Caroline of Baden

Born Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine von Baden on 13 July 1776, Caroline entered a marriage that would shift titles beneath her feet. She became Electress of Bavaria through her union with Maximilian I Joseph, a conventional enough start for a German princess. Then the political convulsions of the Napoleonic era transformed the landscape: Bavaria was elevated to a kingdom, and Caroline with it, becoming the first woman to hold the title Queen consort of Bavaria. She died on 13 November 1841, her reign bookended by the old Holy Roman order and the redrawn Europe that replaced it.