Louis, Duke of Württemberg

Duke Louis of Württemberg

Duke Louis of Württemberg, c.1800
Spouse(s)

Maria Czartoryska

Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg
Noble family House of Württemberg
Father Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
Mother Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt
Born 30 August 1756
Treptow an der Rega
Died 20 September 1817 (aged 61)
Kirchheim unter Teck

Duke Louis of Württemberg (Ludwig Friedrich Alexander Duke of Württemberg) (Treptow an der Rega, 30 August 1756 Kirchheim unter Teck, 20 September 1817) was the second son of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (1732–1797) and Margravine Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1736–1798). His elder brother was Frederick I, the first King of Württemberg, his sister was the Russian Empress consort, Maria Feodorovna. Louis retained the pre-royal title of Duke.

Biography

Life in military

Louis Frederick was a general in the cavalry. He was briefly a high ranking commander the Army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth appointed the commander of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's army, but betrayed the Commonwealth, refusing to fight against Russian troops throughout the Polish–Russian War of 1792, while feinting illness. For his betrayal he was dismissed from his post, but never persecuted.[1] His Polish wife, Maria Wirtemberska, divorced him shortly afterward after his treason became public knowledge.

Marriages and issue

He married on 28 October 1784 Maria Czartoryska (1768–1854), daughter of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Isabella, Countess Flemming.

They had one child before they divorced in 1793 (Maria initiated the divorce upon the news of his betrayal of Poland):

On 28 January 1797 in Hermitage, near Bayreuth, Louis Frederick was married to Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg (then of Nassau), daughter of Charles Christian, Duke of Nassau-Weilburg and Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau. The couple had five children:

He is an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Charles Napoléon.

Between 1807 and 1810, Duke Louis employed the composer Carl Maria von Weber as his secretary with no musical duties. Weber and the duke's older brother Frederick mutually disliked each other, and the composer was banished from Württemberg after accusations of misappropriating some of the duke's money.

Ancestry

References

  1. Piotr Derdej (2008). Zieleńce - Mir - Dubienka 1792. Bellona. pp. 98–103. ISBN 978-83-11-11039-7. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 http://web.archive.org/web/20091028121418/http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genwurttemberg2.html