Princess Augusta with her brother and mother, 1791
Augusta Amalia of Bavaria was the eldest daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1795, upon the death of her uncle, her father Maximilian became the reigning duke of Zweibrücken, but the troops of the young First French Republic occupied his States. Augusta lost her mother to tuberculosis in 1796; a year later, her father married the young Caroline of Baden, who imposed a seriousness on her husband's court that some considered beneficial. At first, Augusta did not like her stepmother, unlike her younger siblings Karl Theodore and Charlotte, as she was still attached to her late mother; however, Augusta and Caroline's relationship improved over time. In 1799, upon the death of his distant cousin Charles Theodore, Maximilian became count-elector, Palatine of the Rhine and Duke-Elector of Bavaria as Maximilian III.
Marriage and issue
Although promised in marriage to the heir of Baden, Charles, originally, the engagement was broken at the behest of Napoleon I of France. He was trying to ally himself with German princes and organized a double marriage: between Augusta and Eugène de Beauharnais, the only son of Josephine de Beauharnais and Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais and stepson of Napoleon, and between Charles of Baden and Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Eugène's cousin, who the emperor had adopted and raised with the dignity of an imperial princess.[1][2] In return, Napoleon raised Bavaria from a state to a Kingdom. The marriage of Augusta of Bavaria and Eugene took place the 13th and 14th of January, 1806.[3] Napoleon attended the wedding.[4] The couple left for Milan the next day,^4 because Eugene had been named viceroy of Italy by his stepfather.[5] Although a diplomatic marriage, this union would turn out to be a happy one.
In 1814, the French Empire fell. Eugene, Augusta, and their children took refuge with the King of Bavaria.[6] In 1817, Augusta's father named his son-in-law Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstädt, with the style Royal Highness. Eugène died young in 1824.
A Catholic, Bavarian princess, the Dowager Duchess of Leuchtenberg opposed in vain the marriage of her younger son, Maximilian, to the eldest daughter of the Tsar of Russia. The Grand Duchess was orthodox and the marriage was unequal, Maximilian not being of royal blood. At the Tsar's demand, the young couple lived in St. Petersburg.
^Abbott, J.S.C. (1856). Confidential Correspondence of The Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine: Including Letters from the Time of their Marriage until the Death of Josephine and also Several Private Letters from the Emperor to his Brother Joseph, and other Important Personages. New York: Mason Brothers. pp. 86–88.
^Abbott, J.S.C. (1856). Confidential Correspondence of The Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine: Including Letters from the Time of their Marriage until the Death of Josephine and also Several Private Letters from the Emperor to his Brother Joseph, and other Important Personages. New York: Mason Brothers. pp. 86–88.
^Weissensteiner, Friedrich (2001). Frauen auf Habsburgs Thron. Die österreichischen Kaiserinnen (in German). Munich: Piper. ISBN3-492-23033-4.
The generations are numbered from the ascension of Maximilian I Joseph as King of Bavaria in 1806. Only entries with articles are included. Later generations do not legally hold a title due to the German Revolution of 1918.
