Hereditary Grand Duchess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar

A new card for my collection - the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar - Princess Pauline Ida Marie Olga Henriette Catharina of Saxe-Weimar, who was born in Stuttgart in 1852 and died on board a train in Italy in 1904. She married her cousin, Carl August, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, in 1873. Carl August was only 50 when he died in 1894, thus predeceasing his father.

Pauline's parents were Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar and Princess Auguste of Württemberg. Her uncle, Edward, who lived in England and was a favorite of Queen Victoria, had made a morganatic marriage with Lady Augusta Gordon-Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond. In the United Kingdom, Augusta was styled as Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, as decreed by Queen Victoria. And what was this connection to Victoria: Edward and Hermann's mother, the former Princess Ida of Saxe-Meiningen, was the younger sister of Princess Adelheid -- Adelaide -- consort of William IV. Queen Victoria was fond of her Aunt Adelaide, and Adelaide's family.

Pauline and Carl August had two sons, Wilhelm Ernst, who succeeded his grandfather in 1901), and Bernhard, who died in 1900. The current head of the Saxe-Weimar house is Wilhelm Ernst's grandson, Michael.

Pauline died suddenly of heart disease while on a train en route to Rome. The waiting room at the railway station in Florence was transformed into a "chapelle ardente" and religious services were performed over the body. The Hereditary Grand Duchess spent a lot of time in Italy in the final years of her life, and was "a frequent visitor to the Italian court."