Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
1802 portrait by Josef Grassi
Queen consort of Prussia
Tenure	16 November 1797 – 19 July 1810
Electress consort of Brandenburg
Tenure	16 November 1797 – 6 August 1806
Born	(1776-03-10)10 March 1776 Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire
Died	19 July 1810(1810-07-19) (aged 34) Schloss Hohenzieritz, Kingdom of Prussia
Burial	Mausoleum at Charlottenburg Palace
Spouse	Frederick William III of Prussia ​ ​ (m. 1793)​
Issue	Frederick William IV, King of Prussia William I, German Emperor Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia Princess Frederica Prince Charles Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Prince Ferdinand Princess Louise Prince Albert
Names Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie
House	Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Father	Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mother	Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt
Signature

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie; 10 March 1776 – 19 July 1810) was Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III. The couple's happy, though short-lived, marriage produced nine children, including the future monarchs Frederick William IV of Prussia and William I, German Emperor.

Her legacy became cemented after her extraordinary 1807 meeting with French Emperor Napoleon I at Tilsit – she met with him to plead unsuccessfully for favorable terms after Prussia's disastrous losses in the War of the Fourth Coalition. She was already well loved by her subjects, but her meeting with Napoleon led Louise to become revered as "the soul of national virtue". Her early death at the age of thirty-four "preserved her youth in the memory of posterity", and caused Napoleon to reportedly remark that the king "has lost his best minister". The Order of Louise was founded by her grieving husband four years later as a female counterpart to the Iron Cross. In the 1920s, conservative German women founded the Queen Louise League.