Elisabeth (Elizabeth) Christine
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Elisabeth Christine was selected to strengthen further the close relations between Brunswick and Prussia. The double marriage of 1733 was arranged politically and diplomatically, with the result that the Brunswick-Bevern dynasty became doubly related by marriage to the Prussian royal house. Austria—which was already bound to the Brunswick family by marriage—wanted it so. After lengthy negotiations between Wolfenbüttel and Berlin, the marriage of of Elisabeth Christine and the Prussian crown prince Friedrich (1712-1786) (later Friedrich II., "the great," of Prussia) took place on 6 December 1733 in the Salzdahlum Palace (which was located between the cities of Brunswick and Wolfenüttel). Scarcely a month later, on 7 February 1733, the eldest brother of Elisabeth Crhistine, Karl (1680-1735), married the Prussian princess Philippine Charlotte (1716-1801), the sister of crown prince Friedrich. The Brunswick royal house was thereby firmly tied into the politics of Europe, yet it was always authorized by the house of the archduke of Austria. Dependable allies were beseechingly sought after in Vienna, in order be able to stand against the threat of the Ottoman empire and France. The marriage between Elisabeth Christine and the Prussian crown prince Friedrich had been concluded for purely dynastical considerations. The crown prince found no true affection for Elisabeth Christine, although they appeared to be in love with each other in the beginning. The marriage remained childless. The pair passed the first year of marriage together at the Reinsberg palace. There she had to help out her always-indebted husband time and again with advances and loans from her brother duke Karl. After his succession to throne in 1740, Friedrich presented his wife with the Schönhausen palace in the north of Berlin and granted her the courtly habits corresponding to a personal royal household. However, the separation remained irrevocable. Both marriage partners were estranged after 1740 with the increasing dissolution of the common royal household in Reinsberg. In the course of time, Elisabeth Christine grew ever stronger, despite her modest budget in the role of a personal representative of the royal house, from which she did not acquire influence over the political or personal decisions in the state. The intellectual standard of her court was by no means insignificant, although Elisabeth Christine had little to set against the attractive power which, as usual, flowed from the king who resided in Sanssouci and Postsdam.
--Adapted from the website, Die Welfen
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