| Augusta of Prussia | |
| Succession: | Electress consort of Hesse |
| Reign: | 27 February 1821 – 19 February 1841 |
| Issue: | Prince Wilhelm Princess Karoline Princess Luise Frederick William, Elector of Hesse Marie, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen Prince Ferdinand |
| Full Name: | Auguste Christine Friederike |
| Reign-Type: | Tenure |
| House: | Hohenzollern |
| Father: | Frederick William II of Prussia |
| Mother: | Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt |
| Birth Date: | 1 May 1780 |
| Birth Place: | Potsdam, Prussia |
| Death Place: | Kassel |
Augusta of Prussia (Christine Friederike Auguste; 1 May 1780 – 19 February 1841) was a German salonist, painter, and Electress consort of Hesse by marriage to William II, Elector of Hesse. She was the third daughter and fifth child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.
On 13 February 1797 in Berlin, Augusta married Prince William of Hesse-Kassel, eldest surviving son of William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. In 1803, the Landgrave was raised to Elector of Hesse, and Prince William succeeded on his father's death in 1821.
The marriage of Augusta was politically arranged and unhappy. Augusta and William often came into conflict with one another, which led to aggressive confrontations.
In 1806, Hesse was occupied by France. Augusta was in Berlin with her children at the time, having remained in the Prussian capital due to her pregnancy when Napoleon's army took it for France.[1] Napoleon put guards around her house and gave orders that she should not be disturbed. With Hesse and Prussia occupied and her family in exile, Augusta lacked money, and after her child's birth she asked for a meeting with Napoleon. She appeared before him with her newborn baby on her arm and one of her children by the hand and asked him for an allowance, which he granted her.[2]
After the birth of her last child in 1806, the relationship between Augusta and William was unofficially terminated. In 1815, they agreed to keep separate households. Augusta lived in Schoenfeld Palace, where she became a celebrated salonist and the centre of the romantic Schoenfelder-circle, which included Ludwig Hassenpflug, Joseph von Radowitz and the Grimm brothers, while William lived in a different residence with his mistress, Emilie Ortlöpp.
Auguste closed her salon in 1823, and between 1826 and 1831 she lived in The Hague, Koblenz, Bonn and Fulda. She returned to Kassel in 1831. Augusta was regarded as a skillful painter, whose works included self-portraits.
Several months after Augusta's death, William morganatically remarried his longtime mistress Emilie Ortlöpp, ennobled as Countess von Reichenbach-Lessonitz, by whom he had an additional eight children.
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