Charlotte Christine Wolfenbüttel

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Charlotte Christine Wolfenbüttel , actually Dortie Marie-Elisabeth Danielson , widowed Charlotte Maldaque and Charlotte d'Aubant , (* around 1693; † January 20, 1771 in Vitry-sur-Seine ) was known as the fake Princess Charlotte Christine Sophie von Wolfenbüttel .

Life

She was born as Dortie Marie-Elisabeth Danielson .

According to a legend , Charlotte Christine Sophie von Wolfenbüttel, who died in 1715, is said to have faked her death shortly after the birth of her son Peter in order to avoid the abuse by her husband Alexei of Russia . At that time she fled to Paris and from there came to Louisiana with a group of German emigrants . After Alexei's death in 1718, she allegedly married the French Chevalier d'Aubant, who is said to have fallen in love with her at the Russian court. When she returned to Paris, Count Moritz von Sachsen recognized her there on a walk. The d'Aubant couple emigrated to Bourbon (Mauritius) shortly afterwards with their daughter. In 1754 she returned to France alone. Here she is said to have lived in retirement until her death, where she allegedly received an annual maintenance payment from the Braunschweig court .

reception

This story was taken up by several authors and researched, interpreted and partially refuted, among others by Voltaire (1760), Grimm and Diderot (1771) or Bossu (1777). The legend is the subject of several novels and plays from the 19th century, such as Heinrich Zschokke ( The Princess of Wolfenbüttel , 1804), Isabelle de Montolieu ( La princesse de Wolfenbuttel , 1806), Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer ( Santa Chiara , 1854) or Theodor Piderit ( Charlotte von Wolfenbüttel , 1876).

research

Research in the French archives revealed that a Charlotte Christine with a husband, the Capitaine-Major Urbain Maldaque and their daughter (also named Charlotte Christine) were registered in Mauritius from 1728 to 1759 . The woman called herself Charlotte Christine von Wolfenbüttel in her child's baptism certificate as well as in later documents ; sometimes as Caroline Christine or C. Christine. She returned to Paris in 1759 with a colored servant. There she signed a purchase contract for the purchase of a house called "Dortie Marie-Elisabeth Danielson, widow of Urbain Maldaque". From these script samples and the fact that the woman was presumably illiterate , as well as the credible reports of the doctors who testified to the death of the Princess von Wolfenbüttel in 1715, it is deduced that the two women could not have been identical. Whether she was a con man or whether it was just a chain of several errors could not be completely clarified. René Le Juge de Segrais suspects in his book Les Deux Princesses that she only slipped into the role of princess for her husband.

literature

  • Depping: Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (Charlotte de) . In: Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne,… Volume 6 . Michaud frères, Paris 1812, p. 144–146 (French, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Marc de Villiers: La "Princesse Charlotte" . In: Histoire de la fondation de la Nouvelle Orléans (1717–1722) . Impr. Nationale, Paris 1917, pp. 75–76 (French, text archive - Internet Archive ).
  • Constantin Bauer: The legend of the apparent death of Princess Christine von Wolfenbüttel. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch. 31. 1950, Braunschweig, pp. 77-86 ( tu-braunschweig.de ).
  • Theodor Penners: The wrong princess Charlotte Christine von Wolfenbüttel (with two smrift samples). In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch. 35. 1954, Braunschweig, pp. 156-163 ( tu-braunschweig.de ).
  • René Le Juge de Segrais: Les Deux Princesses. (La véritable Princesse de Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. - La fausse Princesse de Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel: Dortie Marie Elisabeth Danielson, 1693–1771) . Port-Louis January 1, 1963, OCLC 314986499 .
  • René Le Juge de Segrais: La vraie et la fausse Princesse de Wolfenbüttel. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch. 45, pp. 52-70 ( tu-braunschweig.de ).
  • Evelin Haase: Charlotte Christine Wolfenbüttel, Maldaque. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 138-139 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marc de Villiers du Terrage: A history of the foundation of New Orleans (1717-1722) . Louisiana Historical Society, New Orleans 1920, OCLC 17741528 , p. 68 ( mocavo.com ).
  2. ↑ a b c Evelin Haase: Charlotte Christine Wolfenbüttel, Maldaque. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 138-139 .
personal data
SURNAME Wolfenbüttel, Charlotte Christine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Danielson, Dortie Marie-Elisabeth (real name); Maldaque, Charlotte; D'Aubant, Charlotte
BRIEF DESCRIPTION fake princess
DATE OF BIRTH around 1693
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1771
Place of death Vitry-sur-Seine