Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken

Caroline of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Caroline Henriette Christiane Philippine Louise; 9 March 1721 – 30 March 1774) was Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt by marriage to Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was famed as one of the most learned women of her time and known as The Great Landgräfin.

Together with Louis IX, her husband, she became the most recent common ancestors of all current sovereigns of hereditary monarchies in Europe in 2022 after Charles III became King of the United Kingdom.

Biography Caroline was the daughter of Christian III, Duke of Zweibrücken and his wife Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken.

Caroline married on 12 August 1741 in Zweibrücken, Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. The marriage was arranged and unhappy: Caroline was interested in music and literature, while Louis was interested in military matters. She lived separated from him at Buchsweiler. In 1772, Caroline promoted the politician Friedrich Karl von Moser.

Caroline was better known as The Great Landgräfin, a name given to her by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She befriended several writers and philosophers of her time, such as Johann Gottfried Herder, Christoph Martin Wieland and Goethe. Wieland wished he had the power to make her Queen of Europa.

Caroline also had contact with Frederick II of Prussia. She was one of the few women that the Alte Fritz respected, and he famously referred to her as the Glory and Wonder of our century; after Caroline's death, he sent an urn to Darmstadt with the text femina sexu, ingenio vir ('A woman by sex, a man by spirit').

Caroline and her husband became the most recent common ancestors of all reigning hereditary European monarchs in 2022 after Charles III became King of the United Kingdom.

Issue

Ancestry