by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2017
source: Wikipedia
Stéphanie de Beauharnais was the first Grand Duchess of Baden, through her marriage to Grand Duke Karl I. She was born at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France on August 28, 1789, the daughter of Claude de Beauharnais and Claudine Françoise de Lézay-Marnézia. Stéphanie had one older brother, Albéric (born in 1787), who died in childhood. She also had a younger half-sister from her father’s second marriage – Josephine de Beauharnais (1803). The Beauharnais family soon found themselves under the patronage of the French Emperor Napoléon I. Napoleon’s wife, Joséphine, had previously been married to Stéphanie’s father’s cousin, Alexandre François Marie, Viscount of Beauharnais who had been executed during the French Revolution.
After her mother’s death in 1791, Stéphanie was placed in the Convent of Penthemont by her godmother and later moved to southern France with two nuns. When Napoléon learned of her existence, he had her brought to Paris and placed under the care of his wife, Joséphine. After becoming Emperor in 1804, Napoléon sought to strengthen alliances with several of the European dynasties by arranging several marriages of his extended family. One of these marriages was between Stéphanie and Hereditary Prince Karl, the grandson, and heir of the Elector of Baden. In 1806, Napoléon brought Stéphanie to the Imperial Court and adopted her, elevating her to an Imperial Highness and French Princess.
Karl of Baden. source: Wikipedia
Stéphanie and Karl married in a lavish ceremony held in Paris on April 8, 1806. The bride was not interested in her new husband at all and refused to spend time with him. Upon returning to Baden, they lived separately for several years, and Stéphanie was largely shunned by the Grand Ducal court. After several years, with the Grand Duke’s health declining, she and her husband finally came together, accepting their responsibility to provide heirs to the throne. Over the next seven years, they had five children:
- Princess Luise Amelie (1811-1854) – married Gustav, Prince of Vasa, had issue
- Unnamed son (born and died 1812) – died within weeks of birth
- Princess Josephine (1813-1900) – married Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, had issue including King Carol I of Romania
- Alexander, Hereditary Grand Duke of Baden (born and died 1816) – died within a week of birth
- Princess Marie (1818-1888) – married William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton, had issue including Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton who married the future Albert I, Prince of Monaco, the princely family of Monaco descends from this marriage
Her husband became Grand Duke of Baden just days after Stéphanie gave birth to her first child. As the previous Grand Duke had been widowed before the Grand Duchy was proclaimed, Stéphanie was the first Grand Duchess. Never immensely popular, her position weakened even further after the death of Emperor Napoléon in 1814.
When her husband died in 1818, Stéphanie moved with her surviving daughters to Mannheim Palace where she focused on providing them with a proper education and finding them suitable husbands. Through these marriages, Stéphanie’s descendants include the former Kings of Romania and Yugoslavia, as well as the royal families of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Monaco.
Having survived her husband by more than 41 years, the Dowager Grand Duchess of Baden died in Nice, France on January 29, 1860. Her remains were returned to Baden and she was buried alongside her husband in St. Michael’s Church in Pforzheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, now in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
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