September 19, 1803: Birth of Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

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Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor Francis I of Austria, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, King Ferdinand V of Hungary and Bohemia, King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia, Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

Maria Anna of Savoy (September 19, 1803 – May 4, 1884) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marriage to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

Biography

Maria Anna was born in Palazzo Colonna in Rome, the daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia and his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, governor of Milan and son of Empress Maria Theresa after whom she was named. Her mother was Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and heir to the Duchy of Modena. Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa, was born in Modena, the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

Maria Anna of Savoy had a twin sister Maria Teresa, who became Duchess consort of Parma and Piacenza by marriage to Carlo II, Duke of Parma (Duke Charles I of Lucca).

The two princesses were baptised by Pope Pius VII. Their godparents were their maternal grandparents, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este. In the Museo di Roma can be seen a painting of the baptism.

On February 12, 1831 Maria Anna was married by procuration in Turin to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (later Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria). On February 27, the couple were married in person in Vienna in the Hofburg chapel by the Cardinal Archbishop of Olmütz.

Ferdinand was the eldest son of Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Possibly as a result of his parents’ genetic closeness (they were double first cousins), Ferdinand suffered from epilepsy, hydrocephalus, neurological problems, and a speech impediment. He was educated by Baron Josef Kalasanz von Erberg, and his wife Josephine, by birth a Countess von Attems.

When Princess Maria Anna and Archduke Ferdinand married, the court physician considered it unlikely that he would be able to consummate the marriage. When he tried to consummate the marriage, he had five seizures.

Ferdinand succeeded on the death of his father Franz II-I on March 2, 1835. Fredinand also became King Ferdinand V of Hungary. Ferdinand was incapable of ruling his empire because of his mental deficiency, so his father, before he died, made a will which promulgated that Ferdinand should consult Archduke Ludwig on all aspects of internal policy and urged him to be influenced by Prince Metternich, Austria’s Foreign Minister.

Following the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated on December 2, 1848. He was succeeded by his nephew, Franz Joseph. Following his abdication, he lived in Hradčany Palace, Prague, until his death in 1875.

Maria Anna and Ferdinand had no children.

When Ferdinand succeeded as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia; Maria Anna became Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. On September 12, 1836 she was crowned as Queen of Bohemia at Prague.

After December 2, 1848 when Ferdinand abdicated as Emperor of Austria, but retaining his imperial rank; Maria Anna was henceforward titled Empress Maria Anna. They lived in retirement together, spending the winters at Prague Castle and the summers at Reichstadt (now Zákupy) or at Ploschkowitz (now Ploskovice).

Maria Anna died in Prague, May 4, 1884 (aged 80). She is buried next to her husband in tomb number 63 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

September 2, 1883: Birth of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria. Part I.

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Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, King Leopold II of Belgium, Princess Stephanie of Belgium

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (Elisabeth Marie Henriette Stephanie Gisela; September 2, 1883 – March 16, 1963) was the only child of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, and a granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and King Leopold II of the Belgians. She was known to the family as “Erzsi”, a diminutive of her name in Hungarian. Later nicknamed “The Red Archduchess”, she was famous for becoming a socialist and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party.

Archduchess Elisabeth, nicknamed ‘Erzsi’, was born at Schloss Laxenburg on 2 September 1883 to Crown Prince Rudolf and Stéphanie, daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium. She was named after her grandmothers, Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen Marie Henriette of Belgium. The only child of his only (deceased) son, Erzsi was Franz Joseph’s favorite granddaughter.

In 1889, when Erzsi was a little over five years old, her father and Baroness Mary Vetsera, his mistress, were found dead in what was assumed to be a murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling. Her father’s death interrupted the dynastic succession within the Austrian imperial family, fractured her grandparents’ already tenuous marriage and was a catalyst in Austria-Hungary’s gradual destabilization, which culminated in the First World War and the subsequent disintegration of the Habsburg Empire.

After Rudolf’s death, Franz Joseph took over guardianship of Erzsi; by his order, she was forbidden to leave Austria with her mother. At a young age she displayed a strong personality, as well as an opposition to the Viennese court.

Her grandmother, the capricious Empress Elisabeth, did not enjoy being identified as a grandmother and was therefore not close to any of her grandchildren. However, after her assassination in 1898, her will specified that outside a large bequest of the sale of her jewels to benefit charities and religious orders, all of her personal property was bequeathed to Erzsi, her namesake and Rudolf’s only child. The Empress made no secret of her dislike of her daughter-in-law prior to the scandal, and after the Mayerling incident, blamed Stéphanie’s jealous behavior for her son’s depression and suicide.

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria

The crown princess herself was entirely dependent on the Emperor’s charity, and following her husband’s death the resulting lack of imperial support towards Stéphanie negatively impacted her relationship with her daughter; the parent and child were never close.

In 1900 Stéphanie renounced her title of Crown Princess to marry the Protestant Hungarian Count, later Prince Elemér Lónyay von Nagy-Lónya und Vásáros-Namény.

Although Franz Joseph provided her with a dowry and Lónyay eventually converted, Elisabeth broke off all contact with her mother as she disapproved of the marriage, feeling it a betrayal of her father’s memory. Later, following her marriage, Stéphanie retaliated by disinheriting Elisabeth in 1934.

First marriage

Elisabeth was considered a potential bride for several princes in Europe; among them was her cousin Prince Albert, heir presumptive to the throne of Belgium. However, King Leopold II vehemently disapproved of Stéphanie’s recent morganatic marriage to Count Lónyay and thus refused to give Albert his permission. Albert’s sister Henriette was horrified at her brother’s choice, feeling Elisabeth’s background was too unstable for the marriage to be a success.

In 1900 Elisabeth met Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Graetz (1873–1952) at a court ball. Ten years her senior, he was below her in rank. Nonetheless she importuned her grandfather to be allowed to marry him. Franz Joseph resisted at first, having intended for Elisabeth to marry the German Crown Prince, but eventually relented. By many accounts it was Elisabeth alone who wanted the marriage, as Otto was already engaged to Countess von Schönborn and was reportedly dumbfounded when Franz Joseph informed him of his new engagement. Ordered by the Emperor to break his “lesser” engagement to marry his granddaughter, he complied.

In order to avoid future succession issues, the Emperor made the marriage conditional on Elisabeth’s renouncing her right to succession, although he allowed her to keep her personal title and provided her with a generous dowry. Although the Habsburgs did not regard Otto’s Mediatized House as their equal, unless the marriage was morganatic, his family would have grounds for pressing Elisabeth to become empress should the succession become interrupted again.

The couple married at the Hofburg on January 23, 1902. They had three sons: Prince Franz Joseph (1904–1981), Prince Ernst (1905–1952) and Prince Rudolf (1907–1939). Their last child and only daughter, Princess Stephanie (1909–2005), was born at Ploschkowitz.

The marriage, however, was troubled, and led to unwelcome reminders for the Emperor of his son’s death, and possible further scandal for the family:
His granddaughter has lately married the Prince Windischgratz; she was the only daughter of the late Crown Prince Rudolf.

The marriage was a love match, but when they had been married only about one year they quarrelled on account of an actress at Prague, who was fired at by the Princess. The actress has since died of the wound. The Emperor, in consequence of this event, did not attend the baptism of the son of the Archduchess Princess Windischgratz. The whole affair caused a painful sensation at the Court in Vienna, though it has been hushed up as most events of the kind are.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now the 3rd longest reigning monarch in European History.

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Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Longest Reigning European Monarch, Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has recently surpassed Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King Hungary (1848-1916) to become Europe’s third longest reigning monarch.

Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from December 2, 1848 to his death. From May 1, 1850 to August 24, 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, the state that replaced the Holy Roman Empire which had been ruled by a Hapsburg emperor for centuries. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and is now as the fourth-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Johann II of Liechtenstein, and now, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, in that chronological order.

The next monarch on the list of longest reigns is Johann II (October 5, 1840 – February 11, 1929), was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1858 and 1929. His reign of 70 years and 91 days is the second-longest of any monarch in European history, after that of Louis XIV of France.

On February 6, 2020 (a week from tomorrow) Her Majesty the Queen will mark her 68th year on the throne. On May 10, 2022 the Queen will surpass Johann II of Liechtenstein by one day (70 years and 92 days). She now has only 4 years and 4 months left to overtake Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

Louis XIV reigned from May 14, 1643 to September 1, 1715 totaling 72 years, 3 months, 18 days on the throne. In order for Queen Elizabeth II to beat that record by one day (72 years, 3 months 19 days) and become longest reigning monarch in European history, she will need to remain on the throne until May 26, 2024, which is 4 years, 4 months and 25 days away.

At that time Elizabeth II will be 98 years, 1 month and 5 days old. Considering Her Majesty’s health is robust, this is entirely within the realm of possibility! Long may she continue to reign!

This date in history: December 16, 1790. Birth of King Leopold I of the Belgians.

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Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, King Leopold I of Belgium, King Louis-Philippe of France, Kingdom of Belgium, Leopold I, Louise Marie of Orleans, Maximilian of Mexico, Princess Charlotte of Wales, Revolutions of 1948

Leopold I (December 16, 1790 – December 10, 1865) was a German prince who became the first King of the Belgians following the country’s independence in 1830. He reigned between July 1831 and December 1865.

Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. He was the youngest son of Franz, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Leopold was the uncle of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

King Leopold I of the Belgians

Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon’s defeat, Leopold moved to the United Kingdom where he married Princess Charlotte of Wales, who was second in line to the British throne and the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent (the future King George IV) and Caroline of Brunswick daughter of Charles Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick, and Princess Augusta of Great Britain. Charlotte died after only a year of marriage, while giving birth to a stillborn son, but Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain.

Princess Charlotte of Wales

After the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), Leopold was offered the crown of Greece but turned it down, believing it to be too precarious. Instead, Leopold accepted the kingship of the newly established Kingdom of Belgium in 1831. The Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his diplomatic connections with royal houses across Europe, and because as the British-backed candidate, he was not affiliated with other powers, such as France, which were believed to have territorial ambitions in Belgium which might threaten the European balance of power created by the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

Leopold took his oath as King of the Belgians on July 21, 1831, an event commemorated annually as Belgian National Day.

Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans

On August 9, 1832, King Leopold I of the Belgians, married Louise-Marie of Orléans the eldest daughter of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, the tenth of eighteen children of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria. Louise-Marie was 20 at the time of her marriage and Leopold was twenty-two years her senior. Although never faithful to Louise-Marie, Leopold respected her and their relationship was a harmonious one.

They had four children:
* Prince Louis Philippe, Crown Prince (1833 – 1834)
* King Leopold II of the Belgians (1835 – 1909)
* Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (1837 – 1905)
* Princess Charlotte of Belgium, (1840 – 1927), consort of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, Archduke of Austria and younger brother of Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria.

Leopold ‘s reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a Protestant, Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation, playing an important role in encouraging the creation of Belgium’s first railway in 1835 and subsequent industrialisation.

Queen Louise-Marie died of tuberculosis in the former Royal palace of Ostend on 11 October 11, 1850, aged 38, leaving Leopold a widower once again at the age of 59.

Leopold (right), with Queen Victoria and family in an early photograph of 1859

As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to slightly expand the monarch’s powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium. He died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II.

December 2, 1868: Birth of Archduke Leopold Ferdinand of Austria. Life of an ex-Archduke.

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Archduke Leopold Ferdinand of Austria, Berlin, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, Empire of Austria, Ex-Archduke, Germany, Leopold Wölfling, World War I

Archduke Leopold Ferdinand of Austria (December 2, 1868 – July 4, 1935) was the eldest son of Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Alice of Bourbon-Parma, the youngest daughter of Charles III, Duke of Parma and Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of France, the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry and Princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise of the Two Sicilies. Archduke Leopold Ferdinand was a member of the Tuscany branch of the House of Hapsburg.

In 1892 and 1893 Leopold accompanied Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on a sea voyage through the Suez Canal and on to India and Australia. The relationship between the two Archdukes was extremely bad and their permanent attempts to outdo and humiliate the other one led the Kaiser Franz Joseph to order Leopold Ferdinand to return to Austria immediately. He left the ship in Sydney and went back to Europe. He was dismissed from the Austro-Hungarian Navy and entered an infantry regiment at Brno. Eventually he was appointed colonel of the 81st Regiment FZM Baron von Waldstätten.

Leopold fell in love with a prostitute, Wilhelmine Adamovicz, whom he met for the first time in Augarten – a park in Vienna (some other sources claim their first meeting took place in Olmütz), having begotten an illegitimate child with another woman only little time before. His parents offered him 100,000 florins on condition that he leave his mistress. He refused to do so and instead decided the renounce the crown of Tuscany in order to be able to marry her.

On December 29, 1902 it was announced that the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had agreed to a request by Leopold to renounce his rank as an archduke. On April 3, 1903 the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of the Imperial and Royal House and the Exterior notified him that the emperor complied Leopold’s wish to renounce his title and to adopt instead the name Leopold Wölfling. His name was removed from the roll of the Order of the Golden Fleece and from the army list.

He took the name Leopold Wölfling after a peak in the Ore Mountains. He had used this pseudonym already in the 1890s when he had travelled incognito through Germany. On the day of his departure from Austria he was notified that he was forbidden from returning to Austrian lands. He became a Swiss citizen. He was given a gift of 200,000 florins as well as a further 30,000 florins as income from his parents.

After World War I Wölfling’s allowance from his meanwhile expropriated family stopped. In 1921 he returned to Austria, desperately searching for a livelihood. Fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, and Portuguese; he worked for some time as a foreign language correspondence clerk. After more jobs he later opened a delicatessen store in Vienna where he sold salami and olive oil. He also tried his hand as a tourist guide in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna and was very well received by his audiences. Unfortunately, the interest his person awoke in the Austrian capital proved to be too much for the ex-Archduke and he fled the city again.

Wölfling married three times:
* Wilhelmine Adamovicz (Lundenburg, 1 May 1877 – Geneva, 17 May 1908 / 1910) (married: 27 January / 25 July 1903 in Veyrier, divorced in 1907). Her memoirs: Wilhelmine Wölfling-Adamović, Meine Memoiren, Josef Schall (ed.), Berlin: Hermann Walther Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1908. No issue.
* Maria Magdalena Ritter (Vienna 4 Mar 1876 / 1877 – 1924) (married: 26 October 1907 in Zürich, left her in 1916 and later divorced her.). No issue.
* Klara Hedwig Pawlowski, née Groeger (Güldenboden (Bogaczewo), 6 October 1894 – Berlingen, 24 July 1978) (married: 3 July / 4 December 1933 in Berlin.). No issue.

Wölfling died impoverished on July, 4th 1935 in his third-floor flat in the rear wing of Belle-Alliance-Straße 53 (now renamed and renumbered Mehringdamm 119) in Berlin.

June 28, 1914. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Hungary.

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1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Czar Nicholas II, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, June 28, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Ottoman Empire, Sarajevo, Sophie Chotek, Wilhelm II of Germany, World War I

98 years ago today came the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary an act which precipitated the first World War. I cannot do justice in this blog to all the complexities that lead to the start of World War I. I don’t view the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the cause of World War I but merely the spark that set off a ticking time bomb.

The roots of the war go back a long way in European history. Throughout the 19th century a weakened Ottoman Empire began losing its European territories. As territories were lost they were gobbled up by the larger European powers which often disregarded the ethnic and nationalistic make up of the population. This happened when Austria-Hungary annexed the Bosnian region which had a large population of Serbian nationals.

What also was a large factor was the alliance system that reached its peak during the 19th century. In order to balance power states sought alliances with one another so one state would not be dominant over others. While in theory this may sound like a good system, or maybe not, it created great tensions between the states and when the spark was set off, the house of cards came tumbling down. With the end of the war the monarchies of Germany and Austria-Hungary, which had existed for over a millennium, were gone.

At the time of the assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. He was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria (himself a younger brother to the then reigning emperor, Franz Joseph) and his second wife, Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. After the murder suicide at Mayerling of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera in 1889, Archduke Karl Ludwig became heir to his brother’s throne until his death in 1896. From 1896 until his death in 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of his great-uncle.

On July 1, 1900, Franz Ferdinand married Countess Sophie Chotek. Although she was from an aristocratic family and claimed descent from various reigning houses, her family was not a reigning family and therefore she did not meet the requirement for an equal marriage. After many years of tension between Emperor Franz Joseph and Franz Ferdinand the emperor finally capitulated and allowed his heir to enter into a morganatic marriage where his wife had no right to her husbands titles and their children would have no claim to the throne.

Although more liberal than the emperor, Franz Ferdinand envisioned a future empire where all ethnic groups would have greater autonomy under his rule. This benevolence actually did not sit well with many Serbian nationals who did not want autonomy within the empire, they wanted freedom from the empire. Fearing that if Franz Ferdinand’s plans came to pass their desire for independence would fail.

Franz Ferdinand and his wife were in Sarajevo that day representing the emperor at opening of the state museum when Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serb nationalist organization ‘the Black Hand,” assassinated the Archduke and his wife. 

There were several attempts on the Archduke’s life that day. Princip failed at an earlier attempt that day to assassinate the Archduke when the motorcade drove by too fast. Another attempt occurred when a bomb was throne at the Archduke’s car wounding 20 people. Undeterred, the Imperial couple continued on.  After visiting the Town Hall the Archduke’s motorcade took a wrong turn on its way to the next event. When the driver tried to turn the car around, the car stalled and Princip, who had just walked out of a delicatessen for lunch, found himself only a few feet away from the Archduke and his stalled limousine.

Princip fired two shots at a very close range hitting the Archduke in the jugular vein and Sophie in the abdomen. They were both rushed to the Governor’s Residence for medical treatment but both died within a few minutes. The shock was felt deeply throughout Europe and within the month all the major powers of Europe would be at war.

The Archduke’s blood soaked tunic

The 1911 Gräf & Stift Double Phaeton in which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was riding at the time of his assassination.