Princess Sophie of The Netherlands, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar (1824-1897) & Family

[Marengo]

Princess Sophie of The Netherlands, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar (1824-1897) & Family

Princess Sophie (1824-1897)

This thread is about Wilhelmina Maria Sophie Louise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, born Princess of The Netherlands (The Hague 8 Apr 1824-Weimar 23 Mar 1897)

Parents: King Willem II of The Netherlands and Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia

Husband: Grand Duke Karl-Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Children: Hereditairy Grand Duke Karl-August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess Alexandrine of Reuss, Princess Anna of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
and Duchess Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Siblings: King Willem III of The Netherlands, Princes Alexander, Casimir and Hendrik of The Netherlands.

Note 1: Most pictures used here were originally posted by Thijs on the Alexander Palace Forums
Note 2: All pictures directly posted by me are free of copyrights

 

[Marengo]

Some pictures of Sophie in her younger years:

Sophie and her brother Hendrik:

Sophie with her two eldest children:

 

[Marengo]

Karl Alexander August Johann, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (24 June 1818 - 5 January 1901) was a Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Duke of Saxony, Herzog zu Jülich, Kleve und Berg und zu Engern und Westfalen, Landgraf in Thuringen, Markgraf von Meißen, Gefürstete Graf zu Henneberg, Graf der Mark und zu Ravensberg, Herr zu Ravenstein und Tonna.

Born in Weimar, he was the second but eldest surviving son of Karl Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisemach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.
When he was the Hereditary Grand Duke, Karl Alexander established a strong friendship with Fanny Lewald and Hans Christian Andersen, but this close relationship stopped in 1849 for the war against Denmark in favor of the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein (The First German-Danish War). On 8 July 1853 his father died, and Karl Alexander became Grand Duke; but he stopped his constitutional accession until the Goethe's birthday, on 28 August 1853.
The Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen was reportedly infatuated with Karl Alexander writing that "I quite love the young duke, he is the first of all princes that I really find attractive".

Read more about Grand Duke Karl-Alexander in this wikipedia article

 

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Sophie didn´t mind a few pearls and diamonds here and there, a pity that her present Dutch relatives don´t take more after her in this department:

 

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A painting of the wedding of Sophie and Carl-Alexander in Kneuterdijk Palace (Gothic Hall), The Hague:

 

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The couples eldest son and heir, Hereditairy Grand Duke Karl-August, and a picture of his wife, Herdeitairy Grand Duchess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar, nee Pss of Saxe-Weimar:

 

[Marengo]

Sophie's grandson and the eldest son of Karl-August, Grand Duke WIlhelm-Ernst of Saxe-Weimar:

From wikipedia:

According to the Dutch Constitution, Wilhelm Ernst was in line to succeed to throne of the Netherlands (he was the grandson of Sophie of the the Netherlands) after Queen Wilhelmina. The Dutch people, beginning in the 20th century feared this, for the possibility of German influence or even annexation of the Netherlands.
In order to prevent this, some lawyers tried to change the Constitution to exclude Wilhelm Ernst of the succession of the throne of the Netherlands. Another way, however, was this: he or his offspring -if Wilhelmina would die childless- would have to choose between the Dutch and the Weimar throne. The birth of Wilhelmina's daughter Juliana in 1909 made the chance for any member of the house Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach to inherit the Dutch throne smaller and with the amendment to the constitution of 1922 -according to which the right to succession was restricted to the offspring of Wilhelmina- disappeared entirely.

Read more here.

 

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His first wife, Princess Karoline of Reuss: // A picture of Wilhelm-Ernst and Karoline together:

 

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Wilhelm-Ernsts second wife, Grand Duchess Feodora, nee Pss of Saxe-Meiningen: // Here a picture of Wlhelm-Ernst and Feodora together:

___________________

 

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Here some pictures of Princess Marie-Alexandrine of Reuss, nee Princess of Saxe-Weimar, Sophie's eldest daughter (and her husband, Prince Heinrich zu Reuss):

 

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Two of Marie-Alexandrine's children:

M-A's husband with their two children:

Marie-Alexandrine and her eldest daughter Sophie-Renate:

 

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Duchess Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, nee Pss of Saxe-Weimar, Sophie's second daughter:

Here a wikipedia article about Elisabeth´s husband Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was regent of this Grand Duchy untill 1901:

Duke Johann Albrecht Ernst Konstantin Friedrich Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (8 December 1857-16 February 1920) was the regent of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1897-1901 and the Duchy of Brunswick from 1907-1913.
Johann Albrecht was born in Schwerin the fifth child of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II and his first wife Princess Auguste of Reuss (1822-1862). On the death of his brother Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III in 1897, Johann Albrecht was appointed to act as regent for his nephew Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV until he came of age on the April 9, 1901 when he assumed personal control of the Grand Duchy.
In 1907 Johann Albrecht was selected to act as regent of the Duchy of Brunswick following the death of Prince Albrecht of Prussia. He acted as regent for Prince Ernest Augustus, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale who was prevented from taking over the duchy in 1884 by Otto von Bismarck due to the rift between the royal houses of Hanover and Hohenzollern. The regency came to an end on November 1, 1913 when Prince Ernest Augustus' son Ernest Augustus was permitted to ascend to Duchy following his marriage to Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia the only daughter of the German Emperor William II which help heal the rift between the two houses.

Read more here.

 

[Marengo]

Two grouppictures:

Dinner for the 50th anniversary of the marriage of princess Sophie and Carl August. Behind the table from left to right: archduke Rainer of Austria, grandduke Friedrich of Baden, Queen Emma of the Netherlands, Wilhelm ll of Germany, grandduchess Sophie, grandduke Carl Alexander, queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, king Albert of Saxony.

 

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Sophie's palace in The Hague:

Schloss Ettersburg, one of the favorite residences in Sachsen Weimar, of the grandduchess Sophie.

 

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More gropus:

Princess Sophie leaving her homeland. On 15 october 1842 she left, together with her newborn husband Carl August, Dutch soil and shipped in Rotterdam travelling to her new home in Weimar. Behind Sophie you see Carl August and left of him, the three brothers of Sopie the princes Henry, Alexander and William. Shortly before she left she wrote a letter to her parents on Dutch soil. This letter is received by the captain general of the Royal Navy.

 

[Marengo]

Some other relatives I

Her mother-in-law and aunt Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Saxe-Weimar, nee Grand Duchess of Russia:

Her father-in-law, Grand Duke Karl-August of Saxe-Weimar:

 

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Sophie's husband Karl-Alexander with his sisters Marie and Augusta:

Her sister-in-law, princess Marie of Prussia, nee Pss of Saxe-Weimar:

Her sister-in-law Empress Augusta of Germany, Queen of Prussia, nee Pss of Saxe-Weimar and her husband Emperor Wilhelm I:

 

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The Grand Ducal standard used by Grand Duchess Sophie, fromk cwrflags.com and free of copyrights:

The Grand Duchess was the paron lady of the German Shakespeare Society, read more in German on this website:

http://shakespeare.let.uu.nl/SOPHIE.htm

 

[Marengo]

From this website:

The last descendant of Goethe, Walther von Goethe, had left Goethe's literary remains as a legacy to the Grand-duchess Sophie. She had founded the archives in order that the legacy might be introduced in appropriate manner into the spiritual life of the times. She naturally turned to those personalities of whom she had to assume that they might know what was to be done with the Goethe literary remains.

 

[lucien]

From this website:

The last descendant of Goethe, Walther von Goethe, had left Goethe's literary remains as a legacy to the Grand-duchess Sophie. She had founded the archives in order that the legacy might be introduced in appropriate manner into the spiritual life of the times. She naturally turned to those personalities of whom she had to assume that they might know what was to be done with the Goethe literary remains.

The Goethe - Schiller Archiv,founded by the Grandduchess Sophie in 1889:
http://www.klassik-stiftung.de/einruchtungen/goethe-and-schiller-archiv.html

 

[Marengo]

I think that is by far her greatest legacy to the world, though Goethe is usually more associated with one of her predecessors, Duchess Anna-Amalia (who was his most important patron during his life).

Sophie had quite some property in The Netherlands, hadn´t she? I believe she owned some acres in Scheveningen, which were sold years ago. However it remained the right of her heirs to decide what would happen to that land and hence Prince Michael-Benedictus recently had to be invited to Scheveningen as they wanted him to give permission to build some flats, I don´t know if he did though.

 

[Marengo]

As written on the Alexander Palace Forums by Thijs:

She was though known for her intelligence but also for her bad temper. Just like her brother King William lll she had outbursts of bad temper and could get furious if things wouldn`t get the way she wanted to. Her mother queen Anna Paulowna wrote once to her brother Tsar Nicolas l that she saw in her children (especially William) the signs of the blood of Tsar Paul, her father. He could get outreageous furious too. I don`t know the attitude of Sophie towards her brother the King. William lll however "played" with their, as it seems, love and hate game. Whenever he met her he embraced her (just too )close and (just too) very long in his strong arms just to annoy her.

Sophie inherited the complete Goethe and Schiller archives which made her say: "I inherited but the whole world with me". And so she did, she donated her inheritance to the German people and had a special building built in Weimar, which still exists, as a place to show the inheritance of the Goethe Schiller archives.

She was extremely wealthy, especially from her mother she had the "biggest part of the inheritance" and she was known for her jewelry collection (especially pearls). But she also owned very large estates in The Hague and in Silezia, also as parts of her inheritance. The estate Muskau in Silezia was hers and she visited her Dutch and Silezian estates every year for a longer period. That made her husband say that he was visiting his wife on her grounds. She was very close to the Dutch nation and was aware of everything that happened in the Netherlands. For a while she even was the crown princess untill the Dutch government changed the constitution. She was a wise advisor to the young queen Emma who adored her "aunt Sophie". I think though that princess Marie, the furstin of Wied (the daughter of prince Frederick and princess Louise) was mre popular in the Netherlands but I am not for sure for that. Anyway, Marie looks more affectionate to me.

Her sister in law queen Sophie hated her and thought of her as an evil woman. But queen Sophie thought so about just every member of the Dutch royals (exceptions: prince Frederick and princess Amalia da Gloria). But the hate of Sophie seemed very strong against grandduchess Sophie and her mother queen Anna Paulowna, the mother in law of queen Sophie.

Queen Sophie was horrified when she found out that most of the inheritance of queen Anna Paulowna was split up between prince Henry and grandduchess Sophie and legates to some Russian relatives. Her two sons were as good as desinherited.

 

[Marengo]

As posted by Joris on the Benelux Royals MB:

Detlef Jena wrote a book (in German) about four spouses of Saxe-Weimar rulers: Das Weimarer Quartett. Die Fürstinnen Anna Amalia - Louise - Maria Pawlowna - Sophie. Publ. Verlag F. Pustet, Regensburg 2007. ISBN 978-3-7917-2044-9. EUR 29.90. 296 pp.
I post this here because we, of course, are mainly interested in highly sophisticated Sophie, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, née Princess van Oranje-Nassau, Princess of the Netherlands (1824-1897), daughter of King Willem II and Queen Anna Paulowna, married to Grand Duke Carl Alexander - culturally very active in Weimar.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Did Wilhelm Ernst, Princess Sophie's grandson ever travel to The Netherlands and visit Queen Wilhelmina?

 

[CyrilVladisla]

1890 portrait of Princess Sophie
http://www.onlineportraitgallery.com/portrait/princess-sophie-of-the-netherlands-3

 

[An Ard Ri]

1890 portrait of Princess Sophie
http://www.onlineportraitgallery.com/portrait/princess-sophie-of-the-netherlands-3

I wonder what tiara the Princess is wearing in that engraving?

 

[JR76]

1890 portrait of Princess Sophie
http://www.onlineportraitgallery.com/portrait/princess-sophie-of-the-netherlands-3

I wonder what tiara the Princess is wearing in that engraving?

I don't think it's a tiara. In this photo it looks more to be a pearl encrusted headband?

https://th.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ไฟล์:Sofia_dos_Países_Baixos.jpg

 

[Marengo]

It seems so. The plumes on the back of her head makes it look like a type of hat and it seems the Grand Duchess is wearing day wear. Supposedly the Weimars had [one of] the largest jewel collection of Germany. The Grand Duchess herself inherited most of the jewels of Queen Anna Pavlovna.