Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan
| Princess Wilhelmine | |
|---|---|
Joseph Maria Grassi, 1799 | |
| Born | 8 February 1781 Mitau, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia |
| Died | 29 November 1839 (aged 58) Vienna, Austrian Empire |
| Spouse | Prince Louis de Rohan-Guémenée
(m. 1800; div. 1805)Prince Vasily Troubetzkoy
(m. 1805; div. 1806)Count Karl Rudolf von der Schulenburg
(m. 1819; div. 1828) |
Lutheran | |
Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan (born 8 February 1781 in
Early life
Wilhelmine was born to
Wilhelmine spent her earliest childhood in
The young duchess was very beautiful, intelligent, eloquent and educated in philosophy and history. She fell in love with Finnish-Swedish general
Wilhelmine spent the rest of her life moving between
Metternich
Although Wilhelmine first met
Modern historians speculate that Wilhelmine, who hated
During the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), the relationship ended, as Wilhelmine didn't like playing the role of an unacknowledged mistress, a role forced onto her as Metternich was married, and also because Alfred Windischgraetz (alternative spelling) appeared in Vienna, and she could not resist resuming her affair with him, writing "with friends one counts the days, with you I count the nights, and I would not wish to miss a single one of them".[2] This distracted Metternich at a critical stage in the negotiations.
Because of the impossibility of having any more children, she became a
Relation with Božena Němcová
Famous Czech author Božena Němcová (1820?–1862) was one of the poor family girls supported by Wilhelmine. Němcová portrayed Wilhelmine in her 1855 novel Babička (The Grandmother) as an ideal woman. The portrait is so touching that Czech collocation "paní kněžna" (meaning "the princess") became a synonym for Wilhelmine.
All four Courland sisters are known to have had illegitimate children, Johanna at age sixteen. Because of her unknown origin (even the date of her birth is disputed) and the favour shown her by the duchess, several historians believe that Němcová could have been an illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine and either Metternich, Count Karel
Helena Sobková, a writer of popular-history books about Němcová, believes that Němcová may actually have been the niece of Wilhelmine. In 1816 an illegitimate daughter was born to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Dorothea, and Karel Clam-Martinic (1792–1840). The child's fate is unknown, and it is possible that Wilhelmine gave the child to Němcová's parents to raise as their own. This suggestion, however, has not been definitely proven.
Literature
- Clemens Brühl: Die Sagan, das Leben der Herzogin von Sagan, Prinzessin von Kurland, Berlin, 1941, in German.
- Dorothy Gies McGuigan: Metternich and the duchess , 1975, ISBN 0-385-02827-X.
- Maria Ulrichová: Clemens Metternich – Wilhelmine von Sagan. Ein Briefwechsel 1813–1815, Graz - Köln, 1966. Published letters between Metternich and Wilhelmine, in German.
- Helena Sobková: Kateřina Zaháňská, Prague, 1995, ISBN 80-204-0532-1. Monograph about the duchess, based on thorough research of archives, in Czech.
References
- ^ Vava later married with a relative, Magnus Reinhold Armfelt, on 12 November 1825, with whom she had five children: August Magnus Gustav, Mauritz Vilhelm Romuald, Gustav Johan Philip, Hedvig Johanna Vilhelmina Gustava (by marriage Wrede af Elimä) and Carl Magnus Mauritz. After the death of her husband on 29 April 1845, Vava married secondly on 21 May 1846 with Johan August von Essen, with whom she had no children. [citation needed] Vava died on 19 May 1881 at Åbo, Sweden, aged 80. Source: Adelaide Gustava Aspasia Armfelt in: armigerousdescents.com Archived 2015-06-21 at the Wayback Machine [retrieved 20 June 2015].
- ^ Rites of Peace - the fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, Adam Zamoyski, HarperCollins 2007, p.319
External links
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