Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)
Born Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, she was a daughter of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt. She belonged to a junior branch of the House of Württemberg and grew up in Montbéliard receiving an excellent education for her time and station. In 1776, when Grand Duke Paul (the future Paul I of Russia), became a widower, Sophie Dorothea was chosen by Frederick II of Prussia, her maternal great uncle, and by Empress Catherine II of Russia, as the ideal candidate to be Paul’s second wife. They met in a state dinner in Berlin and their engagement was quickly arranged.
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover
When the crown prince was liberated after the wedding of his sister, Sophia Dorothea resumed negotiations with Great Britain to marry him to Princess Amelia, and her next daughter, Philippine Charlotte, to the Prince of Wales, thus still completing her life project of an Prussian-British marriage alliance. These plans was crushed in 1733, when Frederick William instead announced a marriage alliance with Brunswick by marrying crown prince Frederick to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern and Philippine Charlotte to Duke Charles I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
She then continued her life ambition of a Prussian-British marriage alliance, accomplishing a "reconciliation between the houses of England and Prussia negotiated by the Queen", this time between the Prince of Wales and her daughter Louisa Ulrika: