Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
| Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | |||||
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Portrait by Josef Grassi
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Queen consort of Prussia Electress consort of Brandenburg |
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| Tenure | 16 November 1797 – 19 July 1810 | ||||
| Born |
10 March 1776 Hanover, Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Holy Roman Empire |
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| Died | 19 July 1810 (aged 34) Schloss Hohenzieritz, Kingdom of Prussia |
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| Burial | Charlottenburg | ||||
| Spouse | Frederick William III | ||||
| Issue |
Frederick William IV, King of Prussia William I, German Emperor Charlotte, Empress of Russia Princess Frederica Prince Charles Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Prince Ferdinand Princess Louise Prince Albert |
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| House |
House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz House of Hohenzollern |
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| Father | Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | ||||
| Mother | Landgravine Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt | ||||
| Religion | Lutheran | ||||
| Signature |  |
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| Full name | |
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| Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie |
Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie; 10 March 1776 – 19 July 1810) was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III. The couple's happy, though short-lived, marriage produced nine children, including the future monarchs Frederick William IV of Prussia and German Emperor Wilhelm I.
Her legacy became cemented after her extraordinary 1807 meeting with French Emperor Napoleon I at Tilsit – she met with the emperor to plead unsuccessfully for favorable terms after Prussia's disastrous losses in the Napoleonic Wars. She was already well loved by her subjects, but her meeting with Napoleon led Louise to become revered as "the soul of national virtue". Her early death at the age of thirty-four "preserved her youth in the memory of posterity", and caused Napoleon to reportedly remark the king "has lost his best minister". The Order of Louise was founded by her grieving husband four years later as a female counterpart to the Iron Cross. In the 1920s conservative German women founded the Queen Louise League, and Louise herself would be used in Nazi propaganda as an example of the ideal German woman.
Duchess Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Louise in English) was born on 10 March 1776 in a one storey villa, just outside the capital in Hanover. She was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife Landgravine Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt, a granddaughter of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta Sophie.
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