Théodolinde de Beauharnais


Théodolinde de Beauharnais, Princess of Leuchtenberg, Countess of Württemberg by marriage, was a Franco-German princess. She was a granddaughter of Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife.

Biography

The fifth of the seven children of Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, and his wife, Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Théodolinde was born in Mantua, Italy, and presumably named for Theudelinda, a 6th-century queen of the Lombards. She had two brothers and three surviving sisters. Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte and former Empress of France, was her paternal grandmother. The latter, however, died about six weeks after Théodolinde's birth.
Through her marriage to Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Ferdinand, Count of Württemberg, Théodolinde became Countess of Württemberg, but died before her husband was created Duke of Urach. She died after a short illness on the morning of 1 April 1857 in Stuttgart, Germany, and was buried in the family vault at Ludwigsburg Palace, with her heart buried at the Hauskapelle of the palace in Munich.
She was the subject of an 1840 portrait by Friedrich Dürck.

Marriage and issue

On 8 February 1841, at the age of 26, she was married in Munich to Wilhelm, Count of Württemberg, whose father, Wilhelm Friedrich of Württemberg, was a younger brother of Friedrich II, the last Duke of Würtemberg, whom Napoleon later elevated to the status of King of Württemberg, as Friedrich I. He was also a cousin of Princess Catharina of Württemberg, who became the second wife of Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother, in 1807.
Four daughters were born from this marriage:
Her husband's second marriage to Princess Florestine of Monaco produced his heir, the future Wilhelm Karl, Duke of Urach.

Ancestry