Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Pauline Ida Marie Olga Henriette Katherine; 25 July 1852 – 17 May 1904) was the wife of Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.[citation needed]

Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Hereditary Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Pauline in 1868
Born(1852-07-25)25 July 1852
Stuttgart
Died17 May 1904(1904-05-17) (aged 51)
Orte
Spouse
Issue
Names
Pauline Ida Marie Olga Henriette Katherine
HouseSaxe-Weimar-Eisenach
FatherPrince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
MotherPrincess Augusta of Württemberg

Early life

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She was a daughter of Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife, Princess Augusta of Württemberg.[citation needed]

Hereditary Grand Duchess

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On 26 August 1873 at Friedrichshafen, Baden-Württemberg, Pauline married Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.[1] They were second cousins, as she was the paternal granddaughter of Prince Bernhard, younger brother of the Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the grandfather of Karl August.

Pauline and Charles Augustus had two sons:

Charles Augustus died on 22 November 1894 of inflammation of the lungs, at the age of 50.[2] He never succeeded as Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Consequently, Pauline was always known as Hereditary Grand Duchess, or after his death, Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess. Their elder son William Ernest succeeded as Grand Duke.

Widowhood

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In her final years, Pauline spent a lot of time in Italy, and was a frequent visitor to the Italian court.[citation needed] It was rumored that she entered into a morganatic marriage with her chamberlain.[citation needed] This marriage did not appear in the Almanach de Gotha, and was not approved by her son the Grand Duke. Consequently, the marriage was not sanctioned by the Saxe-Weimar government.[citation needed] She continued to be styled as Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess only by courtesy, as she was unpopular with her family and her son's subjects.[citation needed]

Though she lived much of her widowhood away from the Saxe-Weimar court, Pauline "contributed even from a distance, to create the difficulties which rendered the position of her daughter-in-law, the present Grand Duchess, so extremely difficult during the first few months of marriage".[citation needed] She was described as "extraordinarily fat, and one of the most plain-featured princesses of Germany, her homeliness being of the crabbed and sour order rather than of a genial nature".[citation needed]

On 17 May 1904, Pauline died suddenly of heart disease while on a train en route from Rome to Florence.[1][3] Her body was taken to Florence.[3]

Honours

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Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Memorial Notices", The Manchester Guardian, Rome, 18 May 1904
  2. ^ "Hereditary Grand Duke Dead", The New York Times, Berlin, 22 November 1894
  3. ^ a b "Grand Duchess Dead" (PDF), The New York Times, Rome, 18 May 1904
  4. ^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1900), "Genealogie" p. 3
  5. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg (1896), "Königliche Orden" p. 136