Frederica of Baden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Frederica of Baden | |
| Queen of Sweden | |
 Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden with his queen consort Frederica of Baden |
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| Reign | 1797 (date of marriage) - March 29, 1809 (husband's abdication) |
|---|---|
| Full name | Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina |
| Born | March 12, 1781 |
| Birthplace | Karlsruhe |
| Died | September 25, 1826 (aged 45) |
| Place of death | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Consort to | Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden div. 1812 |
| Issue | Gustav, Prince of Vasa Sophie Carl Gustav Amalia Maria Charlotta Cecilia |
| Royal House | House of Zähringen |
| Father | Karl Ludwig of Baden |
| Mother | Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt |
Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (March 12, 1781 - September 25, 1826) was Queen consort of Sweden from 1797 to 1809. Daughter of Karl Ludwig of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, she was the younger sister of Empress Elisabeth Alexeievna (formerly Princess Louise of Baden), wife of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
[edit] Biography
In 1797, she married King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and became queen. Her husband had arranged the marriage himself because she was sister with the Rusian Empress, which made a form of alliance with Russia even after he refused to marry the Russian Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, but mostly because he wanted a beautiful queen.
The marriage is often considered happy, but the king was much more interested in sex than she was. Many times, the king was delayed for hours after "having entered the queen's bed chamber" in the mornings, so much so that the members of the parliament had to interrupt and ask the king to "spare the queen's health," and she complained of the exhaustion it caused her. Having been brought up in innocence, her husband wanted to preserve her ignorance in sexual matters. She was shocked and intrigued by the sexually liberal Swedish court and wrote home to her family that "everyone had a lover" and about the bisexual rumours about the royal Duchess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp. When a frivoulous play was performed for the queen at the Operaby a French theatre troup, the king actually closed the Royal Swedish Opera down in 1806, (though officially because of the costs); it remained closed until 1809.
She was deposed with her husband in 1809, after which the family settled in Baden, but her husband was restless and did not want to stay. She herself refused further sexual intercourse as she "did not wish to give birth in exile." They were divorced in 1812. Secretly, she supported him financially after the separation.
The communities of Fredrika (1799), Dorotea (1799) and Vilhelmina (1804) located in Lappland were named in her honor.
[edit] Children
- Crown Prince Gustaf, after 1809 known as Gustaf Gustafsson of Vasa (November 9, 1799–1877)
- Princess Sofia Wilhelmina (May 21, 1801–1865), married Grand Duke Leopold I of Baden
- Prince Carl Gustaf, Grand Duke of Finland (December 2, 1802–1805)
- Princess Amalia Maria Charlotta (February 22, 1805–1853)
- Princess Cecilia (June 22, 1807–1844), married August, Grand Duke of Oldenburg.
Gustav would serve as an officer to the Habsburgs of Austria, but would only father one daughter, Carola, the wife of King Albert I of Saxony, but she would died childless.
Sofia Wilhelmina would marry Leopold I of Baden, and their granddaughter, Victoria of Baden, would eventually marry Gustav V of Sweden, thus connecting the House of Bernadotte with the previous Swedish dynasties.
[edit] References
- Herman Lindquist, "Alla Sveriges drottningar"
- Georg Nordensvan "Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare"
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Frederica of Baden
Born: 12 March 1781 Died: 25 September 1826 |
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| Swedish royalty | ||
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| Preceded by Sophia Magdalena of Denmark (Queen consort) |
Royal Consort of Sweden (Queen consort) 1797 - 1809 |
Succeeded by Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp (Queen consort) |
