by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2017
Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine; Credit – Wikipedia
Luise Henriette Karoline of Hesse-Darmstadt was the first Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine through her marriage to Grand Duke Ludwig I. She was born in Darmstadt, Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, now in Hesse, Germany on February 15, 1761, the daughter of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt and Countess Maria Luise Albertine of Leiningen-Falkenburg-Dagsburg. Luise had eight siblings:
- Ludwig Georg (1749-1823) – married Friederike Schmidt, no issue
- Georg Friedrich (1750) – died in infancy
- Friederike Caroline (1752-1782) – married Karl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had issue
- Georg Karl (1754-1830) – unmarried
- Charlotte Wilhelmine (1755-1785) – married Karl II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had issue
- Karl Wilhelm Georg (1757-1797) – unmarried
- Friedrich Georg August (1759-1808) – married Karoline Luise Seitz, had issue
- Auguste Wilhelmine (1765-1796) – married the future King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, had issue
Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; Credit – Wikipedia
On February 19, 1777, in Darmstadt, Luise married her first cousin, Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt (the future Grand Duke Ludwig I), the son of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Caroline of Zweibrücken. Luise and Ludwig had eight children:
- Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (1777-1848) – married Wilhelmine of Baden, had issue
- Princess Luise (1779-1811) – married Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen, had issue
- Prince Georg (1780-1856) – married Caroline Török de Szendrö, had issue
- Prince Friedrich (1788-1867) – unmarried
- stillborn twin daughters (1789)
- Prince Emil (1790-1856) – unmarried
- Prince Gustav (1791-1806) – unmarried
Luise’s husband Ludwig succeeded his father in April 1790 as Ludwig X, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Hesse-Darmstadt was raised to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, with Ludwig becoming its first Grand Duke, Ludwig I. Some years later, at the Congress of Vienna, he was forced to cede his Westphalian territories, but in return was given the Rheinhessen region which included the city of Mainz. It was then, on July 7, 1816, that the Grand Duchy of Hesse became the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine.
Since the mid-1780s, Grand Duchess Luise had spent the summer months in Bensheim-Auerbach an der Bergstrasse, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, now in Hesse, Germany, where the family had a summer residence in a large park known as the Fürstenlager (link in German). It was there that she died on October 24, 1829. She was buried in the Darmstadt Stadtkirche in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, now in Hesse, Germany until 1910 when her remains were moved to the Altes Mausoleum in the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt.
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