Duchess of Hamilton

A carte-de-visite portrait of Princess Marie von Baden (1818-1888), from 1852 the Duchess of Hamilton.

Born Princess Marie Amelie Elisabeth Karoline of Baden on 23 February 1818, she was the daughter of the Emperor Napoléon's cousin, Stéphanie de Beauharnais (1789-1860), Grand Duchess of Baden, and was therefore a member of the Imperial family. In 1843 she married William Alexander Anthony Archibald Hamilton, who succeeded his father and became the 11th Duke of Hamilton in 1852. In 1855 she converted to Roman Catholicism. She died in Baden Baden on 18 October 1888 at the age of seventy.

According to a brief obituary in the Times (19 October 1888): ‘Our Berlin Correspondent telegraphed last night - The death is announced at Baden Baden of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton after a prolonged illness. She was the mother of the present Duke of Hamilton, and was born a princess of Baden in 1817 [sic], being a younger daughter of the then reigning duke. Her mother, the Grand Duchess Stephanie, was an adopted daughter of Napoleon the Great.’

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.