Countess Auguste von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen (30 August 1800 – 5 June 1873), was the second spouse of King

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, w ...

. At the time of their marriage, the

Harrach family The House of Harrach is an old and influential Bohemian and Austro-German noble family. The '' Grafen'' (Counts) of Harrach were among the most prominent families in the Habsburg Empire. As one of few mediatized families, it belongs to high nobili ...

was still not recognized as equal for dynastic purposes. Later, in 1841, a year after Frederick William's death, they were officially recognized as a mediatized family (a former ruling family within the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

), with the style of Illustrious Highness, which allowed them to officially have equal status for marriage purposes to those reigning and royal families. Thus, in 1824 when the marriage occurred, it was treated as

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

, so she was not named Queen, but was given the title Princess von Liegnitz (modern-day

Legnica Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda. Between 1 June 197 ...

) and Countess von

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

. Frederick reportedly stated that he did not wish to have another queen after Queen Louise.

Early life and ancestry

Auguste was the daughter of Austrian Count Ferdinand Joseph von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen (1763–1841) and Saxon noblewoman Johanna Christiane Rayski von Dubnitz (1767–1830), whose father, Adolf Heinrich Rayski von Dubnitz (1726–1778), was the owner of Struppen Castle near

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. Patrilineally, she descended from

Aloys Thomas Raimund, Count Harrach Aloys Thomas Raimund, Count Harrach (7 March 1669, Vienna – 7 November, 1742, Vienna) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Biography His father was Ferdinand Bonaventura I. He belonged to the Austrian noble family of Harrach. Aloys von ...

(1669–1742), who served as

Viceroy of Naples This is a list of viceroys of the Kingdom of Naples. Following the conquest of Naples by Louis XII of France in 1501, Naples was subject to the rule of the foreign rulers, the Kings of France, Aragon and Spain and the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria ...

, and Count Friedrich August von Harrach (1696–1749),

Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands The governor ( nl, landvoogd) or governor-general () of the Habsburg Netherlands was a representative appointed by the Holy Roman emperor (1504-1556), the king of Spain (1556-1598, 1621-1706), and the archduke of Austria (1716-1794), to administ ...

. Through her mother, Auguste has descended from Saxon and Bohemian nobility, including her grandmother Christiane Sophie von Leyser (1735–1806) who was a direct

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

descendant of

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is kno ...

and

Lucas Cranach the Younger Lucas Cranach the Younger (german: Lucas Cranach der Jüngere ; October 4, 1515 – January 25, 1586) was a German Renaissance painter and portraitist, the son of Lucas Cranach the Elder and brother of Hans Cranach. Life and career Lucas Cranach ...

Marriage

Auguste met King Frederick William III at a spa in

Teplitz Teplice () (until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; german: Teplitz-Schönau or ''Teplitz'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest Czech spa town, after Karlovy Vary. The hist ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

in 1822. They married at

Charlottenburg Palace Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during th ...

on 9 November 1824. As Auguste was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and considered a non-dynast at the time, the marriage was initially kept a secret. In many quarters the marriage was greeted with great surprise and some initially refused to believe it. The greatest opponents of this marriage were the Mecklenburg-Strelitz cousins, the family of the King's first wife, Queen Louise. Auguste converted to

Protestantism Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

in 1826. As a morganatic spouse, Auguste was ignored in the protocol of the court life of Berlin, ranking after all the princes and princesses of the royal family. She was not politically active and had no children. She nursed Frederick while he was dying in 1840, and it was decided to allow her to attend his funeral.

Widowhood

Auguste was given a large allowance and allowed to continue to live in the royal palace as a widow. In her later years, she often traveled to Italy and France. She was godmother to her nephew, Count Ferdinand von Harrach (1832–1915), a painter, from the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

n branch of the family.

Ancestry

References

Sources

*Wichard Graf Harrach: Auguste Fürstin von Liegnitz. Ihre Jahre an d. Seite König Friedrich Wilhelms III. von Preussen (1824–1840) Stapp, Berlin 1987, . *Gisela und Paul Habermann: Fürstin von Liegnitz. Ein Leben im Schatten der Königin Luise Nicolaische, Berlin 1988 {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrach, Auguste von 1800 births 1873 deaths 19th-century German people Morganatic spouses of German royalty Burials at the Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum, Berlin