Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen

Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen
Landgravine Frederick of Hesse-Kassel
Spouse Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Cassel
Issue Landgrave William of Hesse-Kassel
Karl Friedrich
Friedrich Wilhelm
Ludwig Karl
Georg Karl
Luise Karoline Marie Friederike
Marie, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge
Full name
German: Karoline Polyxena
House House of Nassau-Usingen
House of Hesse-Kassel
Father Karl Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau-Usingen
Mother Countess Caroline Felizitas of Leiningen-Dagsburg
Born 4 April 1762
Biebrich, Nassau-Usingen
Died 17 August 1823 (aged 61)
Rumpenheim, Hesse-Kassel

Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen (German: Prinzessin Karoline Polyxena von Nassau-Usingen; 4 April 1762  17 August 1823) was the elder daughter of Karl Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau-Usingen, and wife of Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel.

Early life

Caroline was born at Biebrich, Nassau-Usingen the second child and first daughter of Karl Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau-Usingen (1735–1803), and his wife, Countess Caroline Felizitas of Leiningen-Dagsburg (1734–1810), daughter of Christian Karl Reinhard, Count of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim.

Caroline, via her mother's roots among the Alsace lords of Linange, was a cousin of the Danish aristocrat, the Duke of Augustenborg, they both being direct descendants of the important Danish and Sleswicker magnate and statesman Frederik Ahlefeldt, 1st HRR Reichsgraf zu Rixingen, 1st Lensgreve of Langeland (d 1686). This Danish connection played a role in Caroline's marriage.

Marriage and family

Caroline married on 2 December 1786 in Biebrich to Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (1747–1837), youngest child of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, daughter of George II of Great Britain.[1] The Landgrave and Prince Frederik was born a German (Hessian) aristocrat, a cadet son of a Landesfürstliche house, but had lived since his youth in Denmark, as had his two elder brothers. Frederik's two elder brothers married daughters of the deceased King of Norway and Denmark. However, after the older boys had taken theirs in, there was no Danish royal daughter left for the youngest boy, Frederik, to marry, so he married a cousin of the Duke of Augustenborg, that means Caroline of Nassau. Frederik was an infantry general in Danish service.

They had eight children:

Titles and styles

Ancestry

Notes and sources

  1. Richard Glanville-Brown, online <e-mail address>, Richard Glanville-Brown (RR 2, Milton, Ontario, Canada), downloaded 17 August 2005.