Irma Sztáray

Irma Countess Sztára of Sztára and Nagy-Mihály (born July 10, 1864 in Sztára , Kingdom of Hungary , † September 3, 1940 in Sobranz , Kingdom of Hungary) was a lady in waiting for Empress Elisabeth .

Maria Amalia Josepha Irma Countess Sztáray

family

Irma Sztáray was one of the seven children of Count Viktor Sztáray von Sztára and Nagy-Mihály (* 1823, † 1879) and his wife Maria, née Török de Szendrő (* 1835, † 1916). She remained unmarried and childless.

Lady in waiting

At the age of 30 Irma Sztáray entered the service of the empress. Because of her preference for Hungary, Elisabeth always chose Hungarian ladies-in-waiting - Irma Sztáray's predecessors Marie Festetics and Countess Janka Mikes were also Hungarian. Festetics had resigned from the field service because she no longer felt able to cope with the physical strains of the empress's extreme hikes. Johanna Mikes, on the other hand, intended to marry and therefore had to quit court service. The duties of the lady-in-waiting had changed under Elisabeth - the most important requirement was no longer origin, but physical fitness in order to be able to take part in the empress's long hikes. It was also Janka Mikes who introduced Irma Sztáray to court in August 1894 and familiarized her with the customs of the Empress and court life.

Since Elisabeth withdrew more and more and isolated herself, her Hungarian ladies-in-waiting were the only ones who surrounded the empress in the last years of her life , apart from her favorite daughter Marie Valerie . The records of these women are therefore important sources for historians.

Irma Sztáray wrote the description of the assassination attempt on September 10, 1898, in which the empress was killed. The two women were on their way to the ship in Geneva when Luigi Lucheni attacked the Empress. According to Sztáray, Elisabeth initially did not notice her fatal wound, but believed that she had only been punched. She suspected an attempted robbery: Maybe he wanted to take my watch away from me?

In 1909 Irma Sztáray published the book From the Final Years of Empress Elisabeth .

The preface written by Sztáray on September 10, 1909 describes her motivation for writing the book as follows: ´Thinking that life is hurrying, if she must hurry too, she looked for the letters she had written to her mother while she was in the service of the empress as a lady-in-waiting. Her request was to use her for a book of Piety, the writing of which she swore to write during the most difficult hours of her life.

The assassination attempt on Empress Elisabeth, which Irma Sztáray was a witness. Contemporary representation.

Irma Sztáray was the last lady-in-waiting of the Empress Elisabeth. She died at the age of 77 and was buried in the cemetery in Sobranz.

medal

Sztáray was a holder of the Elisabeth Order in the Grand Cross class. The medal was awarded to her by Franz Joseph on September 17, 1898.

literature

• Beatrix Meyer: Empress Elisabeth and her Hungarians, Allitera, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3962331306
• Irma Countess Sztáray: From the last years of Empress Elisabeth , Amalthea Vienna 2004. ISBN 3-85002-518-7
• Countess Irma Sztáray: Erzsébet királyné kíséretében ("In the company of Queen Elizabeth"; memoirs), Gabo Kiadó o. J., ISBN 963-8009-60-8 (Hungarian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sztára ( Hungarian ) was a small town in the former Kingdom of Hungary . After the Treaty of Trianon , the place came to Czecho-Slovakia . The current Slovak name of the village is Staré in Okres Michalovce in eastern Slovakia . The family seat of the Counts Sztáray used to be located here. The castle was built in the 17th century in Renaissance style and rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century by Count Philipp Sztáray .