page_title: Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: This portrait of Princess Sophia of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld is a copy after the pastel portrait by J.H. Schroeder of c.1795 which forms part of a set of Francis Anthony, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, his Duchess and his children, at Schloss Callenburg, Coburg (exh. Coburg 1997, no. 1-19, repr.). Herbert Luther Smith was commissioned to make copies after the pastels for Queen Victoria.
context_page_description: Princess Sophie Friederike Karoline Luise of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and the sister of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and King Leopold I of Belgium, and aunt of Queen Victoria. By marriage, she was a Countess of Mensdorff-Pouilly.
  She was born in Coburg, the eldest child of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf.
context_section_description: Sophie had a particularly close relationship with her sister Antoinette and both often attended the Schloss Fantaisie, a sanctuary of French emigrants. It was there where she met her future husband, Emmanuel von Mensdorff-Pouilly. They married on 23 February 1804 in Coburg. Her husband was elevated to count in 1818.
  In 1806, her husband was in Saalfeld, a secondary residence of the Coburg court. Therefore, it was possible for him to have participated in the Battle of Saalfeld, he retrieved the remains of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia from the battlefield and protected the residence of Sophie's father and family against the arrogance of the victorious French troops.
  From 1824 to 1834 Sophie lived in Mainz, where her husband was a commander of the federal fortress; here she was generally referred to as "Princess". She was active as a writer and in 1830 published her romantic collection of fairy tales, Mährchen und Erzählungen. She received the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Catherine. 
  Sophie died in Tuschimitz, Bohemia. She was buried in the park of Schloss Preitenstein, the family residence of the Mensdorff-Pouilly family.
caption: Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld as a young lady, Schloss Callenberg, Coburg
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5393", "Image ImageLength": "7191", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "406210", "Image Make": "Hasselblad", "Image Model": "Hasselblad H3DII-39MS - Hasselblad H Series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:08:04 11:09:16", "Image Copyright": "-", "Image ExifOffset": "368", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "830", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "0", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:07:12 10:29:02", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "267287367/33554432", "EXIF ApertureValue": "993329223/134217728", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "1049/1000", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "120", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2021", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2361", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "147059/100", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "147059/100", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "84", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "DM50274007", "EXIF LensModel": "HC 120"}