The autobiography of a disillusioned queen consort: The narrated memories of Sophie of Wurtemberg (1818-1877)

Description

‘This is my life story.’ Thus begins the autobiography of Sophie of Wurtemberg (1818-1877), queen consort of the Netherlands, which she started to write in 1865. A year later she finished it and sent copies to some of her closest friends. L’histoire de ma vie, written in French, does not tell the whole story of her life, but is an account of her youth in Stuttgart as princess of Wurtemberg. The story ends when Sophie arrives in the Netherlands in 1839, after she was married to the Dutch hereditary prince William of Orange (1817-1890), the later king William III of the Netherlands. L’histoire de ma vie was published in 1984. Several historians and biographers have used it as an albeit subjective, but authoritative source, not in the least as a testimony of her failed marriage. In my contribution to the panel, I will problematise this historiography, by analysing different aspects of Sophie’s autobiography: How has the historical moment of writing later in life influenced the memories of her youth and reflections on her marriage? How should we evaluate the different versions of the text and why have some of these survived, whilst others have been destroyed? Furthermore, it has been
argued that Sophie’s L’histoire de ma vie is an exceptional narrative, because monarchs seldomly write their autobiography, but is this correct? And how does her life story fit into developments within the autobiographical genre in the second half of the nineteenth century? Understanding L’histoire de ma vie as the narrated memories of a disillusioned queen consort looking back on her life as a princess, allows us to see a personal perspective on the cycle of queenship.

Period	17-Jun-2022
Event title	IABA World Conference 2022: Life Writing: Imagining the Past, Present and Future
Event type	Conference
Conference number	XII
Location	TurkuShow on map