Amalia, ANNA

Amalia, ANNA, Duchess of Saxe Weimar, was born in 1739, and, left a widow in the second year of her marriage (1758), by her judicious rule as guardian of her infant son, she enabled the country to recover from the effects of the Seven Years' War. She appointed Wieland tutor to her son, afterwards Grand-duke, and attracted to Weimar such men as Herder, Goethe, Musæus, Schiller; forming a galaxy of genius such as few courts were ever graced with. The battle of Jena is said to have broken her heart; she died (1807) six months after that event.