Charlotte of Hessen-Kassel (1627–1686)

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Charlotte of Hessen-Kassel, around 1650

Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel , Electress of the Palatinate, (born November 20, 1627 in Kassel , † March 16, 1686 in Heidelberg ) was the wife of Elector Karl Ludwig and mother of Liselotte of the Palatinate and later Elector Karl II of the Palatinate .

Her parents were Wilhelm V von Hessen-Kassel and Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau-Münzenberg .

Life

Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel is said to have been a beautiful, but very vain and intellectually undemanding young woman. At the urging of her widowed mother, she married Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz on February 12, 1650 at the court of Kassel, the son of the deceased "Winter King" of Bohemia, who had received the devastated Electoral Palatinate back just a few months earlier through the Peace of Westphalia after decades of exile . he set about rebuilding it with great energy. However, Charlotte did not reciprocate the love and attentions of the bridegroom, but instead confessed that she “did not like to take him”. Her mother had already warned the Count Palatine that Charlotte was cold-hearted and stubborn. The latter, in turn, soon felt that her husband was ten years her senior and that she was being persecuted and monitored with unjustified jealousy. The marriage with Karl Ludwig became very unhappy and disputes soon arose.

Elector Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate

After the birth of a third child, who died shortly after the birth, she expelled him from the bedroom. He accused her of having ridden too often, hunting too often, as well as being addicted to cleaning and entertainment. The elector, who was prone to tantrums and loud scenes, provoked her husband, who finally took one of her court ladies as mistress , which in turn led to fits of jealousy, which the elector responded to with domestic violence.

Despite her position as prince and church superior, Karl Ludwig could not get a divorce without her consent, although despite her disobedient, stubborn, surly and stubborn nature he tried again and again in vain. Unlike her ancestor Christine von Sachsen , who had agreed to a morganatic double marriage of her husband Philip I of Hesse in 1540 (who then fathered children with both women), Charlotte strictly refused. Karl Ludwig, as the owner of the highest executive and judicial power in the state, finally decided to unilaterally and officially expel his wife and proclaimed this publicly. Then he determined his court preacher to bless the marriage with his mistress Luise von Degenfeld as a so-called " marriage to the left hand "; Luise and her brother had insisted on a regular marriage. In contrast to Charlotte, the now twenty-four-year-old lady-in-waiting was gentle and submissive. The children from this relationship, named " Raugrafen " by their father , were dynastically considered illegitimate and were excluded from inheritance.

The outcast Charlotte initially did not return to Kassel after her “exile”, but lived in a wing of Heidelberg Castle, still hoping that the tide would turn. Little is known about Charlotte's relationship with her two children, Karl and Liselotte. Liselotte was sent by her father to his sister Sophie von der Pfalz in Hanover in 1659 , apparently to remove her from her mother's sphere of influence. According to another opinion, he brought her to Hanover to spare her the marital disputes. Sophie, who had lived at the Heidelberg court for a few years prior to her marriage, had seen it enough. She hated and despised her sister-in-law and was only too happy to help her brother take her daughter away, presumably to persuade her to retreat to Kassel. Karl Ludwig's sister Elisabeth was the only one at the Heidelberg court to openly sided with her sister-in-law.

There are two touching letters from Charlotte to Liselotte from the time her daughter was traveling to Hanover, and several others to her tutor, in which she inquired about her daughter's condition and complained that she was no longer getting an answer. Presumably Liselotte's letters were withheld from her mother in order to break off contact. After Charlotte left Heidelberg in June 1663, her daughter was allowed to return to the Palatinate court. The two only met again many years later in two encounters in 1681 and 1683.

Charlotte lived on a "meager" pension and after the death of her son Karl retired to an apartment in Neuburg Abbey, where she died on March 26, 1686.

Charlotte from the perspective of Sophie von der Pfalz

Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel was considered difficult and stubborn. Sophie von der Pfalz - who, however, may not have been entirely objective, but seems to have had an aversion to Charlotte - describes her as vain, superficial and a bit stupid. In her memoirs, Sophie also tells of the marriage drama and the arguments at the electoral court after Charlotte found a box with two rings and two letters with the elector's promise of marriage to Luise von Degenfeld and vice versa:

“ That roused her to which her temperament tended anyway, and made her make a terrible noise. She had my sister and me called; Degenfeld had in turn notified the Elector, and when we entered we saw a very unusual scene. The elector stood in front of his mistress to fend off the blows she might have received from his wife, the elector walked back and forth in the room and had all the jewelry of the Degenfeld in her hands. Full of anger, she approached us and shouted: 'Princesses, this is the whore's wages, this is not for me!' I couldn't help laughing at this complaint, and so blurted out that the Electress was infected by it and began to laugh too. But a moment later she was angry again when the Lord Elector told her to return the stones to whoever they belonged to. She tossed them across the room and shouted: 'If they shouldn't be mine, there they are! "

After Charlotte's death in 1686, Sophie said of the preparations for her funeral:

“ ... That will probably be the only time that you will dress her without her scolding or beating her people. "

The offspring

Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel married Karl Ludwig on February 22, 1650 in Kassel . The marriage had three children:

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel (1532–1592)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Moritz von Hessen-Kassel (1572–1632)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sabine von Württemberg (1549–1581)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wilhelm V of Hessen-Kassel (1602–1637)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Johann Georg zu Solms-Laubach (1546–1600)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Agnes zu Solms-Laubach (1578–1602)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Margarete von Schönburg-Glauchau (1554–1606)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charlotte of Hessen-Kassel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philipp Ludwig I of Hanau-Münzenberg , (1553–1580)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg (1576–1612)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Magdalene von Waldeck (1558–1599)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau-Münzenberg (1602–1651)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 William I of Orange (1533–1584)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Katharina Belgica of Orange-Nassau (1578–1648)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier (1546 / 47–1582)
 
 
 
 
 
 

literature

  • Robert Geerdts (ed.): The mother of the kings of Prussia and England. Memoirs and letters of Electress Sophie von Hannover , life documents of past centuries 8, Munich 1913.
  • Wolfgang von Moers-Messmer: Heidelberg and its electors. The great time of Heidelberg's history as the capital and residence of the Electoral Palatinate , Ubstadt-Weiher 2001.
  • Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. From the French by Inge Leipold. 3rd edition, Piper, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-492-22141-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 34
  2. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 35
  3. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 39
  4. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, pp. 44-45
  5. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 46
  6. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, pp. 46-56
  7. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, pp. 68-73
  8. ^ Thea Leitner : Scandal at Hof , pp. 77-78, Ueberreuter, 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3492-1
  9. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 46
  10. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, pp. 70-73
  11. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 72, p. 283-284.
  12. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft. Liselotte of the Palatinate. A German princess at the court of the Sun King. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 72, p. 338.
  13. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft ..., pp. 42–44.
  14. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft ..., pp. 49-50.
  15. ↑ Similar, but slightly shortened and with slightly different wording also in: W. von Moers-Messmer: Heidelberg und seine Kurfürsten.
  16. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft ..., p. 339.

Web links

Commons : Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Charlotte of Hessen-Kassel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Electress of the Palatinate
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the Elector Karl Ludwig
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1627
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1686
Place of death Heidelberg