Princess Adelaide of Schaumburg-Lippe

Princess Adelaide of Schaumburg-Lippe (; 22 September 1875 – 27 January 1971) was the daughter of Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe and consort of the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Altenburg Ernst II.

Early life and ancestry Adelaide was born at Ratiboritz castle, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Ratibořice), into the Schaumburg-Lippe branch of the House of Lippe.

She was the seventh child and third daughter of Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe (1834–1906), (son of George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Ida of Waldeck and Pyrmont) and his wife, Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau (1837–1902), (daughter of Prince Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau and Princess Marie Luise Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel).

In 1891, her eldest sister Princess Charlotte married William II of Württemberg, as his second wife, and became Queen Consort of the Kingdom of Württemberg.

Marriage Adelaide married 17 February 1898 at Bückeburg to Prince Ernst of Saxe-Altenburg (1871–1955), member of the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin, an only son of Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg, and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen.

Soon after the collapse of the German Empire and the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, their marriage ended in divorce, on 17 January 1920.

They had four children, two sons and two daughters:

Princess Charlotte (Potsdam, 4 March 1899 – Hemmelmark bei Eckernförde, 16 February 1989); married on 11 July 1919 Prince Sigismund of Prussia and had issue. Georg Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg (Potsdam, 13 May 1900 – Rendsburg, 13 February 1991), never married, no issue. Princess Elisabeth Karola (Potsdam, 6 April 1903 – Breiholz, 30 January 1991), never married, no issue. Prince Frederick Ernst (Potsdam, 15 May 1905 – Rosenheim, 23 February 1985), never married, no issue.

Death Princess Antoinette of Schaumburg-Lippe died on 27 January 1971, in Ballenstedt, East Germany, aged 95.

Her body was buried in the Mausoleumgarten, Bückeburg, Germany, while her ex husband, Duke Ernst II, rests in Herzog Ernst Grabstätte, Trockenborn-Wolfersdorf, Saale-Holzland, Thuringia, Germany.

Ancestry

Notes and sources thePeerage.com - Friederike Adelheid Marie Luise Hilda Eugenie Prinzessin zu Schaumburg-Lippe L'Allemagne dynastique, Huberty, Giraud, Magdelaine, Reference: II 295 Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser, Reference: 1961