Louise Christine of Stolberg-Stolberg-Ortenberg


Louise Christine of Stolberg-Stolberg-Ortenberg, was a German noblewoman member of the House of Stolberg and by her two marriages Countess of Mansfeld-Eisleben and Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels.
Born in Ortenberg, she was the sixth of the eight children born from the marriage of Christoph Louis I, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg-Ortenberg and Countess Louise Christine of Hesse-Darmstadt. From her seven older and younger siblings, four survive adulthood: Georg, Hereditary Prince of Stolberg-Stolberg-Ortenberg, Sophie Eleonore, Christoph Frederick and Jost Christian.

Life

In Stolberg on 13 December 1704, Louise Christine married firstly John George III, Count of Mansfeld-Eisleben. They had no children. Count John George III died on 1 January 1710.
In Stolberg on 11 May 1712, Louise Christine married secondly Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. For this occasion, the Elector Frederick August I of Saxony, had the Weissenfelser Hunt Cup made as a gift for the couple. It was a costly and complex masterpiece of gold forging executed by the brothers Johann Melchior and George Christoph Dinglinger; it took as its artistic inspiration the duke's preference for the hunt. The cup stayed in the possession of the ducal house of Saxe-Weissenfels until it became extinct; after this, it again came into the possession of the Electorate of Saxony and can be admired today in the Green Vault. They had no children.
Louise Christine died in Weissenfels aged 63, having survived her second husband by twenty-three months. She was buried in the Schlosskirche, Weissenfels.