Hedwig Sophia of Sweden

David von Krafft : Portrait of the Princess Hedwig Sophia of Sweden

Hedwig Sophia (born June 26, 1681 in Stockholm ; † December 22, 1708 ibid) was a Swedish princess and through her marriage to Friedrich IV. Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf .

Life

Hedwig Sophia of Sweden was the eldest daughter of Charles XI. from Sweden from the house of Wittelsbach (Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg line) and his wife Ulrike from Denmark . So she was a sister of King Charles XII. of Sweden and of the later Swedish Queen Ulrika Eleonore . In 1694 the sailing ship Prinsessan Hedvig Sophia was named after her.

On May 12, 1698, Hedwig Sophia married Frederick IV of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf at Karlberg Castle near Stockholm. He had already been in office as the duke there since 1695. Through this marriage the Swedish line of succession came to the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf; The first king from this family became Friedrich's nephew Adolf Friedrich in 1751 . Hedwig's husband served in the Swedish army and was appointed generalissimo of the Swedish troops in Germany. This time was overshadowed by the Great Northern War . In 1702 Friedrich IV fell in the battle of Klissow .

Hedwig took over the reign of her duchy for her two-year-old son Karl Friedrich . She exercised this until her death in 1708. However, she was almost exclusively in her Swedish homeland and left the government business to the uncle of her late husband Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf . But she always made sure that the alliance with Sweden remained in place. In Sweden she was due to the childlessness of her brother Charles XII. in first place of the line of succession. Due to her widow status, she was again a candidate for marriage for European princes. But she refused another marriage. Instead, she had a long-term affair with the courtier Olof Gyllenborg . She was on good terms with her royal brother. Hedwig died of smallpox on December 22, 1708 . She probably contracted the disease while caring for her son.

Offspring and further development

Hedwig's only child, Karl Friedrich , was at the top of the Swedish line of succession after her death. After the death of Charles XII. In 1718, however, Hedwig's sister Ulrike was appointed the new queen by the Swedish Diet. In 1725 Karl Friedrich married Anna Petrovna , the daughter of Tsar Peter the Great . From this marriage came the future Tsar Peter III. whose grandmother Hedwig was with it. Since her sister Ulrike's marriage to Frederick I of Sweden remained childless, Peter would also have had an inheritance claim to Sweden. However, since a personal union between Sweden and Russia was not politically enforceable in Europe at that time, Peter had to renounce his Swedish rights when he was appointed Russian Crown Prince. The Swedish crown then fell to the aforementioned Adolf Friedrich.

ancestors

Johann Kasimir von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg (1589–1652)

Charles X. King of Sweden (1622–1660)

Katharina Wasa of Sweden (1584–1638)

Charles XI. King of Sweden (1655–1697)

Friedrich III. of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1597–1659)

Hedwig Eleonora of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1636-1715)

Maria Elisabeth of Saxony (1610–1684)

Hedwig of Sweden

Christian IV. King of Denmark , (1577–1648)

Friedrich III. King of Denmark (1609–1670)

Anna Katharina of Brandenburg (1575-1612)

Ulrike Eleonore of Denmark (1656–1693)

Georg von Braunschweig-Calenberg (1582–1641)

Sophie Amalie of Braunschweig-Calenberg (1628–1685)

Anna Eleonore of Hessen-Darmstadt (1601–1659)

literature

• Joachim Krüger : Hedvig Sofia of Sweden, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf , in: Kirsten Baumann, Ralf Bleile (eds.): From swords, sails and cannons - The downfall of Princess Hedvig Sofia . Accompanying volume on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation, Gottorf Castle, Schleswig 28 May to 4 October 2015. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2015, pp. 40–59, ISBN 978-3-95498-167-0 .
• Joachim Krüger , Uta Kuhl: The question of the succession of Duke Karl Friedrichs of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf , in: Kirsten Baumann, Ralf Bleile (eds.), From swords, sails and cannons - The downfall of Princess Hedvig Sofia . Accompanying volume on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation, Gottorf Castle, Schleswig May 28 to October 4, 2015. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2015, pp. 124–135, ISBN 978-3-95498-167-0 .
• Wilhelmina Stålberg: Anteqningar om Svenska kvinnor.
• Nanna Lundh-Eriksson: Hedvig Eleonora. Wahlström & Widstrand, Stockholm 1947.
• Nanna Lundh-Eriksson: Den glömda drottningen. Karl XII: s syster. Ulrika Eleonora DY och hennes tid. Affärstryckeriet, Norrtälje. 1976.
• Svante Norrhem: Kvinnor vid maktens sida: 1632-1772. Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2007, ISBN 978-91-89116-91-7 .
• AD Jørgensen: Hedevig Sophie . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 7 : I. Hansen – Holmsted . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1893, p. 197-198 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
• Wilhelmina Stålberg , PG Berg: Hedvig Sofia. In: Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor. PG Berg, Stockholm 1864, pp. 178-179 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Commons : Hedwig Sophia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files