View source for Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands

{{Short description|Queen of the Netherlands from 1815 to 1837}}
{{Infobox royalty
|consort = yes
| name            =Wilhelmine of Prussia
| succession      =[[Queen consort of the Netherlands]]<br />[[Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg]]
| image           =Joseph Paelinck - Frederica Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands - 56.090B - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg
| caption         =Portrait by [[Joseph Paelinck]]
| reign           =16 March 1815 – 12 October 1837
| spouse          ={{marriage|[[William I of the Netherlands]]|1791}}
| issue           = {{ubl|[[William II of the Netherlands|William II]]|[[Prince Frederick of the Netherlands|Prince Frederick]]|[[Princess Pauline of Orange-Nassau|Princess Pauline]]|[[Princess Marianne of the Netherlands|Marianne, Princess Albert of Prussia]]}}
| full name       =Friederike Luise Wilhelmine
| house           =[[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]]
| father          =[[Frederick William II of Prussia]]
| mother          =[[Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
| birth_date   ={{Birth date|1774|11|18|df=y}}
| birth_place  =[[Potsdam]], [[Prussia]]
| death_date   ={{Death date and age|1837|10|12|1774|11|18|df=y}}
| death_place  =[[Noordeinde Palace]], [[The Hague]], [[Netherlands]]
| place of burial =[[Nieuwe Kerk (Delft)|Nieuwe Kerk]], [[Delft]]
|}}
{{House of Hohenzollern (Prussia)|frederickwilliam2}}
'''Wilhelmine of Prussia''' (Friederike Luise Wilhelmine; 18 November 1774 – 12 October 1837) was the first [[List of Dutch consorts|queen of the Netherlands]] as the first wife of King [[William I of the Netherlands]]. She had a modest public role but acted as a [[patron of the arts]].
==Biography==
Princess Wilhelmine was born in [[Potsdam]]. She was the fourth child of eight born to [[Frederick William II of Prussia|King Frederick William II of Prussia]] and [[Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt|Queen Frederica Louisa]]. Her upbringing was dominated by the strict regime of her great-uncle, [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick the Great]], but in general very little is known about her youth. She was given a conventional education for a girl of her time and tutored in needlework and the arts, and described as pretty and sweet.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>
===Marriage===
On 1 October 1791, she married her cousin [[William I of the Netherlands|William of the Netherlands]], son of [[Stadtholder]] [[William V, Prince of Orange]] and [[Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange|Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia]], in [[Berlin]].  The marriage was arranged as a part of an alliance between the House of Orange and Prussia, but it was also, in fact, a love match and became a happy one.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein">Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein, Wilhelmina van Pruisen, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/WilhelminaPruisen [13/01/2014]</ref>  The young couple went to live at [[Noordeinde Palace]] in [[The Hague]].
In 1795, the [[France|French]] invaded the [[Dutch Republic]], and the princely family went into exile.  They first stayed in [[England]], and from 1796 in Berlin.  In Berlin, the couple lived with her birth family in royal state in the "Niederländischen Palais" ('Dutch Palace').<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>   In 1806, Wilhelmine was again forced to flee from the French army, and settled under difficult economic circumstances in Poland.
Wilhelmine returned to The Hague at the beginning of 1814.
===Queen===
[[File:Wilhelmina van Pruisen, koningin der Nederlanden.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Queen Wilhelmine of the Netherlands in middle age, by [[Jan Baptist van der Hulst]], 1833.]]
Wilhelmine became Queen of the Netherlands in 1815.  At the time, the Netherlands included the present-day country of Belgium.  The court divided their time between the two and divided their winters between The Hague and Brussels, and their summers between Het Loo and Laeken.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>   Wilhelmine personally visited Berlin once a year until her death, where she continued to live in the "Niederländischen Palast" during her visit.  She participated in royal representation during her stay in Berlin, as well as attending to her estates in Silesia.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>
Queen Wilhelmine was modest and stayed in the background, and she did not play any dominant role as queen.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>   She was beloved by her family but was not a popular queen, and was criticized in The Netherlands for isolating the royal family, and later Belgium for her German fashion.  Beginning in 1820, her health worsened, and after 1829, she was rarely seen in public, though she continued her trips to Berlin and visiting relatives.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>
She was interested in painting, attended exhibitions, and helped to protect museums and support artists.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>   She was herself a student of art and regarded as a talented dilettante, ultimately being inducted as an honorary member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>  She was a student of [[Friedrich Bury]], financed an Italian study trip for [[Bonaventura Genelli]], and supported the renovation of the royal museum.<ref name="Marjan P. Nekkers-Kapitein"/>
She died at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague in 1837, aged 62, and is entombed in the [[Nieuwe Kerk (Delft)|New Church]] in [[Delft]].
==Issue==
{| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
!width="20%"|Name!! width="15%"|Birth!! width="15%"|Death!! width="45%"|Notes
|-
|[[William II of the Netherlands|King William II of the Netherlands]]||6 December 1792||17 March 1849||married, 1816, [[Anna Pavlovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia]]; had issue
|-
|Stillborn son||18 August 1795||18 August 1795||&nbsp;
|-
|[[Prince Frederick of the Netherlands]]||28 February 1797||8 September 1881||married, 1825, [[Princess Louise of Prussia (1808-1870)|Princess Louise of Prussia]]; had issue
|-
|[[Princess Pauline of Orange-Nassau]]||1 March 1800||22 December 1806||&nbsp;
|-
|Stillborn son||30 August 1806||30 August 1806||&nbsp;
|-
|[[Princess Marianne of the Netherlands]]||9 May 1810||29 May 1883||married, 1830, [[Prince Albert of Prussia (1809-1872)|Prince Albert of Prussia]]; had issue
|}
==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center |ref=<ref>{{cite book|title=Généalogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrième degré inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes des maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivants| trans-title=Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ |year=1768|publisher=Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel|location=Bordeaux|language=fr}}, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA17 17] (father's side), [https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA69 69] (mother's side)</ref>
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''Wilhelmine of Prussia'''
|2= 2. [[Frederick William II of Prussia]]
|3= 3. [[Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt|Princess Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|4= 4. [[Prince Augustus William of Prussia]]
|5= 5. [[Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
|6= 6. [[Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|7= 7. [[Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken]]
|8= 8. [[Frederick William I of Prussia]]
|9= 9. [[Sophia Dorothea of Hanover|Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover]]
|10= 10. [[Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
|11= 11. [[Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
|12= 12. [[Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|13= 13. [[Countess Charlotte of Hanau-Lichtenberg]]
|14= 14. [[Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken]]
|15= 15. [[Countess Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken]]
}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061005153150/http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN/lemmata/data/WilhelminaVanPruisen Wilhelmina van Pruisen] (in Dutch)
==External links==
{{Commons category|Wilhelmina of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands}}
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061118124453/http://www.btinternet.com/~allan_raymond/Prussian_Royal_Family.htm |date=November 18, 2006 |title=Royal House of Prussia }}
*[http://www.chivalricorders.org/royalty/bourbon/luxembourg/luxbghis.htm Royal House of the Netherlands and Grand-Ducal House of Luxembourg]
{{S-start}}
{{S-hou|[[House of Hohenzollern]]|18 November|1774|12 October|1837}}
{{s-roy}}
|-
{{s-vac|last=[[Hortense de Beauharnais]]|as=Queen of Holland}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Dutch consorts|Queen consort of the Netherlands]]<br />[[List of consorts of Luxembourg|Grand Duchess consort of Luxembourg]]
|years=1815–1837}}
{{S-vac|next=[[Anna Pavlovna of Russia]]}}
|-
{{s-end}}
{{Dutch consorts}}
{{Consorts of Luxembourg}}
{{Princess Consorts of Orange}}
{{Prussian princesses by birth}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilhelmine Of Prussia 1774-1837}}
[[Category:1774 births]]
[[Category:1837 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century German people]]
[[Category:19th-century German people]]
[[Category:18th-century German women]]
[[Category:19th-century German women]]
[[Category:Queens consort of the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Grand ducal consorts of Luxembourg]]
[[Category:Princesses of Orange]]
[[Category:Dutch royalty]]
[[Category:House of Hohenzollern]]
[[Category:House of Orange-Nassau]]
[[Category:Prussian princesses]]
[[Category:People from Potsdam]]
[[Category:Burials in the Royal Crypt at Nieuwe Kerk, Delft]]
[[Category:William I of the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Daughters of kings]]
[[Category:Children of Frederick William II of Prussia]]
[[Category:German patrons of the arts]]
[[Category:Mothers of Dutch monarchs]]
[[Category:Daughters of princes regnant]]