Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett

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Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett (born February 19, 1843 in Munich ; † February 11, 1917 there ; née Countess von Leyden ) was a German writer and historian .

Life

Charlotte von Leyden was born on February 19, 1843 in Munich as the daughter of the royal chamberlain Karl Joseph August Graf von Leyden (1806–1876) and his wife Franziska Edle von Weling (1817–1898). She received her education appropriately in the form of private lessons, later in a Catholic boarding school, but also from extensive reading of her own. After returning from boarding school in 1858, her role as a young woman was primarily that of a candidate for marriage. However, two planned marriages fail because of the question of the dowry. In 1870 she finally married the Irish baronet Sir Rowland Blennerhassett (1839–1909), with whom she lived in London between 1871 and 1886. The marriage resulted in four children: Maria Carola (1876), Arthur (1871), Paul (1878, he died after two months) and William (1882).

Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett gained fame primarily through her sensational friendship with the theologian Ignaz von Döllinger , whom she met in Munich in 1865 and who assumed the role of a spiritual mentor for her and encouraged her to pursue independent scientific and literary work. Despite the great age difference, the two remained on friendly terms for over twenty years, as evidenced by a lively correspondence.

During stays in Belgium in 1868 and in Paris in 1869, Blennerhassett made contact with a group of liberal Catholics, including Félix Dupanloup , Bishop of Orléans, and Alphonse Gratry , but also numerous women. As a sympathizer of the liberal bishops, she spends two months in Rome in the winter of 1869/70 during the first Vatican council , among other things in the circles of Lord Acton , with whom, in contrast to Döllinger, she took a critical attitude towards the church while at the same time adhering to church membership, despite the disappointing outcome of the Vatican for the liberal Catholics and opponents of infallibility .

In the course of her life - especially after her return to Munich in 1886 - Blennerhassett published 16 monographs, 110 essays and more extensive reviews as well as 417 smaller book reviews. Her work mainly includes biographical studies, among others on Madame de Stael , Talleyrand , Gabriele d'Annunzio , Marie Antoinette and John Henry Newman .

Therese von Bayern is one of her correspondence partners and friends . After this, Blennerhassett was the second woman ever to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. She dies on February 11, 1917 in Munich.

Works (selection)

  • Ms. von Staël, her friends and their importance in politics and literature . Berlin 1887–1889. archive.org
  • John Henry Cardinal Newman: A Contribution to the History of Contemporary Religious Development . Berlin 1904. archive.org

literature

  • Victor Conzemius: Ignaz von Döllinger - Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett. Correspondence 1865–1886. CH Beck, Munich 1981.
  • Victor Conzemius: Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett: The Educational Years of a Liberal Catholic. In: Journal for Bavarian State History , 44, 1981, pp. 723–788.
  • Victor Conzemius: Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett. A Bavarian cosmopolitan. In: Voices of the Time , 1981, pp. 612–626.
  • Laura Pachtner: Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett (1843-1917). Catholic, cosmopolitan, combative , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2019 (series of publications by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences; 104), ISBN 978-3-525-31097-7

Web links

Wikisource: Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann: “I was not afraid of anything in life.” The unusual story of Therese Princess of Bavaria. CH Beck, Munich 2011, p. 95 ff.
  2. ^ Victor Conzemius: Ignaz von Döllinger - Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett. Correspondence 1865–1886. CH Beck, Munich 1981.
  3. ^ Victor Conzemius: Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett: The years of education of a liberal Catholic. In: Journal for Bavarian State History , 44, pp. 742 f., 749.
  4. ^ Hiltrud Häntzschel : A century ago: The first honorary doctorates of women at the Ludwig Maximilians University. In: Hadumod Bußmann , Eva Neukum-Fichter: “I remain a being of my own kind.” Princess Therese of Bavaria. Munich 1997, p. 17.
  5. ^ Victor Conzemius: Ignaz von Döllinger - Charlotte Lady Blennerhassett. Correspondence 1865–1886. CH Beck, Munich 1981. S.XXV.
  6. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann: “I was not afraid of anything in life.” The unusual story of Therese Princess of Bavaria. CH Beck, Munich 2011. pp. 95ff.
personal data
SURNAME Blennerhassett, Charlotte Lady
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leyden, Charlotte Countess of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1917
Place of death Munich