Auguste von Harrach

Countess Auguste von Harrach (30 August 1800 – 5 June 1873), was the second spouse of King Frederick William III of Prussia. At the time of their marriage, the Harrach family was still not recognized as equal for dynastic purposes. Later, in 1841, they were officially recognized as a mediatized family (a former ruling family within the Holy Roman Empire), with the style of Illustrious Highness, which allowed them to have equal status for marriage purposes to those reigning and royal families. Thus, in 1824 when the marriage occurred, it was treated as morganatic, so she was not named Queen, but was given the title Princess von Liegnitz (modern-day Legnica) and Countess von Hohenzollern. Frederick reportedly stated that he did not wish to have another queen after Queen Louise.

Auguste von Harrach
Princess von Liegnitz
Countess von Hohenzollern
Auguste Fürstin Liegnitz
Born30 August 1800
Died5 June 1873(1873-06-05) (aged 72)
Noble familyHarrach
Spouse(s)
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(m. 1824; died 1840)​
FatherCount Ferdinand Joseph von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen
MotherJohanna Christiane Rayski von Dubnitz

Early life and ancestry

Auguste was the daughter of Austrian Count Ferdinand Joseph von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen (1763–1841) and Saxonian Noblewoman Johanna Christiane Rayski von Dubnitz (1767–1830), whose father, Johann Heinrich Adolf Rayski von Dubnitz, was the owner of Struppen Castle near Dresden. Patrilineally, she was a descendant of Aloys Thomas Raimund, Count Harrach (1669-1742), Viceroy of Naples, and Count Friedrich August von Harrach (1696–1749), Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. Through her mother, Auguste has descended from Saxonian and Bohemian nobility, including her grandmother Christiane Sophie von Leyser who was a direct matrilineal descendant of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger.

Marriage

Auguste met King Frederick William III at a spa in Teplitz in Bohemia in 1822. They married at Charlottenburg Palace on 9 November 1824. As Auguste was a Catholic and considered a non-dynast at the time, the marriage was initially kept a secret. In many quarters the marriage was greeted with great surprise and some initially refused to believe it. The greatest opponents of this marriage were the Mecklenburg-Strelitz cousins, the family of the King's first wife, Queen Louise. Auguste converted to Protestantism in 1826.

As a morganatic spouse, Auguste was ignored in the protocol of the court life of Berlin, ranking after all the princes and princesses of the royal family. She was not politically active and had no children. She nursed Frederick while he was dying in 1840, and it was decided to allow her to attend his funeral.

Widowhood

Auguste was given a large allowance and allowed to continue to live in the royal palace as a widow. In her later years, she often traveled to Italy and France. She was godmother to her nephew, Count Ferdinand von Harrach (1832–1915), the painter who lived in beautiful Oberhofen Castle on Lake Thun, Switzerland.

Ancestry

Sources
  • Wichard Graf Harrach: Auguste Fürstin von Liegnitz. Ihre Jahre an d. Seite König Friedrich Wilhelms III. von Preussen (1824 - 1840) Stapp, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-87776-190-9.
  • Gisela und Paul Habermann: Fürstin von Liegnitz. Ein Leben im Schatten der Königin Luise Nicolaische, Berlin 1988 ISBN 3875842294

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