| Princess Stéphanie of Belgium | |
|---|---|
| Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia | |
| Spouse | Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény |
| Issue | |
| Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria | |
| Full name | |
| Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte | |
| House | House of Habsburg-Lorraine House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Father | Leopold II |
| Mother | Marie Henriette of Austria |
| Born | 21 May 1864 Royal Castle of Laeken, Belgium |
| Died | 23 August 1945 (aged 81) Monastery of Pannonhalma, Hungary |
| Burial | Monastery of Pannonhalma, Hungary |
Stéphanie (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgium princess by birth, and then made Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf. She was famously widowed in 1889 when Rudolf and his mistress, Mary Vetsera, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods.
Her grandfather Leopold I of Belgium was the country's first king. Her aunt, Charlotte of Belgium, the future ill-fated Empress of Mexico, was married to Maximilian, the brother of her future father-in law, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.
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Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte was born at the Royal Palace of Laeken in the kingdom of Belgium. Her mother, Queen Marie Henriette, was an Archduchess of Austria by birth and aunt to the Queen of Spain. Her father, Leopold II of Belgium, finally became king of the Belgians in December 1865. The royal couple were ill-suited for each other and had an unhappy marriage. The contradictory Leopold II was serious and delicate. Marie Henriette was undisciplined, outspoken, and boisterous. Leopold was openly abrasive to her, and tried to dominate her with his criticisms and frequent infidelity. While her natural charm made Marie Henriette more popular with her Belgian subjects than her husband, she eventually retired from court life to escape him, and lived the rest of her life in Spa near the Ardennes.[1]
As Leopold had little interest in Stéphanie and her older sister Princess Louise,and the education of his daughters was neglected as he focused all his doting attention on his son, Prince Léopold, Duke of Brabant, the future of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty in Belgium. Tragically, when he was nine Prince Leopold caught pneumonia and died. His father never recovered; although he reconciled briefly with Marie Henriette to produce another heir, at the birth of Princess Clémentine in 1872, Leopold lost interest in the family. He turned his attentions to the notorious creation of the Belgian Congo, which was his personal fiefdom and not a Belgian colonial territory, and as such its ruthless exploitation amassed him a vast private fortune.[2] Leopold also rejected his family for his mistresses; he had so many scandalous liaisons that he was known to his subjects as Le Roi des Belges et des Belles (“The King of the Belgians and of the Beauties”). At 1909 on his deathbed, he married his favorite mistress in an attempt to expunge the sin of infidelity.[3]
Brought up in the unhappy life that was the product of their parents' arranged marriage, Stéphanie and her sister did no better in their own. Louise was married to her cousin, Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg, a harsh man who was fourteen years her senior. After she tried to elope with her lover, Leopold had her committed to a mental asylum. She was finally granted a divorce in 1907.
In March 1880, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria was invited to the Belgian court at the insistence of Leopold II. Rudolf arrived in Brussels on 5 March. Meeting the fifteen-year-old Princess Stéphanie, he later wrote to his mother, Empress Elisabeth, "I have found what I sought," noting further that she was "pretty, good, [and] clever". Unable to marry his cousin Archduchess Maria Antonia and refusing several Infantes of Portugal and Spain, Stéphanie was one of the few available princesses in Europe. Under pressure by his parents to marry as soon as possible, the Crown Prince had been satisfied with her and by the 7th of March, he asked for her hand and announced their engagement. Despite this, the wedding had to be postponed because the bride had not yet reached puberty.[4]Rudolf's mother was highly disappointed with the match as the Belgian royals were a new dynasty and did not compare to the Austrians in terms of their bloodline. The emperor, his father, however was pleased and thus agreed.
On 10 May 1881, several weeks before her 17th birthday, Princess Stéphanie of Belgium married the Crown Prince in the Saint Augustine's Church in Vienna her parents walking her down the aisle. Among the illustrious attendees were the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and his nephew, the future German Emperor Wilhelm II. In honour of the nuptials, which were celebrated lavishly throughout Austria, the Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa named asteroid 220 Stephania in her honour in 1881, commemorating the union. After the ceremony, the couple honeymooned at Laxenburg outside the capital.
After an initially happy marriage, difficulties reportedly developed. Rudolf was highly intelligent, unconventional, impulsive and very liberal, while Stéphanie was conventional, formal, and reactionary. Their only child, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, was born at Laxenburg Castle on 2 September 1883. She was known within the family as "Erzsi". She received little support from the Imperial family during her marriage. Empress Elisabeth avoided Stéphanie, referring to her as "das hässliche Trampeltier" (the ugly clumsy oaf), "a moral heavyweight" and an "ugly elephant". When Rudolf infected her with a venereal disease, which made further pregnancies impossible, they reportedly discussed 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.
In 1889 Rudolf and Baroness Mary Vetsera, his lover, were found shot to death in the Mayerling incident.
On 22 March 1900 at Miramare, Italy (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), to the disgust of her father, Stéphanie married Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény (Bodrogolaszi, 24 August 1863 - Budapest, 20 July 1946), a Hungarian count of low rank who, in 1917, was elevated by the Emperor of Austria to the rank of Fürst. She settled with her new husband in his castle Oroszvár - Rusovce in western Hungary, today's Slovakia, until the advancing Red Army forced them to flee their estate. They found sanctuary in the Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma, near Györszentmárton, Hungary.
In 1935 she wanted to publish her memoirs to set the record straight, but this caused a scandal and a court forbade their distribution. These memoirs were eventually published outside of Austria as Ich Sollte Kaiserin Werden (I Was To Be Empress).
Stéphanie died at Pannonhalma on 23 August 1945. Her only child, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, had four children:
Here are the primary titles and styles that Stéphanie enjoyed from birth to death in chronological order:
Additionally, Stéphanie was born with the titles of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess of Saxony. During her marriage to Rudolf, she was also the Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. After his death she retained the title of Archduchess of Austria and also held the title of Dowager Crown Princess until her marriage to Count Lonyai.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Princess_St%C3%A9phanie_of_Belgium Princess Stéphanie of Belgium] at Wikimedia Commons
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