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Princess Elisabeth Marie of Bavaria

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Princess Elisabeth Marie
Countess Otto of Seefried and Buttenheim
Born(1874-01-08)8 January 1874
Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died4 March 1957(1957-03-04) (aged 83)
Castle Stiebar, Gresten, Austria
Burial
Gresten, Austria
Spouse
Count Otto of Seefried and Buttenheim
(m. 1893; died 1951)
Issue
  • Countess Gisele
  • Countess Elisabeth
  • Auguste, Princess Adalbert of Bavaria
  • Countess Valerie
  • Count Franz Joseph
Names
Elisabeth Marie Auguste
German: Elisabeth Marie Auguste Prinzessin von Bayern
HouseWittelsbach
FatherPrince Leopold of Bavaria
MotherArchduchess Gisela of Austria

Princess Elisabeth Marie of Bavaria (German: Elisabeth Marie Auguste Prinzessin von Bayern; 8 January 1874 – 4 March 1957) was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach.

Early life

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Elisabeth was born in Munich, Bavaria on 8 January 1874, as a member of the House of Wittelsbach, reigning family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. She was first child of Prince Leopold of Bavaria and his wife, Archduchess Gisela of Austria. She had one younger sister, Princess Auguste Maria of Bavaria, and two younger brothers, Prince Georg and Prince Konrad of Bavaria.

Her paternal grandparents were Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, the de facto ruler of Bavaria from 1886 to 1912, as regent for his nephews, King Ludwig II and King Otto,[1] and Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Personal life

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Countess Auguste von Seefried with her husband, Prince Adalbert of Bavaria
Painting showing Emperor Franz Joseph I visiting his grand-daughter Princess Elisabeth Marie and her family.

On 2 November 1893 at Genoa, Italy, she married Otto Ludwig Philipp von Seefried auf Buttenheim, Freiherr zu Hagenbach (1870–1951), the only son of Ludwig von Seefried auf Buttenheim, Freiherr von Hagenbach (1846-1902) and his wife, Emilie von Schmaltz (1849-1921).[2] Elisabeth and Otto eloped and married secretly, as they knew they would never be officially permitted to marry. Not only was Otto of much lower rank than Elisabeth, he was also a Protestant. In a letter announcing the marriage to his new parents-in-law, Otto stated that he and Elisabeth were so determined not to be parted that they had felt forced to choose between elopement and a mutual suicide.[3]

Elisabeth's father, and especially her paternal grandfather, Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, were incensed upon being presented with this fait accompli. It took years for Elisabeth's relationship with her father to recover; their reconciliation was mostly due to the efforts of her mother, Gisela, and maternal grandfather, Emperor Franz Joseph. Both of the latter gave the couple their blessing after the marriage was announced, and Franz Joseph presented them with a palace near Vienna. He also appointed Otto a lieutenant of the 1st Regiment of Infantry at Troppau and raised him to the rank of Count in 1904.[4] At the time of the elopement, Franz Joseph had written to his wife that while he was not happy about the marriage, he felt that Elisabeth had shown courage and strength of character.[3]

The marriage proved to be a very happy one, and the couple had five children; the first, Gisela, died as a baby. In 1908, Count Seefried auf Buttenheim inherited Castle Buttenheim in Gresten, Lower Austria, which has remained the family seat to the present day.[5]

Issue

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Her husband died on 5 September 1951 at Stiebar Palace in Gresten. Princess Elisabeth died aged 83 in 1957, and was buried at the cemetery in Gresten, Austria.[citation needed]

Descendants

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Through her youngest son, she was a grandmother of Franz, (b. 1942), who married Ruth Margaretha Schlumpf; Ferdinand, (b. 1944), who married Monique Brouillet (b. 1950); Isabel, (b. 1949), who married Count Martin Edmont Walter Karl Hoyos von Stichsenstein; and Johannes, (b. 1959), who is unmarried.[7]

Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ "Luitpold | prince regent of Bavaria". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Otto, Graf von Seefried auf Buttenheim : Genealogics".
  3. ^ a b Schad, Martha (1999). Kaiserin Elisabeth und ihre Töchter [Empress Elisabeth and Her Daughters] (in German). Munich: Piper Verlag. ISBN 3-492-22857-7.
  4. ^ "Counts -".
  5. ^ "Schloss Buttenheim".
  6. ^ "Family tree of Franz Joseph Otto Maria von Seefried auf Buttenheim".
  7. ^ "Descendants of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria".
  • Die Wittelsbacher. Geschichte unserer Familie. Adalbert, Prinz von Bayern. Prestel Verlag, München, (1979). Prestel Verlag 2005 edition: 462 pages and 100 illustr. ISBN 978-3-7913-3505-6 .