Princess Antonia of Luxembourg

Crown Princess Antonia
Crown Princess of Bavaria
Princess of Luxembourg

Princess Antonia
Born (1899-10-07)7 October 1899
Hohenburg Castle, Lenggries, Bavaria
Died 31 July 1954(1954-07-31) (aged 54)
Lenzerheide, Switzerland
Spouse Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
(m. 1921 - 1954; her death)
Issue Prince Heinrich of Bavaria
Princess Irmingard of Bavaria
Full name
Antoinette Roberte Sophie Wilhelmine
House Nassau-Weilburg
Father Grand Duke William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Mother Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal

Princess Antonia of Luxembourg (Antoinette Roberte Sophie Wilhelmine; 7 October 1899 – 31 July 1954)[1] was a member of the Luxembourgish House of Nassau-Weilburg and the last Crown Princess of Bavaria as the wife of Crown Prince Rupprecht.

Family

Princess Antonia at the age of 10 (Atelier Elvira, Munich 1910)

Born at Schloss Hohenburg,[1] at Lenggries in Upper Bavaria, Antonia was the fourth daughter of Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who reigned between 1905 and 1912, and Marie Anne, a princess of the Portuguese House of Braganza.

She was the younger sister of two successive grand duchesses: Marie-Adélaïde and Charlotte. In the family she was called "Toni".

Marriage and children

Antonia became the second wife of Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria. The two were engaged on 26 August 1918.[2] At the time, Rupprecht was Generalfeldmarschall in the Imperial German army, and had successfully commanded the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Lorraine.

This led to criticism of the close ties between the Luxembourgian Grand Ducal Family and the royalty of the German Empire at a time when Luxembourg was occupied by Germany. This added to the pressure already on Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde, who was forced to abdicate on 10 January 1919.[3] Despite the abdication of her elder sister, and the overthrow of the Kingdom of Bavaria in favour of a republic, the two were married on 7 April 1921 at Schloss Hohenburg.

Antonia and Rupprecht had six children, through whom they have further descendants:

Later life

As opponents of the Nazi regime, Antonia and Rupprecht were forced into exile in Italy in 1939. From here, they moved to Hungary. When Germany occupied Hungary in October 1944, Antonia and her children were captured, while Rupprecht, still in Italy, evaded arrest. They were imprisoned at Sachsenhausen. In early April 1945, they were moved to Dachau concentration camp. Although liberated that same month, the imprisonment greatly impaired Antonia's health; the ordeal led to her vow never to return to German soil, and she died nine years later, at Lenzerheide, Switzerland.[1]

Titles and honours

Titles
National
Foreign

Ancestry

References

  1. 1 2 3 Luxemburg Genealogy. Paul Theroff. Retrieved on 2 July 2006.
  2. ↑ Thewes (2003), p.74
  3. ↑ Thewes (2003), p. 86
  4. ↑ http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/verenaroyalwed/Bavariawed.html

Bibliography

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