Princess Adelaide Sofia Amelia of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg was born in Kleinheubach, near Miltenberg, Bavaria, on 3 April 1831, Easter Sunday.

Adelaide, who was a very ambitious woman, would spend the next several decades attempting to secure prominent marriages for her children.

As a result of her largely successful attempts, her grandchildren would include (among others) Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, Elisabeth Amalia, Princess of Liechtenstein, Elisabeth, Queen of the Belgians, Marie Gabrielle, Crown Princess of Bavaria, Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Antoinette, Crown Princess of Bavaria, Xavier, Duke of Parma, Zita, Empress of Austria, Felix of Bourbon-Parma and Infanta Maria Adelaide of Portugal.

In 1895, two years after the marriage of her last daughter, Adelaide, a devout Catholic, retired to the abbey of Sainte-Cécile de Solesmes in north-western France.

The community later moved to Cowes and then to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where Adelhaid died on 16 December 1909 at the age of 78.

In 1967 both her body and that of her husband were moved to the Braganza mausoleum in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon.