Marie of Prussia

Marie of Prussia
Queen consort of Bavaria
Tenure 28 March 1848 – 10 March 1864
Born (1825-10-15)15 October 1825
Berlin City Palace, Prussia
Died 17 May 1889(1889-05-17) (aged 63)
Hohenschwangau Castle, Bavaria
Burial Theatine Church
Spouse Maximilian II of Bavaria
Issue Ludwig II
Otto I
House House of Hohenzollern
Father Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
Mother Princess Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg
Religion Evangelical Christian Church, later Roman Catholicism

Marie of Prussia (German: Marie Friederike Franziska Hedwig von Preußen; October 15, 1825 – May 17, 1889) was Queen of Bavaria and the mother of Kings Ludwig II and Otto of Bavaria.

Life

Born and raised in Berlin, she was the daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, a younger brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and his wife Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg. As a young woman, Marie was seriously considered as a wife for Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, until her engagement to Maximilian was announced.

Marriage

On 12 October 1842, she married the Crown Prince, and later King of Bavaria, Maximilian II.

Marie was loved equally by both the Protestants and Roman Catholic populations. (At that time, Prussia was mostly Evangelical, whilst Bavaria was mostly Roman Catholic.) A specific emphasis of her "great social engagement" was a reactivation of the Bavarian Women's Association, which took place on 18 December 1869 with the aid of her son, Ludwig II. Its aim was "Pflege und Unterstützung der im Felde verwundeten und erkrankten Krieger" (Care and support of soldiers wounded and injured in the field). The Bavarian Red Cross was officially founded as a result of the Bavarian Women's Association. The Red Cross eventually took over for the Queen.

With the sudden death of Maximilian II on 10 March 1864, Marie became a widow. On 12 October 1874, she converted to Roman Catholicism.

In later years, she lived a secluded existence at her country estate in Elbigenalp in the Lechtal Alps and at Schloss Hohenschwangau near Füssen. Marie outlived her elder son, Ludwig II, by several years. He died on 13 June 1886. Marie died in 1889 in Hohenschwangau.

She is interred in the Theatine Church in Munich in a side chapel opposite her husband.

Issue

Honours

National Honours

Foreign Honours

Ancestry

References

This article was translated from the article on the German Wikipedia on December 21, 2005.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marie of Prussia.
Marie of Prussia
Born: 15 October 1825 Died: 17 May 1889
German royalty
Preceded by
Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Queen consort of Bavaria
28 March 1848 – 10 March 1864
Vacant
Title next held by
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este
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