90 Years Since the Wedding of Henri and Isabelle, Count and Countess of Paris

 

On 8 April 1931 at Palermo, Prince Henri d'Orléans married Princess Isabel de Orléans e Bragança. On the ninetieth anniversary of the wedding of the Count and Countess of Paris, I hope that you will enjoy these images from an album that I purchased some years ago from the estate of a French royalist who attended the event. The dynastic coupling of Prince Henri and Princess Isabel, which united the French and Brazilian branches of the Orléans family, marked the beginning of a union which produced the modern Royal House of France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 85th Birthday of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, 1961.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

Today, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia celebrates her eighty-fifth birthday!

Prince George, Duke of Kent, with his niece Princess Elizabeth during one of the duke's visits to Yugoslavia. The Duke of Kent was a good friend of his brother-in-law Prince Paul.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Hutton Archive.

Prince Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia with their children: Alexander, Nicholas, and Elizabeth.

Princess Olga of Yugoslavia with her sons Prince Alexander and Prince Nicholas and her daughter Princess Elizabeth.

On 7 April 1936, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia was born at the White Palace, Belgrade, as the first daughter and youngest child of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and his wife Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. Her godmother and namesake was her maternal aunt Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark, Countess of Törring-Jettenbach. Paul and Olga married in 1923. Elizabeth had two elder brothers: Prince Alexander (1924-2016) and Prince Nicholas (1928-1954). After the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, Paul and Olga together with their children lived under British watch (i.e. house arrest) in Kenya. Their daughter Elizabeth was educated in Kenya, Switzerland, and France.

Mr Howard Oxenberg and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia with her daughters Catherine and Christina Oxenberg.

Elizabeth wearing a Van Cleef & Arpels bib necklace consisting of diamond horseshoes with a large round diamond in their centres and with seven pendant pearl drops. Pendant pearl drop earrings to match.
The princess is photographed here in the jewellery she wore to the Diamond Ball in New York, 1964.  

On 21 January 1961, the attractive twenty-five year-old Elizabeth married Howard Oxenburg (1919 - 2010), who was seventeen years her senior, at Manassas, Virginia. The couple had been an item for over a year; indeed, the news rags had incorrectly reported that the couple had eloped in either June or July of 1960. Almost eight months to the day after their wedding, Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Howard Oxenberg welcomed the arrival of their first child, Catherine Oxenberg, who was born in New York City on 22 September 1961. On 27 December 1962, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Mrs. Howard Oxenberg, gave birth to her second daughter, Christina, in New York City. Princess Olga of Yugoslavia had flown in from Europe to be with her daughter and to be present at her granddaughter's birth. Queen Mother Helen of Romania was Christina's godmother: Queen Mother Helen and Christina's grandmother Princess Olga were first cousins. Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Howard Oxenberg divorced in 1966.

 

Neil Balfour and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

On 23 September 1969, Princess Elizabeth married Neil Roxburgh Balfour (b.1944), the son of Archibald Roxburgh Balfour and Lilian Helen Cooper. Elizabeth and Neil couple had one son, Nicholas Augustus Roxburgh Balfour, in 1970. The princess and Mr Balfour divorced in 1978. Neil Balfour went on to serve as the member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North from 1979 to 1983.

 

Manuel Ulloa Elías and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, late 1980s.

On 28 February 1987, Princess Elizabeth married a third time to Manuel Ulloa Elías (1922–1992), a former Prime Minister of Peru. Manuel had been married three times previously: his first wife was Carmen García Elmore; his second wife was Nadine van Perborgh; his third wife was Isabel Zorraquín y de Corral, the mother of Isabel Sartorius y Zorraquín (a youthful beau of Felipe, Prince of Asturias) and the former wife of Vicente Sartorius y Cabeza de Vaca, who subsequently married Princess Nora of Liechtenstein. Manuel and Elizabeth separated in 1989, but they never divorced. Upon the death of Ulloa Elías, the princess became a widow.

 

Prince Alexander, his sister Princess Elizabeth, and his wife Princess Barbara of Yugoslavia at the funeral of Princess Olga of Yugoslavia in 1997.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Pool Benainous Cochard.

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia died in Paris in 1976, aged eighty-three. In 1997, his widow Princess Olga passed away in Paris at the age of ninety-four. The couple were buried at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne with their son Prince Nicholas, who had tragically died in a car accident in 1954.

 

Princess Elizabeth with her son Nicholas Balfour and daughter Catherine Oxenberg oversee the exhumation of the graves of Elizabeth's father, mother, and brother in Switzerland, September 2012.
Photograph (c) Alamy/Reuters/Denis Balibouse.

Catherine Oxenberg and her mother Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia attend the reburial of Prince Paul, Princess Olga, and Prince Nicholas at St. George's Church in Oplenac, October 2012.

Photograph (c) Alamy/Reuters/Marko Djurica.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia at the reburial of her father, mother, and brother.

Beginning in the 1980s, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia started a campaign to rehabilitate the legacy of her father. The image of Prince Regent Paul had been terribly maligned since his regency. A man deeply devoted to peace and maintaining the neutrality of Yugoslavia during World War II, Paul did his utmost to keep his homeland safe and from falling under the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Alas, many historians had painted the prince regent as a Nazi sympathiser, which could not have been further from the truth. Princess Elizabeth's relentless desire to rehabilitate her father was ultimately met with success in 2011, when the Serbian courts ruled that the prince regent had not been an "enemy of the state," as he along with other members of the royal family had been designated after the Communists overtook Yugoslavia. In 2012, the remains of Prince Paul, Princess Olga, and Prince Nicholas were brought to rest in Serbia, where they were granted a quasi-state funeral. This event was attended by the President of Serbia, Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia, Hereditary Prince Peter of Serbia and his brother Prince Philip, Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara of Yugoslavia, as well as by Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and her daughter Catherine Oxenberg and her son Nicholas Balfour. Several other members of the Serbian royal family and other relatives were also present. 

 

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Princess Alexandra of Kent.

Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, Queen Marie-José of Italy, and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

Princess Olga of Yugoslavia; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; Prince Paul of Yugoslavia; Archduchess Helen of Austria; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, 1956.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia lives in Belgrade.

 

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, 1971.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Lord Litchfield.

 

Many happy returns of the day to Princess Elizabeth!

 

To learn more about the princess, you may visit her official website: Princess Jelisaveta

A Right Royal Riddle: Who Am I?

A Gotha Quiz: Who Am I?

By Darren Shelton for the European Royal History Journal.

I was the daughter of a duke and of a princess whose children rarely married outside of the higher nobility. 

 

One of my paternal aunts married high above her station to a man of impeccable lineage and she was considered a force with which to be reckoned.  

 

I was married to a son of king. Although my mother-in-law was held as a claimant to a throne due to her birthright, my children only possess this same right collaterally.  

 

I was born and married before the sweeping changes of the century, but I lived to see advances unimaginable when I was born. 

 

Who am I and who was my husband? The answer will be posted on Wednesday.

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Franz and Isabella.

We are Princess Isabella of Croÿ and her husband Prince Franz of Bavaria, son of King Ludwig III of Bavaria and Queen Maria Theresia (born an Archduchess of Austria, and heiress to the Jacobite claim to the British throne).

The 95th Birthday of Alix, Dowager Princess Napoléon

Princess Alix Napoléon.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Luc Castel.

Today, Her Imperial Highness the Dowager Princess Napoléon celebrates her ninety-fifth birthday!

Louis Napoléon and Alix de Foresta after their engagement in May 1949.

Count Albéric and Countess Geneviève de Foresta, 1949.

On 4 April 1926, Mademoiselle Alix Marie Joséphine Thérèse Henriette de Foresta was born at Marseille. Alix was the first child of Count Marie Joseph Albéric de Foresta (1895-1987) and his wife Geneviève Yvonne Berthe Hélène Fredet (1904-1994), who married on 17 April 1925 at Froges. Alix de Foresta had one younger sibling, a sister: Hedwige de Foresta (b.1935; married Marquis Hély de La Roche-Aymon). Alix de Foresta descended from a family that strongly supported the Legitimist claim to the French throne; they had been loyal partisans of the Count of Chambord. 

 

Alix, Princess Napoléon, in her wedding gown, 1949.

The wedding of Alix de Foresta and Prince Louis Napoléon, 1949.

On 16 August 1949, Alix de Foresta married Prince Louis Napoléon (1914-1997) at Linières-Bouton, France. Louis was the only son of Prince Victor Napoléon and Princess Clémentine of Belgium. The wedding of Louis and Alix took place in the strictest intimacy.

 

Louis and Alix Napoléon with the twins: Catherine and Charles, 1950.

Louis and Alix with their children (left to right) Catherine, Laure, Jérôme, and Charles.

 

The Prince and Princess Napoléon had four children. On 19 October 1950, the couple welcomed the arrival of twins: Prince Charles Marie Jerome Victor Napoléon and Princess Catherine Elisabeth Alberique Marie Napoléon were born at Boulogne sur Seine. Two years later, on 8 October 1952, the Princess Napoléon gave birth at Paris to a daughter, Princess Laure Clementine Genevieve Napoléon. The French imperial family was completed by the birth of Prince Jerome Xavier Marie Joseph Victor Napoléon on 14 January 1957 at Boulogne sur Seine.

 

The Prince and Princess Napoléon, Prangins, 1969.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Philippe Le Tellier

The Prince and Princess Napoléon, Prangins, 1969.
Photograph (c) Getty Images/Philippe Le Tellier.

The Prince and Princess Napoléon with their four children, 1969.

Prince Louis and Princess Alix Napoléon raised their family between the Chateau de Prangins, Canton Vaud, Switzerland, and Paris. Their elder daughter Catherine studied social work. Their elder son Charles received a doctorate in economics. Their younger daughter Laure studied painting. Their younger son Jérôme became a librarian. 

 

Prince Louis and Princess Alix with Queen Fabiola of the Belgians at Prangins.

The Prince and Princess Napoléon with Princess Grace of Monaco and the Count of Barcelona.

Isabelle, Countess of Paris, and Alix, Princess Napoléon, 1990s.

The Prince and Princess Napoléon conducted themselves with discretion and dignity. They were close to a vast array of their royal European relatives, particularly the Belgian royal family and the Luxembourgish grand ducal family. In 1974, Princess Catherine Napoléon married Nicolò San Martino d'Agliè dei Marchesi di Fontanetto, a nephew of Queen Paola of Belgium; Catherine and Nicolò eventually divorced. In 1982, Catherine Napoléon remarried Jean-Claude Dualé, with whom she had two daughters. In 1978, Prince Charles Napoléon married Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies; the couple had two children, Princess Caroline Napoléon (b.1980) and Prince Jean-Christophe Napoléon (b.1986), before divorcing in 1989. In 1996, Charles Napoléon subsequently married Jeanne Françoise Valliccionni, the mother of his daughter Sophie Napoléon (b.1992). In 1982, Princess Laure Napoléon married Jean-Claude Lecomte; the couple had one son. In 2013, Prince Jérôme Napoléon married Licia Innocenti. 

 

Prince Louis Napoléon, 1965.

In 1997, Alix was widowed when her husband Louis passed away at the age of eighty-three.

 

The Prince and Princess Napoléon at Prangins.

The Dowager Princess Napoléon continues to live at her Swiss residence. 

 

Princess Alix Napoléon with her grandchildren, Princess Caroline and Prince Jean-Christophe.

 

Many happy returns of the day to Princess Alix!

A Review of Eurohistory's Royal Exiles in Cannes: The Bourbons of the Two Sicilies of the Villa Marie-Thérèse

Eurohistory published Royal Exiles in Cannes: The Bourbons of the Two Siclies of the Villa Marie Thérèse by David McIntosh and Arturo E. Beéche in 2015. This historic work "includes more than 315 unique and rarely seen photos from both Mr. McIntosh's archive and the renowned Eurohistory Royal Archive. The book follows the history of this once mighty kingdom from its creation in the Middle Ages to its inheritance by the Bourbons of Spain, and its final incorporation into the modern Kingdom of Italy in 1860-61. Furthermore, and perhaps more fascinatingly, the book catalogues the saga of the various members of the royal family as they rebuilt their lives in exile, while also continuing to make matrimonial alliances with most of the ruling Catholic dynasties of Europe, among them the Habsburgs, the Spanish Bourbons, Saxony, Parma, and several others. The storyline follows the lives of the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies and their descendants to today. It is a unique production on a popular exiled royal family that has maintained a prominent presence among Europe's royals." The Bourbons of the Two Sicilies have not received focus by English-language scholars since the two works of Harold Acton.

Prince Alfonso of the Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta

Princess Maria Antonietta of the Two Sicilies, Countess of Caserta

In 2016, the author of this post wrote the following review of this book:

As far as I am aware, this is the only book in the English language that focuses on the Royal House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies after they lost their throne in 1860—this alone makes Royal Exiles in Cannes an invaluable resource. Yet, Royal Exiles is more than just an informative tome on the dynasty. Yes, it offers wonderful vignettes on the Bourbon Kings of the Two Sicilies (Ferdinando I, Francesco I, Ferdinando II, Francesco II) as well as biographical sketches of the last King’s heir, Alfonso, Count of Caserta, and his wife (and first cousin) Maria Antonietta. However, the reader is also treated to chapters on the Count and Countess of Caserta’s many children and their countless descendants, who further expanded the ties of the Bourbons of Two Sicilies by marrying into the regal families of Austria, Bavaria, Brazil, France (both the Orlèans and the Bonapartes), Italy, Parma, Saxony, Spain and Württemberg…as well as plenty of other noble families around Europe. However, for this reader, the greatest gem to be found in Royal Exiles in Cannes is the plethora of photographs of the members of the Royal Family of Two Sicilies. There must be four or five *hundred* of these images, if not more, which all come from the Eurohistory Photo Archive. From the long-dead kings of the Two Sicilies to the modern-day Dukes of Calabria and Castro, you become acquainted with nearly every Bourbon-Two Sicilian relation, both past and present. The visual feast that this vital historical work provides cannot be overstated. Chuffed to have this book in my collection and highly recommend it!

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Purchase the book from Eurohistory:

Purchase Royal Exiles in Cannes at Eurohistory.com