Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
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Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte, Princess of the Belgians, Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess in Saxony, (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was the wife of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. She was the daughter of King Léopold II of Belgium and his wife, Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria, and was born at Laeken.
Under pressure from his parents to marry, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the imperial throne of Austria-Hungary, arrived in Brussels on 5 March 1880 to spend time with Stéphanie. He announced their engagement a mere two days later.
On 10 May 1881, when she was almost seventeen, she married Crown Prince Rudolf in the St. Augustine's Church in Vienna. Among the illustrious attendees were the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his nephew, the future German Emperor Wilhelm II.
Although her parents-in-law, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Elisabeth of Bavaria, did not consider her particularly bright, others considered Stéphanie sensible, very observant, patient and distinguished. Stéphanie enjoyed performing her imperial duties and attending the many ceremonial and court functions that Elisabeth hated to attend, thus earning her Franz Joseph's approval and appreciation.
After an initially happy marriage, difficulties soon developed between them. Rudolf was highly intelligent, unconventional, impulsive and very liberal, while Stéphanie was serious, formal and dull. Their only child, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, was born at Laxenburg on 2 September 1883.
She received little support from the Imperial family during her marriage. Empress Elisabeth avoided Stéphanie, referring to her as 'the plain bumpkin' (das hässliche Trampeltier), 'a moral heavyweight' and an 'ugly elephant'. When Rudolf infected her with a venereal disease, which made further pregnancies impossible, they even talked about divorce.
During a visit to Galicia (presently, a region divided between Poland and Ukraine) in 1887, Stéphanie fell in love with a Polish Count. During the next eighteen months, she did not try to hide her affections for the count from her husband who continued his own liaisons.
Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa named asteroid 220 Stephania after Stéphanie in 1881.
In 1889 Rudolf was found dead at Mayerling, with his mistress, the seventeen-year-old Baroness Mary Vetsera. It was and remains uncertain whether Rudolf and Mary died in a murder-suicide pact or had been killed by assailants. Her husband's death destroyed Stéphanie's hopes for a happier future, as the scandal resulting from his death and her widowhood isolated her even further from the court in Vienna. She also had a bad relationship with her own father, Léopold II of Belgium, and had to fight him in court for her inheritance.
To distract herself she undertook many journeys, using different names, like Countess Lacroma, Eppan or Godrecourt and even Lady Bonchurch.
On 22 March 1900 at Miramare, Italy, to the disgust of her father, Stéphanie married Elemér, Prince Lonyai de Nagy-Lónya (August 24, 1863 – 1946), a Hungarian count of low rank who, in 1917, was elevated by the Emperor of Austria to the rank of Fürst (prince).
Stéphanie settled with her new husband on his castle, Oroszvar, in western Hungary, until the advancing Red Army forced them to flee their estate. They found sanctuary in the Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma, near Györszentmarton, Hungary.
In 1935 she wanted to publish her memoirs to set the record straight, but this caused a scandal and the court forbade their distribution.
Stéphanie died at Pannonhalma on 23 August 1945. Her only child, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, had four children:
- Prince Franz Joseph of Windisch-Grätz,
- Prince Ernst of Windisch-Grätz,
- Prince Rudolph of Windisch-Grätz and
- Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Grätz.
