She was the daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia and later became second wife of Prince Henry of the Netherlands then the first wife of Prince Albert of Saxe-Altenburg. Princess Marie was the eldest daughter of Prussian field-marshal Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia (1828–1885) and his wife, Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau (1837–1906). Marie"s mother was the youngest daughter of Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt and Princess Friederike of Prussia.
She was also the great-niece of Wilhelm I, German Emperor. On 23 August 1878 Princess Marie married Prince Henry of Orange-Nassau at the Neuen Palais (1820–1879), who had since 1850 been Governor of Luxembourg and Admiralleutnant zur Secretary The marriage between Marie and Henry was arranged in an attempt to save the House of Orange-Nassau from extinction.
Unfortunately, it was to prove childless: barely five months later, in January 1879, Prince Henry died after contracting measles.
This marriage was to all reports a harmonious one and produced two children:
Princess Olga Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1886–1955). Married in 1913 Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss (1886–1945).
Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1888–1947). Married in 1911 Heinrich XXXV, Prince von Reuss of Köstritz (1887–1936).
Divorced in 1920. The princess died at Schloss Abrechtesberg in 1888 at from the effects of puerperal fever and was buried in the Saxe-Altenburg family vault.
Her second husband remarried in 1891 to Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Remplin (1857–1936), a niece of Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and granddaughter of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia
The christening occurred in the private chapel at Windsor Castle. 14 September 1855 – 23 August 1878: Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Prussia
23 August 1878 – 6 May 1885: Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Orange-Nassau. Princess of the Netherlands
6 May 1885 – 20 June 1888: Her Royal Highness Princess Albert of Saxe-Altenburg.
