Princess Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte of Belgium (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgian princess who became Crown Princess of Austria through marriage to Crown Prince Rudolf, heir-apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Princess Stéphanie was the second daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians and Marie Henriette of Austria. She married in Vienna on 10 May 1881 Crown Prince Rudolf, son and heir of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. They had one child, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie. Stéphanie's marriage quickly became fragile. Rudolf, depressed and disappointed by politics, had multiple extramarital affairs, and contracted a venereal disease that he transmitted to his wife, rendering her unable to conceive again. In 1889, 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.
In 1900, Stéphanie married again, to Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény, a Hungarian nobleman of lower rank; for this, she was excluded from the House of Habsburg. However, this second union was happy. After the death of her father in 1909, Stéphanie joined her older sister Louise to claim from the Belgian courts the share of the inheritance of which they both felt they had been stripped.
Until World War II, Count and Countess Lónyay (elevated to the princely rank in 1917) peacefully spent their lives at Rusovce Mansion in Slovakia. In 1935, Stéphanie published her memoirs, entitled Je devais être impératrice ("I Was Going To Be Empress"). In 1944, she disinherited her daughter, who had divorced to live with a socialist deputy and whom she had not seen since 1925. The arrival of the Red Army in April 1945, at the end of the war, forced Stéphanie and her husband to leave their residence and take refuge in the Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary. Stéphanie died of a stroke in the abbey later the same year.
Contents
Life
Early years
Stéphanie was the third child of the Duke (future King Leopold II) and Duchess of Brabant (born Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria), an unhappy and mismatched couple. In 1853, their marriage had been arranged for exclusively political reasons by both King Leopold I and the Habsburgs without consulting the groom and bride, whose interests were almost entirely opposed: the Duke of Brabant was little interested by family life and was passionate about political and economic issues in the kingdom which he was to reign over, while Marie Henriette was a young woman versed in religion with other interests limited to horseback riding, dogs and music.
Born at the Palace of Laeken on 21 May 1864, Stéphanie received an emergency baptism on the day of her birth. The official baptism took place one month later, on 25 June, in a ceremony which lasted an hour, in the chapel of the Palace of Laeken, where she received the names Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte; her first two names were in honor of her godparents, her maternal uncle Archduke Stephen of Austria, titular Palatine of Hungary) and her aunt by marriage Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. After the ceremony, a gala lunch was given with 60 people in attendance.
Stéphanie had two older siblings: Louise (born 18 February 1858), and Leopold, Count of Hainaut (born 12 June 1859). On 10 December 1865, her paternal grandfather King Leopold I, founder of the Belgian dynasty, died after a reign of 34 years. His son, Stéphanie's father, ascended to the throne under the name of Leopold II, and her brother assumed the title of Duke of Brabant as the new heir of the throne.
In the spring of 1868, the almost 9-year-old Leopold, Duke of Brabant and heir to the throne, suffered from a chill following a fall in the pond in the Park of Laeken. His condition deteriorated rapidly: the doctor diagnosed acute pericarditis. In the summer, he seemed to recover, but his cough persisted. The doctor recommended the removal of the uvula and performed this surgery before his young patient went to Ostend to recover. Queen Marie Henriette isolated herself in Spa to rest, while King Leopold II, held back by affairs of state, and his two daughters remained in Laeken. In August, Leopold, suffering from dropsy, was brought back to Laeken. The Queen thenceforth never left her son's bedside. After having received the last sacraments in September, the son seemed better, but his condition worsened again until he died on 22 January 1869.
Crown Princess of Austria-Hungary
While her older sister Louise married in 1875 a wealthy cousin of their father, Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Austrian officer and friend of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Stéphanie continued her studies and willingly took care of her younger sister Clémentine because Louise's departure left a void at the Palace of Laeken.
Stéphanie made her first communion on 12 June 1876 and officially appeared for the first time at court. A few months later, Louise and her husband went to Brussels. Stéphanie found her older sister, who had turned into a "young woman admired and celebrated", very different from the young girl she had known.
During the winter of 1878–1879, on her way to London, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (known as "Sisi"), mother of Crown Prince Rudolf, stopped at the court of Brussels, where the 14-year-old Stéphanie was introduced to her. Already rumors about her possible marriage were swirling in Europe. Leopold II and Marie Henriette hoped to marry their second daughter to a reigning sovereign or a crown prince. The first candidate mentioned was King Alfonso XII of Spain, but this possibility was almost immediately denied.
Stéphanie had heard of Rudolf for the first time at the end of a literature class given by her housekeeper Fanny Brossel. After reading the story of William Tell, the teacher decided to teach her pupil about the power and grandeur of the House of Habsburg and illustrated her words by showing her an engraving published in a magazine depicting the Crown Prince in hunting costume. This was how Stéphanie discovered the features of the one who would become her fiancé.
During the winter of 1879–1880, Empress Elisabeth returned to Brussels. She was persuaded by the arguments of the court of Vienna which encouraged the Crown Prince to marry young in order to quickly ensure descendants. In March 1880 Rudolf was invited to the Belgian court at the insistence of Leopold II. After meeting the 15-year-old Princess Stéphanie, he wrote to his mother that "[he had] found what [he] sought", noting that she was "pretty, good, [and] clever". However, she was not Rudolf's first choice as a potential bride: having refused Princess Mathilde of Saxony, as well as several Infantas of Portugal and Spain, he found that Stéphanie was one of the few Catholic princesses who met the criteria imposed by his father Emperor Franz Joseph I to become wife of the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Under pressure from his parents to marry as soon as possible, the Crown Prince was satisfied with Stéphanie and on 5 March, he asked her parents for her hand. The reaction of Rudolf's parents was mixed – while Empress Elisabeth was deeply disappointed with the match as the Belgian monarchy dated only from 1830 and did not compare to the Habsburgs in terms of seniority, even though its royal house was a branch of the House of Wettin (one of the oldest ruling houses in Europe), Emperor Franz Joseph I was pleased. For her part, Stéphanie remembered: "In the afternoon of 5 March, my parents called me. When I made my entrance, my father stood up, came to me and said in a deep voice: "The Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary has come here to ask for your hand. Your mother and I are all in favor of this marriage. We have chosen you to be Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Go away, think about it and give us your answer tomorrow".
Dowager Crown Princess
After Rudolf's death, Stéphanie had only one thought: to leave Vienna and the heavy atmosphere of the court. She wished to go to her parents in Brussels, but neither Leopold II nor Franz Joseph I would allow Stephanie, who had become a Dowager Crown Princess, to abandon Austria. As guardian of his 5-year-old granddaughter Elisabeth Marie, the Emperor demanded that Stéphanie remain with her child. Stéphanie had to obey and obtained permission to stay for four months at Miramare Castle, near Trieste. At the start of her widowhood, Stéphanie led a rather withdrawn life. Over the years, the separations from her daughter became more and more frequent, so a fulfilling relationship with her daughter did not last.
During this time, Stéphanie continued her romantic relationship with Count Potocki, whom she had nicknamed "Hamlet". Widowed since 1881, he was Chamberlain at the court of Vienna and a life member of the House of Lords in the Austrian Parliament. Only her sister Louise was informed of the affair. Artur Potocki remained close to Stéphanie during the dark days following Rudolf's death. However, the health of the Count, who was not yet 40, was so bad that he lost the ability to speak after surgery due to laryngeal cancer. In March 1890, Potocki died and Stéphanie once again went into a deep grieving.
At the court of Vienna, Stéphanie had to endure the coldness of Empress Elisabeth, who avoided her, and the equally distant attitude adopted by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Although she retained her title of Crown Princess, she did not retain its functions and was no longer authorized to represent the Empress. Her role was limited, and she could no longer count on the support of many friends. She traveled a lot and devoted herself to painting. Her watercolors painted in Lacroma were published as an album in 1892. In Austria, Stéphanie devoted herself to singing or went to the theater and concerts during her stays in her residences in Laxenburg and at the Hofburg.
Until 1898, Stéphanie undertook long journeys each year: Corfu, Malta, Tunis and Sicily in 1892; the Nordic countries the following year; North Africa, the Balearic Islands and Corsica in 1894; Greece and Palestine in 1895; and Russia in 1897. In March 1898, an illness forced her to give up traveling – she suffered from pneumonia and pleurisy, which forced her to remain bedridden for some time. This gave rise to fears for her life before she suddenly recovered. On 10 September 1898, Empress Elisabeth was assassinated in Geneva; even though she had never managed to get closer to her mother-in-law, Stéphanie was very affected by this unexpected death.
A new life
Emperor Franz Joseph I and King Leopold II of Belgium cherished the plan to remarry Stéphanie with Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary Empire after the death of Rudolf. However, the latter harbored other marriage plans with Countess Sophie Chotek von Wognin, the daughter of Bohuslav, Count Chotek, Austrian ambassador to Stuttgart, St. Petersburg and Brussels, and lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella of Austria, Duchess of Teschen.
For her part, Stéphanie planned to marry an aristocrat: Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény, a Hungarian nobleman of lower rank, of Protestant faith, and one year older than her. After studying law in Budapest, he had entered diplomatic service. In 1886, he was appointed counselor of the legation. He worked in Bucharest, then in Saint Petersburg and Brussels. In 1890, he became imperial and royal Chamberlain at the Austrian court. Promoted to embassy secretary in 1892, he worked in Saint Petersburg, Paris, London and Stuttgart. He then took advantage of a year's leave to travel to Africa and the Mediterranean countries. In 1895, he accompanied Archduke Louis Victor as a member of the imperial legation during the coronation of Tsar Nicolas II in Saint Petersburg. In 1896 he and his brother Gábor were raised to the dignity of Count. In 1897, he resigned from the foreign service and retired from the public service. In order to be able to marry Stéphanie, he converted to Catholicism.
Stéphanie did not dare to forewarn her father of her marriage plans. She chose to address herself by letter, in October 1899, to Queen Victoria who supported her. However, the King of Belgium refused to see his daughter marry a man of lower rank. Stéphanie received a negative response from Leopold II: "My father answered me in the severest and harshest terms that he refused me his consent. Queen Victoria's letter had missed its mark. He gave her, too, an extremely lively answer, in which he even hinted that she had better not interfere in matters which did not concern her". The Belgian sovereigns, offended that Stéphanie did not primarily speak to them about her matrimonial projects, severed any relationship with their daughter and forbade her to return to Belgium. Leopold II even planned to withdraw the title of Royal Highness from his second daughter, but court jurists demonstrated the impossibility of this. The King forbade his youngest daughter Clémentine to correspond with Stéphanie and threatened to abolish the annual annuity of 50,000 francs which she received, although Franz Joseph I advised him against it.
Last years and death
As long as they maintained satisfactory health, Stéphanie and Elemér traveled and met various exiled rulers: the deposed Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and the Empress Zita. They met the latter in Spain, and then in Belgium where Ferdinand had been exiled since 1930. Gradually, they withdrew to their estate where they led a more secluded existence, punctuated by religious exercises. Among their closest acquaintances figured, from 1944, their chaplain, Geza Karsai, Germanist, university professor and monk of the Pannonhalma Archabbey.
In July 1944, Stéphanie drew up her will. She disinherited her daughter, who had divorced Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz to live with Leopold Petznek, a Social Democratic deputy from Lower Austria, and bequeathed all of her real estate to the order of the Benedictines. In return, the Benedictines were responsible for meeting all the debts of the Lónyays and managing their estates. The year 1944 brought new worries to Stéphanie and her husband because the German Army wanted to transform their residence into a military hospital for war wounded, a project which was rejected at the last minute. On the other hand, in the autumn, Edmund Veesenmayer, SS Brigadeführer, and commander of the city of Budapest, took up quarters in Rusovce accompanied by a large staff. Veesenmayer began to search all the archives in the house and confiscated documents of a historical nature, such as letters from Crown Prince Rudolf. Stéphanie and Elemér were forced to take refuge in a few rooms because the occupants had appropriated most of the castle. At the end of March 1945, the Germans, realizing that their position was threatened by the advancing Red Army, traveled further west.
On 2 April 1945, it was the Red Army, having just launched a last offensive pushing back the Germans near Lake Balaton, which reached the Rusovce mansion. During the first weeks of the Soviet occupation, the Lónyays preferred to stay at home with a few servants. However, in May, Stéphanie (suffering from heart disease) and her husband left their residence to take refuge in the Pannonhalma Archabbey, protected by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Three months later, on 23 August 1945, Stephanie died there of a stroke, aged 81. Neither her daughter nor any of her descendants were present at her funeral. She was buried in the crypt of Pannonhalma Archabbey. Elemér survived her less than a year, dying on 29 July 1946, and was buried next to her.
Aftermath
Stéphanie's only daughter, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie, finally obtained a divorce from her husband, Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Graetz in early 1948 and on 4 May of that year, she married her longtime partner Petznek in a registry office in Vienna. Estranged from her four children (of whom two died before her), after Leopold Petznek's death in 1956 from a heart attack, Elisabeth Marie (who used a wheelchair due to gout) became reclusive until her death on 16 March 1963 at the Windisch-Graetz Villa in Hütteldorf, Vienna and was buried in an unmarked tomb (only recognized by the burial codification group 2, number G72) at the Hütteldorfer cemetery next to her husband; near her were buried her two sons who predeceased her, Rudolf and Ernst. Like her mother before her, she also disinherited her two surviving children: she left some 500 heirlooms, owned by the Habsburg Imperial family and inherited by her, to the Republic of Austria, and the extensive park of her Windisch-Graetz villa, in a prime Viennese residential area, was willed to the city of Vienna for the construction of a new residential complex.
From her first marriage, Elisabeth Marie had had four children:
Prince Franz Joseph of Windisch-Graetz (German: Franz Josef Marie Otto Antonius Ignatius Oktavianus; born Prague 22 March 1904 – died Nairobi 1 January 1981), married in Brussels on 3 January 1934 with Countess Ghislaine d'Arschot Schoonhoven (who wrote a biography of her mother-in-law named L'archiduchesse rouge: La vie d'Élisabeth-Marie, orpheline de Mayerling [The Red Archduchess: The Life of Elisabeth-Marie, Orphan of Mayerling] in which her grandmother-in-law Stéphanie is often mentioned). They had two children.
Prince Ernst of Windisch-Graetz (German: Ernst Weriand Maria Otto Antonius Expeditus Anselmus; born Prague 21 April 1905 – died Vienna 21 December 1952), married firstly in Vienna on 17 October 1927 (divorced 1938, annulled 1940) Ellen (Helena) Skinner, and secondly in Schwarzenbach an der Pielach, Lower Austria, on 11 May 1947 Baroness Eva von Isbary. With issue in both marriages.
Prince Rudolph of Windisch-Graetz (German: Rudolf Johann Maria Otto Joseph Anton Andreas; born Ploskovice 4 February 1907 – died Vienna 14 June 1930).
Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Graetz (German: Stephanie Eleonore Maria Elisabeth Kamilla Philomena Veronika; born Ploskovice 9 July 1909 – died at Uccle 7 September 2005), married firstly in Brussels on 22 July 1933 Count Pierre d'Alcantara di Querrieu, and secondly in Brussels on 14 November 1945 Carl Axel Björklund. With issue in both marriages.
Invention
As the New York Times noted, Stéphanie "invented a new chafing dish and spirit lamp combined, and [took] out patents in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium". Her 1908 decision to take out a US patent on a chafing dish surprised the New York Times, not because of her lineage but because "throughout Europe the proficiency of Columbia’s daughters with the chafing dish is traditional…".
Titles and heraldry
Titles
At her birth, as the daughter of King Leopold II, Stéphanie was titled Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony, with the predicate of Royal Highness, according to the titles of her house, and bears the unofficial title of Princess of Belgium, which will be officially regularized by Royal Decree dated 14 March 1891.
21 May 1864 – 10 May 1881: Her Royal Highness Princess Stéphanie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duchess in Saxony
10 May 1881 – 30 January 1889: Her Imperial and Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia
30 January 1889 – 22 March 1900: Her Imperial and Royal Highness the Dowager Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia
22 March 1900 – 28 January 1917: Her Royal Highness Princess Stéphanie, Countess Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya
28 January 1917 – 23 August 1945: Her Royal Highness Princess Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya.
Posterity and honors
Toponymy
In Brussels, the Place Stéphanie/Stefaniaplein, created in 1840 and connecting the Place Louise/Louizaplein to the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos, bears the name of the Princess from 1875.
In Brussels, the Stéphanie Tunnel is a road tunnel of 465 mt. long, connecting the Place Poelaert/Poelaertplein to the Avenue Louise, construction of which was completed in 1957.
The steamboat Archiduchesse Stéphanie, built in 1890 by the Cockerill shipyards in Hoboken, was intended the following year for the service of the Haut-Congo flotilla.
The Lake Chew Bahir, also known as Lake Stéphanie, located in Ethiopia and discovered by the Austro-Hungarian explorers Sámuel Teleki and Ludwig von Höhnel in 1887–1888, was named in honor of the princess.
In Croatia, in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, Lake Kozjak has an ovoid islet of 1.4 hectares, called "Stephanie's islet" in memory of the princess, who visited the site shortly before 1900.
Astronomy
220 Stephania is an asteroid in the main belt, discovered shortly after the marriage of the princess (19 May 1881) by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa, who named it in her honor.
Ornithology
The Stephanie's astrapia is a species of passerine birds of the family of Paradisaeidae, named in honor of the princess in 1884.
Painting
Stéphanie has been represented by several painters:
1880: Full-length portrait by Hans Makart.
1881: Allegory of the union of Rudolf and Stéphanie by Sophia and Maria Görlich.
1882: Bust portrait by Heinrich von Angeli.
1883: Bust portrait by Hedwig Höna-Senft.
ca. 1884: Full-length portrait by Hans Canon.
ca. 1900: Full-length portrait by József Árpád Koppay.
Screen and stage
Mayerling, French film by Anatole Litvak (1936), with Yolande Laffon as Stéphanie.
The Secret of Mayerling, a French film by Jean Delannoy (1949), with Silvia Monfort playing the role of Stéphanie.
Mayerling, Franco-British film by Terence Young (1968), with Andrea Parisy as Stéphanie.
In the British television series Fall of Eagles (1974), Stéphanie is portrayed by Susan Tracy in the episode "Requiem for a Crown Prince".
Kenneth MacMillan's 1978 ballet, Mayerling - Portrayed by Wendy Ellis.
Kronprinz Rudolf, Austro-Franco-German-Italian TV movie by Robert Dornhelm (2006) in two parts, with Daniela Golpashin in the role of Stéphanie.
Frank Wildhorn's 2008 Musical, Rudolf The Mayerling Affair - Portrayed by Wietske Van Tongeren.
Rudolf: A Play in Two Acts by David Logan, 2011 Crown Princess Stephanie is a major role.
Phaleristics
Austria-Hungary
Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, 1880
Grand Cross of the Imperial Austrian Order of Elizabeth, 1898
Persia
Imperial Order of the Sun for Ladies, 2nd Class
Portugal
Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel, 21 April 1881
Spain
Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa, 16 May 1881
Russian Empire
Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine, 1897
Saxony
Dame of the Order of Sidonia
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion