Princess Charlotte Wilhelmine of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (14 June 1685 in
Coburg
Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...
- 5 April 1767 in
Hanau) was a German princess by birth and Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg by marriage.
Life
She was the daughter of the
John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Johann Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (22 August 1658 in Gotha – 17 February 1729 in Saalfeld) was a reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
Life
He was the tenth but seventh surviving son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha and Elisabeth ...
, and his wife, the Duchess
Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Merseburg (1666-1686).
She married
Philip Reinhard, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
(1664-1712). She was his second wife and survived him by more than half a century. The dowry that she brought into her marriage was . This marriage, however, remained childless.
Widowhood
After her husband's death, she received
Babenhausen Castle as her widow seat. With the death of
Johann Reinhard III, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg
Johann Reinhard III of Hanau-Lichtenberg (31 July 1665 in Bischofsheim am hohen Steg (now called Rheinbischofsheim) – 28 March 1736 in ''Schloss Philippsruhe'', Hanau) was the last of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. He reigned from 1680 to 17 ...
, the
House of Hanau
Hanau is a town in Germany and Lichtenberg is a village in Alsace, now France. This list of rulers of Hanau or Hanau-Lichtenberg covers the lords and later counts that ruled the area from the 14th through the 18th centuries (see also Lichtenberg ...
died out in the male line. The County fell to Hesse and was divided between
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 ...
and
Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwee ...
. She received the stately home ''Salzhaus'' in the old city of
Hanau, where she lived the rest of her life.
[Suchier, Grabmonumente, p. 55.]
Death
She died on 5 April 1767 at the Salzhaus. She was the last surviving member of the House of Hanau. She was buried on 11 April 1767 in the family crypt in the Lutheran Church (now called the Old St. John's Church) in Hanau. her tomb was largely destroyed when the town was bombed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
References
* Reinhard Dietrich: ''Die Landesverfassung in dem Hanauischen'', in the series ''Hanauer Geschichtsblätter'', vol. 34, Hanau, 1996,
* Uta Löwenstein: ''“Daß sie sich uf ihren Withumbsitz begeben und sich sonsten anderer Herrschaften Sachen und Handlungen nicht unternehmen ...“. Hofhaltungen fürstlicher Frauen und Witwen in der frühen Neuzeit'', in: ''Frühneuzeitliche Hofkultur in Hessen und Thüringen'', in the series ''Jenaer Studien'', vol. 1, ed. by Jörg Jochen Berns and Detlev Ignasiak, Palm & Enke, Erlangen, 1993, , p. 115 – 141
* Pauline Ruppel: ''Die Problematik der Ausübung von Vormundschaften in Herrscherhäusern durch die Mütter, erörtert und analysiert am Beispiel der Gräfin Catarina Belgia von Hanau-Münzenberg'', unpublished thesis, Marburg, 1997, p. 39.
* Reinhard Suchier: ''Genealogie des Hanauer Grafenhauses'', in: ''Festschrift des Hanauer Geschichtsvereins zu seiner fünfzigjährigen Jubelfeier am 27. August 1894'', Hanau, 1894
* Reinhard Suchier: ''Die Grabmonumente und Särge der in Hanau bestatteten Personen aus den Häusern Hanau und Hessen'', in: ''Programm des Königlichen Gymnasiums zu Hanau'', Hanau, 1879, p. 1-56
*Richard Wille: ''Die letzten Grafen von Hanau-Lichtenberg'', in the series ''Mitteilungen des Hanauer Bezirksvereins für hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde'', vol. 12, Hanau, 1886, p. 56-68
* Ernst J. Zimmermann: ''Hanau Stadt und Land'', 3rded., Hanau, 1919, reprinted 1978
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlotte Wilhelmine of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
People from Coburg
House of Wettin
Princesses of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
1685 births
1767 deaths
18th-century German people
German countesses
House of Hanau
Daughters of monarchs