Background
Henriette Caroline was the daughter of Christian III, Duke of Zweibrücken and his wife Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken.
politician Landgrave of Hessen
Henriette Caroline was the daughter of Christian III, Duke of Zweibrücken and his wife Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken.
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 Landgräfinance, 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.