That fateful day – Marie Amalie of Brandenburg

Marie Amalie of Brandenburg-Schwedt was born on 26 November 1670 as the daughter of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg and Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. She had several half-siblings from her father’s first marriage and several full siblings. Her first marriage took place on 20 August 1687 in Potsdam, to Prince Charles of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. He was his father’s only son and heir to the duchy of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. It was to be a short marriage.

Marie Amalie was pregnant when tragedy struck on 18 March 1688. Charles had come down with smallpox, an often fatal disease at the time. And so it would be for Charles. He died at the age of just 23. Marie Amalie went into labour that same day, perhaps from the shock of it all, and though the child was born alive, he or she died later that day. With Charles and the child’s death, the Mecklenburg-Güstrow line died out when her father-in-law also died in 1695.

Marie Amalie would go on to marry again in the following year. She married Duke Maurice William of Saxe-Zeitz on 25 June 1689. They had a total of five children, though only one daughter would live to adulthood. She was widowed again in 1718. Marie Amalie herself died on 17 November 1739 at Bertholdsburg Castle in Schleusingen.