Amalia of Oldenburg

Duchess Amalia Maria Frederica was born on 21 December 1818 in Oldenburg to Duke Paul Frederick Augustus of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Adelheid of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym as their first child. She was less than two years old when her mother died, on 13 September 1820. Her father remarried in 1825 to Princess Ida of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, though she soon died in 1828; his last marriage was with Princess Cecilia of Sweden in 1831.

Due to her father’s marriages, Amalia had 5 siblings, 4 being born as half-brothers: Duchess Frederica, Grand Duke Peter II, Duke Alexander, Duke August, and Duke Elimar.

On 22 December 1836, Duchess Amalia of Oldenburg married King Otto Friedrich Ludwig in Oldenburg. Born as the second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Prince Otto of Bavaria had been appointed king of the newly created Kingdom of Greece in 1833. Otto visited Germany to find a bride after he had been declared to be of legal majority. He then met Amalia in Marienbad in Bohemia.

Amalia was Lutheran and Otto was Catholic, and they were wed in both a Lutheran and Catholic wedding ceremony. It was an understanding, that while they were allowed to keep their religion, any child born to them would be raised in the Orthodox religion of Greece. On 14 February 1837 she arrived in Athens, in Greece.

As King Otto and his Bavarian advisers became more enmeshed in political struggles with Greek political forces, the queen became more politically involved, also. She became the target of harsh attacks when she became involved in politics. She remained a Protestant in an almost universally Orthodox country throughout her husband's reign.

Christiane Lüth describes the role of the queen during the 3 September 1843 Revolution:[5]

Uhlan continually circled around the [p]alace on horseback, to ensure that no one escaped, and all of the military stood in a threatening position ready to fire on command. Thousands of people filled the great square and you could hear them call: "Live the Constitution!" [...] The Queen was with the King all the time and told him, that there was but two alternatives: entweder underschreiben oder entsagen (either sign or abdicate).

Lüth described the queen as nervous and pessimistic during the days following the revolution. She did not wish to hear sermon and had her books packed ready to leave if necessary, and advised her sister Princess Friederike to leave Greece since she could no longer guarantee her safety. The king and queen wrote to King Louis of Bavaria to ask for his assistance, but the queen remarked that they could not expect a response for six weeks, and by that time „und Gott weiss wo wir dann sind“ ['God's know how things stand'].[5] On the queen's name day no ball was given at the Palace: "... it was not seen wise, one would not risk having a Gustav III Masquerade. There are daily rumours that Athens will be set alight on all four corners, so to speak, and everyone massacered."[5]

Initially, Queen Amalia's Lutheran religion was not given much attention, but the aversion to it grew when she did not give birth to a child which could be raised Orthodox. One of the biggest crises of Otto's reign, as well as Amalia's unpopularity, was the succession crisis. The cause of the childlessness of Otto and Amalia has been the cause of debate. During this time period, infertility was commonly considered the fault of the woman, and Amalia's frequent dancing and riding were blamed for it.[5] She was exposed to various fertility treatments until her 35th birthday. Otto's brothers were given the right to the throne after him, but it was rumoured that queen Amalia wished to have her own brother Elimar of Oldenburg appointed heir instead.

The queen was eventually given more influence. Amalia was given the right to govern as regent in the case of the absence or incapability of the monarch or the heir to the throne.[6] She acted as Regent of Greece in 1850-1851 when Otto was in Germany for health reasons,[7] and a second time in 1861-1862, when Otto visited his family in Bavaria to discuss the succession crisis.[8]

Her political influence was controversial. Her favorites were considered to have influence over her, notably her principal lady-in-waiting Baroness Wilhelmine von Plüskow was widely rumored to influence state affairs, particularly in matters relating to Austria, through both the queen and the king, which exposed her to controversy.[9]

Type of Amalia dress

Amalia wearing Amalia dress

When she arrived in Greece as a queen in 1837, she had an immediate impact on social life and fashion. She realised that her attire ought to emulate that of her new people, and so she created a romantic folksy court dress, which became a national Greek costume still known as the Amalía dress.[10]

It follows the Biedermeier style with a loose-fitting, white cotton or silk shirt, often decorated with lace at the neck and cuffs, over which a richly embroidered jacket or vest is worn, usually of dark blue or claret velvet. The skirt was ankle-length, unpressed-pleated silk, the color usually azure. It was completed with a soft cap or fez with a single, long, golden silk tassel, traditionally worn by married women, or with the kalpaki (a toque) of the unmarried woman, and sometimes with a black veil for church. This dress became the usual attire of all Christian townswomen in both Ottoman Empire-occupied and liberated Balkan lands as far north as Belgrade.

In February 1861, a university student named Aristeidis Dosios (son of politician Konstantinos Dosios)[11] unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the queen. He was sentenced to death, though Queen Amalia intervened and he was pardoned, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was hailed as a hero for his attempt by certain factions, but the attempt also provoked among the people spontaneous feelings of sympathy towards the royal couple.

The expulsion of King Otto and Queen Amalia in 1862, as portrayed in a popular colour lithography

Just over a year later, an uprising took place in Athens while the royal couple were on a visit to the Peloponnese. The Great Powers, who had supported Otto, urged them not to resist, and Otto's reign came to an end. They left Greece aboard a British warship, with the Greek royal regalia that they had brought with them. It was reported in the press that the royal courtiers weren’t aspersed, however, the queen's controversial favorite, Wilhelmine von Plüskow, was exposed to sarcasm from the crowd when she left.[12]

It has been suggested that the king would not have been overthrown had Amalia borne an heir, as succession was also a major unresolved question at the time of uprising.[13] It is also true, however, that the Constitution of 1843 made provision for Otto to be succeeded by his two younger brothers and their descendants.

Queen Amalia's letters to her sister-in-law, Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria, Grand Duchess of Hesse, written between 1837 and 1861, are preserved in the Hessian State Archive (Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt) in Darmstadt, Germany.[15]

Queen Amalia's letters to her brother Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, written between 1861 and 1862, are preserved in the Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv in Oldenburg, Germany.[16]