Kaiser Wilhelm I & Augusta of Saxe-Weimar

[HerrKaiser]

On the wikipedia site, the page about Augusta and her period as German Empress has a photo that I am sure is Dona, not herself.

[kmerov]

Of course, thanks gdella. 

Yes, the site shows a portrait of Dona and not Augusta Weimar.

But this should be Augusta with Queen Victoria

[grandduchessella]

Further linking the Saxe-Weimars with England (Augusta being a good friend of QV), her first cousin, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar (b. 1823 - d. 1902), entered the British army, served with much distinction in the Crimean War, and became colonel of the 1st Life Guards and a field marshal; in 1851 he contracted a morganatic marriage with Lady Augusta Gordon-Lennox (d. 1904), daughter of the 5th duke of Richmond and Gordon, who in Germany received the title of countess of Dornburg, but was granted the rank of Princess in Great Britain by Royal Decree in 1866. The Saxe-Weimars of England were very close to the British royals.

In addition, Edward's mother, Princess Ida of Saxe-Meiningen, was the sister of Queen Adelaide, one of QV's favorite relatives. All of this undoubtedly helped Augusta's friendship with the Queen and Prince Albert.

[HerrKaiser]

...all of which adds to my confusion as to why, then, was Augusta not more protective, nurturing, and helpful towards Vickie. Augusta could have set a stage on which Vickie would have been able to gain significant respect and endorsement it seems.

[Luc]

Does anyone have more photos of Augusta, especially of her in older age ?

[CountessKate]

...all of which adds to my confusion as to why, then, was Augusta not more protective, nurturing, and helpful towards Vickie. Augusta could have set a stage on which Vickie would have been able to gain significant respect and endorsement it seems.

I have always wondered what happened there also - in the end I put it down to the fact that although they had very similar political sympathies, they were really too completely different personalities, and Vicky, although intelligent, honest and straightforward, never had enough tact to hide her disapproval of her mother-in-law's lifestyle and enjoyment of society and any nurturing by Augusta would hardly have been welcomed by her.  She put Augusta's back up and basically they never really grew to like each other sufficiently to form an effective team.  The Saxe-Weimar links worked fine for the relationship with Queen Victoria, who of course didn't have to live in close proximity to Augusta.

[DNAgenie]

Does anyone have pictures of Kaiser Wilhelm I when he was just Prince Wilhelm of Prussia?

I know he was in the army and not expected to ascend the throne, so there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of pictures or information from the days of his youth. Somewhere I’ve seen a picture of him as a handsome young man, but I can’t remember the source.

[grandduchessella]

There are portraits on this thread:

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=1874.0

[DNAgenie]

There's an intriguing entry under the Topic "Dohna" in which it is claimed that Prince Wilhelm of Prussia married a certain Anna, Countess Dohna, in 1825, four years before his official marriage to Augusta of Saxe-Weimar. In particular there's the following:

The truth of this story having been questioned, it may be mentioned
that the Prussian _Staats Anzeiger_, or official Berlin Gazette, of
June 4, 1829, contains the following royal decree:

"By order of his majesty the king, Anna Countess Dohna having claimed
to be the wife of Prince William of Prussia, I hereby decree that such
a union if it ever took place, be null and void.''

I wondered if anyone knows whether this royal decree did in fact appear in the Staats Anziger as stated, or whether it's a figure of the author's imagination. If true, the date is highly suggestive, as Wilhelm's marriage to Augusta took place exactly a week later,

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Augusta

Even younger

older

[HerrKaiser]

Augusta was a nice looking woman, and the young Wilhelm was quite handsome. They made a very attractive couple; and their offspring certainly benefitted.

[THERRY]

Augusta

The second and third are new to me, thank You

[Carolath Habsburg]

 

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Three more...
Very young

At the early 1870's (1872)

The Empress

[Carolath Habsburg]

i had no idea that Augusta had a close relationship with QV

Here the two of them, courtesy of Kmerov