She had captured the hearts and imaginations of her people with her beauty and acts of charity, but it was her courage in confronting Napoleon that made her the iconic champion of Protestant German, much as her childhood friend Marie Therese would be to French Catholics. Raised simply, she was taught to sew her own clothes as a young girl, and always exuded an easy charm in the presence of others.

So captivating was the young seventeen year-old Louise that Crown Prince Frederick William, the earnest and deeply religious son of the King, was immediately smitten. In storybook fashion, Frederick William’s younger brother Prince Louis Charles also proposed to Louise’s younger sister, Frederica and a year later, the two couples were married only two days apart.

Protestant refugees from throughout Europe had found safe haven in Prussia, where the Protestant Prince-Elector John Sigismund sheltered them from the Catholic Counter-Reformation sweeping through neighboring lands. By the thousands they came, from Bohemia, France, parts of the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.

The Crown Prince’s father, Fredrick William II was an extremely interesting character who all but destroyed religious liberty in an attempt to save it. In typical Prussian fashion, his ministers required that (click)

Categories: Articole de interes general