Duchess of Hamilton
(1818--1888)

Princess Marie Amelie Elisabeth Karoline of Baden was born on 23 February 1818, the daughter of the Emperor’s cousin, Stéphanie de Beauharnais (1789-1860), Grand Duchess of Baden, and therefore a member of the Imperial family. In 1843 she married William Alexander Anthony Archibald Hamilton, who succeeded his father and became the 11th Duke of Hamilton in 1852. In 1855 she became a Roman Catholic. She died on 18 October 1888 at the age of seventy.

According to a brief obituary in the Times (19 October 1888): ‘Our Berlin Correspondent telegraphed last night- The death is announced at Baden Baden of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton after a prolonged illness. She was the mother of the present Duke of Hamilton, and was born a princess of Baden in 1817 [sic], being a younger daughter of the then reigning duke. Her mother, the Grand Duchess Stephanie, was an adopted daughter of Napoleon the Great.’