Dorothea von Holstein-Beck

Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, knowly also as "Dorothea von Holstein-Beck" (b. Augustenburg, 24 November 1685 - d. Stäflö, Sweden, 25 December 1761), was a German Princess member of the House of Oldenburg and by marriage Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach.

Family

She was the eldest of the thirteen children of Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck by his wife, Luise Charlotte of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. From all her siblings, only seven survived adulthood: Frederick Wilhelm II, who inherited Beck after succeeded his father; Karl Ludwig, later husband of the Countess Orzelska and inherited Beck after the death of his nephew; Philipp Wilhelm, who died unmarried in 1729; Luise Albertine, by marriage von Seeguth-Stanislawsky; Peter August, who years later inherited Beck from his older brother; Sophie Henriette, Burgravine and Countess of Dohna-Schlobitten; andCharlotte, Abbess of Quedlinburg.

Life

In Reinfeld on 17 April 1709, Dorothea married with Georg Frederick Karl of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach, later Margrave of Bayreuth. They had five children, two sons and three daughters.

The union was totally unhappy. In 1716, she was convicted of adultery and imprisoned in Nürnberg; eight years later, in 1724, the marriage was formally dissolved, but Dorothea remained in her prison. At the death of her former husband in 1735, she was released.

Officially pronounced dead, she went to Sweden, where she lived under the name "Dorothea von Ziedewitz", first as the guest of Governor von Brehmen and then with his widow outside Kalmar, and finally with the Lewenhaupt family on Stäflö against a payment of §1000, where she died, aged seventy-six. By that time, all her children, except the Margrave Frederick of Bayreuth -who died two years later (1763)-, predeceased her.

References

* http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0447.html (In Swedish)