Sofia Albertina of Sweden, Abbess of Quedlinburg
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Sofia Albertina (Stockholm 8 October 1753-Stockholm 17 March 1829) was daughter of king Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. She thus was a princess of Sweden and a princess of Holstein-Gottorp.
She was given her two names as namesake of her two grandmothers: Sofia Dorothea, Queen in Prussia (daughter of George I of Great Britain) and Albertina Frederica, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp-Eutin.
Her adult life took place during the reigns of her brother Gustav III of Sweden and Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.
Although not described as either beautiful or intelligent, she played an active part in the ceremonial courtlife of her brother, as one of her younger brothers was not married, and after her mothers death in 1782 she was an eager participant in the vivacous pleasures of the court despite of her lack of beauty. In Stockholm, a palace was built as her residence, known today as Arvfurstens Palats. Early on there were plans of a possible marriage, but nothing came of it. However, there was a story among the people in Stockholm wich indicated that she was not excluded from having a love life; she was said of having given birth to a baby girl sometime in 1786, named Sophia after herself and fathered by the count Fredrik Vilhelm von Hessenstein, son of King Frederick I of Sweden and his mistress Hedvig Taube. The gossip also suggested that the father of the child was Badin, the black servant-butler (originally slave) of her mother, whom Sofia Albertina had "inherited" after her mothers death, but the child was not colored, so this was probably not true.
The daughter was fostered away from Sophia, but she arranged for her to be married of as an adult to a wealthy merchant. This story has never been confirmed, so it might not be true, but it is repeated from many unofficial sources in much the same way, and if it was true, it would not be confirmed anyway- either way, it is not impossible. Her brother the king, or at least his queen, was said to be informed about this, and the sexual morals of the court was free and liberal; her brother Gustav III had given permission to the ladies of the court to receive male guests in their bed chambers, which had never been allowed before.
The year after this is said to have been taken place, she became the Abbess of Quedlinburg, a Protestant convent of women in Germany, and as such was the princess-abbess and the head of a small German state directly under the Holy Roman Empire 1787-1803 until finally deposed. She traveled to Quedlingburg in 1787 and remained there in three years, after wich she returned to Sweden, where she spent the rest of her life.
In 1802, the mediatization of such smaller states was started by Napoleon.
She remained unmarried and died in 1829.
[edit] References
Herman Lindquist, "History of Sweden"
