Marie Henriette of Austria

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Marie Henriette of Austria in a portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Marie Henriette Anne of Austria VA (born August 23, 1836 in Pest , Hungary , † September 19, 1902 in Spa ) was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and was queen of the Belgians from 1865 to 1902 by marriage. It came from the Hungarian branch of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, which went back to Archduke Joseph († 1847) , the seventh son of Emperor Leopold II .

Family, youth and marriage

Marie Henriette as a child, lithograph by Franz Eybl (1845)

Marie Henriette was born as the youngest daughter of Archduke Joseph Anton of Austria , Palatine of Hungary, and his third wife Maria Dorothea of ​​Württemberg . She and her siblings grew up carefree in Hungary. The Archduchess loved horses more than anything and was very sporty. She was interested in music and painting, and later even composed an opera: Wanda .

When Marie Henriette was 17 years old, it was decided for political reasons that she would marry the one year older Crown Prince of Belgium and Duke of Brabant, Leopold . His father, King Leopold I , feared Napoleon III's attempts at annexation . and therefore sought rapprochement with other major European powers. The marriage connection with the Habsburgs was intended to help safeguard Belgian sovereignty and also to bind the newly established Belgian monarchy more firmly to the established Catholic dynasties of Europe. Marie Henriette's marriage by procurationem took place on August 10, 1853 in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna . She arrived in Belgium on August 20th. Engelbert Sterckx , Archbishop of Mechelen and Primate of the Catholic Church in Belgium, celebrated the actual wedding on August 22nd, which took place in the Cathedral of St. Gudula in Brussels . On the following day, the guilds and artists' cooperatives of Brussels held a magnificent historical elevator in honor of the bride and groom.

Marie Henriette's marriage to Leopold was very unhappy from the start. The character of the lively, cheerful and freedom-loving Archduchess did not match the stiff and cool, reserved Belgian Crown Prince. Princess Melanie Metternich, third wife of the leading Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich , said with a laugh, referring to Marie Henriette's love for horses, that a hussar lieutenant was marrying a nun; with the latter, however, the Duke of Brabant is meant. In order to get an heir to the throne, Marie Henriette initially lived with her husband and, for example, accompanied him on a journey to the Orient lasting several months in 1855.

The couple had four children:

  1. ∞ Archduke Rudolf of Austria
  2. ∞ Elemér Edmund Count Lónyay of Nagy-Lónya and Vásáros-Namény
  • Clementine (July 30, 1872, † March 8, 1955) ∞ the head of the Bonapartes, Prince Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (1862–1926)

Queen of Belgium

Marie Henriette with her son Leopold, who died young

After the death of King Leopold I († December 10, 1865), Marie Henriettes, now 30-year-old husband, ascended the throne of Belgium as Leopold II. He refused to allow his wife to attend the coronation ceremony, even though she had already given birth to three children.

Marie Henriette could not exert any political influence and only performed representative duties. After all, in 1867 she was commissioned to take home her mentally disturbed sister-in-law, the Empress Carlota of Mexico, whose husband Maximilian , brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph , had been shot in Mexico on June 19, 1867. Marie Henriette went to Vienna and negotiated the return of the unfortunate Empress, which they on their way back from at Trieste situated Castle Miramare accompanied to Belgium.

The relationship between Leopold II and his wife was very conflictual, also because he openly had many extramarital affairs. Marie Henriette became cold and inaccessible because of these constant humiliations. Her children were brought up very strictly and with discipline, perhaps because she believed that life would be easier to cope with through a childhood full of privation. When her only son, Crown Prince Leopold, died of pneumonia in 1869 at the age of only nine after falling into a pond, Marie Henriette broke up. Leopold II was also badly hit, and his relationship with his wife continued to deteriorate. The queen became pregnant again in 1872, but the eagerly awaited male offspring did not materialize. She gave birth to another girl, Clementine. With that, their marriage finally failed. Much to the displeasure of her husband, her passion was now her Hungarian horses. The silver wedding of the Belgian royal couple, celebrated with great pomp in August 1878, did nothing to change their estrangement.

Marie Henriette, around 1875

In addition to horses, Marie Henriette liked dogs and birds, especially macaws; she also liked to arrange flower decorations in her rooms. Not only did she love animals, she also devoted herself to charitable projects as a very religious woman. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, she helped bandaging the wounded who had been transported to Belgium by train. She also promoted musicians, artists and theater life and was an admirer of Richard Wagner . Marie Henriette, who played the piano and harp well, had a theater built in her castle in Laeken and was able to listen to the vocal performances performed in the royal Brussels Opera House at home . She also worked as an amateur painter; for example, she created watercolors .

Marie Henriette retired to Spa in 1895 , where she had bought a villa in a park. She had a cool relationship with her daughter Clementine, who remained alone in Belgium and who now took on the representative duties. However, the queen was in correspondence with her aunt Anna by marriage , Countess of Meran (née Plochl), the wife of her uncle Johann . She indulged in gardening, continued to be active in charities and pursued her artistic and musical interests. Occasionally she appeared at horse shows. Her nephew, Prince Albert, was one of her confidants .

The worries about the unhappy marriages of her two older daughters and her own longstanding marital problems had caused Marie Henriette to age prematurely. Since 1899 she got sicker and sicker, now lived completely isolated and had little contact with her husband or daughters. Alone on September 19, 1902, after a severe asthma attack and heart cramps, she died of a heart attack at the age of 66 and was buried in the royal crypt of the Church of Our Lady in Brussels. Leopold II had forbidden his daughters to visit Marie Henriette in their final hours and to attend her funeral.

literature

Web links

Commons : Marie Henriette von Austria  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Renate Basch-Ritter: Anna Plochl. The woman at Archduke John's side . Academic Printing and Publishing Establishment, Graz 2005, ISBN 3-201-01845-7 .
predecessor Office Successor
Louise d'Orléans Queen of Belgium
1865–1902 		Elisabeth in Bavaria
personal data
SURNAME Marie Henriette of Austria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie Henriette of Austria-Hungary; Marie Henriette of Habsburg-Lothringen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of the Belgians
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH pest
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1902
Place of death spa