Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt

Princess Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt (20 June 1754 – 21 June 1832) was a Hereditary Princess of Baden by marriage to Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden. She was the daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Henriette Karoline of Palatine-Zweibrücken. Life Amalie was born in Prenzlau and was brought to St Petersburg with her mother in 1772 to visit the Russian court as one of the candidates for a marriage with the Tsarevich Paul Petrovich; Paul, however, decided upon her sister Wilhelmine. Hereditary Princess of Baden Amalie married her first cousin, Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden on 15 July 1774. He was the son of Margrave Charles Frederick (who in 1806, after his father's death, became the 1st Grand Duke of Baden) and Princess Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt, the daughter of Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt. During her marriage, Amalie complained about her father-in-law's coldness and the childish behaviour of her husband. Amalie also missed the Prussian and Russian courts. She served ceremoniously as the first lady of the court from the death of her mother-in-law in 1783 until the marriage of her son in 1806. In 1801, she visited her daughter Louise (Empress Elizabeth) in Russia with her family, and thereafter her second daughter, the Swedish Queen Friederike, in Sweden in September 1801. During Amalie's stay in Sweden, she was described as witty, intelligent and correct, and fully dominated her spouse. They visited Drottningholm Palace and Gripsholm Castle. Amalie befriended Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, which was disliked by the King, and reprimanded her daughter about her stiff and unfriendly manners in public. In December 1801, her husband died due to an accident near Arboga, and she remained in Sweden with her family until May 1802. Shortly before her departure, she was inducted in the Yellow Rose lodge of Karl Adolf Boheman, by him referred to as a branch of the Freemasons.