Duchess Marie Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Marie Louise was born on 31 March 1803, in the Ludwigslust Palace in Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She was the second child and first daughter of Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1778–1819), and his wife, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia (1784–1803). Frederick Louis was the son of Frederick Francis I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, while Elena Pavlovna was the daughter of Paul I of Russia and Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Portrait of Marie Louise (by Karl Joseph Stieler, 1851)

On 7 October 1825 in Ludwigslust, at the age of twenty-two, Marie Louise married twenty-nine-year-old Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. Georg was the son of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and his wife, Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The newly-wedded couple would live in Charlottenburg Palace in Hildburghausen until 1829.

The marriage was, reportedly, very happy. The local superintendent Klötzner said: "[...] in his love for his wife and sons, he was the model of a real family man."[1]

They had three children:

1. Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (b. Hildburghausen, 16 September 1826 – d. Altenburg, 7 February 1908); married Princess Agnes of Anhalt-Dessau.
2. Prince Albrecht Frederick August (b. Hildburghausen, 31 October 1827 – d. Ludwigslust, 28 May 1835).
3. Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg (b. Eisenberg, 24 October 1829 – d. Arco, Italy, 13 May 1907); married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen.

• The Royal House of Stuart, London, 1969, 1971, 1976, Addington, A. C., Reference:
• Het Groothertogelijk Huis Mecklenburg, Bergen-op-Zoom, 1901–1902, Juten, W. J. F., Reference: page 112