Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Sophia Louisa, duchess of Mecklenburg [-Schwerin] (6 May 1685, Schwerin - 29 July 1735) was a German noblewoman. She was the fourth child of Frederick, duke of Mecklenburg [-Schwerin] (gen. "Prince of Grabow") and Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse-Homburg. On 28 November 1708 she became the third and final wife of Frederick I of Prussia - they had no children. The Sophienkirche in Berlin is named after her.

Life

At first after her marriage she was known as the "Mecklenburg Venus", but she soon alienated herself from Prussian court life in Berlin. She was not equal to the intrigues of the Berlin court and her opponent Catharina, countess of Wartenberg, simultaneously wife of the Prussian Minister-President Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg and the king's mistress, and under the influence of August Hermann Francke took refuge in Pietism. Falling into mental derangement in the Berliner Schloss, she frightened king Frederick, believing that she was the legendary "White Lady" who would foretell his death. In January 1713, only a few weeks before his death, he thus sent her back to her family. From then on she lived in the Schloss in Grabow, and on her death was buried in the Schelfkirche St. Nikolai in Schwerin.

External links

* [http://www.preussen-chronik.de/_/person_jsp/key=person_sophie+luise+von+_mecklenburg-schwerin.html RBB Preußen-Chronik]