Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł was born in Königsberg in the Duchy of Prussia. A member of the Radziwiłł family, she was the last agnatic-line member of the most prominent Calvinists of Lithuania, and a descendant of the Gediminids and Jagiellons. Radziwiłł inherited Dubingiai, Slutsk and many other lands from her father Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł. Her mother was an heiress in her own right and brought much wealth including the duchies of Kėdainiai and Biržai. Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł's death in Brieg in 1695 marks the end of the Biržai-Dubingiai Radziwiłł family line. She was the last Radziwiłł to own Biržai Castle and Dubingiai Castle with their lands.
A tile with the emblem and initials of Ludwika Karolina, Biržai Castle.
Her father, Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł was the son of Janusz Radziwill (1579–1620) and Elisabeth Sophie of Brandenburg, and along with his cousin (and future father-in-law) Janusz Radziwiłł (1612–55) played a dramatic and treacherous role in The Deluge, or Swedish invasion of Poland. Following the Swedish retreat and Polish resurgence, Bogusław Radziwiłł chose exile in Brandenburg-Prussia, with his mother's family. His wife and Ludwika Karolina's mother, Anna Maria Radziwiłł, the only child and heiress of Janusz Radziwiłł died shortly after giving birth to Ludwika Karolina. Bogusław followed less than two years later, leaving the infant Radziwiłł orphaned and very wealthy. Her guardianship was entrusted to her father's cousin and host (and her future father-in-law) Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
Radziwiłł spent most of her life in Berlin and Königsberg, but paid much attention to her lands in the grand duchy. Like her father, she funded the printing of books in the Lithuanian language, and supported education and Calvinist parishes. She established scholarships for Lithuanian students of theology in the universities of Königsberg, Frankfurt (Oder), and Berlin. Radziwiłł financed the issue of the catechism and primer in the Lithuanian language, Pradzia pamoksla del mazu Weykialu…, which was printed in Königsberg in 1680. It was the second primer intended for schools following the Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas.
Radziwiłł was sued by King John III Sobieski for the alleged breach of the prenuptial agreement with his son, Jakub Ludwik Sobieski, with the intention to seize her estates. The case was lost, since it was proven that the agreement was falsified; its conclusion date was later than Radziwiłł's actual marriage date.[1][clarification needed]
Radziwiłł first married Margrave Louis of Brandenburg (1666-1687), the youngest son of Frederick William the Great Elector and Princess Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau, at Königsberg Castle on 7 January 1681 at the age of thirteen.[2] She gave the lordships of Serrey and Tauroggen in Lithuania to the margrave shortly before his death in 1687. The properties passed to the Brandenburg electors of the House of Hohenzollern despite the protests of John Sobieski as king of Poland. Following her second marriage into the Sulzbach branch of the House of Wittelsbach, the Elector Palatine also claimed the two properties in right of his wife. The dispute was not resolved until a compromise was signed in 1741 between the Sulzbachs and the King of Prussia in 1741, by which the Hohenzollerns kept the lands in question but recognized the rights of Count Palatine Charles Theodore of Sulzbach to succeed to the throne of the Palatinate when its line of Wittelsbachs died out.[2]
On 7 January 1681, Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł married Margrave Louis of Brandenburg. He died suddenly the morning of 7 April 1687 amid rumors of poison. This marriage was childless.
^ abcHuberty, Michel; Giraud, Alain; Magdelaine, F. and B. (1988). L'Allemagne Dynastique, Tome V – Hohenzollern - Waldeck (in French). France: Laballery. pp. 65–66, 89–90, 104. ISBN2-901138-05-5.
.jpg)
