5 Famous German Queens & Empresses

5 Famous German Queens & Emperesses

For many years Germany has enjoyed the company of amazing ladies with royal titles. Each of them was famed for a particular gift they brought to the throne either in Germany or outside it.

Here are five famous German queens and empresses that were captivating enough to leave their mark hundreds of years later.

1. Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Auguste Viktoria_of Schleswig Holstein By
Bain News Service, publisher- Wikimedia Commons

Born on October 22 in 1858, Auguste Viktoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny was the last German empress and queen of Prussia by marriage to Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Augusta Victoria was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a niece of Queen Victoria.

Augusta married her second cousin Prince Wilhelm of Prussia on 27 February 1881.

Having had a somewhat lukewarm relationship with her mother-in-law, Victoria, they both grew momentarily closer when Wilhelm became emperor. This was because Augusta was often lonely while he was away on military exercises and turned to her mother-in-law for companionship. Augusta was at Victoria’s bedside when she died of breast cancer in 1901.

In 1920, the shock of exile and abdication, combined with the breakdown of Joachim’s marriage and his subsequent suicide, proved too much for Augusta’s health. She died in 1921, in House Doorn at Doorn in the Netherlands. 

2. Empress Matilda

Empress MatildaWikimedia Commons

Empress Matilda was the daughter of King Henry I of England and his first wife, Matilda of Scotland and was one of the claimants to the English throne. She carried both British and German nationalities and was born on February 7, 1102.

 Her father was the youngest son of William the Conqueror and his mother was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland, a descendant of Alfred the Great

At the age of eight, Matilda was engaged to Henry V—then the King of the Romans—and was crowned Queen of the Romans in a ceremony at Mainz on July 25, 1110. She was placed into the guardianship of Bruno, the Archbishop of Trier, until she was ready to marry Henry V in 1114 at the city of Worms

Her husband, who was suffering from cancer, died on May 23, 1125, which made Matilda choose to return to Normandy. At the time, her brother William had died when the White Ship capsized in 1120. Her father began to formally look for a new husband for Matilda and conveniently used marriage to secure the southern borders of Normandy by marrying her to Anjou. The marriage proved difficult, as the couple did not particularly like each other 

Matilda died on 10 September 1167, and her remaining wealth was bequeathed to the Church. She was laid to rest under the high altar at the abbey of Bec-Hellouin in a service led by Rotrou  Archbishop of Rouen.

In Germany, the chroniclers praised Matilda extensively and her reputation as the “good Matilda” remained positive during the civil war years, which exemplified the leader she was.

3. Alexandra Feodorovna

1915: Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Nicholas II, and her son the Tsarovitch who is playing with her pearls. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Wikimedia Commons

Alexandra Feodorovna was born in June 1872.

As the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and the Empress spouse of Russia, she was the wife of Nicholas II and the last Tsaritsa of the Russian empire.

She became a faithful convert of the Russian Orthodox Church and was later consecrated as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer. She is known in history as one of the bearers of the fatal disease, Hemophilia; a fact which came into the public eye when it was found that her son and the heir to the Russian throne suffered from the disease. She is also known for her liaisons with Gregori Rasputin, the mystic healer.

She bore four daughters and is remembered as a loving and caring mother. By the time the first world war had started, she became very unpopular with the common people of Russia as not only was Germany her place of birth but the contemporary German emperor was her cousin.

The Provisional Government formed after the revolution kept Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children confined under house arrest in their home, the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. She and her family were imprisoned during the Russian civil war or the February Revolution and were shot to death by Bolsheviks at the Ipatiev House.

4. Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick Lüneburg, oval Hofburg Unidentified painter Wikimedia Commons

Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg was born in April 1673.

Amongst her titles, she was identified as  Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Archduchess consort of Austria etc. as the spouse of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor.

She married Archduke Joseph, the heir of Emperor Leopold I. When Joseph was elected as Emperor in 1705, she became Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.

Wilhelmine Amalia was described as stunning but also as religious and serious. Initially, her relationship with her husband was described as happy, but it soon depreciated. Joseph had a long line of mistresses.

Joseph contracted a venereal disease, and passed the disease to his wife. Because of the prudishness of the Austrian court, she initially did not know what had happened to her and blamed herself for the infection. It has been suggested that this condition was the reason for the failure of the Empress to produce more children after the birth of her second daughter. Without male heirs, a crisis developed in regards to imperial succession.

As empress, Wilhelmine Amalia as well as her successor were described as accomplished in music, discretion, modesty and diligence, and was regarded to fulfill her representational role as empress well both within the Spanish court protocol of hunting and balls and amateur theater as well as the religious devotion days of pietas austriaca.

In 1722, after her daughters were married, Wilhelmine Amalia retired to a convent that she had founded earlier. She outlived her spouse by more than 30 years, dying on 10 April 1742. She is buried in the Salesian convent in Vienna. Her heart is buried in the Imperial Crypt.

5. Constance of Aragon

Crown of Constance of Aragon Cathedral of Palermo Italy By José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro Wikimedia Commons

Constance of Aragon was born on June 23 in 1179.

Was an Aragonese infanta who was by marriage firstly Queen of Hungary, and secondly Queen of Germany and Sicily and Holy Roman Empress. She was regent of Sicily from 1212–1220.

She was the second child and eldest daughter of the nine children of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. Her brother Peter II her marriage with King Emeric of Hungary, and the nineteen-year-old Constance left Aragon for Hungary. The Queen gave birth to a son, called Ladislaus.

When King Emeric was dying, he crowned his son Ladislaus co-ruler and had his brother Andrew pledge to protect the child and help him govern the Kingdom of Hungary.  Andrew soon took over all regal authority while Ladislaus and Constance were little more than his prisoners. Constance managed to escape to Vienna with Ladislaus. On 7 May 1205 Ladislaus died his uncle, now king, buried him in the Royal Crypt of Székesfehérvár.

Duke Leopold who had given Constance and her con refuge sent her back to Aragon.

For five years, after returning home, she took up residence with her mother, Queen Sancha until her brother changed her fate once more since he wanted an annulment of his marriage with Maria of Montpellier, and needed the blessing of the Pope.  The Pope suggested the young King Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor for Constance’s  next husband. Constance left her mother and the abbey of Nuestra Senora and began her trip to Sicily (1208). She never returned to Aragon.

She was crowned Queen of Sicily. By this time, Constance was thirty years old and her new husband only fourteen. On 9 December 1212, Frederick was crowned King of Germany in opposition to Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor. During the absence of her husband, Constance stayed in Sicily as regent of the Kingdom until 1220. Constance was crowned German Queen with her husband.

Constance was crowned Holy Roman Empress while their son Henry became the new King of Germany. She died of malaria less than two years later in Catania and was buried in the Cathedral of Palermo, in a Roman sarcophagus with a beautiful oriental tiara.