[4] Wilhelm's disapproval was even more surprising in that he had recently allowed the marriage between a Hohenzollern dynast (Prince Frederick William of Prussia) with a much lower-ranked member of the nobility (Princess Agatha of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst); it was considered odd that he refused to recognize one equal marriage yet acknowledged another lesser match, especially when the latter was within his own family and subject to the rigid Hohenzollern house laws.

[6] One source recounted:"It envelops royalty there in a species of captivity, and while the grand duke lends thereto and is too conservative to admit of any change, it crushes with its trammels the more spirited members of the family".

While reports did not call her husband particularly cruel, he was, according to one source: "One of the wealthiest sovereigns in Europe; stolid, well-behaved, imbued with great pride of race, and a strict sense of what is due to the anointed of the Lord.

[6] Feodora was very popular among the middle and lower classes of Weimar; this was largely attributed to her charm and kindness to the poor and suffering.

[6] On 9 November 1918 Wilhelm Ernst—along with the rest of the German monarchs following the defeat of Germany in World War I—was forced to abdicate.