text: Childhood Sophie Marie Dorothea Auguste Luise was born on 25 October 1759 in Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia (now Poland). She was the eldest daughter of the eight children born from Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, and Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, niece of King Frederick II of Prussia. In 1769, her family took up residence in the ancestral castle at Montbéliard, then an exclave of the Duchy of Württemberg, today part of Franche-Comté.  The family's summer residence was situated at Étupes.
  Montbéliard not only was the seat of the junior branch of the House of Württemberg, but a cultural center frequented by many intellectual and political figures. Sophie Dorothea's education was better than average, to the point that she cultivated her skills with great enthusiasm. By the age of 16, she was well-versed in mathematics and architecture, as well as fluent in German, French, Italian, and Latin. She was brought up according to French etiquette as custom of that era, but with German bourgeois simplicity. She was known to be thoughtful, organized, strong-willed, constant, and tender.
  In 1773, Sophie Dorothea was among the group of German princesses considered as possible wives of the heir to the Russian throne, the future Tsar Paul I. However, Sophie wasn't yet 14 years old at the time and thus Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, a princess of a more appropriate age, was chosen instead. At the age of 16, Sophie Dorothea became tall, buxom and rosy-cheeked with a sunny disposition, although extremely shortsighted and inclined to be stout. She was engaged to Prince Louis of Hesse, the brother of the Tsarevich's first wife.
  Grand Duchess