Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Graetz

Princess Stéphanie of Windisch-Graetz (Ploskovice, Bohemia April 4 1909 – Uccle (Belgium) May 29 2005) was the daughter of Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Grätz (1873–1952) and Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (1883–1963), only child of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium.

Her full name was Stéphanie Eleonore Maria Elisabeth Kamilla Philomena Veronika zu Windisch-Grätz in German, and Stéphanie Éléonore Marie Élisabeth Camille Philomène Véronique de Windisch-Grätz in French. She may have been named after her maternal grandmother, Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. She was the great grandchild of emperor Franz-Joseph and of the empress Elisabeth ('Sissi') of Austria. She was also the great grandchild of king Leopold II of Belgium.

As a child she suffered very much from the constant absence of her mother and subsequently from the painful divorce of her parents. Her mother came to live in Brussels with the four children and princess Clementine offered a friendly refuge to Stéphanie. The couple was separated in 1924 and divorced in 1948. Since 1921 princess Elisabeth de Windischgrätz was the mistress of the Austrian socialist member of parliament Leopold Petznek, who she married in 1948.

Stéphanie had three elder brothers:

• Prince Franz Joseph zu Windisch-Grätz (Prague, 1904 - Nairobi, 1981), married to Ghislaine d'Arschot Schoonhoven (1912–1997) and father of
  • Princess Stéphanie Windisch-Graetz (b. 1939) became an artist, known for her photographic portraits using only candles as a source of light and for her sensual images from the animal world. She married Dermot Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell (1935–2009). They are the parents of
    • Henry Victor William Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell (born 1967) and
    • Alexander Otto Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell (born 1969)
  • Prince Guillaume Franz Josef Maria Windisch-Graetz (born 1950; unmarried).
• Prince Ernst zu Windisch-Grätz (1905–1952)
• Prince Rudolf zu Windisch-Grätz (1907–1939)

In 1933 Stéphanie married Count Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu (1907–1944), and in 1945 she married Karl-Axel Björklund (1906–1986). She had one child by each husband:

• Alvar Etienne d'Alcantara de Querrieu (30 July 1935 - )
• Bjorn-Axel Björklund (20 October 1944 - 7 September 1995)

During her long life, Stéphanie was an extensive traveller, especially in Africa, where her brother François-Joseph lived in Kenya, and also in South America, particularly in Argentina.

Her sister-in-law née d'Arschot-Schoonhove claims that Stéphanie was the product of her mother's affair with the famous Austrian submarine officer, Egon Lerch (who during the First World War would command SM U-12 and attack the French battleship Jean Bart), and that she was not the daughter of Prince Otto.

She is also a cognatic descendant of Hugh Capet.

Sources

• Ghislaine Windisch-Graetz, née d'Arschot Schoonhoven, Kaiseradler und rote Nelke: Das Leben der Tochter des Kronprinzen Rudolf, 1988
• Friedrich Weissensteiner, L'Archiduchesse rouge, Payot, Paris, 2010
• Oscar Coomans de Brachène, Etat présent de la noblesse belge, annuaire 2003, Brussels, 2003.

Ancestry