Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Their grandmother preferred to raise them simply, and they made their own clothes.[8] A new governess from Switzerland, Madame Gelieux, was appointed, giving the children lessons in French; as was common for royal and aristocratic children of the time, Louise became fluent and literate in the language, while neglecting her own native German.[9] She received religious instruction from a clergyman of the Lutheran Church.[10] Complementary to her lessons was an emphasis on charitable acts, and Louise would often accompany her governess when visiting the houses of the poor and needy.[9] Louise was encouraged to give out as much as was in her means, although she often got into trouble with her grandmother for donating too much for charity.[11] From the age of ten until her marriage at 17, Louise spent most of her time in the presence of her grandmother and governess, both well-educated and refined.[12] When only nine years old, Louise was present when the poet Friedrich Schiller read from the first act of "Don Carlos" for the entertainment of the assembled court, thus sparking her love for German as a literary language, especially works of Schiller.[13] Louise loved history and poetry, and not only enjoyed reading Schiller, but also came to like the works of Goethe, Paul, Herder and Shakespeare, as well as ancient Greek tragedies.[14]

In 1793, Marie Louise took the two youngest duchesses with her to Frankfurt, where she paid her respects to her nephew King Frederick William II.[15] Louise had grown up into a beautiful young woman, possessing "an exquisite complexion" and "large blue eyes," and was naturally graceful.[16] Louise's uncle, the Duke of Mecklenburg, hoped to strengthen ties between his house and Prussia.[17] Consequently, on one evening carefully planned by the Duke, seventeen-year-old Louise met the king's son and heir, Crown Prince Frederick William.[2][17] The crown prince was twenty-three, serious-minded, and religious.[18] She made such a charming impression on Frederick William that he immediately made his choice, desiring to marry her.[19] Frederica caught the eye of his younger brother Prince Louis Charles, and the two families began planning a double betrothal, celebrating a month later, on 24 April 1793 in Darmstadt. Frederick and Louise were subsequently married on 24 December that same year, with Louis and Frederica marrying two days later.

Among the king's advisers, members of his family, such as the queen (an open advocate of war)[37] and Prince Louis Ferdinand, led the militaristic faction in favor of war against France; those against neutrality but in favor of reform were led by Baron vom Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg.[38][39] Knowing the temperament of the king, Hardenberg appealed directly to the queen for desired reform – wisely as it turned out, as Frederick William viewed the demands to remove his trusted advisers in the Kabinett as a "mutiny" similar to the Fronde.[40]

Though Prussia had not fought in a war since 1795, its military leaders confidently expected that they could win against Napoleon's troops. After a small incident concerning an anti-French pamphlet occurred, King Frederick William was finally pressured by his wife and family to break off his uneasy peace and enter the war against the French emperor.[41] Prussian troops began mobilizing, culminating in the October 1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, which was a disaster for Prussia, as the ability of its armed forces to continue the war were effectively wiped out. The king and queen had accompanied their troops into battle at Jena (with Louise apparently dressed "like an Amazon"), but had to flee from French troops.[42]

Napoleon, Alexander I of Russia, Queen Louise, and Frederick William in Tilsit, 1807. Painted by Nicolas Gosse, c. 1900

Napoleon himself occupied Berlin, causing the king, queen and the rest of the royal family to flee, despite Louise's illness, in the dead of winter to Memel in the easternmost part of the kingdom.[2][43] On the journey there, there was no food or clean water, and the king and queen were forced to share the same sleeping arrangements in "one of the wretched barns they call houses", according to one witness traveling with them.[44]

After various events took place,[note 2] Napoleon demanded, from a highly superior position, peace terms in what was to be called the Peace of Tilsit (1807).[46] In the midst of these negotiations, the emperor agreed to keep half of Prussia intact. The men were joined by Queen Louise; Frederick William had sent for his wife, then pregnant with her daughter Princess Louise, to beg for a better settlement for Prussia, with Louise advising her husband, "For God's sake no shameful peace...[Prussia] should at least not go down without honor."[47] As the king felt that her presence might put Napoleon in a "more relaxed mood"; Louise reluctantly agreed to meet the emperor at Tilsit, but only to save Prussia. Napoleon had previously attempted to destroy her reputation by questioning Louise's marital fidelity, but the queen met him anyway, attempting to use her beauty and charm to flatter him into more favorable terms.[47] Formerly Louise had regularly referred to him as "the Monster",[37] but nevertheless made a request for a private interview with the emperor, whereon she threw herself at his feet;[48] though he was impressed by her grace and determination, Napoleon refused to make any concessions, writing back to his wife Empress Joséphine that Louise "is really charming and full of coquettishness toward me. But don't be jealous...it would cost me too dearly to play the gallant."[2][47][49] Napoleon's attempts to destroy Louise's reputation failed however, and they only made her more beloved in Prussia.[2] Queen Louise's efforts to protect her adopted country from French aggression secured for her the admiration of future generations.

Queen Louise in a riding habit, c. 1810, by Wilhelm Ternite

Harsh restrictions were imposed on Prussia, such as a massive indemnity of one hundred and twenty million francs and the quartering of troops. At the time, one hundred and twenty million francs was equivalent to the entire yearly budget of Prussia. As the perceived symbol of Prussia's former grandeur and pride, the French occupation of Prussia had a particularly devastating effect upon Louise, as the queen endured personal insults – Napoleon himself gave her a backhanded compliment when he called her "the only real man in Prussia".[37] The queen recognized that her adopted country depended on her for moral strength, and as a consequence Louise regained her old sense of optimism, often taking time to prepare their eldest son for his future role as king.[17] In the following few years Louise supported the reforming efforts of government carried out by Stein and Hardenberg, as well as those of Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, to reorganize the army.[8][50] After the disaster at Tilsit, Louise was instrumental in Stein's reappointment (the king had previously dismissed him), telling Frederick William "[Stein] is my last hope. A great heart, an encompassing mind, perhaps he knows remedies that are hidden to us."[51]

By 1808 it was still considered unsafe to return to Berlin, and the royal family consequently spent the summer near Königsberg; Louise believed that the hard trials of her children's early lives would be good for them: "If they had been reared in luxury and prosperity they might think that so it must always be."[8] In the winter of 1808, Tsar Alexander I invited the king and queen to St. Petersburg, where she was treated to sumptuously decorated rooms; "Nothing dazzles me anymore", she exclaimed on her return to Germany.[52] Near the birth of her youngest child Princess Louise in 1809, Louise wrote to her father, "Gladly...the calamities which have befallen us have not forced their way into our wedded and home life, rather have strengthened the same, and made it even more precious to us."[53] Louise was sick for much of that year, but returned with the king to Berlin near the end of it after an absence of three years; the queen arrived in a carriage accompanied by her two daughters Charlotte and Alexandrine and younger son Charles, and was greeted by her father at Charlottenburg Palace – the residence was ransacked however, as Napoleon and his commanders had stripped its rooms of paintings, statues, manuscripts, and antiquities.[8][54] Returning to a much different Prussia than she left, a preacher observed that "our dear queen is far from joyful, but her seriousness has a quiet serenity... her eyes have lost their former sparkle, and one sees that they have wept much, and still weep".[55]

Louise's sarcophagus in the mausoleum of Charlottenburg Palace

On 19 July 1810, while visiting her father in Strelitz, the Queen died in her husband's arms from an unidentified illness.[2][17] Lieutenant-General Baron De Marbot, in his Memoirs, records that the Queen in later life always wore a thick wrapping around her neck. It was to conceal a botched operation for goitre, which left an open sore, which eventually killed her. The queen's subjects attributed the French occupation as the cause of her early death.[37] "Our saint is in heaven", exclaimed Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.[56] Louise's untimely death left her husband alone during a period of great difficulty, as the Napoleonic Wars and need for reform continued.[50] Louise was buried in the garden of Charlottenburg Palace, where a mausoleum, containing a fine recumbent statue by Christian Daniel Rauch, was built over her grave.[2][56] Frederick William did not remarry until 1824, when he entered into a morganatic marriage with his mistress Auguste von Harrach, explaining "Womanly companionship and sympathy have become necessary to me, therefore I must marry again."[57] After his death on 7 June 1840, Frederick William was buried by her side.

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'The Queen of Prussia's Tomb', a poem by Felicia Hemans

The character of Queen Louise was the popular subject of countless films released in German cinema. These included Der Film von der Königin Luise (1913), Die elf schillschen Offiziere (1926), and Vivat – Königin Luise im Fichtelgebirge (2005), Luise – Königin der Herzen (2010 documentary). She was played by Mady Christians in the 1927 silent film Queen Louise, by Henny Porten in Louise, Queen of Prussia (1931) and by Ruth Leuwerik in the 1957 film Queen Louise.

She was also briefly portrayed in an extremely reverential manner in the 1945 propaganda film Kolberg. The 1951 film The African Queen involves a British covert mission to sink the Königin Luise ("Queen Louise"), a German warship patrolling Lake Victoria at the start of World War I.

Louise became the subject of a series of novels by 19th century German historical fiction writer Luise Mühlbach, which included Louisa of Prussia and her Times and Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia.