Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Feodora Victoria Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was the second wife of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. She was born in Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, on July 7, 1839, the youngest child of Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the half-sister of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Through her mother, she was the niece of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Feodora had five older siblings:

Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen; Credit – Wikipedia

On October 23, 1858, in Langenburg, Kingdom of Württemberg, now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Feodora married Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen as his second wife. Georg was the son of Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Princess Marie Friederike of Hesse-Kassel. The couple was second cousins through their mutual descent from Christian Albrecht, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Caroline of Stolberg-Gedern. Georg’s first wife, Charlotte of Prussia, had died in 1855 and left two young children. The marriage was primarily intended to find a mother for his children and was not a love match. He never got over the death of his first wife, with whom he shared many common interests. The same could not be said for his relationship with Feodora. His attempts to foster in her a love of the arts and theater proved unsuccessful, and he quickly realized that Feodora would never compare to his beloved Charlotte. Despite their differences, Feodora and Georg had three sons:

Feodora helped found a Meiningen branch of the Albert Association, an organization linked to the Red Cross, which later led to the foundation of the Red Cross Sisterhood. Following the death of their youngest son in 1865, Feodora began to spend much of her time at Villa Feodora, a small residence in Bad Liebenstein, and avoided Meiningen as much as possible. She became Duchess upon her husband’s accession in 1866, and that year commissioned the Feodor Hospital in Bad Liebenstein, which she supported through the rest of her life.

Villa Feodora, Bad Liebenstein. photo: Von Gunnar1m – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3965316

Feodora, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, died in, Meiningen, Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, now in Thuringia, Germany, on February 10, 1872, having contracted scarlet fever the previous month. She is buried in the Park Cemetery in Meiningen.

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Saxe-Meiningen Resources at Unofficial Royalty