Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (Maria Amalie Auguste; 10 May 1752 – 15 November 1828) was the last

Electress An Electress (, ) was the consort of a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, one of the Empire's greatest princes. The Golden Bull of 1356 established by Emperor Charles IV settled the number of Electors at seven. However, three of these wer ...

and first

Queen of Saxony This is a list of the Duchesses, Electresses and Queens of Saxony; the consorts of the Duke of Saxony and its successor states; including the Electorate of Saxony, the Kingdom of Saxony, the House of Ascania, Albertine, and the Ernestine duchies, ...

and Duchess of Warsaw.

Biography

Amalie was born in Mannheim, the daughter of Count Palatine Frederick Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler and his wife, Countess Palatine Maria Franziska of Pfalz-Sulzbach. She was the sister of Maximilian Joseph, later first

King of Bavaria The King of Bavaria () was a title held by the hereditary Wittelsbach rulers of Bavaria in the state known as the Kingdom of Bavaria from 1805 until 1918, when the kingdom was abolished. It was the second time Bavaria was a kingdom, almost a t ...

. On 29 January 1769 she married the Saxon

Elector Elector may refer to: * Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors * Elector, a member of an electoral college ** Confederate elector, a member of t ...

Frederick Augustus III. In 1806, the Electress and her husband were proclaimed the first King and Queen of Saxony. The following year,

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

made them Duke and Duchess of Warsaw, a newly created principality in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Amalie bore four children, three of whom were stillborn. Only one daughter, Princess Maria Augusta, attained adulthood, but remained unmarried. From 1804, at the death of her sister-in-law Carolina of Parma, she and her other sister-in-law,

Maria Theresa of Austria Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. She was the sovereig ...

, shared the responsibility of raising the former's children, something they are said to have done very strictly.Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010) Amalie died on 15 November 1828 at the age of 76, and was buried in the Hofkirche in Dresden.

Issue

# unnamed child (born/died 1771) # unnamed child (born/died 1775) # Maria Augusta Nepomucena Antonia Francisca Xaveria Aloysia (born Dresden 21 June 1782 - died Dresden 14 March 1863) # unnamed child (born/died 1797)

Ancestry

References

, - , - , - 1752 births 1828 deaths Burials at Dresden Cathedral Electresses of Saxony Queens consort of Saxony House of Wittelsbach People from Mannheim House of Wettin Countesses Palatine of Zweibrücken ⚭Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld {{Germany-royal-stub