Dark Countess

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait bust of the Dark Countess ( Hildburghausen City Museum )

Dark Count and Dark Countess is the name of a mysterious couple who lived from 1810 to 1837 at Eisausen Castle near Hildburghausen and who rarely appeared in public. Because of their withdrawn life and their unclear identity, they were popularly known as "the Dark Counts" ( Comte et Comtesse des Ténèbres ). She was long known as Marie Thérèse Charlotte , daughter of the executed French King Louis XVI. and his wife Marie Antoinette , which has since been refuted by anthropological and molecular genetic analyzes.

history

Eisausen Castle
( The Gazebo , 1863)

Historically proven is the arrival of the couple, who were later given the nickname Dark Count , on February 7, 1807 in Hildburghausen . They spent the next three years there until they moved to the nearby Eishausen Castle in 1810 , which was more secluded and was supposed to protect the couple from the curiosity of the locals.

The dark countess died on November 25, 1837 at the age of 58. She was buried on the Schulersberg, today's Stadtberg von Hildburghausen.

The dark count was the Dutch Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck alias Vavel de Versay . After her death, he stated that her name was Sophia Botta - but this name does not appear anywhere in the baptismal register. The Dark Graf lived until his death still withdrawn in the castle Eishausen. He died on April 8, 1845 and was buried in the Eisausen cemetery.

Eisausen Castle was demolished in 1874 because it was in disrepair, so that the couple's long-term home can no longer be visited. In 2010 the building was opened as part of a project by the Dunkelgräfin e. V. and the Coburg University of Applied Sciences .

Refuted exchange theory

Commutation theory

Marie Thérèse of France (painting, after 1795)
Marie Thérèse of France (painting, between 1800 and 1850)

According to unsecured information and rumors, the woman should be Marie Thérèse Charlotte , the daughter of the executed French King Louis XVI. and his wife Marie Antoinette .

Marie Thérèse Charlotte of France was born on December 19, 1778 in Versailles as the first child of King Louis XVI. and his wife Marie Antoinette. After the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and as a result of an unsuccessful attempt to escape, the royal family was detained in the Temple . Her father was guillotined on January 21, 1793 and her mother on October 16 of the same year . The surviving princess became a plaything of politics and on December 18, 1795 was given to her mother's Austrian relatives in exchange for French prisoners of war.

After an unwanted pregnancy, she is said to have been exchanged for another woman in 1795 after her release from prison in Paris and immediately before the wedding with her cousin Louis-Antoine de Bourbon, in order to possibly cover up the pregnancy or prevent future claims to the French throne . To protect her incognito, she withdrew to the German provinces, first to Ingelfingen , then for almost three decades to Hildburghausen. Because of this presumed identity, the dark countess was also called Madame Royale .

After the swap, the other person - presumably her half-sister Ernestine Lambriquet - took on the official role of Madame Royale. On June 10, 1799, she married her cousin, the Duke of Angoulême, in Mitau in what is now Latvia . The wedding probably took place at the request of Louis XVIII. , but in any case against the will of Franz II , the future Emperor of Austria.

According to the exchange theory, the real Madame Royale had to hide after the exchange and was placed under the protection of the Dutch diplomat Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck in June 1799. Together with him she was on the run from Napoleon for several years and is said to have lived first in Gotha and Jena and later in various other German cities.

The exchange theory attributes the hidden life of the dark counts to two reasons. According to historical sources, Marie Thérèse Charlotte is said to have looked very similar to her mother. A public appearance would not have been possible without noticing the resemblance to the executed French Queen Marie Antoinette. Until the collapse of Napoléon's empire in 1813, he would have had a presumed interest in uncovering the exchange and using it for his anti-royalist propaganda purposes. But even after Napoléon's loss of power, the exchange was not reversed because it would have called Ernestine Lambriquet's marriage to the Duke of Angoulême into question.

Reasons, assumptions and circumstantial evidence

Tomb of Marie Thérèse Charlotte ( Kostanjevica Monastery)

A possible pregnancy and psychological instability of Marie Thérèse Charlotte are assumed to be reasons for an exchange. Allegedly - according to the exchange theory - the Madame Royale was pregnant after her imprisonment in the Temple due to a rape. And there is still the presumption that the French princess suffered psychological damage due to her imprisonment and the loss of her family. Because of this mental state, she was not able to enter into the planned marriage with her cousin, the Duke of Angoulême. Since Louis XVIII. but because of political interests in the marriage, a lady had to be found who both resembled Marie Thérèse Charlotte and knew the customs of the French court.

Understandably, the exchange between the two girls had to be kept as secret as possible. Nevertheless, there were a number of initiates who knew about the exchange, since otherwise the substitution would have been too noticeable. Even then, there was evidence of rumors that the real Madame Royale had not taken the place of the Duchess of Angoulême and that the Duchess of Angoulême even paid silence to those who knew it.

In addition to these rumors, the proponents of the exchange thesis also cite further indications that speak in favor of an exchange. On the one hand, there is the fact that portraits made in Hüningen before and after the exchange show two completely different people. Because the pictures show a person with a graceful-looking nose before the exchange, the later pictures show a lady with a large and accentuated nose. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the character traits of the two people. While Madame Royale is always described as a shy and loving person before the exchange, the Duchess of Angoulême, on the other hand, is a gruff and indifferent type in eyewitness reports.

Among the contradicting evidence is a birthday letter from the dark countess in German, the sample of which differs completely from the script of the former king's daughter. In addition, the dark count , now identified as Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck , fought against the Bourbons on the side of the French Revolution. The withdrawn life and constant veiling of the dark countess could simply be traced back to a disfiguring light allergy . However, the information given by the dark count about the origin as Sophie Botta from Westphalia is questioned, as there is no evidence of a person with this name in the Westphalian archives.

There is still no irrefutable proof of the exchange. The indicated indications are based on pure speculation.

Refutation through anthropological research

The grave of the dark countess
Comparison of the dark countess's skull with a portrait of Marie Thérèse Charlotte (Hildburghausen City Museum)

In order to solve the mystery of the dark countess's true identity, there were repeated attempts to open the dark countess's grave in order to use a DNA test to solve the mystery of the identity and the correspondence between Marie Thérèse Charlotte and the mysterious woman either prove or disprove. On June 27, 2012, the Hildburghausen City Council decided to exhumate the remains. These were then to be examined through anthropological comparisons of the woman from the crypt with other family members from the Bourbon crypt in the Slovenian Franciscan monastery in Kostanjevica and through DNA tests with genetic comparison material from the brother of Madame Royale and living descendants. However, resistance arose against the city council resolution, which subsequently led to the establishment of the citizens' initiative “Against the Exhumation of the Dark Countess” , which organized a referendum. On February 13, 2013, the Hildburghausen City Council decided the admissibility of the referendum and the implementation of a referendum , which took place on April 21, 2013. In the decision, a majority spoke out against opening the grave, but the required quorum of 20 percent of the electorate was missed relatively narrowly, which means that the city council decision remained, according to which the grave can be opened and the identity of the buried can be clarified. The grave was opened on October 15, 2013. Coffin nails and an almost complete female skeleton were recovered.

After DNA material was removed, the remains were reburied in a solemn ceremony on November 7, 2013 in the grave of the Dark Countess.

The interdisciplinary science project of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) revealed beyond doubt in July 2014 that the bones found in the grave of the mysterious "Dark Countess of Hildburghausen" were not those of the daughter of the French King Louis XVI. and his wife Marie Antoinette. Already a DNA sample from the year 2000 from the heart of Marie Thérèse's brother, the Dauphin Louis Charles , did not match the DNA of the Dark Countess, provided that the bones can be unequivocally assigned, which is not definitively established. DNA comparisons of the mortal remains with descendants of Marie Antoinette's family still alive today (a saliva sample from Prince Alexander von Sachsen-Gessaphe was used for this purpose ) also showed no agreement. This clearly proves that the dark countess found in the coffin cannot be Princess Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Bourbon. This was also confirmed by a comparison of a facial reconstruction of the "Dark Countess" with portraits and facial casts of the princess. The proportions of the reconstructed face are incompatible with the portraits of Marie Thérèse.

reception

Books about the Dark Countess.jpg (Hildburghausen City Museum)
Exhibition "The Dark Countess" in the Hildburghausen City Museum
Exhibition "The Dark Countess" in the Hildburghausen City Museum

literature

Movie

  • Mysterious stories - The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. MDR series in this country . Documentary, 15 min. A film by Helge Cramer. Germany 2002.
  • The exchanged princess - The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. MDR series History of Central Germany. Documentary, 45 min., Book: Leonore Brandt, director: Hans-Michael Marten. Germany 2007.
  • The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. Documentary, 60 min. A film by Ute Gebhardt. Germany 2014.
  • News from the Dark Countess from Hildburghausen. MDR series The East - Discover where you live. Documentary, 30 min. A film by Ute Gebhardt. Germany 2018.

Museum

music

theatre

  • The Dark Countess's Secret. Acting trilogy. Script and direction: Dorothee Hollender. World premieres in the Hildburghausen City Theater .
    • 1st part: The arrival of the princess. World premiere: October 14, 2012.
    • Part 2: The Enchanted Castle. World premiere: October 13, 2013.
    • 3rd part: The mysterious grave. World premiere: October 12, 2014.

literature

(in chronological order)

  • Friedrich Bülau : The mysterious in the castle to Eishausen. A true story of enigmatic people. Waldheim-Eberle, Vienna / Berlin 1930, DNB 57899464X .
  • Richard Boehmker: The secret of a king's daughter. The solution to the more than 100-year-old riddle of Hildburghausen. Helingsche VA, Leipzig 1937.
  • Friedrich Ernst Prince of Saxony : The riddle of the Madame Royale. Marie Thérèse Charlotte of France. A bicentenary secret in the light of recent research. Swiss franc threshold Hans-J. Salier, Hildburghausen 1991, ISBN 3-86180-007-1 . (First appeared as: Frédéric de Saxe-Altenbourg: L'Énigme de Madame Royale. Paris 1954).
  • Helga Rühle von Lilienstern : The unknowns from Eishausen. Dark Count and Dark Countess as reflected in contemporary publications. 2nd Edition. Frankenschwelle publishing house, Hildburghausen 1996, ISBN 3-86180-056-X .
  • Helga Rühle von Lilienstern: Dark Count and Dark Countess in the mirror in front of witnesses and confidants. Frankenschwelle publishing house, Hildburghausen 1997, ISBN 3-86180-067-5 .
  • Helga Rühle von Lilienstern: The dark count couple. What did the princes know? Dark Count and Dark Countess in the mirror of European literature. (= Writings on the history of southern Thuringia. Volume 7). Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2003, ISBN 978-3-86180-151-1 .
  • Claudia Schacke: "The two lives of Madame Royale". Duchesse d'Angoulême or Dark Countess? (= Master's thesis at the Technical University of Dresden). Dresden 2005 ( PDF ).
  • Thomas Meyhöfer: The riddle of the dark countess of Hildburghausen. Results of 160 years of research. Interest group Madame Royale, Hildburghausen 2007 ( PDF; 7.25 MB ).
  • Mark de Lannoy: The Dark Count's Secret. Was Princess Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Bourbon his companion? Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-6847-6 .
  • Helga Rühle von Lilienstern, Hans-Jürgen Salier : The great secret of Hildburghausen. In the footsteps of the dark countess. Salier Verlag, Leipzig / Hildburghausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-939611-19-6 .
  • Carolin Philipps : The Dark Countess. The secret of Marie Antoinette's daughter. Piper, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-26457-0 .
  • Dorothea Keuler: Dancing out of line. Scandalous couples from Baden and Württemberg. Silberburg Verlag, Tübingen / Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8425-1255-9 , pp. 89-108.
  • Wilfried Warsitzka: Nobody should know where I come from! The Dark Countess's Enigma. Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha 2016, ISBN 978-3-89772-279-8 .

Web links

Commons : Dunkelgräfin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Dark Countess  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grave of the Dark Countess. In: Thueringen.info. Retrieved May 25, 2020 .
  2. ↑ The entry of the Dark Count and Dark Countess into Castle Eishausen 200 years ago. In: Madame-Royale.de. September 30, 2010, accessed May 28, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Visualization of the Eisausen Castle - home of the Dark Count and Dark Countess reconstructed by computer. In: Madame-Royale.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Mysterious Dark Countess von Hildburghausen is exhumed. In: Thuringian General. June 29, 2012, accessed on October 8, 2012 : "A total of 14 supporters voted in the city council for the exhumation, five deputies rejected the project and four council members abstained"
  5. ↑ Thomas Schade: The Myth of the Dark Countess. In: Saxon newspaper. June 29, 2012, p. 3.
  6. ↑ 800 citizens demand: Let the dark countess rest! CDU Hildburghausen, July 21, 2012, accessed on October 8, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Resistance to exhumation in Hildburghausen is growing. In: Thuringian General. September 2, 2012, accessed on October 8, 2012 : “The procedure of direct democracy is tedious. The initiative has until the end of December to collect the necessary 700 signatures so that a referendum can then be reached. "
  8. ↑ Waltraud Nagel: Now the citizens decide on their dark countess. In: Südthüringer Zeitung. February 15, 2012.
  9. ↑ The Dark Countess' tomb can be opened. ( Memento of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Report of the MDR of April 21, 2013 on the referendum
  10. ↑ Hildburghausen. Dark Countess tomb opened - skeletal parts found. MDR, October 15, 2013, archived from the original on October 16, 2013 ; accessed on June 22, 2016 : “At first two nails came to light which, according to the director of the Hildburghauser Museum, Michael Römhild, could possibly be coffin nails. The excavation team later found skeletal parts. "
  11. ↑ Dark Countess von Hildburghausen was not a king's daughter ( memento from July 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), MDR report from July 29, 2014.
  12. ↑ Rumor about the "Dark Countess" cleared. In: Archaeologie-Online.de. August 9, 2014, accessed August 2, 2020 .
  13. ↑ The nameless castle of Mór Jókai. In: Madame-Royale.de. Retrieved May 29, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Puzzling Stories - The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. In: Madame-Royale.de. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
  15. ↑ The swapped princess - The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. In: Madame-Royale.de. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
  16. ↑ The swapped princess - The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. In: Programm.ARD.de. September 12, 2010, accessed May 27, 2020 .
  17. ↑ The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. In: Madame-Royale.de. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
  18. ↑ The Dark Countess of Hildburghausen. In: Programm.ARD.de. September 11, 2015, accessed May 27, 2020 .
  19. ↑ News from the Dark Countess from Hildburghausen. In: Fernsehserien.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  20. ^ The Dark Countess von Eishausen - Exhibition on the 175th anniversary of her death. In: Landesbibliothek-Coburg.de. September 6, 2012, accessed May 28, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Booklet for the special exhibition "Die Dunkelgräfin von Eishausen" (PDF)
  22. ↑ "The Mysterious Life of the Dark Countess" - Historical facts and new knowledge. In: Museum-Hildburghausen.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Tour of the Hildburghausen City Museum. In: Museum-Hildburghausen.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .