Augusta Caroline von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1764-1788)

Duchess of Württemberg. Born by the name of Auguste Caroline Friederike Luise. Her parents were Duke Karl II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Auguste Friederike of Great Britain. Her sister was the unfortunate Queen Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV of Great Britain, her brother was Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick, 'The Black Duke.' She was raised at the courts of Brunswick, Berlin and Potsdam. In 1778 she met her future husband, Friedrich of Württemberg, for the first time. Two years later they were married. In 1781 she gave birth to her first child, Wilhelm, who would later succeed his father as King of Württemberg. In the same year they moved to St. Petersburg, where Friedrich worked as a diplomat at the court of Catherine the Great. She and the Czarina became friends and she was very happy there. In the following years she gave birth to three more children. Her surviving daughter Katharina later married Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleons brother. In 1786 her husband took their children and returned to Germany because she had been unfaithful to him. Her real downfall was that the man she had choosen was one of the Czarinas favorites. She was send to the Castle Lohde where she lived like a prisoner. It is not much known about her last two years. It seems she entered labor and was left by her servants. Catherine refused to give back the body. Several weeks passed before she was buried. Her grave stayed unmarked. In Württemberg she was declared 'persona non grata.' Her children were not told about her and therefore could not remember her.

Bio by: Lutetia