LOUISE [AUGUSTE WILHELMINE AMALIE LUISE] 181o), queen of Prussia, was born on March i o, 1776, in Hanover, where her father, Prince Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was field-marshal of the household brigade. Her mother was a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1793 Louise met at Frankfort the crown prince of Prussia, afterwards King Frederick William III., whom she married on Dec. 4. As queen of Prussia she commanded uni versal respect and affection, and won a great name by the dignity and unflinching courage with which she bore the sufferings inflicted on her and her family during the Napoleonic wars. After the battle of Jena she went with her husband to Konigsberg, and when the battles of Eylau and Friedland placed Prussia at the mercy of France, she made a personal appeal to Napoleon at his headquarters in Tilsit, but with0ut success. Early in 1808 she accompanied the king from Memel to Konigsberg, whence, to wards the end of the year, she visited St. Petersburg (Lenin grad), returning to Berlin on Dec. 23, 1809. During the war
Napoleon attempted to destroy the queen's reputation, but the only effect of his charges in Prussia was to make her more deeply beloved. She died on July 19, 181o, at Strelitz, and was buried in the garden of the palace at Charlottenburg. The Louise Founda tion (Luisenstift) for the education of girls was established in her honour, and in 1814 Frederick William III. instituted the Order of Louise (Luisenorden). In 188o a statue of Queen Louise was erected in the Thiergarten at Berlin.
See Mommsen and Treitschke, Konigin Luise (1876) ; Hudson, Life and Times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia (1874) ; A. Lonke, Konigin Luise von Preussen (Leipzig, 1903) ; H. von Petersdorff, "Konigin Luise," Frauenleben, Bd. i. (Bielefeld, 1903, 2nd ed., 1904) ; F. M. Kircheisen, Die Kiinigin Luise in der Geschichte and Literatur (1906) ; P. Bailleu, Konigin Luise (1908) ; and Th. Rehtwisch, Die Konigin, ein Buch aus Preussens schwere Zeit.