Caroline of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Henriette Caroline Christiane Louise; 9 March 1721 – 30 March 1774) was wife of the Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt and one of the most learned women of her time.

Biography

Henriette Caroline was the daughter of Christian III, Duke of Zweibrücken and his wife Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken.

She married on 12 August 1741 in Zweibrücken, Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. The marriage was arranged and unhappy: Caroline was interested in music and literature, while her consort was interested in military matters, and she lived separated from him at Buchsweiler. She founded a factory to ease the states economy. In 1772, she promoted the politician Karl Friedrich von Moser.

Caroline was better known as The Great Landgräfin, a name given to her by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She was befriended to several writers and philosophers of her time, such as Johann Gottfried Herder, Christoph Martin Wieland and Goethe. Wieland wished he had the power to make her Queen of Europa. She also had contact with Frederick II of Prussia, and she was one of the few women that the Alte Fritz respected. He called her once the Glory and Wonder of our century and after her death he sent to Darmstadt an urn with the text femina sexo, ingenio vir (A woman by sex, a man by spirit), which can still be seen today. Through her daughter she is an ancestor to the royal house of Prussia, Germany and the Netherlands.

Issue

• Caroline, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg
• Frederika Louisa, Queen of Prussia
• Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse
• Amelie, Hereditary Princess of Baden
• Wilhelmina Louisa, Grand Duchess of Russia
• Luise, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
• Landgrave Frederick
• Landgrave Christian