Skip to content
VitrineVitrine
Sign in

Catherine Amalie of Solms-Laubach

Laubach, 26 Sep 1654 – Scheveningen, 26 Apr 1736

9 facts2 sources

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 26 Sep 1654

    Born in Laubach

  2. 23 Sep 1682

    A son is born

  3. 26 Apr 1736

    Dies in Scheveningen, aged 81

Family

See the tree

Parents

Partner

Children · 1

During her lifetime

She lived through 9 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Laubach.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1650s · Catherine is born in Laubach

In the news1654

Demonstration of vacuum power

Otto von Guericke demonstrated the power of a vacuum in Regensburg using sixteen horses to pull apart two sealed hemispheres.

Getting around

Mounted post speeds in Germany

Mounted postal services in Central Europe utilized horse relay stations to reach speeds of up to 84 kilometers per day, allowing the 422-kilometer journey between Cologne and Hamburg to be completed in five days.

In the news1650

Stadtholder William II dies; office left vacant

After the unexpected death of Stadtholder William II from smallpox, the Dutch provinces entered the first Stadholderless Period, leaving the office vacant for 22 years.

Daily life

Limited and seasonal schooling

Schooling was not compulsory, and rural children often only attended in winter because they had to work on farms during the summer. Instruction focused primarily on memorizing the Bible to learn how to pray and read scripture.

What people wore

Wedding shirts as burial shrouds

The funeral custom was so precise that couples carefully preserved the shirts worn on their wedding day to be used as their burial garments. Additionally, deceased women were often buried with one of their caps, such as the communion cap.

Music

Musical Cradle Devotions and Festive Processions

During Christmas, Jesuits organized cradle devotions, where a constructed cradle containing a figure of the Christ child was rocked to the sound of music. Music was also used in processions, often involving bells, trumpets, military drums, and even the discharge of muskets and cannons.

At the table

Avoiding Contaminated Water

Water was rarely drunk, as people relied on beer or watered-down vinegar for safer hydration. Often, drinking water was avoided entirely due to the high risk of contamination from nearby cesspools.