Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Juliane Henriette Ulrike, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (b. Coburg, 23 September 1781 - d. Elfenau, near Berne, Switzerland, 15 August 1860), was a German princess of the ducal house of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (after 1826, the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).

Family

She was the third daughter of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Caroline Reuss of Ebersdorf. King Leopold I of the Belgians was her younger brother, whilst Queen Victoria of United Kingdom was her niece and King Ferdinand II of Portugal was her nephew.

Grand Duchess of Russia

Juliane, along with her two elder sisters, Sophie and Antoinette, traveled to Saint Petersburg. The Empress Catherine II of Russia chose her to be the bride of her second grandson, the Grand Duke Constantine. Juliane, who was not yet fifteen years of age, took the name of Anna Feodorovna in a Russian Orthodox baptismal ceremony and married Constantine (who was only seventeen years old at the time) in St.Petersburg on 26 February 1796. The Empress died nine months later, on 6 November.

The marriage was deeply unhappy. Constantine, a raw and immature boy, made his young wife intensely miserable. After three years, in 1799, Anna left her husband and returned to Coburg.

Shortly thereafter, however, she returned to Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile. In 1801, Anna, who had become involved in several frivolous intrigues, was sent home permanently to Coburg.

Life after separation

On 28 October 1808 Anna gave birth to an illegitimate son, named "Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe". The father of this child possibly was Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux, a minor French nobleman. Eduard was enobled by his mother's younger brother, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and assumed the surname "von Löwenfels" by decree on 10 January 1818. Later, Anna moved to Berne, Switzerland, and gave birth to a second illegitimate child in 1812, a daughter, named "Louise Hilda Agnes". Her father was Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli, a Swiss surgeon, professor and Guard of Honor (French:"Cavalier d'Honneur", German:"Oberhofmeister") of Anna from 1812 to 1837. In order to cover another scandal in Anna's life, the baby was adopted by Jean François Joseph d'Aubert, a french refugee. Two years later, in 1814, Constantine tried to get her to return to him but her firm opposition prevented this attempt from succeeding. That year, Anna acquired an estate on the banks of Aare River and gave it the name of "Elfenau". She spent the rest of her life there, and, as a big lover of music, made this home a center of the domestic and foreign musical society of that time.

Finally, on 20 March 1820, after nineteen years of separation, her marriage with the Grand Duke Constantine was formally annulled. He remarried two months later and died on 27 June 1831. Anna survived her former husband for twenty-nine years.

Later, her son Eduard married his cousin Bertha von Schauenstein, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke Ernst I, and had descendants who are still alive. Her daughter Louise married Jean Samuel Edouard Dapples in 1834 and died three years later in 1837 at the tender age of twenty-five.

Ancestry

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1= 1. Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
2= 2. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
3= 3. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf
4= 4. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
5= 5. Duchess Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
6= 6. Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf
7= 7. Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg
8= 8. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
9= 9. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
10= 10. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
11= 11. Antonietta Amalie of Brunswick-Blankenburg
12= 12. Heinrich XXIX, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf
13= 13. Sophie Theodora of Castell-Remlingen
14= 14. Georg August, Count of Erbach-Schönberg
15= 15. Ferdinande Henriette, Countess of Stolbert-Gedern
16= 16. John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
17= 17. Charlotte Johanne of Waldeck-Pyrmont
18= 18. Ludwig Friedrich I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
19= 19. Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
20= 20. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
21= 21. Christine of Hesse-Eschwege
22= 22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
23= 23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen
24= 24. Heinrich X, Count of Reuss-Lobenstein
25= 25. Countess Erdmuthe Benigna of Solms-Laubach
26= 26. Wolfgang Dietrich, Count of Castell-Castell
27= 27. Countess Dorothea Renata of Zinzendorf
28= 28. Georg Albrecht II, Count of Erbach-Fürstenau
29= 29. Countess Anna Dorothea Christine of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg
30= 30. Ludwig Christian, Count of Stolberg-Gedern
31= 31. Duchess Christine of Mecklenburg-Güstrow