Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Pauline Ida Marie Olga Henriette Katherine; 25 July 1852 – 17 May 1904) was the wife of Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Early life

She was a daughter of

Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and his wife,

Princess Augusta of Württemberg Princess Augusta of Württemberg (4 October 1826 in Stuttgart – 3 December 1898, ibid.) was a daughter of King William I of Württemberg and his wife, Pauline of Württemberg. Life Augusta was the third and last child of her parents' marr ...

Hereditary Grand Duchess

On 26 August 1873 at

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Pauline married Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. They were second cousins, as she was the paternal granddaughter of

Prince Bernhard , house = Lippe , father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe , mother = Armgard von Cramm , birth_date = , birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld , birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany , death_date = ...

, younger brother of the

Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Charles Frederick (german: Karl Friedrich; 2 February 1783 – 8 July 1853) was the reigning Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Biography Born in Weimar, he was the eldest son of Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Luise Au ...

, the grandfather of Karl August. Pauline and Charles Augustus had two sons: * ''Wilhelm Ernst'' Karl Alexander Friedrich Heinrich Bernhard Albert Georg Hermann, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Weimar, 10 June 1876 – Heinrichau, 24 April 1923); married firstly

Princess Caroline Reuss of Greiz Princess Caroline Elizabeth Ida Reuss of Greiz (13 July 1884 – 17 January 1905) was the first wife of Wilhelm Ernst, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Biography Early life Caroline was a daughter of Heinrich XXII, the reigning Prince Re ...

(no issue), and secondly

Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen , spouse = , house = Wettin , father = Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Charlotte of Prussia , birth_date = , birth_place = Potsdam, German Empire , death_date = , death_place = Hirschberg, Silesia, Provisional Gover ...

(had issue). * Prince ''Bernhard'' Karl Alexander Hermann Heinrich Wilhelm Oscar Friedrich Franz Peter (Weimar, 18 April 1878 – Weimar, 1 October 1900); died unmarried at the age of 22. Charles Augustus died on 22 November 1894 of inflammation of the lungs, at the age of 50. He never succeeded as Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Consequently, Pauline was always known as ''Hereditary Grand Duchess'', or after his death, ''Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess''. Their elder son William Ernest succeeded as Grand Duke.

Widowhood

In her final years, Pauline spent a lot of time in Italy, and was a frequent visitor to the Italian court. It was rumored that she entered into a

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

marriage with her chamberlain. This marriage did not appear in the ''Almanach de Gotha'', and was not approved by her son the Grand Duke. Consequently, the marriage was not sanctioned by the Saxe-Weimar government. She continued to be styled as Dowager Hereditary Grand Duchess only by courtesy, as she was unpopular with her family and her son's subjects. Though she lived much of her widowhood away from the Saxe-Weimar court, Pauline "contributed even from a distance, to create the difficulties which rendered the position of her daughter-in-law, the present Grand Duchess, so extremely difficult during the first few months of marriage". She was described as "extraordinarily fat, and one of the most plain-featured princesses of Germany, her homeliness being of the crabbed and sour order rather than of a genial nature". On 17 May 1904, Pauline died suddenly of heart disease while on a train en route from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Her body was taken to

Honours

* : Grand Cross of the

Order of St. Catherine The Imperial Order of Saint Catherine (russian: Императорский Орден Святой Екатерины) was an award of Imperial Russia. Instituted on 24 November 1714 by Peter the Great on the occasion of his marriage to Catherine ...

, in Diamonds''Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach'' (1900), "Genealogie" p
3
/ref> * : Dame of the Order of Olga, ''1871''''Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg'' (1896), "Königliche Orden" p
136
/ref>

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pauline Of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess 1852 births 1904 deaths House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Princesses of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Hereditary Grand Duchesses of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Mothers of monarchs