Monday, June 26, 2017

Hohenlohe Princes marry well

June 26, 1917

Marlene A Eilers Koenig collection

The Marquise de Fontenoy reports on several of the more prominent members of the mediatized house of Hohenlohe, which is in the news due to the engagement of Princess Franziska of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst who is engaged to marry Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Karl.

Princess Franziska is a younger sister of Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, who was interned at the beginning of the war in Montreal, where he was attached to the Austrian consulate there.  He was released through the "personal intervention" of the Duke of Connaught, and then joined the staff of the Austro-Hungarian embassy in Washington, D.C.
Prince and Princess Alfred

It was in Washington where Prince Alfred met and married Miss Catherine Britton.  He was transferred to San Francisco, but after the final break between the United States and Austria,  Prince Alfred and all the other Austro-Hungarian consular and embassy staff returned to Europe.

There will be no difficulties in marriage between Princess Franziska and Archduke Maximilian as there was when Prince Alfred married Miss Britton.


The head of the House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, which is the senior of all the Hohenlohe branches, Prince Ernst, is married to Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

Prince Johannes and Archduchess Anna

Johannes, Prince of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein is married to Archduchess Anna of Austria. daughter of the late Archduke Ferdinando, Grand Duke of Tuscany.


Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, who serves as the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Berlin, also has a Habsburg wife, Archduchess Marie Henriette, daughter of Archduke Friedrich.  He is Prince Alfred's uncle.
Gottfried

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, son of the late Prince Albrecht, regent of Brunswick, choose to marry a Catholic Princess, Princess Agathe of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst.  Empress Auguste Viktoria's mother was a princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg by birth.   The Empress's maternal grandmother was Queen Victoria's older half-sister, Princess Feodora.
Friedrich Wilhelm and Agathe

The many members of the Hohenlohe family are "simple and unaffected people in ordinary life," but are conscious of their rank and the luster of their ancestry."

Archduke Maximilian's future father-in-law, Prince Konrad, is the former governor of Trieste, and former premier of Austria, well known for "his liberal views," and often called the "red prince."  Konrad's father, the late Prince Constantin, was a childhood friend of the late Emperor Franz Josef.


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