Frederica of Baden | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Queen Frederica portrayed in regal attire
|
|||||
Queen consort of Sweden | |||||
Tenure | 31 October 1797 – 29 March 1809 | ||||
Born |
Karlsruhe, Germany |
12 March 1781||||
Died | 25 September 1826 Lausanne, Switzerland |
(aged 45)||||
Burial | Riddarholmen Church | ||||
Spouse | Gustaf IV Adolf | ||||
Issue |
Gustav, Prince of Vasa Sophie, Grand Duchess of Baden Prince Carl Gustaf Princess Amalia Cecilia, Grand Duchess of Oldenburg |
||||
|
|||||
House | Zähringen | ||||
Father | Karl Ludwig of Baden | ||||
Mother | Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt |
Full name | |
---|---|
Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmina |
Friederike "Frederica" Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (12 March 1781, Karlsruhe – 25 September 1826, Lausanne), was Queen consort of Sweden from 1797 to 1809 by marriage to king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.
Frederica of Baden was born in Karlsruhe in the Duchy of Baden on 12 March 1781, as the daughter of Karl Ludwig of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the younger sister of Empress Elisabeth Alexeievna (formerly Princess Louise of Baden), spouse of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
Frederica, in her family known as Frick (Frique), was given a conventional and shallow education by a French-Swiss governess in Karlsruhe, and has been described as intellectually shallow. Already as a child, she was described as a beauty, but she was also reported to have a weak constitution, having suffered from rheumatism from the age of two.
Because her maternal aunt Natalia Alexeievna (Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt) had been the first spouse of Grand Duke Paul of Russia, Frederica and her sisters were early considered by empress Catherine the Great as future brides of her grandsons, grand duke Alexander of Russia and grand duke Konstantin. In 1792, she and her sister Louise of Baden visited the empress in Russia. The purpose was, unofficially, to be inspected as future brides. Her sister was chosen to marry Alexander, and Frederica returned to Baden in the autumn of 1793.
In October 1797, Frederica of Baden married king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. The marriage had been arranged by Gustav IV Adolf himself, after he had refused to marry first Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, since his desired marriage to Ebba Modée had been refused him, and second the Russian Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, because her proposed marriage contract would have allowed Alexandra to keep her Orthodox faith. Frederica of Baden was seen as a suitable choice: Russia could not officially disapprove a new bride after the Russian Grand Duchess had been refused if the bride was the sister-in-law of Grand duke Alexander, which indirectly preserved an alliance between Sweden and Russia, and additionally, Gustaf IV Adolf wanted a beautiful spouse and expected her to be so after having had a good impression of her sister during his visit to Russia the year prior. The king visited Erfurt to see her and her family himself in August 1797, the engagement was declared immediately after, and the first marriage ceremony conducted in October.