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.
William Henry Wilkins
At Lund University in Sweden Wilkins discovered in 1897 the unpublished correspondence between Sophia Dorothea of Celle, the consort of George I, and her lover, Count Philip Christopher Königsmarck. This research, backed up from the archives of Hanover and elsewhere, led to "The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, Queen Sophie Dorothea, Consort of George I", which appeared in 2 vols. in 1900 (revised edit. 1903). His "Caroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II" (2 vols. 1901; new edit. 1904), had less claim to originality. "A Queen of Tears" (2 vols. 1904), a biography of Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and sister of George III of England, used research at Copenhagen and superseded the previous biography by Frederic Charles Lascelles Wraxall. For his last work, "Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV" (1905, 2 vols.), Wilkins had access, by Edward VII's permission, for the first time to the Fitzherbert papers at Windsor Castle, besides papers belonging to Maria Fitzherbert's family. Wilkins argued for the marriage with George IV.