[3] In 1806, during his father's reign, the Holy Roman Empire, which delicately held the German monarchies together, collapsed and the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen joined the Confederation of the Rhine which was a group of states of Napoleon Bonaparte's First French Empire.

[5] His father ruled as an absolute monarch and was deeply unpopular over his refusal to make any concessions to increase government participation by his subjects.

[6] His father's actions led to a palace revolt spearheaded by Günther Frederick Charles II that was known as the Ebeleben Revolution,[7] which resulted in his father's abdication on 19 August 1835 in Günther Frederick Charles II's favor.

[8] His father spent the rest of his life at his hunting lodge, Jagdschloss "Zum Possen" near Sondershausen, where he died in April 1837.

[9] Not long after Günther Friedrich Karl II became the reigning prince, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen joined the Zollverein.

[12] Before their divorce in 1852,[13] they had two more children, including:[14][15] Princess Mathilde died at Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, Austria in 1888.