page_title: Frederica of Baden
section_title: Exile
hierarchical_section_title: Frederica of Baden / Life / Exile
context_page_description: Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden was Queen of Sweden from 1797 to 1809 as the consort of King Gustav IV Adolf.
context_section_description: After having been denied to travel to Great Britain, the former king and queen settled in the duchy of Baden, were they arrived 10 February 1810. After having become private persons, the incompatibility between Frederica and Gustav Adolf immediately became known in their different view in how to live their life. Gustav Adolf wished to live a simple family life in a congregation of the Moravian church in Christiansfeld in Slesvig or Switzerland, while Frederica wished to settle in the palace Meersburg at Bodensee, which was granted her by her family. Their sexual differences was also brought to the surface, as Frederica refused sexual intercourse because she did not wish to give birth to exiled royalty. These differences caused Gustav Adolf to leave alone for Basel in Switzerland in April 1810, from which he expressed complaints about their sexual incompatibility and demanded a divorce.
  The couple made two attempts to reconcile in person: once in Switzerland in July, and a second time in Altenburg in Thüringen in September. The attempts of reconciliation was unsuccessful and in 1811, Gustav Adolf issued divorce negotiations with her mother, stating that he wished to be able to marry again. Frederica was not willing to divorce, and her mother suggested that Gustav Adolf entered some kind of secret morganatic marriage on the side to avoid the scandal of divorce. Gustav Adolf did agree to this suggestion, but as they could not figure out how such a thing should be arranged, a proper divorce was finally issued in February 1812. In the divorce settlement, Gustav Adolf renounced all his assets in both Sweden and abroad, as well as his future assets in the form of his inheritance rights after his mother, to his children; he also renounced the custody and guardianship of his children. Two years later, Fredrica placed her children under the guardianship of her brother-in-law, the Russian Tsar Alexander. Frederica kept in contact through correspondence with queen Charlotte of Sweden, whom she entrusted her economic interests in Sweden, as well as with her former mother-in-law, and while she did not contact Gustav Adolf directly, she kept informed about his life and often contributed financially to his economy without his knowledge.  
  Frederica settled in the castle Bruchsal in Baden, but also acquired several other residences in Baden as well as a country villa, Villamont, outside Lausanne in Switzerland. In practice, she spent most of her time in the court of Karlsruhe from 1814 onward, and also traveled a lot around Germany, Switzerland and Italy, using the name Countess Itterburg after a ruin in Hesse, which she had acquired.
  In accordance with the abdication terms, she kept her title of queen and had her own court, headed by the Swedish baron O. M. Munck af Fulkila, and kept in close contact with her many relatives and family in Germany. According to her ladies-in-waiting, she turned down proposals from her former brother-in-law Frederick William of Braunschweig-Oels, and Frederick William III of Prussia. She was rumoured to have secretly married her son's tutor, the French-Swiss J.N.G. de Polier-Vernland, possibly in 1823.
  In 1819, her daughter Sophia married the heir to the throne of Baden, her fathers half brother, the future Grand Duke Leopold I of Baden.
  Her last years were plagued by weakened health.  She died in Lausanne of a heart disease. She was buried in Schloss and Stiftskirche in Pforzheim, Germany.
caption: Frederica exiled by Joseph Karl Stieler, c. 1810
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