Duke Carl Maria of Württemberg, belongs;
12. Charles Henry (3 July 1772 – 28 July 1833);

Notable descendants

His daughter Sophie Dorothea married Emperor Paul I of Russia and become Empress Marie Feodorovna. The Empress was mother to (among others) Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I of Russia as well as Queen Anna Paulowna of the Netherlands (from whom the current Dutch royal family is descended) and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, great-grandmother of German Emperor William II.

Through his second son Louis he is also great-great-great-great-grandfather of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Juan Carlos I of Spain. Through his eldest son he is an ancestor of Boris Johnson, elected Mayor of London in 2008.^[1]

Ancestry

On-line material

• Family tree with portrait
• Posthumous drawing of him as a young man by Adolph Menzel

References