Caroline of Berlepsch (9 January 1820 – 21 February 1877) was a member of the noble von
Berlepsch family and was the third wife of the Elector
William II of
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Lan ...
.
Early life
Caroline was born 9 January 1820 in
Bad Hersfeld. She was the daughter of Baron Hermann Ludwig von Berlepsch and Melusine von
Kruse The surname Kruse may refer to:
* Anine Kruse (born 1977), Norwegian music conductor
* August von Kruse (1779–1848), German general during the Napoleonic Wars
* Frederik Vinding Kruse (1880–1963), Danish jurist
* Käthe Kruse (1883&ndas ...
.
Personal life
On 28 August 1843, she was married to
William II, who was 43 years her senior, in Wilhelmsbad (now part of
Hanau
Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...
). She was his third wife, following the death of his first wife,
Princess Augusta of Prussia
Augusta of Prussia (Christine Friederike Auguste; 1 May 1780 – 19 February 1841) was a German salonist, painter, and Electress consort of Hesse by marriage to William II, Elector of Hesse. She was the third daughter and fifth child of Freder ...
(the fourth daughter of
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Frederick William II of Prussia) in 1841, and his second wife, Countess
Emilie of Reichenbach-Lessonitz in 1843. This was a
morganatic marriage, because she was considered lesser nobility and therefore not befitting for a sovereign Elector. The couple's main residence was
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, since the elector had in 1830 and virtually abdicated the government to his son,
Frederick William I, from his first, non-morganatic, marriage.
In 1844, the Elector elevated Caroline to the "Baroness of
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
" and in 1846, she received the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n title of "Countess of Bergen".
Second marriage
After William's death in 1847, she married again, to Count Charles Adolph of
Hohenthal (1811–1875) on 28 October 1851 in Frankfurt. Together with Count Charles, who was born in
Dölkau, she had two sons:
* Karl Adolph Philipp Wilhelm von Hohenthal (1853–1909)
* Charles Louis of Hohenthal (b. 1857).
Count Charles died on 9 October 1875 in Knauthain. She died 21 February 1877 in Knauthain (now part of
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
).
[Michel Huberty: ''L' Allemagne dynastique : Les 15 familles qui ont fait l'empire'', vol. 1: ''Hesse - Reuss - Saxe'', Le Perreux-sur-Marne, 1976, ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlepsch, Caroline of
Austrian countesses
House of Hesse
1820 births
1877 deaths
German baronesses
19th-century German people
Morganatic spouses of German royalty