page_title: William I of Württemberg
section_title: Death of Queen Catherine
hierarchical_section_title: William I of Württemberg / Life / Early reign / Death of Queen Catherine
caption_attribution_description: Königin Katharina (1788-1819)
context_page_description: William I was King of Württemberg from 30 October 1816 until his death.
  Upon William's accession, Württemberg was suffering crop failures and famine in the "Year Without a Summer", in 1816. After taking office, he initiated sweeping reforms, resulting in the approval of the Estates of Württemberg to a constitution on September 25, 1819. In his 48-year reign, the kingdom moved from one that was created from different denominational principalities and a heterogeneous agricultural country, into a constitutional state with a common identity and a well-organised management.
  In addition to his successful domestic policy, he pursued throughout his reign an ambition focused on German and European foreign policy. Alongside the great powers of Prussia and Austria, he imagined a third major German power in the form of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and Württemberg. Although this plan never succeeded, it ensured a consistent, coherent and targeted policy during his reign.
  William was the only German monarch who was forced to recognise the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848.
context_section_description: Catherine and William's second daughter Sophie, who later became Queen of the Netherlands, was born on June 17, 1818. Despite the outwardly harmonious marriage of William and Catherine, William had extramarital affairs. He took to his former lover Blanche La Flèche again. Eduard von Kallee, born on 26 February 1818 is thought to be his illegitimate son.  When Catherine found her husband in Scharnhausen on January 3, 1819, with a lover (presumably Blanche La Fleche), she travelled back to Stuttgart. She died of complications from pneumonia on January 9. William had the Württemberg Mausoleum constructed for her on Württemberg Hill and she was buried in 1824. To cover up the circumstances of her death he tried to obtain her letters, which he suspected contained information about his love affairs.  The main political reason for this was so Württemberg's relationship with Russia would not be strained. William wrote in a letter that he was considering abdication.  He wanted his brother Paul to renounce his claim to the throne, in favour of Paul's son, Frederick.  After their mother's death, Catherine's sons by her first marriage went to live with their grandfather, Peter, the-then regent and later Grand Duke of Oldenburg.
caption: Queen Catherine in 1817
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