Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (1877–1906)

Mathilde of Bavaria
Princess Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary
Spouse Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary
Issue
Prince Antonius Maria Ludwig
Princess Maria Immaculata Leopoldine
Full name
Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda
House House of Wittelsbach
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father Ludwig III of Bavaria
Mother Maria Theresa of Austria-Este
Born 17 August 1877(1877-08-17)
Villa Amsee, Lindau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died 6 August 1906(1906-08-06) (aged 28)
Davos, Switzerland
Burial Rieden Chapel[1]

Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda; 17 August 1877 – 6 August 1906) was the sixth child of Ludwig III of Bavaria and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.[2] After her early death, Life-dreams: the poems of a blighted life, a list of poems she wrote, were published in 1910.

Contents

Family and early life

Princess Mathilde was born on 17 August 1877 as the sixth child and third daughter of Ludwig III of Bavaria at the family's summer residence of Villa Amsee in Lindau.[2] Though she was the favorite daughter of her father, she and her mother were not close. Some speculate that she only married as an escape from her home.

Later years

Marriage and issue

Various candidates were rumored to be engaged to Princess Mathilde at different times. These included, in 1896, the Prince of Naples,[3] but he married Princess Elena of Montenegro later that year. Others included Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,[4] and Jaime, Duke of Madrid.

On 1 May 1900 in Munich, Mathilde married Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary, a son of Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary and his wife Princess Leopoldina of Brazil.[2] He was a captain in the Austrian army, and had been raised in Brazil as a grandson of Emperor Pedro II.[4] The prince was also from the Catholic branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They had two children:

Death

Mathilde died on 6 August 1906, in Davos, Switzerland of tuberculosis at the age of 28.[2] Her remains are buried in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in the little village of Rieden north of her family home at Schloss Leutstetten.[1] Her husband remarried a year later to Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.

In 1910 Mathilde's family anonymously published some of her poems as Traum und Leben: Gedichte einer früh Vollendeten. In 1913 John Heard translated and published them in English as Life-Dreams: The Poems of a Blighted Life.[5][6]

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ "WITTELSBACH, KINGS OF BAVARIA". Royalty (travel) Guide. http://www.royaltyguide.nl/families/wittelsbach/bavariakings2.htm. Retrieved 14 December 2010. 
  2. ^ a b c d Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Mathilde Marie Prinzessin von Bayern". http://www.thepeerage.com/p10565.htm#i105648. Retrieved 8 December 2010. 
  3. ^ "Current News", New York Observer and Chronicle, 2 January 1896 
  4. ^ a b "Buller and his Strange Visions", The Washington Post, 5 November 1899 
  5. ^ R.R. Bowker Company (1913). The publishers weekly, Volume 84, Part 1. New York: Office of the Publishers' Weekly. p. 664. http://books.google.com/books?id=6BYDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA664&dq=%22princess+mathilde+of+bavaria%22&hl=en&ei=Mon1TKfHNcSBlAe39uSpBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22princess%20mathilde%20of%20bavaria%22&f=false. 
  6. ^ Mathilde, Princess of Bavaria (1910). Life-dreams: the poems of a blighted life. http://books.google.com/books?id=RQktAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP5&dq=%22princess+mathilde+of+bavaria%22&hl=en&ei=1Yn1TNKYPIa0lQfKs7ClBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=%22princess%20mathilde%20of%20bavaria%22&f=false.