Princess Adelaide of Schaumburg-Lippe


Princess Adelaide of Schaumburg-Lippe was the daughter of Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe and consort of the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Altenburg Ernst II.

Early life and ancestry

Adelaide was born at Ratiboritz castle, Kingdom of Bohemia, into the Schaumburg-Lippe branch of the House of Lippe.
She was the seventh child and third daughter of Prince William of Schaumburg-Lippe, and his wife, Princess Bathildis of Anhalt-Dessau,.
In 1891, her eldest sister Princess Charlotte married William II of Württemberg, as his second wife, and became Queen Consort of the Kingdom of Württemberg.

Marriage

Adelaide married 17 February 1898 at Bückeburg to Prince Ernst of Saxe-Altenburg, member of the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin, an only son of Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg, and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen.
Soon after the collapse of the German Empire and the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, their marriage ended in divorce, on 17 January 1920.
They had four children, two sons and two daughters:
  1. Princess Charlotte ; married on 11 July 1919 Prince Sigismund of Prussia and had issue.
  2. Georg Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg, never married, no issue.
  3. Princess Elisabeth Karola, never married, no issue.
  4. Prince Frederick Ernst, never married, no issue.

Death

Princess Antoinette of Schaumburg-Lippe died on 27 January 1971, in Ballenstedt, East Germany, aged 95.
Her body was buried in the Mausoleumgarten, Bückeburg, Germany, while her ex husband, Duke Ernst II, rests in Herzog Ernst Grabstätte, Trockenborn-Wolfersdorf, Saale-Holzland, Thuringia, Germany.