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Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

1700–1780

Born
9 Sep 1700, Rudolstadt
Country of birth
Germany
Died
11 Dec 1780, Römhild
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Rudolstadt

    Birth, Rudolstadt

  2. Child born: Ernest Frederick of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

    Birth, Saalfeld

  3. Child born: Princess Charlotte Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

    Birth, Coburg

  4. Died · Römhild

    Death, Römhild

What was it like?

The world around Rudolstadt, 1700: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born the same year as Nicolaus Zinzendorf, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and Charles Jennens.

Born the same year

  • Nicolaus Zinzendorf

    German protestant religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church (1700-1760)

  • Giovanni Battista Sammartini

    Italian composer

  • Charles Jennens

    English landowner and art patron (1700–1773)

  • Margherita Durastanti

    Italian singer

  • Daniel Bernoulli

    Swiss mathematician and physicist (1700-1782)

  • Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

    Italian architect (1700-1771)

Fashion

Limited Wardrobes and Sunday Best

For ordinary people, clothing was strictly divided into everyday wear and Sunday best, as a person's wardrobe was very limited three hundred years ago.

Practical Working Clothing and Headwear

Maids wore practical working clothes like shorter skirts, loose bodices, and aprons to move freely while doing heavy chores, while women of all statuses typically wore hair caps for protection and fashion.

Music

Fiddlers earned Nickelgrosken at village celebrations

Fiddlers were central to village life and were paid for their services at weddings and parties with small coins known as Nickelgrosken.

The cornett was a popular civic instrument

Town musicians used the versatile cornett, a wooden instrument with finger holes, for both church services and celebratory civic events.

Getting around
Around 1696–1699

Water Transport on the Danube

Travel by water was vital, with cargo boats like the Ordinari sailing weekly from Regensburg to Vienna, a journey of 450 kilometers that took at least a week. While downstream travel was faster, upstream journeys were labor-intensive, often requiring horses to tow the boats.

River Travel by Ordinari Boats

Water transport was often more cost-effective; for example, the Ordinari boat from Regensburg to Vienna took at least a week to cover about 450 kilometers. Passengers often spent their nights on land during these boat journeys.

Daily life

Lighting, Cooking, and Water Access

Lighting was limited to pine torches, tallow candles, or oil lamps, while cooking was done over an open fire or in masonry hearths with a wide chimney hood to collect smoke. Water was typically obtained from community pump wells.

Limited Schooling for Children

Children often attended only winter schools because their labor was required for farming and tending livestock the rest of the year. Teachers were frequently untrained, such as former soldiers or craftsmen, and religious instruction was the main priority.

Food

Simple meals of porridge, soup, and stew

Ordinary families commonly consumed grain-based porridges and soups for breakfast and dinner, while a hearty stew served as the main midday meal. Meat was expensive, so many households reserved it for special occasions like a Sunday roast.

Around 1675–1699

Alcoholic beverages replaced water for safety

People rarely drank water due to contamination risks, relying instead on wine or beer, which were considered safer because of the fermentation process. Milk was almost exclusively for small children, as most of it was processed into butter and cheese for storage.

Prices and wages

Daily wages of laborers around 1700

Around 1700, a carpenter earned 8 groschen per day, while a day-laborer earned 7 groschen per day.

Food and luxury prices around 1700

In the early 18th century, a pound of beef cost about 1.5 groschen, and a bottle of champagne was 1 thaler and 3 groschen.

Work

Common jobs and daily routines

Most people worked as farmers, often laboring on narrow strips of land or as seasonal laborers; others engaged in cottage industries like spinning and weaving. Their day began at sunrise and continued until dark, often including heavy manual labor with simple tools like scythes and flails.

Around 1675–1699

Common Jobs in Rural Villages

Most common occupations were in agriculture, including fullholders, smallholders, and landless laborers like cottars (Seldner) and day laborers who often combined farming with small-scale craft or wage work. Female labor was essential and included tasks like spinning, sewing, agricultural labor, and working as live-in maidservants.

News and letters

Thurn and Taxis Managed Imperial Mail

By the early 18th century, relay systems allowed mail to be handed off to fresh riders at post houses, enabling travel day and night. The Thurn and Taxis family operated the Imperial postal service, which by 1701 maintained its center in Frankfurt am Main.

Around 1693–1693

Cost of sending a letter in 1693

In 1693, sending a standard letter from Güstrow to Hamburg cost 4 Schilling (ßl.).

During their lifetime

  1. 1709

    Great famine after the 1709 winter

    A severe winter caused the Bodensee to freeze completely, leading to widespread crop failures and famine across Europe.

  2. 1717

    Christmas flood kills 11,000 people

    A major storm surge on Christmas claimed over 11,000 lives along the German North Sea coast.

  3. 1717

    Compulsory education introduced in Prussia

    Prussia introduced compulsory education for children between the ages of five and twelve.

  4. 1731

    Guild autonomy abolished by law

    The Imperial Diet passed a law that ended the autonomy of craft guilds, making it easier for people to enter trades.

  5. 1756

    Seven Years' War casualties and destruction

    During the Seven Years' War, some 160,000 Prussian soldiers died in battle or from disease, devastating the population.

  6. 1766

    State monopolies on consumer goods introduced

    A new tax and excise ordinance in 1766 created state monopolies on items including tobacco, coffee, and porcelain.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.