Landgravine Auguste of Hesse-Homburg

A portrait photograph of Auguste in her final years, 1850

Because all her older sisters married very early, by 1793 Auguste became in the primary caretaker of her ailing father.

In Homburg on 3 April 1818, the 41-years-old Auguste married Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, twice a widower and father of four surviving children. The marriage was suggested by the late second wife of the Hereditary Grand Duke, Princess Caroline Louise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Auguste's first-cousin) at her deathbed.

The union was childless and lasted only 18 months until Frederick Louis' death on 29 November 1819. She was a devoted stepmother for her husband's children, taking responsibility for their upbringing and education. She developed a particularly close relationship with her stepdaughter Helene, eldest child and only daughter of her cousin Caroline Louise.

Auguste, who never remarried, remained in Mecklenburg-Schwerin for the rest of her life, dying in Ludwigslust aged 94. She was buried at the Helena Paulovna Mausoleum, next to her husband and his two previous wives.

• Paule Marquise d’Harcourt: Die Herzogin von Orleáns Helene von Mecklenburg-Schwerin p. 10.
• Karl Schwartz: Landgraf Friedrich V. von Hessen-Homburg und seine Familie. Archives and family documents, Rudolstadt 1878.

• Books about Auguste Friederike of Hesse-Homburg in: Landesbibliographie Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Auguste Friederike, Prinzessin von Hessen-Homburg in: zeno.org