Chapter Text
Princess Marie Cecilie was born from a contentious marriage. Her father was the heir of a deposed Lutheran King, her mother a Catholic Saxon Princess. Neither had converted to the other partner’s religion prior to the wedding. She was the first of 3 children (2 girls & 1 boy) before their parents got divorced in 1830, and her father later got remarried to his first cousin Princess Louise Amalie of Baden with whom he had another daughter.
The first 3 children were raised Catholic, the youngest Protestant.
By 1835, the oldest Princess of Vasa was eligible for marriage. But due to the fact that her father was the son of a deposed King, it wasn’t expected that she would be considered as a bride for an heir to the throne. If she was to marry, it would likely be a son from the Polish Radziwill family or a minor Catholic dynasty such as the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty.
And around 1837, negotiations were ongoing for a marriage contract between Princess Marie Cecilie of Vasa and Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis. If that contract was signed, the Swedish Princess would become the Prince’s 2nd wife.
But before signatures could be placed, another Prince swooped in.
Prince Michael of Prussia was the eldest son of the Prussian King’s younger brother Wilhelm and his first wife, the minor Polish Princess Eliza Radziwill. He was actually supposed to make a politically significant match, and there had been arrangements in place for the young man to meet the Russian Grand Duchesses as well as Duchesses of Württemberg.
But the Prince was just like his father, and didn’t want to be tied down to someone he didn’t love. He could’ve chosen any Princess to marry, yet he chose Princess Marie Cecilie of Vasa.
The ash blonde was overwhelmed by that decision, as that decision changed her entire life. She had to leave Karlsruhe, where she had grown up with her younger sister and brother, and settle in Berlin to adjust to her new life at an unfamiliar court. She could see she wasn’t exactly warmly welcomed there, only the reigning King and Queen and the bridegroom’s father of the people she met were actually nice to her.
Initially, the Swede wanted to run away from the marriage as she didn’t want to be surrounded by cold-hearted individuals who didn’t care about her. But she stayed, for her gentle husband-to-be.
Prince Michael didn’t deserve to face the harsh Prussian court all on his own. He was just surrounded by incredibly selfish people who didn’t see a Prince’s happiness as a necessity, he did need someone he could actually love by his side.
And Mika was honoured to be that woman.
The marriage took place at Sanssouci Palace in Berlin on the 14th of February 1840.
The Princess of Vasa settled fairly well afterwards, and watched her younger siblings as well as her husband’s siblings get married while she and her husband started their own family. She would fall pregnant 8 times, birthing 7 singletons and 1 set of twins in just over 12 years of marriage.
With the birth of those children, Prince Michael’s claim on the throne couldn’t be denied despite some courtiers wishes that the Prussian throne would pass over Wilhelm and his descendants to the 3rd surviving son of King Frederick William II and Duchess Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Charles who had married dynastically and thus produced ‘legal’ heirs.
But the order of succession remained unchanged.