Elemér Lónyay

Elemér Prince of Lónyay

Elemér Edmund Lónyay, Count and Prince of Nagy-Lónya and Vásáros-Namény (born August 24, 1863 at Bodrogolaszi Castle , Hungary ; † July 29, 1946 in Budapest , Hungary), was a Hungarian nobleman.

Life

Elemér was the second son of Baron Edmund Lónyay of Nagy-Lónya and Vásáros-Namény (1834-1885) and his wife Wilma Pázmándy (1839-1919) at the family castle Bodrog Olaszi (in present-day County Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén born). The family had the title of baron since 1627. Elemér attended high school in Sárospatak and then studied, like his older brother Gábor (1861-1917), law and political science in Budapest. After the death of his father in 1885, Gábor took over the family property, while Elemér entered the diplomatic service. In 1886 he was appointed Legation Councilor and in 1889 Royal Chamberlain . In 1895 he accompanied Archduke Ludwig Viktor as a member of the imperial embassy for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in Saint Petersburg . On November 29, 1896, the Emperor elevated Elemér and his brother to the hereditary count .

Miramare Castle

On March 22, 1900, Elemér married Crown Prince-Widow Archduchess Stephanie , the widow of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf , in the chapel of Miramare Castle near Trieste and at the same time became the stepfather of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria , his wife's only child. After Rudolf's death, Stephanie had only played a very minor role at the Viennese court; she felt neglected and despised by the imperial family. The inappropriate marriage with Elemér resulted in the loss of her rank as Archduchess , her expulsion from the Austrian ore house and her break with her father, King Leopold II of Belgium . The marriage remained childless as Stephanie could no longer have children (probably as a result of a venereal infection from her first husband), but it was very happy. In 1906 the couple settled in the Hungarian Oroszvár Castle, which the couple bought and which is now in the city of Bratislava . Most of the summers were spent in Bodrog-Olaszi. In Oroszvár, the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife , were often their guests. (Both couples were morganatic , not befitting, married.)

On February 9, 1917, Emperor Karl I elevated the family to the rank of prince .

In 1945 the Prince and his wife had to flee from the Red Army and had to leave their Oroszvár Castle and found refuge in the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma , where Princess Stephanie died on August 23, 1945. The prince died less than a year later in Budapest. Both were buried in the crypt of the Pannonhalma collegiate church.