[1] She was born at Plön to Frederick Charles, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön and his wife Countess Christiane Armgard von Reventlow, the fourth of their five children.

[1] As her only brother died an infant in 1740 the small, partitioned-off Danish duchy of Plön was destined to revert to the royal domain of the King of Denmark on their father's death.

Consequently and unusually only one of the four sisters was enrolled in a nunnery: the eldest, Sophie (1732-1757), became canoness in 1753, and a year later deaconess of Quedlinburg Abbey, while the other three princesses were all allowed to marry.

[1] Charlotte Amalie was the first of her sisters to wed, marrying at Reinfeld on 26 May 1762 her cousin, Frederick Christian I, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

[1] Two years later, as a near, agnatic kinsman of his father-in-law, Frederick Christian renounced any claim he might have had to the Plön duchy and in return received from the Danish crown the castle of Sonderburg, the domain of Gammelgaard with Gundestrup and the fiefs of Ronhave, Langenvorwerk, Kekinisgaard and Maibullgaard, all located on the isle of Ahlsen or nearby on that of Sundeved in the Sonderburg region.