Anna Louise Föhse

Anna Louise Föhse, Princess of the Holy Roman Empire (22 March 1677 in Dessau – 5 February 1745) was a German imperial princess. Born as a commoner to Rudolf Föhse (d. 1698), the court pharmacist in Dessau, and his wife, Agnes Ohme (d. 1707), she married Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and was later ennobled by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Anna Louise Föhse
Princess of the Holy Roman Empire
Anna Louise Föhse, painted by Antoine Pesne
Born(1677-03-22)22 March 1677
Dessau
Died5 February 1745(1745-02-05) (aged 67)
Spouse(s)Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
Issue
FatherRudolf Föhse
MotherAgnes Ohme
Leopold I and Anna Louise Föhse

Life

Anna Louise Föhse was the childhood sweetheart and later morganatic wife of Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau. Despite great resistance on the part of her own father and of her mother-in-law Henriette Catherine, the daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau, she married him in 1698 at age 22. After paying 92000Taler to the imperial treasury, she was raised to Imperial Princess by Emperor Leopold I three years later, giving her a higher rank than him.[1]

In the same year 1698, he took up government. Anna Louise and Leopold had ten children together; Leopold also fathered two illegitimate children in 1733 and 1735.

Relations between Anna Louise and her mother-in-law later improved. She also had a good relationship with the Prussian royal family. Her career was the subject of the tabloid press of the day, and of several plays. She died in 1745; broken-hearted by her loss, Leopold died only two years later.

Issue
  1. William Gustav (1699-1737)
  2. Leopold II Maximilian (1700-1751), Leopold's successor and a Prussian Field Marshal
  3. Dietrich (1702-1769), also a Prussian field marshal
  4. Frederick Henry (1705-1781)
  5. Henriette Marie Louise (1707-1707)
  6. Louise (1709-1732), married Victor Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg
  7. Maurice (1712-1760), also a Prussian field marshal
  8. Anna Wilhelmine (1715-1780)
  9. Leopoldine Marie (1716-1782) - married to Frederick Henry of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1709-1788)
  10. Henriette Amalie (1720-1793)

Footnotes
  1. Esther Knorr-Anders, Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung, issue. 52/53, 26 December 2009, p. 9


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