Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands

Wilhelmine of Prussia (Friederike Luise Wilhelmine; 18 November 1774 – 12 October 1837) was the first Queen consort 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 King Frederick William II of Prussia and Queen Frederica Louisa. Her upbringing was dominated by the strict regime of her great-uncle, 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. The young couple went to live at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague.

In 1795, the 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'). 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. 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. 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