Wilhelmine von Sagan
Encyclopedia
Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan (born 8 February 1781 in Mitau
, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
; died 29 November 1839 in Vienna
, Austrian Empire
) was a German noble from the Ruling family of Courland and Semigallia
(today part of Latvia
) and a sovereign Duchess of Sagan. Wilhelmine is mainly known for her relationship with Klemens Metternich, a statesman of the Austrian Empire
.
French
transcription of her name is Wilhelmine Catherine Frédérique Biron, Czech
Kateřina Frederika Vilhelmína princezna Kuronská. Among the Czechs
she is known as Kateřina Zaháňská (Zaháň is Czech name for Żagań
).
, the last Duke of Courland
, and his third wife Anna Charlotte Dorothea von Medem
(1761–1821). She had three conjugal sisters: Maria Luise Pauline
(1782–1845), Johanna Katharina (1783–1876), wife of HSH Fürst Don Francesco, Duke of Acerenza (brother of the 8th Prince of Belmonte), and illegitimate Dorothea
(1793–1862), later wife of Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord (1787–1872), nephew of the French statesman Talleyrand.
Wilhelmine spent her earliest childhood in Mitau. In 1795 the Duke was forced to cede his Duchy to the Russian Empire, and the family moved to the Duchy of Sagan
(Żagań
) in Silesia
, which had been acquired in 1786. Among other properties bought by her father during the 1780s was County Náchod
in Bohemia
, which included Ratibořice Castle. Wilhelmine, who inherited both Sagan and Náchod, selected this castle as her summer residence.
The young duchess was very beautiful, intelligent, eloquent and educated in philosophy and history. She fell in love with Swedish general Gustav Armfelt, her mother's lover and her tutor. The secret relationship with a much older and married
Armfelt resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter named Gustava (b. 13.1.1801 - d. 1881), who was born in secrecy in Hamburg
. The delivery was traumatic, and, due to an incompetent midwife, she lost the ability to have further children. Wilhelmine gave up her child to one of Armfelt's relatives in Sweden and never saw her again. Wilhelmine greatly regretted this decision as time went on. To protect her reputation, Armfelt organized a marriage for her with an émigré French nobleman, Prince Louis de Rohan-Guémenée (1768–1836), the son of the Princesse de Guéméné
, the original governess of the children of King Louis XVI of France
. The marriage did not last and ended in divorce in 1805.
Wilhelmine spent the rest of her life moving between Vienna
, Prague
, Ratibořice
and Sagan
(Żagań). She also undertook journeys to Italy, England and France. Her second marriage with prince Vasily Troubetzkoy (1776–1841), which lasted from 1805 to 1806, also ended in divorce. In Vienna, she set up a salon
attended by the highest nobility. An attractive woman, she attracted many aristocratic lovers. She had a short-lived and turbulent relationship during the spring of 1810 with Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, an Austrian army commander.
Modern historians speculate that Wilhelmine, who hated Napoleon, was the one who pushed Metternich away from a cautious pro-French position. The negotiations in 1813 that resulted in an anti-Napoleonic coalition between Prussia
, Austria
and Russia
were held in one of Wilhelmine's homes, Ratibořice Castle.
During the Congress of Vienna
(1814–15), the relationship ended, as Wilhelmine didn't like playing the role of an unacknowledged mistress, a role forced onto her as Metternich was married.
Because of the impossibility of having any more children, she became a foster parent to many young girls. From 1819 until 1828, Wihelmine was married to Prince Karl Rudolf von der Schulenburg (1788–1856). This marriage also ended in divorce. What she feared the most - being alone - eventually became reality toward the end of her life.
(1820?-1862) was one of the poor family girls supported by Wilhelmine. Němcová portrayed Wilhelmine in her 1855 novel The Grandmother
(Babička) as an ideal woman. The portrait is so touching that the Czech phrase "paní kněžna" (meaning "a princess") became a synonym for Wilhelmine.
All four Courland sisters are known to have had illegitimate children, Johanna at age sixteen. Because of her unknown origin (even the date of her birth is disputed) and the favour shown her by the duchess, several historians believe that Němcová could have been an illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine and either Metternich, Count Karel Clam-Martinic or Windischgrätz.
Helena Sobková, a writer of popular-history books about Němcová, believes that Němcová may actually have been the niece of Wilhelmine. In 1816 an illegitimate daughter was born to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Dorothea, and Karel Clam-Martinic (1792–1840). The child's fate is unknown, and it is possible that Wilhelmine gave the child to Němcová's parents to raise as their own. This suggestion, however, has not been definitely proven.
Jelgava
-Sports:The city's main football team, FK Jelgava, plays in the Latvian Higher League and won the 2009/2010 Latvian Football Cup.- Notable people :*August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein - linguist, folklorist, ethnographer...
, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1569 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569...
; died 29 November 1839 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
) was a German noble from the Ruling family of Courland and Semigallia
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1569 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569...
(today part of Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
) and a sovereign Duchess of Sagan. Wilhelmine is mainly known for her relationship with Klemens Metternich, a statesman of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
.
French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
transcription of her name is Wilhelmine Catherine Frédérique Biron, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
Kateřina Frederika Vilhelmína princezna Kuronská. Among the Czechs
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
she is known as Kateřina Zaháňská (Zaháň is Czech name for Żagań
Zagan
Zagan may refer to:*Zagan - a demon in the Ars Goetia*Żagań - a town in west Poland...
).
Early life
Wilhelmine was born to Peter von BironPeter von Biron
Peter von Biron was the last Duke of Courland from 1769 to 1795.Peter was born in Jelgava as the son of Ernst Johann von Biron, future Duke of Courland, and his wife Benigna von Trotha. When 16 years old, he was forced to follow his family into the Siberian exile. In 1769, Peter was given the...
, the last Duke of Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
, and his third wife Anna Charlotte Dorothea von Medem
Dorothea von Medem
Dorothea von Medem was born a Gräfin of the noble German Baltic Medem family and later became Duchess of Courland...
(1761–1821). She had three conjugal sisters: Maria Luise Pauline
Luise Pauline Maria Biron
Luise Pauline Maria Biron, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan was a Princess of Courland by birth and through her marriage to Friedrich Hermann Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Pauline was Princess consort of Hohenzollern-Hechingen...
(1782–1845), Johanna Katharina (1783–1876), wife of HSH Fürst Don Francesco, Duke of Acerenza (brother of the 8th Prince of Belmonte), and illegitimate Dorothea
Dorothea von Biron
Dorothea von Biron, Princess of Courland, self-styled Dorothée de Courlande , was a Baltic German noblewoman. Her mother was Dorothea von Medem, Duchess of Courland, and although her mother's husband, Duke Peter von Biron, acknowledged her as his own, her true father was a Polish statesman...
(1793–1862), later wife of Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord (1787–1872), nephew of the French statesman Talleyrand.
Wilhelmine spent her earliest childhood in Mitau. In 1795 the Duke was forced to cede his Duchy to the Russian Empire, and the family moved to the Duchy of Sagan
Duchy of Żagań
The Duchy of Żagań or Duchy of Sagan was one of the duchies of Silesia ruled by the Silesian Piasts. Its capital was Żagań in Lower Silesia, the territory stretched to the town of Nowogród Bobrzański in the north and reached the Lusatian Neisse at Przewóz in the west, including two villages...
(Żagań
Zagan
Zagan may refer to:*Zagan - a demon in the Ars Goetia*Żagań - a town in west Poland...
) in Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, which had been acquired in 1786. Among other properties bought by her father during the 1780s was County Náchod
Náchod
Náchod -History:Náchod was founded in 14th century by knight Hron of Načeradice, who founded a castle on a strategical place, where local trade road reaches the defile called Branka. The first written note dates back to 1254.-Castle:...
in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, which included Ratibořice Castle. Wilhelmine, who inherited both Sagan and Náchod, selected this castle as her summer residence.
The young duchess was very beautiful, intelligent, eloquent and educated in philosophy and history. She fell in love with Swedish general Gustav Armfelt, her mother's lover and her tutor. The secret relationship with a much older and married
Hedvig Ulrika De la Gardie
Hedvig Ulrika De la Gardie was a Swedish lady in waiting. She was married to Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt. She was the head governess of the Swedish royal children in 1799-1803....
Armfelt resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter named Gustava (b. 13.1.1801 - d. 1881), who was born in secrecy in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. The delivery was traumatic, and, due to an incompetent midwife, she lost the ability to have further children. Wilhelmine gave up her child to one of Armfelt's relatives in Sweden and never saw her again. Wilhelmine greatly regretted this decision as time went on. To protect her reputation, Armfelt organized a marriage for her with an émigré French nobleman, Prince Louis de Rohan-Guémenée (1768–1836), the son of the Princesse de Guéméné
Victoire Armande Josèphe de Rohan
Victoire de Rohan, Princess of Guéméné was a French aristocrat who was the governess of the children of Louis XVI of France. She is known better as Madame de Guéméné...
, the original governess of the children of King Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
. The marriage did not last and ended in divorce in 1805.
Wilhelmine spent the rest of her life moving between Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Ratibořice
Ratibořice
Ratibořice Château is a château located 2.5 km north of Česká Skalice and about 10 km west of Náchod, in the Hradec Králové region, Czech Republic. It stands on an elevated plain below which valley in the bend of the Úpa river widens...
and Sagan
Zagan
Zagan may refer to:*Zagan - a demon in the Ars Goetia*Żagań - a town in west Poland...
(Żagań). She also undertook journeys to Italy, England and France. Her second marriage with prince Vasily Troubetzkoy (1776–1841), which lasted from 1805 to 1806, also ended in divorce. In Vienna, she set up a salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
attended by the highest nobility. An attractive woman, she attracted many aristocratic lovers. She had a short-lived and turbulent relationship during the spring of 1810 with Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, an Austrian army commander.
Metternich
Although Wilhelmine first met Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773–1859) in 1801, their love affair did not start until the spring of 1813. The passion between the two is documented by over 600 letters written by Metternich that were discovered in 1949 by Marie Ulrichová in Plasy Cloister. These letters also describe the minute details of the political situation of the day and the corresponding decisions made by Metternich as a diplomat and government official.Modern historians speculate that Wilhelmine, who hated Napoleon, was the one who pushed Metternich away from a cautious pro-French position. The negotiations in 1813 that resulted in an anti-Napoleonic coalition between Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, Austria
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
and Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
were held in one of Wilhelmine's homes, Ratibořice Castle.
During the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
(1814–15), the relationship ended, as Wilhelmine didn't like playing the role of an unacknowledged mistress, a role forced onto her as Metternich was married.
Because of the impossibility of having any more children, she became a foster parent to many young girls. From 1819 until 1828, Wihelmine was married to Prince Karl Rudolf von der Schulenburg (1788–1856). This marriage also ended in divorce. What she feared the most - being alone - eventually became reality toward the end of her life.
Relation with Božena Němcová
Famous Czech author Božena NěmcováBožena Nemcová
Božena Němcová was a Czech writer of the final phase of the Czech National Revival movement.-Biography:...
(1820?-1862) was one of the poor family girls supported by Wilhelmine. Němcová portrayed Wilhelmine in her 1855 novel The Grandmother
The Grandmother
The Grandmother is a novel written by Czech writer Božena Němcová in 1855. It is her most popular work and is regarded as a classic piece of Czech literature. This most frequently read book of the Czech nation was published more than 300 times in the Czech language alone and translated into 21...
(Babička) as an ideal woman. The portrait is so touching that the Czech phrase "paní kněžna" (meaning "a princess") became a synonym for Wilhelmine.
All four Courland sisters are known to have had illegitimate children, Johanna at age sixteen. Because of her unknown origin (even the date of her birth is disputed) and the favour shown her by the duchess, several historians believe that Němcová could have been an illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine and either Metternich, Count Karel Clam-Martinic or Windischgrätz.
Helena Sobková, a writer of popular-history books about Němcová, believes that Němcová may actually have been the niece of Wilhelmine. In 1816 an illegitimate daughter was born to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Dorothea, and Karel Clam-Martinic (1792–1840). The child's fate is unknown, and it is possible that Wilhelmine gave the child to Němcová's parents to raise as their own. This suggestion, however, has not been definitely proven.
Literature
- Clemens Brühl: Die Sagan, das Leben der Herzogin von Sagan, Prinzessin von Kurland, Berlin, 1941, in German.
- Dorothy Gies McGuigan: Metternich and the duchess , 1975, ISBN 038502827X.
- Maria Ulrichová: Clemens-Metternich – Wilhelmine von Sagan. Ein Briefwechsel 1813–1815, Graz - Köln, 1966. Published letters between Metternich and Wilhelmine, in German.
- Helena Sobková: Kateřina Zaháňská, Prague, 1995, ISBN 80-20-40532-1. Monograph about the duchess, based on thorough research of archives, in Czech.