Leopold II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau


Leopold II Maximilian, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Dessau from 1747 to 1751; he also was a Prussian general.

Life

Leopold was born at Dessau as the second son of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, by his morganatic wife Anna Louise Föhse.
At only nine years of age, he accompanied his father on his military duties for the Prussian army. In 1715 he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel-in-Chief of the Infantry Regiment No. 27 of Stendal. In 1733 he led the Prussian forces stationed in the city of Mühlhausen in Thuringia during the First Silesian War.
The death in 1737 of his elder brother, the Hereditary Prince William Gustav, made Leopold the new heir of Dessau. The late prince was already married and had nine children, but his wife was of non-noble birth; for this reason, the issue of the marriage was barred from succession. After the death of his father in 1747, Leopold inherited Anhalt-Dessau.
Leopold was one of the best subordinate generals who served under Frederick the Great of Prussia. He distinguished himself in the capture of Glogau in 1741 and at the battles of Mollwitz, Chotusitz, Hohenfriedberg, and Soor.
He died at Dessau in 1751. In 1752 Frederick the Great named a newly founded village Leopoldshagen in his honour.

Marriage and issue

In Bernburg on 25 May 1737 Leopold married Gisela Agnes, daughter of Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen. They had seven children:
  1. Leopold III Frederick Franz, Prince and Duke of Anhalt-Dessau.
  2. Louise Agnes Margarete.
  3. Henrietta Katharina Agnes, married on 26 October 1779 to John Justus, Freiherr von Loën.
  4. Marie Leopoldine, married on 4 August 1765 to Simon August, Count of Lippe-Detmold.
  5. John George.
  6. Casimire, married on 9 November 1769 to Simon August, Count of Lippe-Detmold, widow of her sister.
  7. Albert Frederick, married on 25 October 1774 to Henriette of Lippe-Weissenfeld, great-granddaughter of Jobst Herman, Count of Lippe; the union was childless.