Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden. Photo credit: Wikipedia
May 21, 1801 – Birth of Sophie of Sweden, Grand Duchess of Baden
Sophie was the daughter of Gustav IV Adolf, King of Sweden and Frederica of Baden. Sophie was well-educated and had a wide variety of interests throughout her life. Sophie left Sweden with her family in 1809 following her father’s overthrow as king. She was described as stubborn and self-important as a child and maintained negative feelings about her father’s deposition for the rest of her life.
At the age of fourteen, Sophie was engaged to her half grand uncle, the future Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden. By this time, there were only two heirs left in the direct male line in Baden, both of whom were childless. One of these men, Sophie’s uncle Karl I, arranged a marriage between Sophie and Leopold, the result of a morganatic marriage between Grand Duke Charles Frederick and Louise Caroline of Hochberg. Sophie’s Baden lineage would shore up Leopold’s more tenuous claim to the grand ducal throne.
Sophie married Leopold, only eleven years her senior, in 1819. The couple had seven surviving children, including two future Grand Dukes of Baden. Sophie and Leopold raised their children away from court per request by Sophie’s uncle Louis I. Leopold inherited the grand ducal throne in 1830.
In 1828, so-called “wild child” Kaspar Hauser appeared in Nuremberg. He was believed by some to have ties to the Baden grand ducal family, rumors that were probably manufactured by Leopold’s detractors. When Hauser was stabbed in 1833, Sophie was accused of ordering his murder leading to a rift between her and her husband. The family fled Baden during the 1848 revolutions, returning the following year.
Sophie died in 1865. In 1881, her granddaughter Victoria of Baden married the future Gustaf V of Sweden for much the same reason as Sophie had married Leopold: Victoria was a princess with old Swedish lineage which was meant to strengthen the claim to the throne held by the new Bernadotte dynasty.