Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Dowager Queen Carola has died

December 16, 1907

The Dowager Queen Carola of Saxony died early this morning in Dresden. She was 74 years old. The New York Times reports that the Queen "will lie in state in the Winter garden of her villa, " until tomorrow when she will be transferred to the Catholic church to lie in state until the funeral on Wednesday.
Queen Carola was the widow of King Albert of Saxony, who died in 1902. Her illness was announced a month ago. She suffered from an abscess in the head, and specialists had been called in. A few days ago, she suffered a relapse and it she was not expected to recover.
The Queen was born in 1833, was a princess of Vasa, a member of the former ruling house of Sweden. She married Albert in 1853.
Ten days of mourning were announced by the Official Gazette. King Friedrich August of Saxony has received condolences from all over the world. The German emperor Wilhelm II sent a "long and sympathetic" letter to Friedrich August, and emphasized the high regard that the German Empress had for Queen Carola.
Carola was the daughter of Prince Gustav of Sweden and Princess Luise of Baden. Her grandfather, King Gustav IV Adolf, was deposed in 1809.
She was raised Lutheran, but converted to Catholicism, much to her father's dismay, when she married then Crown Prince Albert on June 18, 1853.
Queen Carola and King Albert were childless.

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