ADELHEID von Pommern

• ADELHEID von Pommern, daughter of BOGISLAW VIII Duke of Pomerania in Hinterpommern & his wife Sophie von Holstein ([1410]-after 1445) Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum records that “Hertoghe Bernd, Hertoghen Ereken sone to Sassen, unde eyn Here to Louenborch” married “Alheys, des Hertoghen dochter to Pomeren in der Slesye”[695].
• It is probably due to its great popularity that cities, islands and regions, such as the Australian city of Adelaide, were named after her in all parts of the British Empire. Thus, the princess from the small Thuringian Duchy had become a representative of world power No. 1. In Meininger Schloss Elisabethenburg the Blue Cabinet has been restored and furnished in her honor as a memorial site.

Project MedLands, SAXONY

Married

• Married: BERNHARD von Sachsen-Lauenburg, son of ERICH IV Herzog von Sachsen-Lauenburg & his wife Sophie von Braunschweig (-16 Jul 1463, bur Ratzeburg Cathedral). Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum names “Bernd”, who inherited “de Herschopp to Louenborch”, third of the three sons of “Hertoghe Ereke to Sassen, ein Her to Louenborch” and his wife[694]. He succeeded his brother in 1435 as BERNHARD II Herzog von Sachsen in Lauenburg und Ratzeburg. Married on (2 Feb 1429) ADELHEID von Pommern, daughter of BOGISLAW VIII Duke of Pomerania in Hinterpommern & his wife Sophie von Holstein ([1410]-after 1445). Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum records that “Hertoghe Bernd, Hertoghen Ereken sone to Sassen, unde eyn Here to Louenborch” married “Alheys, des Hertoghen dochter to Pomeren in der Slesye”[695].

Bernhard & ADELHEID, his wife had two children:

• 1. JOHANN von Sachsen-Lauenburg 18 Jul 1439-15 Aug 1507, bur Ratzeburg Cathedral). Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum names “Johanns”, who succeeded his father, as the son of “Hertoghe Bernd, Hertoghen Ereken sone to Sassen, unde eyn Here to Louenborch” and his wife[696]. He succeeded his father in 1463 as JOHANN V Herzog von Sachsen-Lauenburg. m (Lüneburg 12 Feb 1464) DOROTHEA von Brandenburg, daughter of FRIEDRICH II Markgraf and Elector of Brandenburg & his wife Katharina von Sachsen (1446-1519 before 20 Mar, bur Ratzeburg Cathedral). Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum names “Dorothea”, who married “Hertoghen Hans te Loenborch”, second of the two daughters of “Marggreve Frederick de elder, Marggreve Frederikes sone to Brandenborch” and his wife[697]. Johann & his wife had thirteen children:
• 2. SOPHIE von Sachsen-Lauenburg (-9 Sep 1473). Botho’s Chronicon Brunsvicensium Picturatum names “Soffya”, who married “den Hertoghen van den Barge”, as daughter of “Hertoghe Bernd, Hertoghen Ereken sone to Sassen, unde eyn Here to Louenborch” and his wife[713]. The Memorienbuch of Düsseldorf St Maria records the death "VI Id Sep 1473" of "domine Sophie de Sassen ducisse Juliacensis et Montensis" and in memorial of “domini Gerardi ducis eius conthoralis”[714]. m (1444) GERHARD VII Duke of Jülich and Berg, son of WILHELM von Jülich Graf von Ravensberg & his wife Adelheid von Tecklenburg (-18 Aug 1475).

History

• Adelaide of Saxony-Meiningen by By Matthias Blazek

There have always been stories about a beautiful princess named Adelheid. Princess Adelheid is said to have once visited the homonymous village south of Celle. For this reason, it was called since then "Adelheidsdorf," they said. Unfortunately, there is no indication that Adelheid ever passed through this village. By contrast, it is clear that the former colony by order of the Cabinet Ministry of Hanover on February 14, 1831 in honor of Queen Adelheid got the name Adelheidsdorf.

To shed some light on the life of the princess and her later husband, William IV, King of England and Hanover, parts of Alvin Redman's book "On England's Throne: The House of Hanover - The House of Hanover" (London, 1960; Munich 1961) translated.

William IV, son of King George III, was the Duke of Clarence (1817). Through the death of his niece, Princess Charlotte, daughter of 1820-1830 reigning brother George IV, was for William IV a succession of the throne suddenly possible.

At this time, about 1815, the translation begins:

For the next few years, the Duke of Clarence remained a bachelor, despite his urgent efforts to find a rich heiress, and he had often enough to learn that even as a prince of blood he was by no means the irresistible suitor he believed to be. He found some comfort in the Regent's amusement carousel turning faster than ever, and he gratefully clung to it.

The death of Princess Charlotte in 1817 suddenly changed the position of the Duke of Clarence. Now he was next in the line of succession to the Duke of York. The fact that he was to marry had become an almost imperative necessity, and the old queen and the regent took the matter into their own hands. Queen Charlotte chose the bride, and George, the regent, persuaded him to agree.

The future bride was Adelheid of Sachsen-Meiningen, and soon the negotiations with her mother, the Duchess-Dowager of Sachsen-Meiningen, were completed, because she was more concerned with the importance of marriage than with the qualities of her husband. In the eyes of the princess, marrying an elderly man of bad name and having ten illegitimate children could hardly be a very enticing lot. After all, it offered a - if not too large - view of the English crown.

When Adelheid traveled to England in 1818 as the betrothed bride of the budding king, she described her journey as a "sacrificial aisle" for her native country and her underage brother, later Duke Bernhard II. Ehrich's friend of Saxe-Meiningen. With their marriage, for the first and only time, a scion of the Sachsen-Meininger Herzogshaus was able to claim the throne of one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms in the world. Possibly the 25-year-old Adelheid would have remained unmarried, if she had not reached 1818 the marriage proposal of the English prince. She was already dating from the best age of marriage, as warlike periods and the limited visits to visit due to chronic lack of money had significantly reduced their chances of marriage.

Amalie Adelheid Louise Therese Caroline - that's her full name - was born on August 13, 1792, as the eldest child of the ruling Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. When he was born a son and heir eight years later, he proved his liberalism by inviting the people to be godparents. He was a progressive ruler, though a little over-strained, and ruled his small state with dignity and moderation. He died in 1803, when Adelheid was ten years old, and the Duchess took over the regency.

Europe was in turmoil, and strict austerity was required, but the Duchess Widow played her part well. There was a younger daughter, Princess Ida. The two girls were raised strictly and morally. Ida married Bernhard, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, but Adelheid's marital views seemed to be bad until the marriage proposal arrived from England.

Adelheid was years old; she was not beautiful, but pleasant and amiable of character and of fine, measured demeanor. She arrived in London in July 1818, accompanied by her mother, and they dismounted at the Grillon Hotel on Albemarle Street. There was no one to greet them, for the Duke of Clarence was out of town, but after dinner the Regent arrived to pay his visit and fix the date of the wedding.

On July 11, 1818, the double wedding of the Duke of Clarence took place with Princess Adelheid of Saxe-Meiningen and the Duke of Kent with Prince Leopold's sister, the widowed Princess Victoria of Leiningen. They were married in the old Kew Palace.

A few days after the wedding, the duke and his young wife traveled to Hanover to spend their honeymoon there. Here they met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who had been married for a month, and the two women became friends. In March of the following year she almost became a mother, but Adelheid's happiness was short-lived, for her child died within a few hours.

They stayed in Germany until October, then returned to England. The travel conditions were miserable, and Adelheid, who was of delicate health, fell ill at Walmer Castle and had to stay there for several weeks. When she was well again, they set up residence in St. James, in Wilhelm's dirty and ruined apartment in the Marstallhof. Delayed, the Duke took steps to fix this uneasy residence, which had not been repaired for fifty years, but in vain. In the spring they moved to Bushey House, which was to become a real home for Adelheid, as it had long been for Wilhelm. Here they lived for ten years. Their presence was interrupted only by regular trips to Germany.

Adelheid did the household admirably well, and her early-learned thrift came in handy. She personally overseen the household's duties and also induced her husband to be more careful with his finances. Soon the Duke realized that he was enjoying a much more pleasant, orderly existence than he had ever known, and the moderation in eating and drinking was improving his health. He began to look at Adelheid with different eyes, for he was honest enough to acknowledge her dignified qualities. Gradually, his sudden, noisy behavior softened under his influence, and he became a man of affability and an excellent spouse.

They both loved the simple life and were friendly and hospitable to their neighbors. Fresh air and abundant movements gradually erased the traces of Wilhelm's earlier debauchery and promised him longevity. Occasionally, when venturing into social life, in Brighton or London, the Duchess proved to be as talented as she was at home and soon became popular. The only drawback she was suspicious of was the fact that she spoke English with a distinctly foreign "accent" and had a tough voice.

Certainly the duke missed the sound of children's voices, but children were not given to the couple, the marriage remained childless. In December 1820, Adelheid had given birth to her second and last child, a girl hopefully christened Elizabeth Georgina Adelaide, but she died when she was only three months old.

The chief concern of Queen Adelheid was the health and well-being of her husband, and after the first intoxication of conviviality was over, she took charge of all affairs of the royal household, so skillfully that in a short time everything went smoothly and smoothly like in Bushey.

At Windsor she set up a model dairy, built better dwellings for the workers employed there, and had the liveliest interest in everything that went on. Her friendly nature and her personal concern for the common good of the Windsor people made her very popular in a short time.

She was a woman with a strong sense of family, and almost always there were members of the family in her house. She had the greatest joy in children, and she liked to surround herself with them; two or three children of her sister Ida always lived in Windsor. In 1831, the Duchess Ida brought all her children to England, and they stayed there for several months, while another nephew, Eduard of Saxe-Weimar, visited the Queen so often that in time he was almost considered a son of the house.

The maternal love of the queen also embraced the children and grandchildren of her husband; two daughters of the king lived in the castle, while others from his numerous offspring visited them often and for a long time. The King's brother, the Duke of Cambridge, now Viceroy of Hanover, sent her son to educate her in England, and the Queen kept a watchful eye on him. Even the son of the hated Cumberland, Prince George, later blind King of Hanover, was often taken to Windsor by his mother. Children tend to develop the best qualities in humans, and all these children thronged to the tolerant, benevolent queen. Only one was purposely kept away from Windsor; it was the most important of all, the heir to the throne, Princess Victoria. But that was not because of the queen, but because of Victoria's mother.

Adelheid was by nature as formal as the king.

The adoption of the Reform Act (June 7, 1832) had made the King very popular, for the newspapers did not conceal that he favored them, though he had been more anxious to allow his ministers to settle the troublesome business unhindered to actively participate in it. Now the Queen was unpopular, for it was known that her Lord Marshal Lord Howe was an opponent of any reform measure. William had been tried to persuade William to dismiss Lord Howe, but he had been friends with the Howe family for years and knew that Queen Adelheid was attached to her court marshal because she could rely on his advice on all etiquette issues, and so he refused be steadfast to replace him with someone. During the political crisis, a particularly intense press campaign against the alleged interference of the Queen arose and they even attacked their carriage. No doubt Adelheid had the feeling that this was the beginning of the revolution and saw herself in the role of Marie Antoinette, but given her loyalty to William, it is questionable whether she would ever have tried to change the course of events. Her first concern was always his health, and the difficulties with the Reform Act were certainly a heavy burden on his physical condition, and he was said to have aged ten years in that one year. Being a king was not as comfortable a life as he had imagined. One evening at table he shook his head sadly, saying that he only wished to have been born a free and independent American, so much did he admire the birthplace of George Washington, the greatest man ever to have lived. The sweet taste of the ruling class had turned into bitterness, otherwise Wilhelm's views would not have been able to reverse their views so thoroughly. Now he was happier staying away from the government business in Windsor or Brighton, especially in Brighton, where the sea awoke so many fond memories of the sailor king.

His queen, the gentler Adelheid, preferred Windsor, and it was difficult for her to leave Windsor for Brighton's sake: "I had to leave behind so much that I loved-the beautiful country, my bright, friendly rooms filled with busts and Pictures that I particularly appreciate and above all the graves that are so sacred to me (that of her little child and Louise), because I am so good to be near her ... For a woman who has lost so much are herself the remains of those who only live in our memory, a precious possession she does not like to give up. "

In 1834 Wilhelm was seriously worried about Adelheid's health, for she suffered from a persistent cough. He felt that a vacation in her home country would do her good, and since he knew how reluctant she was to leave him, he made all the arrangements without her knowledge. He arranged everything and even got the gifts for their relatives before he told her his intentions.

Adelheid was startled by the prospect of going away for six weeks, especially as he felt the signs of his state of excitement that alone could calm him. He was unusually talkative, and seemed obsessed with military affairs, visited the barracks, and confused the ordinary routine with ridiculous orders, which made the Duke of Wellington sorely distressed. Therefore, she decided not to travel until this wild mood subsided.

In July he seemed calm again, and she sailed off with the royal yacht. Her brother, who had come from Meiningen, accompanied her, and the whole fleet of the yacht club gave her the escort. But even now she was reluctant to travel and confided in one of her court ladies that she was "more attached to the king than she might know herself, more necessary to him than she had thought, and in a word: England was her only true home now ".

Conversely, the king missed her very much. Bachelor pleasures did not interest him. He was like a lost soul and said to Princess Lieven, sadly, "I can not tell you, Madame, how many ways the Queen is useful to me."

When Adelheid returned to London on August 20, the king was overjoyed and made her a state reception; the cannons fired salutes, and flags and flags decorated their way to the palace. Adelheid was happy and her health had improved visibly. Also, their popularity was apparently back; but the changes that Wilhelm made shortly thereafter in the cabinet gave rise to new accusations, interfering with state affairs.

When the king finished his reign, a great chorus of complaints arose. The bawling, simple, kindhearted Wilhelm, cheerful to the last moment, left the world where he had been loved more than any of his Hanoverian ancestors.

On June 18, the sailor king set sail for his last voyage. It was the anniversary of Waterloo, and Wilhelm remembered the date. "See if you can handle me enough to survive the day."

He survived him and even experienced the dusk of the next day. Until the end, his beloved queen held his crippled hands in hers, and he tried to stem her tears with his usual jesting little remarks. Her marriage had been happy. He died twelve minutes past two on the morning of June 20, 1837.

Queen Adelheid had lost her true purpose when Wilhelm died. She collapsed in deepest grief and was still dangerously ill for a while. She never fully recovered from the blow and locked herself away from all her friends and acquaintances. The following autumn, her pain had not subsided, and she devoted herself completely to her sister and her nephew. She "kept talking about the king and only hoped that she had done her duty thoroughly."

Adelheid had always liked Princess Victoria, and the new queen asked her to choose Windsor's establishment, which she would like to take with her. Adelheid spent the rest of her life in peaceful seclusion, mainly in Hastings, until she died on December 2, 1849, in the Priory of Bentley, Middlesex. "I am dying with all humility, for I know quite well that we are all equal before God's throne," she wrote in her will.

"Poor, dear Queen Adelheid!" Said one critic of that time, "she has never done anything that has gone down in world history except to be silent and help the poor."

They buried the good Queen Adelheid in Windsor next to her beloved Wilhelm. With the death Wilhelm IV. Ended after 123 years the personal union Hanover London.

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland became Victoria, daughter of Eduard, Duke of Kent. It ruled from 1837 to 1901. The Kingdom of Hanover reigned from 1837 to 1851, the brother Wilhelm IV, Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland. The kingdom continued under his son George V, until it came to war in 1866 as a result of the federal crisis and the occupation of Hanover by Prussian troops. After the Battle of Langensalza on June 29, 1866 ended the Kingdom of Hanover and was incorporated into the Prussian state.

Recommended reading:

Mijndert Bertram: The Kingdom of Hanover - Small History of a Past German State, Hannover 2003, 152 p.

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LINKS:

• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelheid_av_Pommern
• http://finnholbek.dk/getperson.php?personID=I15102&tree=2
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerania-Stolp
• http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SAXONY.htm#BernhardIILauenburgdied1...
• http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/POMERANIA.htm#Adelheiddiedafter1445