Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Duchess consort of Schleswig-Holstein
Spouse Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
Issue
Friedrich, Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Augusta Victoria, German Empress and Queen of Prussia
Karoline Mathilde, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
Gerhard , Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
Louise, Princess Friedrich Leopold of Prussia
Feodora Adelheid, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
House House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Father Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Mother Princess Feodora of Leiningen
Born 20 July 1835(1835-07-20)
Died 25 January 1900(1900-01-25) (aged 64)

Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (July 20, 1835 – January 25, 1900) was a niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. She was the second daughter of Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, older half-sister of the British queen.[1] She is a matrillineal ancestor of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Contents

Napoleon III's proposal of marriage

In 1852, not long after Napoléon III became Emperor of France, he made a proposal of marriage to Adelheid's parents after he had been rebuffed by Princess Carola of Sweden. Although he had never met her, the political advantages of the marriage for the Emperor were obvious. It would gain dynastic respectability for the Bonaparte line, and could promote closer alliance between France and Britain, because Adelheid was Queen Victoria's niece. At the same time, she was not officially a member of the British royal family, so the risk of refusal was small. Adelheid could be expected to be sufficiently grateful for her good fortune to convert to Roman Catholicism.

In fact, the proposal horrified Queen Victoria and vexed the Prince Consort, who preferred not to confer such hasty legitimacy upon France's latest "revolutionary" regime — the durability of which was deemed dubious — nor to yield up a young kinswoman for the purpose. The British court maintained a strict silence toward the Hohenlohes during the marriage negotiations, lest the Queen seem either eager for or repulsed by the prospect of Napoléon as a nephew-in-law.

The parents, accurately interpreting the British silence as disapproval, declined the French offer—to their sixteen year-old daughter's dismay. This may have been only a maneuver by the Hohenlohes to get concessions from the French to secure their daughter's future interests.But before his ministers could press his case with further inducements, Napoléon gave up pursuit of a royal consort. Instead he offered marriage to Eugénie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, whom he had been simultaneously soliciting to become his mistress, and who had refused his advances.[2]

Marriage and children

On September 11, 1856 Adelheid married Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. They were parents to seven children[3]:

A small island in Franz Josef Land, Adelaide Island (Остров Аделаиды), was named after Princess Adelheid by the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition.

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ "Princess Feodora of Leiningen", Wikipedia.org
  2. ^ Diesbach, Ghislain de (1967). Secrets of the Gotha. translated from the French by Margaret Crosland. London: Chapman & Hall. pp. 134–136. 
  3. ^ "Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein", Wikipedia.org