Princess Maria Anna | |
Princess Wilhelm of Prussia | |
House: | Hesse |
Father: | Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg |
Mother: | Caroline of Hesse-Darmstadt |
Spouse: | Prince Wilhelm of Prussia |
Issue: | Prince Adalbert Elisabeth, Princess Karl of Hesse and by Rhine Prince Waldemar Marie, Queen of Bavaria |
Issue-Pipe: | …Details |
Issue-Link: |
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Birth Place: | Bad Homburg vor der Höhe |
Death Place: | Berlin |
Princess Maria Anna of Hesse-Homburg (13 October 1785, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe – 14 April 1846, Berlin) was a German noblewoman. She was the most senior woman at the Prussian court from 1810 to 1823. She was styled as "Princess Wilhelm of Prussia".
She was the twelfth child (and sixth daughter) of Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and Caroline of Hesse-Darmstadt, thus being a granddaughter of Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken, known as the "great Landgräfin".
Maria Anna belonged to the anti-Napoleon-party around Queen Luise and supported the war against France in 1806. She followed the royal house in its escape from the French occupation.
After the death of Queen Luise in 1810, she acted as first lady on official occasions. In March 1813, she proclaimed the famous "Aufruf der königlichen Prinzessinnen an die Frauen im preußischen Staate" and founded the patriotic women's association "Vaterländischen Frauenverein." She corresponded with Freiherr vom Stein, von Hardenberg and the Humboldt brothers and was an acquaintance of the poet Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. In 1822, she was in love with Count Anton of Stolberg-Wernigerode, who later became Prussian Minister of State. She was active in prison care at the Berliner Gefängnisinsassen and founded an orphanage in Pankow in Berlin.
She married in 1804 to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851), her first cousin, and they had nine children: