Queen Luise dies at the age of 34
Born in Hanover in 1776, Luise Duchess of Mecklenburg (-Strelitz) married the Crown Prince of Prussia at the age of 17. Her relative informality and great beauty quickly made her popular with the people of Berlin. The Kingdom of Prussia was facing difficult times when she became queen at the age of 21 and her husband Frederick William III was required to deal with Napoleon’s expansionist France. After suffering devastating military defeats at Jena and Auerstedt (1806), the royal couple fled to East Prussia. They were pursued by Napoleon, who meted out a stinging defeat to the combined Russian and Prussian armies. Prussia’s very existence was at stake. Only a long discussion between Luise and Napoleon, and the intercession of the Russian Tsar, ensured that Prussia survived as a state – albeit at the price of losing half of its territory.
The royal couple returned to an occupied Berlin in 1809. Unfortunately, the Queen’s health had been declining since her flight from Berlin and she died from pneumonia in 1810. Her death at the age of only 34 served only to feed her legend; the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm I became a symbol of a Prussian resurgence during the Wars of Liberation launched only a few years after her death.
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