Monday, April 26, 2021

Archduke Leo Stefan of Austria (1928-2020)

Death notice of Leo Habsburg, Archduke of Austria.

On Monday, 3 February 2020, Archduke Leo Stefan of Austria died at Lochen am See, Austria. He was ninety-one years-old. Leo Stefan was buried on Saturday, 8 February 2020, at the Pfarrkirche Lochen am See. The archduke belonged to the Teschen line of the Austrian imperial family.

Archduke Leo Karl of Austria.
Countess Marie Clotilde von Montjoye-Vaufrey et de la Roche.

Born on 12 June 1928 at Zywiec in Poland, Leo-Stefan Maria Carl Wolfgang Rudolf Fidelis Habsburg was the eldest son and fourth child of Archduke Leo Karl of Austria (1893-1939) and Countess Marie Clotilde "Maja" von Montjoye-Vaufrey et de la Roche (1893-1978). The 1922 marriage of Leo Karl and Maja was considered to be morganatic; therefore, their children did not bear the titles of their father's dynasty. This situation was reversed by Archduke Otto and his son Archduke Karl, Heads of the Imperial House of Austria, who decreed that male-line descendants of archdukes who had contracted morganatic marriages would be upgraded to the title of Count(ess) von Habsburg and, later, to the title of Archduke/Archduchess of Austria. 

The five children of Archduke Leo Karl of Austria and Countess Maja von Montjoye-Vaufrey.

Leo Stefan had three older siblings: Maria Desiderata (1923-1988; married and divorced Count Wolfgang von Hartig), Mechthildis (1924-2000; married Count and Marchese Manfred Piatti), Elisabeth (1927-2014). Leo Stefan had one younger brother, Hugo (1930-1981; married Eleonore Kristen). 

Archduke Leo Stefan of Austria.
In 1962, Archduke Leo Stefan of Austria married Gabriela Kunert (1935-1975). The couple had three children: Isabella (b.1962; married and divorced Andreas Fehr), Albrecht (b.1963; married and divorced Nadja Würfel; married Carmen Eckstein), and Karl Stefan (b.1967). Leo Stefan and Gabriela divorced in 1969. In 1973, Archduke Leo Stefan married Heidi Aigner (b.1942). The couple had four children: Philipp (b.1974), Anna (b.1977), Valerie (b.1982), and Leo (b.1985). 
Archduke Leo Stefan was survived by his wife Heidi, his seven children, and his six grandchildren (Jessica, Corvinus, Leon, Elias, Julia, and Samuel).

Sunday, April 25, 2021

King Gyanendra and Queen Komal of Nepal, Along with Daughter, Hospitalised with Coronavirus

King Gyanendra and Queen Komal of Nepal as well as their daughter Princess Prerana have been admitted to hospital after contracting Covid-19. The seventy-three year-old king and seventy year-old queen were diagnosed with coronavirus on 20 April. Gyanendra, Komal, and their daughter Prerana were admitted to Norvic International Hospital in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Saturday, 24 April, for treatment. The royal couple and the princess tested positive for the virus on their return from India after participating in the Maha Kumbh at Haridwar. The condition of the king and queen is reported to be stable.

Friday, April 23, 2021

Duchess Helene of Württemberg, Markgräfin Pallavicini (1929-2021)

Duchess Helene of Württemberg.

On Thursday, 22 April 2021, Duchess Helene of Württemberg died at Althausen. She was ninety-one years-old. The duchess was born on 29 June 1929 at Stuttgart as the first child of Duke Philipp of Württemberg (1893-1975) and his second wife Archduchess Rosa of Austria-Tuscany (1906-1983). Philipp was previously married to Rosa's sister Archduchess Helena of Austria-Tuscany (1903-1924), who died a few days after giving birth to the couple's only child, Duchess Marie Christine (b.1924). In addition to her older half-sister, Duchess Helene was joined by five younger siblings: Duke Ludwig (1930-2019), Duchess Elisabeth (b.1933), Duchess Marie Thérèse (b.1934), Head of House Württemberg Duke Carl (b.1936), and Duchess Marie Antoinette (1937-2004).

Wedding of Duchess Helene of Württemberg and Markgraf Federico Pallavicini.

On 22 August 1961 at Althausen, Helene civilly married Marchese Federico Pallavicini (b.1924). The following day the couple were wed in a religious ceremony at Friedrichshafen. The groom had previously been married to Countess Maria Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1924-1960); Federico and Maria married in 1945 and divorced in 1949 after having had one son, Alexander (b.1946).

Markgräfin Helene and Markgraf Federico Pallavicini in 1997.
The Württemberg siblings in 2006: (left to right) Markgräfin Helene Pallavicini, Princess Marie Christine of Liechtenstein, Duke Carl of Württemberg, Princess Elisabeth of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and Duke Ludwig of Württemberg.

Duchess Helene of Württemberg is survived by her husband Markgraf Federico Pallavicini; their four children; Markgräfin Maria Cristina (b.1963), Markgräfin Antoinetta (b.1964), Markgräfin Gabriela (b.1965; married Ricardo Walter), and Markgraf Gian-Carlo (b.1967; married Pauline Haniel); and by five grandchildren, three grandsons and two granddaughters.

 
May She Rest in Peace.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

The Woman Who is Last in Line of Succession to the British Throne

Karin Vogel in 2011.
Photograph (c) Schweriner Volkszeitung.

Since her birth on 4 February 1973, Karin Vogel has held a unique distinction: she is the last person in the line of succession to the British throne. In April 2011, ahead of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, there were articles in BBC AmericaNPR, and the Wall Street Journal about the almost five thousand people in line to the throne. Ms. Vogel was mentioned in these pieces due to her special position: she is at the very end, the dynastic caboose, the British throne's omega. It would take a world disaster of dystopian proportions for Ms. Vogel to ever become Her Majesty Queen Karin of the United Kingdom. 

Karin Vogel is the daughter of Ilse Vogel (b.31 March 1930; née von der Trenck) and the late Dr. Wolfram Vogel (24 February 1926-7 May 2020), who married at Sulzfeld, Germany, on 12 April 1962. Karin has two older brothers: Martin (b.1963) and Klaus (b.1964). Martin Vogel is married to Ramona and has a son, Felix. Klaus Vogel and his wife Janice (née Heppell) have two children, Lorenz and Victoria. Klaus and Janice live in the village of Bösensell, Senden, where the couple are members of the charitable Die Johanniter organisation (Saint John Accident Assistance). Karin Vogel, the youngest of the siblings, is unmarried and is a healthcare professional; she lives in Rostock. The Vogel family, headed by matriarch Ilse and followed by her three children and three grandchildren, are the seven individuals who would be the final hope for the British monarchy - if ever the approximately six thousand relatives ahead of them were to suddenly disappear.

Karin Vogel, 2011.


When she was profiled a decade ago, Ms. Vogel quipped: "I can lean back and relax. It is really very comforting that one doesn’t have to worry about Great Britain." Indeed, Karin Vogel was at the time, and surely remains, very devoted to her work. She found her vocation as a therapist who specialises in counselling elderly people with chronic pain issues. Karin's interesting genealogical position stems from the 1701 Act of Settlement, which, according to the website of the British royal family, "was designed to secure the Protestant succession to the throne, and to strengthen the guarantees for ensuring a parliamentary system of government... According to the 1701 Act, succession to the throne went to Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover (James I's granddaughter) and her Protestant heirs. However, Sophia died before Queen Anne, therefore the succession passed to her son, George, Elector of Hanover, who in 1714 became King George I. The act was later extended to Scotland as a result of the Treaty of Union enacted in the Acts of Union of 1707." Karin Vogel is a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Electress Sophia of Hanover.

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Princess Sophia of the Palatinate (1630-1714); m.1658 Elector Ernst August of Hannover (1629-1698)
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King George I of Great Britain (1660-1727); m.1682 (div. 1694) Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1666-1726)
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Princess Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain (1687-1757); m.1706 King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia (1688-1740)
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Princess Sophie of Prussia (1719-1765); m.1734 Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700-1771)
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Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1736-1798); m.1753 Duke Friedrich II of Württemberg (1732-1797)
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Duke Alexander of Württemberg (1771-1833); m.1798 Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1779-1824)
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Duke Ernst of Württemberg (1807-1868); m.1860 Natalie Eischborn (1836-1905)
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Alexandra von Grünhof (1861-1933); m.1883 Robert von Keudell (1824-1903)
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Hedwig von Keudell (1891-?); m.1918 Karl von der Trenck (1881-1963)
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Ilse von der Trenck (b.1930); m.1962 Wolfram Vogel (1926-2020)
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Karin Vogel (b.1973)

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

An Interview with Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1913-1999)

Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

In the fall of 1998, Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies gave an interview to Giuseppe Scammacca. This interview was published in the now defunct French-language magazine Bourbons. Below one can read an English translation of the interview of the princess.

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Your Royal Highness is one of the great nieces of the last Neapolitan sovereign, His Majesty Francesco II. What kind of memories did the Duke of Calabria, the father of Your Royal Highness, impart to you of the king?

Naturally, my father, but also my grandfather [the Count of Caserta] often spoke to me of Francesco II, as well as to my three sisters. The idea that we had as children was that the king was a man struck by sorrows and the trials of life. Probably due to various betrayals that he endured... I remember very well my great-aunt, the Queen Sophia. She was a severe woman; I was so afraid of her.

Can you provide us with a description of the Duke of Calabria, your father?

My father followed the family's traditions, notably in reorganising the Constantinian Order of which he was Grand Master for a long time. He also pursued a military career in the Spanish army of his cousin King Alfonso XIII; I believe that I remember that he was a very talented engineering officer. He fought in Spanish Morocco. 

One of my saddest memoirs: the death in his youth of his son (my brother), the Duke of Noto, the presumptive heir. He died from the Spanish flu that ravaged Europe during the First World War.

Called to God in 1960, the Duke of Calabria was by right His Majesty King Ferdinando III. How did he carry out this dignity far from the land that had witnessed his birth?

To tell the truth, my father was not born in Naples but in Rome, at the Palazzo Farnese. However, he only lived there for a year, since he, like his entire family, had to leave the new Italy after September 1870; this exile did not end until 1938, on the occasion of my sister Lucia's marriage to Prince Eugenio of Savoy-Genoa, Duke of Ancona. I remember that my father spent a lot of his time, when he lived in Bavaria, to constitute and reorganise archives relating to the royal family and therefore to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Unfortunately, part of these documents was destroyed during the bombing of Munich during World War II. He donated what was left of the archives to the city of Naples.

What can you tell us about your father's stay in Spain?

I have often been told of the military feats of my grandfather, who had been the Chief of Staff in the Carlist armies who fought for King Carlos VII of Spain, Duke of Madrid. In 1874, when the Duke of Madrid had to take refuge in France, my grandfather rode alongside him when they arrived in Pau. This is where the daughter of the Carlist King, Princess Alicia, was born.

As a Capetian princess, how do you view the House of Bourbon?

Personally, I feel first of all Neapolitan and Sicilian; moreover, when I travel to the old kingdom, I see everywhere the proof of the moral, cultural and spiritual heritage that my family left there. But I was just talking about Pau; that's where Henri VI started out. So I am also French at heart, as I am undoubtedly Spanish and Parmesan. Indeed, the Bourbons reigned everywhere, until America. It's amazing, isn't it?

You yourself have experienced exile. How did you feel when you went through this ordeal?

Sadness; in particular, that of not being able to know the countries and the friends that our parents wanted to tell us about. Of course, my mother, my sisters and I could cross the north of Italy to get from Munich to Cannes... But remember that we were always watched, accompanied on the train by plainclothes police. And, it was not until 1938 that my father was able to return to Italy. However, since the end of World War II, we were finally free. It is all the more strange that my Bavarian cousins have never suffered this kind of annoyance ... and have always lived in their homeland.

You return from time to time to the lands that constituted the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. What are your feelings there?

I am at home there! And I have so many friends there!

Exactly, what is the attitude of the Italians and, more precisely, of the Neapolitans and the Sicilians towards you?

As I just told you, grand and loving are the feelings of the people I meet. All still speak - and I will even say more and more - of my ancestors whom they consider as the image of the continuity of the moral and political values which embodied the history of our kingdom. Moreover, I am invited to the many events organised by cultural groups and movements that want to seriously study the true history of the nineteenth century.

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The Duchess of Calabria with her youngest child Princess Urraca.

Born on 14 July 1913 at Schloß Nymphenburg in Munich, Princess Urraca Maria Isabella Carolina Aldegonda of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was the sixth and youngest child of Prince Ferdinand Pius of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria and his wife Princess Maria Ludwiga Theresia of Bavaria. Urraca chose not to celebrate her birthday, remarking: "How can a Bourbon celebrate on the day of the storming of the Bastille?" The princess had five older siblings: Princess Maria Antonietta (1898–1957); Princess Maria Cristina (1899–1985; married Manuel Sotomayor-Luna, Vice President of Ecuador); Prince Ruggiero, Duke of Noto (1901–1914), Princess Barbara (1902–1927; married Count Franz Xaver zu Stolberg-Wernigerode), and Princess Lucia (1908–2001; married Prince Eugenio of Savoy, Duke of Ancona). The Duke and Duchess of Calabria lived with their children at Villa Amsee just outside Lindau.

 
Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Princess Michael of Kent, Venice, 1990.
Photograph (c) Marcellino Radogna.
As the daughter of the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Urraca regularly represented her family at royal and aristocratic functions and charitable events.

Press report on the 1957 accident.
On the night of 10 January 1957, Urraca was driving her eldest sister Maria Antonietta to her home in Lindau, Germany, when their automobile collided with a truck that had skid on ice near Winterthur, Switzerland. Maria Antonietta was killed in the accident and Urraca was seriously injured. After several months in hospital, Princess Urraca recovered.

The grave of Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
On 3 May 1999 at Sigmaringen, Princess Urraca of Bourbon-Two Sicilies died at the age of eighty-five.  Princess Urraca never married although she did have a suitor for her hand at some point. The princess was buried at Rieden in the same cemetery as her parents and two of her siblings: Prince Ruggiero, Duke of Noto, and Princess Maria Antonietta. Urraca's burial site was marked with a simple wooden cross affixed with a small brass plaque bearing her name, until it was replaced by a large cross-shaped headstone with a similar small brass plaque.

Monday, April 19, 2021

Joint Monogram Issued for Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Victoria Romanovna Ahead of Wedding

The joint monogram of the imperial couple.
Photograph courtesy of the Russian Imperial Chancellery.


The Russian Imperial House has issued the joint monogram of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and the future Princess Victoria Romanovna Romanova ahead of their upcoming nuptials in October. The monogram is headed by the Russian imperial crown; below the crown is the Cyrillic letter Г for George and the Cyrillic letter В for Victoria appearing beneath. After the imperial marriage, we can expect that this monogram will appear at the top of any communications from the grand duke and princess.

 

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Victoria Romanovna.
Photograph courtesy of the Russian Imperial Chancellery.
Photograph taken by Lodovico Colli di Felizzano.
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Victoria Romanovna.
Photograph courtesy of the Russian Imperial Chancellery.
Photograph taken by Lodovico Colli di Felizzano.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

The Prince and Princess of Prussia Remember Empress Auguste Viktoria 100 Years After Her Death

Prince Georg Friedrich and Princess Sophie of Prussia depart the Antique Temple, April 2021.

 

Last Sunday, 11 April 2021, Prince Georg Friedrich and Princess Sophie of Prussia commemorated a century since the death of German Empress Auguste Viktoria, who died on 11 April 1921 at Huis Doorn, The Netherlands. The head of the German imperial house and his wife laid a wreath at the resting place of the empress at the Antique Temple in Potsdam. A religious service was also held to mark the life of the empress. The funeral of Auguste Viktoria, the great-great-grandmother of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia and the first wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II, took place one hundred years ago today on 19 April 1921. 

The tomb of Empress Auguste Viktoria with the wreath from the imperial couple in the forefront.

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