Anna Louise Föhse

Anna Louise Föhse was the childhood sweetheart and later morganatic wife of Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau. Despite great resistance on the part of her own father and of her mother-in-law Henriette Catherine, the daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau, she married him in 1698 at age 22. After paying 92000Taler to the imperial treasury, she was raised to Imperial Princess by Emperor Leopold I three years later, giving her a higher rank than him.[1]

In the same year 1698, he took up government. Anna Louise and Leopold had ten children together; Leopold also fathered two illegitimate children in 1733 and 1735.

Relations between Anna Louise and her mother-in-law later improved. She also had a good relationship with the Prussian royal family. Her career was the subject of the tabloid press of the day, and of several plays. She died in 1745; broken-hearted by her loss, Leopold died only two years later.

1. William Gustav (1699-1737)
2. Leopold II Maximilian (1700-1751), Leopold's successor and a Prussian Field Marshal
3. Dietrich (1702-1769), also a Prussian field marshal
4. Frederick Henry (1705-1781)
5. Henriette Marie Louise (1707-1707)
6. Louise (1709-1732), married Victor Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg
7. Maurice (1712-1760), also a Prussian field marshal
8. Anna Wilhelmine (1715-1780)
9. Leopoldine Marie (1716-1782) - married to Frederick Henry of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1709-1788)
10. Henriette Amalie (1720-1793)