Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (13 October 1679 – 11 October 1740) was, by birth, a Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst and, by marriage, a Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. She was the maternal grandmother of George III of the United Kingdom. She was born Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst. Her father was Karl of Anhalt-Zerbst and her mother was Duchess Sophia of Saxe-Weissenfels.

Family

In 1696, Magdalena Augusta married her first cousin, Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who had become Duke in 1691. The Duchess's letters to her husband, kept in the Gotha library, bear witness to a loving and happy marriage. Her refusal to let her youngest daughter be taught English after she was promised to the presumptive heir to the British throne shows her rather modest sense. She claimed: "[...] this is completely unnecessary, because since the Hanover family has been on the English throne for over twenty years, the people in England and especially at court have to speak German as often and as well as English. " They had twenty children:

Ancestry