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| Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp Queen of Sweden |
(1636-1715)
Regent of Sweden
1660-1672
1700-1713
Daughter of: Friedrich III von Holstein-Gottorp & Maria Elisabeth von Sachsen
Wife of: Karl X Gustav of Sweden, mar 1654
Her lover was:
Carl Gyllenstierna (1649-1723)
[Bio2]
"In 1667, the young nobleman Count Carl Gyllenstierna (1649–1723), was made Chamberlain to Hedwig Eleonora. He became the favourite of Hedwig Eleonora, served as her courier during the Scanian War, was promoted General-Governor of her dower lands in 1679 and was given the title of count in 1687. Carl Gyllenstierna was the favourite of Hedwig Eleonora and has been pointed out as her lover, and although this is not confirmed, he his swift career at court was attributed to his good looks. There is a legend that the residence of Gyllenstierna, Steninge Palace, was built with a secret passage from his bedroom to the bedroom in the so-called Queen’s Wing, which was used by Hedwig Eleonora during her frequents visits. During her later years, Hedwig Eleonora was criticized for her favourite, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt, whose influence led to an open conflict with Gyllenstierna. Bärfelt was known for taking bribes from supplicants to the Queen Dowager and rumoured to steal from Hedwig Eleonora. Gyllenstierna made an ultimatum and asked Hedwig Eleonora to choose between him and Bärfelt, which eventually led to Bärfelt being banished from court after Gyllenstierna had formed an alliance with Christina Piper, Beata Sparre, the Mistress of the Robes Märta Berendes, Arvid Horn and the court chaplain Molin. The night before her departure, Gyllenstierna had to door to Hedwig Eleonora’s bedroom locked to prevent Bärfelt from contacting the queen dowager.[10]" (Wikipedia)
"Hedwig Eleonora enjoyed great respect as "Riksänkedrottningen", which means "Queen Dowager of the Realm". Throughout her entire life she managed to keep a reputation of great virtue among the people. Among the court, however, she was known to have lovers, notably the young nobleman Count Carl Gyllenstierna (1649–1723), an affair that started in 1668 and continued for the rest of her life. According to unconfirmed gossip, it resulted in at least one abortion. Gyllenstierna was appointed Chamberlain to the Queen in 1667 and General-Governor of the Queen's Estates in 1679. He was to have received the last position as a recognition of his position as the Queen's lover. During the 1675–79 war, he was the courier of the Queen. He was made Count in 1687. The young Count's new castle, Steninge Palace, which was completed in 1705, was built with a secret passage from the bedrooms used by him and the Queen Dowager during her visits. One of the wings of the palace is called 'The Queen's Wing'. The love affair between the Queen and the Count is an important part of the history of the Steninge Palace. Gyllenstierna married the rich widowed Countess Anna Soop in 1706, but the Queen Mother and the Royal Family continued as frequent visitors." (Wikipedia)
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| Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp Queen of Sweden @Wikipedia |
Queen of Sweden & Norway
(1759-1818)
Daughter of: Friedrich August I von Holstein-Gottorp & Ulrike Friederike Wilhelmine von Hessen-Kassel.
Wife of: Karl XIII of Sweden. (1748-1818)
"It wasn't a conventionally happy marriage. Both parties had extensive extramarital affairs and they never had any children. On top of this, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte was a keen intrigue-maker and occasionally did not align her own political sympathies with those of her husband's (she was even suspected of plotting against him and planning a coup in 1810). But she seems to have derived a great deal of pleasure from life. She enjoyed jokes, dancing and theatre, and had lots of lovers, including a brief fling with Axel von Fersen and a longer affair with his brother Fabian von Fersen (note that she was also BFF with their sister Sophie). She was a spirited and intelligent woman, and her diaries are a fabulous and very entertaining source on late 18th century court life in Sweden." (The Rags of Time: Random Scraps of History)
Her lovers were:
1) Axel von Fersen. (1755-1810).
Swedish count, diplomat & statesman
Lieutenant General in Royal Swedish Army
Swedish Lord of the Realm
Son of: Axel von Fersen the Elder, Swedish Field Marshal & Countess Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie
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| Fabian von Fersen |
2) Fabian von Fersen. (1626-1677)
Lover in the 1780s-1797
Swedish field marshal, politician, courtier & statesman.
Governor-General of Skane 1676.
[Ref1:Riksarkivet]
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Sophie Piper |
3) Sophie von Fersen (1757-1816)
Swedish lady-in-waiting
Wife of: Adolf Ludwig Piper (1750-1795), Swedish chamberlain
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| Marie of Romania |
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| Marie of Romania |
(1875-1938)
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| Ferdinand I of Romania |
Wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.
"Carol was born in Peleș Castle. Carol grew up under the thumb of his dominating great-uncle King Carol I, who largely excluded his parents, the German-born Crown Prince Ferdinand and the British-born Crown Princess Marie from any role in bringing him up. Romania in the early 20th century had a famously relaxed "Latin" sexual morality, and in this environment, Princess Marie pursued a series of love affairs with various, predominantly Romanian men who offered her more emotional and sexual satisfaction than her husband Ferdinand could. For his part, Ferdinand fiercely resented being cuckolded. The stern Carol I felt that Marie was unqualified to raise Prince Carol because of her love affairs and her young age, as she was only seventeen when Carol was born, whereas Marie regarded the king as a cold, overbearing tyrant who would crush the life out of her son. . . ." (Alchetron)
Chronicle of Marie's extramarital relationships.
"Marie, more strictly controlled by circumstance than her sister, never went quite that far but after 1897, when Victoria Melita spent four months with her, she made what amounted to a unilateral declaration of dependence. She embarked on the first of her many extramarital romances, with a long-time admirer, Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzino. It was, apparently, a very platonic affair punctuated by candlelit dances, riding through the woods, holding hands and much mutual gazing into eyes. Prudence had never been Marie's forte and within a couple of years, the Cantacuzino affair was public property, fuelled to a peak of speculation by the fact that Marie was pregnant with her third child. At this juncture, King Carol, egged on by Queen Victoria, stepped into smother the scandal by exiling Cantacuzino and packing Marie off to home and mother in Coburg. There, on 11th January 1900, Marie gave birth to a daughter, another Marie.
"After she returned to Romania three months later, Marie lay low for a time, realising at last how heedlessly she had compromised herself. Restraint, however, was too foreign to her nature and in 1902, when she and Ferdinand went to England for the coronation of her uncle, King Edward VII, she was soon up to her impulsive tricks again. This time, it was with a young American, Waldorf Astor. History, still all too recent, began to repeat itself. Astor was handsome, charming, witty, attentive, and Marie undoubtedly fell in love with him. The affair was still going strong in 1903 when Marie gave birth to her fourth child, Nicolas, and Ferdinand, in his turn, was finding solace elsewhere. Tongues wagged with rumours that Nicolas—in fact, a mirror image of Ferdinand—was Waldorf Astor's son. What the gossips ignored was the fact that Marie was equally close with Waldorf's sister, Pauline Astor, who did even more than her brother to provide her Royal friend with shared mutual interests and a sympathetic ear for her many troubles. The Astor relationships ended in the most natural way, with the marriages of both brother and sister. In 1906, when Waldorf's forthright American wife, Nancy, discovered that Marie was writing to him every day, she put an end to the correspondence.
"It was only a matter of time, though, before Barbu Stirbey emerged as the new love of Marie's life. He was just the man for it, with his dark Romanian good looks and hypnotic personality. Stirbey, however, was a man of far greater substance than Marie's former admirers—a self-made industrialist and commercial millionaire with a great interest in the political future of Romania. Beauty, in other words, had at least met brains.
"In 1907, when Barbu and Marie first became close, the future of Romania looked black. That year there was a peasant rebellion which involved looting and burning on great estates like the Stirbeys' at Buftea, just outside Bucarest. Eventually, the revolt was quelled by new laws that gave the peasants certain land rights. For a time, though, Bucarest was under threat from a 4,000-strong peasant army and wives and children were sent for safety into the countryside." (Tom's Place)
Stable boys and everything.
"Great-grandmama was very naughty. Stable boys and everything": "The boatman Hassan; the head gardener who cultivated for her a black rose; the Italian architect Fabrice … in the Balchik story they join the list of lovers. The list is headed by the Crown Prince of Prussia and Waldorf Astor of Cliveden, whose wife Pauline complained that Marie was writing to him every day, and must stop it. It continues with Rosciori hussars, Russian grand dukes, a Polish count, a German envoy, Colonel Joe Boyle, Prince Stirbey, two or three minor Romanian politicians, Colonel Eugen Zwiedeneck, a young aide at Balchik . . . A younger member of the royal family says: ‘Great-grandmama was very naughty. Stable-boys and everything.’" (Scandal at the quiet Nest)
Marie's love life and lovers' list.
"The boatman Hassan; the head gardener who cultivated for her a black rose; the Italian architect Fabrice … in the Balchik story they join the list of lovers. The list is headed by the Crown Prince of Prussia and Waldorf Astor of Cliveden, whose wife Pauline complained that Marie was writing to him every day, and must stop it. It continues with Rosciori hussars, Russian grand dukes, a Polish count, a German envoy, Colonel Joe Boyle, Prince Stirbey, two or three minor Romanian politicians, Colonel Eugen Zwiedeneck, a young aide at Balchik . . . A younger member of the royal family says: ‘Great-grandmama was very naughty. Stable-boys and everything.’" (nursemyra, 2010, Nov. 3)
"The colonel's mission enabled my father to get to know Queen Marie, for whom he always had great admiration. The queen was then in her forties and heavily engaged in caring for the sick and wounded. Despite a certain heaviness and loss of mobility (the queen may have lost some of the sparkle of her early years), with her blue eyes, her tall forehead, and her delicate nose she was still beautiful. A descendant of the House of Windsor and Romanov, she remained characteristically haughty and liked to give orders.
Marie of Romania's lovers were.
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| Barbu Ştirbey @Constanta |
Lover in 1907.
Romanian Prime Minister 1927
Son of: Prince Alexandru Stirbey & Maria Ghika-Comanesti
Grandson of: Prince Barbu (Bibescu) Stirbey (d.1869), Prince of Wallachia
Husband of: Princess Nadeje Bibescu mar 1895
Barbu's physical Appearance & personality.
" . . . A dapper dresser, Stirbey had a noble brow, intense brown eyes, Slavic cheekbones, and a full dark moustache that almost his his sensual lips. Sophisticated, tall, and slender, Stirbey carried himself with quiet confidence. Despite his loving wife and four children, he was reputed to be quite a lady-killer, and many Bucharest socialites spoke dreamily of the 'strange hypnotic quality' of his eyes." (Sex with the Queen: 264)
" . . . [In 1907]. . . She met the man who would awaken her slumbering innocence, or ignorance, of the plight of her subjects, and instill in her not only an understanding of Roumanian politics, but of patriotism. His name was Prince Barbo Stirbey---and finally Marie had something to be passionate about. In more ways than one." (Inglorious Royal Marriages)
"The most lasting and intriguing lover was a local, with all the traits we associate with the Byzantine and the Latin: the hypnotically soft-spoken Prince Barbu Stirbey, a dark-browed Boyar full of expressive glances and suave gestures. . . ." (The Romanian: Story of an Obsession)
"Princess Marie's epiphany came after the peasant uprising of 1907 that shook King Carol's throne. She formed an attachment to Prince Barbo Stirbey (who bore a striking resemblance to Waldorf Astor) who schooled Princess Marie in Balkan politics and began to prepare her for the throne telling King Carol 'it is essential not to break her will. If we can persuade her to take herself and her duties more seriously, her natural intelligence will do the rest'. (Henry Poole & Co)
"After a fling with Cyril's brother, Boris Vladimirovich, Marie began an affair with Prince Barbu Stirbey. They had met years before, and while the paternity of Marie's youngest daughter Ileana was questioned, Stirbey admitted fathering her last child, Mircea who arrived in 1913. . . . " (Panhistoria)
Barbu's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Tall and slender, Stirbey hailed from one of the oldest aristocratic families in Roumania; his ancestors had riled the region of Wallachia long before Carol and Ferdinand's Hohenzollern dynasty warmed the Roumanian throne. Two years Marie's senior, with a dark moustache and a mysterious air, he was handsome and culture, educated at the Sorbonne, where he had studied law. In a country of glib self-aggrandizers, he was celebrated for his modesty. Although Stirbey was married to a stunning cousin, he was a renowned lady-killer; the women of Bucharest rhapsodized about the 'strange hypnotic quality' of his bedroom brown eyes. A former parliamentarian, he had turned his attention to cultivating his estate into a financial empire, investing the profits from his land into banking and venture capital." (Inglorious Royal Marriages)
"Barbo did not originally set out to conquer the crown princess, but when circumstances threw them together, the two found themselves irresistibly drawn to each other. Beside's Barbo's obvious charms, title, wealth, political influence and intelligence (he read law at the University of Paris), it perhaps might have been to Stirbey's advantage that he bore a slight physical resemblance to Waldorf Astor. As for the crown princess, 'still recuperating from Waldorf Astor, Marie was not an easy conquest.' But 'Barbo demanded what Waldorf had not, an adult relationship. In return he offered total commitment.' This set the stage for a long-lasting and devoted friendship between Marie of Romania and Prince Barbo Stirbey that would survive the most trying tests in the years to come." (Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria:153)
"Despite this, by 1904, Marie had given birth to three more children. Elisabeta arrived in October 1894, followed by Maria (called Mignon) in 1900 and Nicolae in 1903; Mignon's paternity came under suspicion, as she was born not long after Marie's return from a mysterious trip to Coburg, and a liaison with Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene. The affair began in 1897 when Marie began to find her new family impossible to deal with. . . . " (Panhistoria)
Lovers' Affair's Effects on Their Family, Other People and Society.
"Marie's relationship with her eldest son was one of deep sympathy, as well as strong conflict. Carol remained disgusted over his mother's relationship with Barbu Stirbey, who admitted to fathering the now dead Mircea . . . . " (Panhistoria)
"Ştirbey and Queen Marie were lovers, and Ştirbey was probably the father of her youngest child, Mircea, and possibly the father of Ileana." (Wikipedia)
"In 1907 Marie began a love affair that would last until her death thirty years later. Two years older that Marie, Barbo Stirbey came from an ancient aristocratic family and was one of the richest men in Romania. . . ." (Sex with the Queen: 264)
Specimen of virile masculinity.
" . . . In the eyes of a Romanian aristocrat of the time, Princess Callimachi, there was hardly a man who could offer 'so intensely attractive a specimen of virile masculinity as Barbo Stirbey. Extremely personable, elegant, dark without Oriental exaggeration, some strange hypnotic quality lingered in his beautifully expressive eyes... His manner was unassuming, yet full of charm; he spoke little, but a gift of persuasion and instinctive psychological insight made him rarely miss his aim whenever he set himself one. Extraordinary was the way he always struck the right note." (Born to Rule: 154)
Balchik Palace.
"The Romanian Queen chose a secluded corner to be her eternal rest - a humble stone grave dominated by a cross, brought over from Besssarabia with a short inscription on it, narrating a life history." (Romanian palace in Balchik)
Love nest.
"Undoubtedly the prize attraction of Balchik is this lovely palace... It was built in 1924-26 by King Ferdinand of Romania for his English wife, Queen Marie -- a granddaughter of Queen Victoria -- as a place of solitude and contemplation (Balchik was then part of Romania). Marie, a follower of the Baha'i faith, called it 'The Quiet Nest' and allegedly entertained her much younger Turkish lover here." (Bulgaria: 252)
"Alfred's cousin, Grand Duke Boris, accompanied him to Romania. Miechen's son was hardly a model, being a lothario of the greatest magnitude. Few womanizers could out compete the debonair Boris Vladimirovich. Even Crown Princess Marie of Romania was not immune to the grand duke's charm. He made no secret of his admiration for the beautiful Missy which soon sent tongues wagging. The Duchess of Coburg warned her daughter f the flirtation, but Missy succumbed to Boris's amusing company. It would appear that Boris was 'the first of [Missy's] numerous lovers.' . . . . " (From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1846-1928)
"A precedent had been set when Missy fled to Coburg and to the protection of her mother in 1897. That was why, when Missy found herself pregnant again late in 1899, the duchess did not hesitate. Her instructions were set out with precision: 'My plan is to take you immediately to Coburg, where we can wait until you give birth. . . I will take care of the rest.' True to her word, the duchess, like the Romanov that she was, fired off a warning to King Carol, telling him 'she would not allow Missy to have a miscarriage at Cotroceni [Palace in Bucharest].' When King Carol held his ground and still refused to allow the crown princess to leave for Coburg, Missy pleaded with him to let him go. Already exhibiting a dynamism that was to distinguish her from her other royal cousins, Missy defiantly confronted King Carol and told the king 'right to his face' that 'she wanted a divorce, and that the child she was carrying was Boris's.' The romance that had been kindled in May 1896 while Missy and Nando were in Moscow had continued on and off its erratic course. Missy's threat worked. The king was aghast. For once, the grizzled veteran of Balkan political intrigue and bizarre behavior was thrown off course---and by a sprightly young woman who was clearly his subordinate. To have such a scandal tainting the House of Hohenzollern was unthinkable for the old king. In the end, King Carol met his match in the combined onslaught of the crown Princess of Romania and her mother. So, Missy gave birth in the more tranquil surroundings of Coburg to her second daughter in January 1900---named Marie, though all her life she would be known as Mignon. In the weeks before the birth, Missy's attitude toward her husband and her need to follow her duties as wife and princess had undergone a transformation." (Born to Rule: 88)
"In 1899 Marie became pregnant again and asked Ferdinand to allow her to give birth at Coburg. He continuously refused until she told him that the child was not in fact him but Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. Eventually Ferdinand claimed this daughter as his own and she later became Maria of Yugoslavia. The father of Marie's fourth child is widely believed to be Waldorf Astor but much like he did with Maria, Ferdinand accepted Nicolas as his own." (spiderlily, Msg 72?)
3) Eugen Zwiedeneck (1886-1956)
Romanian general
"Carol's cruelties, however, at last revealed to his mother what he was—paranoid, power-mad and dangerous. Even now, though, Marie could not abandon Carol entirely, and never los the hope that one day, he would change, take her back and accord he the honours the mother of a king deserved. As she waited in this brave but futile hope, Marie occupied herself with her grandchildren, her riding, her garden, the publication of her autobiography, and with her latest admirer, the devoted General Zwiedineck." (Tom's Place)
4) Fabrice
Italian architect
5) George V of Great Britain.
6) Hassan
the boatman.
7) Ion Bratianu
Romanian politician:
Image result for Canadian adventurer Joe Boyle
Joseph Boyle
Canadian adventurer, business & entrepreneur.
"Marie was considered to be the most beautiful royal in Europe. She was Joe's junior by eight years, having been born in England in 1875 as the second child of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. Granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria, Marie had been married at the age of 17 to the Hohenzollern crown prince of Rumania.
Ferdinand I, nicknamed 'Nando" by Marie, ascended to the throne in 1914, so Marie had only served a few years as a monarch when she first met Joe. She was a romantic, almost soppy woman. She had a tendency to over-dramatize every event in her life, colouring it with a self-centred, almost mawkish sentimental sheen. Joe's audience made an impressive impact upon her.
"Afterwards, on March 7, 1918, she described the meeting. '. . . I had a busy day. I had to receive a very interesting Englishman, a certain Colonel Boyle who is working for us in Russia trying to better our situation. A very curious fascinating sort of man, who is frightened of nothing, and who, by his extraordinary force of will and fearlessness gets through everywhere. The real type English adventurer books are written about. Alas I could not talk with him half enough. . . .'
Marie found Joe to be a refreshing interlude in her busy day. His eves, she said, were beep blue and keen, 'sometimes even fierce.' He had a grip of steel but hands that were 'refined.' She invited him to a celebratory Christmas party, but Joe declined. Instead, the next day found him quietly enjoying a well-deserved dinner alone while Queen Marie and King Ferdinand entertained Hill and the British Embassy staff at a ball." (Klondike Joe Boyle: Heroic Adventures from Gold Fields to Battlefields: 87)
Joe and Marie's time together.
"Von Mackensen's pass to Jassy prevented Joe from crossing the German lines again back into Russia. When Joe asked the Rumanian government to interceded with the Germans, he was ignored. The impasse left him time to visit with Queen Marie on several occasions, riding horses in the countryside, attending church services, taking a brief holiday to Cotofanesti to visit a royal hunting lodge with her and others, and enjoying dinners in the royal summer palace. When two planes were turned over to his use by the Rumanian air force, however, Joe was able to maintain partial contact with his spy network. For the most part, May was a month of forced leisure." (Klondike Joe Boyle: 111)
And then they became lovers.
"During this time it seems likely the relationship between Joe and Queen Marie deepened and they became lovers. King Ferdinand had a reputation for his own dalliances. Perhaps Queen Marie felt freer to accept the Canadian's bold advances. He was a man of strong will and energy, and was definitely full-blooded. He made his own rules and probably didn't restrict himself with old-fashioned standards that denied him women of importance like Marie. He was a man who was obviously in love and she was a romantic who bestowed her affection towards him openly." (Klondike Joe Boyle: 112)
Naughty but only platonic?: "Marie's social life could not have been quite as dire as she made it out to be, because during this period, she became great friends with the American-born British expat, future politician, and business tycoon Waldorf Astor and his young sister, Pauline. The Astors were devoted Roumaniaphiles. And Marie found Waldorf, then in his early twenties and younger than she, uncommonly handsome, and his manners impeccable. She clearly fell in love with him, and her affection and admiration were in some measure reciprocated. However, no substantive proof has yet been discovered that would confirm the torrid affair alluded to in the gossip of the day. Their relationship more than likely remained platonic, replete as it may have been with overt flirtation and naughty verbal innuendo. Yet even a whiff of sexual scandal was enough to mar Marie's character; a very married European crown princess had to watch every step, regardless of her husband's conduct." (Inglorious Royal Marriages)
"In 1902 Princess Marie visited England to attend the coronation of King Edward VII. It was there that she met and formed an attachment with American heir Waldorf Astor. Though Astor would go on to marry England's first sitting MP Nancy Astor, he remained devoted to Princess Marie. Princess Marie described her lot in a letter to Lady Astor (who called her 'the lunatic Princess): 'we solitary royalties have a heart like other human beings and need love and affection like others, but we seldom get it as we are supposed to be happy enough in our so cold grandeur'. (Henry Poole & Co)
"The father of Marie's fourth child is widely believed to be Waldorf Astor (sic; Astor's) but much like he did with Maria, Ferdinand accepted Nicolas as his own." (Unfaithful Queens)
10) Loie Fuller
American dancer
" . . . Her close relationship with friend and confidant Waldorf Astor was widely known, although her long-time correspondence with American dancer Loie Fuller was kept secret for some time. . . . " (Panhistoria)
11) Wilhelm von Preussen, Crown Prince of Prussia.
12) Zizi Cantacuzino.
Lover in 1897-1898.
"Ferdinand was an invalid for so long that King Carol assigned an aide-de-camp to attend to Marie's needs as crown princess. It was a pure case of sending the fox to guard the hen house. The dashing Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene was already an officer in Marie's regiment of Hussars. He was short, dark, and a flamboyant dresser, and his sense of mischief at a time when Marie sorely needed her own spirits lifted made for a combustible combination. Soon the pair were spending a good deal of time together, a fact duly noted by a governess to the royal children, who reported to the king the crown princess's untoward behavior with her aide-de-camp." (Inglorious Royal Marriages: A Demi-Millennium of Unholy Mismatrimony)
"Marie of Edinburgh married Ferdinand I of Romania January of 1883. Supposedly Marie was repulsed by her husband, and while still a crown princess had an affair with Lt. Zizi Cantacuzene. It created a huge scandal for Marie and her husband. Marie fled back to her mother and gave birth to a child that mysteriously vanished." (spiderlily, Msg 72?)
" . . . In 1897, Missy embroiled herself in a romance involving a lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene, a member of her household. The scandal became widely known and was ended by King Carol. . . When, in the fall of 1897, Missy found herself pregnant, it was to her mother the she fled for refuge. As this was at the height of her affair with Cantacuzene, the uproar caused by the pregnancy prompted Missy to leave Romania. Nothing was ever known of the child born at Coburg. Ine historian has suggested that it may have either been sent to an orphanage or was stillborn at birth. Whatever happened, the story of the mysterious child of Marie of Romania was one secret 'she apparently took with her to the grave. . . ." (Born to Rule: 87)
"When an heir, Prince Carol, was born in 1893 he was taken away from Princess Marie who the King considered 'too English, too free and easy, too frivolous, too fond of dress, of riding, of outdoor life, too outspoken, with not enough respect for conventions or etiquette'. Isolation and her husband's infidelities led Princess Marie into the arms of Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene; the first of many amours." (Henry Poole & Co)
Marie's infidelity's effects on her family relations: "In Roumania, extramarital affairs, even royal ones, didn't raise more than an eyebrow and a shrug. It was a lusty society and such things were de rigueur. However, Marie's German and English relations found it utterly unacceptable;e (despite the fact that nearly all of her male relatives had mistresses). Women were expected to behave with complete propriety. And Marie's antics with her aide-de-camp engendered gossip across Europe. . . . " (Inglorious Royal Marriages)
" . . Missy . . . became pregnant in 1897, not by Crown Prince Ferdinand or Boris, but the princess's aide-de-camp, a Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene. The scandal compelled Missy to flee to her mother in Coburg. Nothing is known about the child who may have been 'stillborn or put in an orphanage.' . . . . " (From Splendor to Revolution)
Marie's Children by Different Fathers.
"She didn’t like him much and wrote to her good friend, Loie Fuller (American, modern dancer, friend of Rodin and Marie Curie) about 'the distaste, which grew to revulsion' for her husband. But she had several children, most of whom are thought to be by the Romanian prime minister Barbu Stirbey and Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich, a notorious Russian playboy, whose obituary read: 'a man of generous tendencies, who tipped shop girls with twenty dollar bills.'" (Marie of Romania and Her Dusty, Disinterred Heart: A Love Story)
"Princess Marie married Prince Ferdinand in Sigmaringen, Germany, on 10 January 1893. The marriage, which produced three daughters and three sons, was not a happy one. The couple’s two youngest children, Ileana and Mircea, were born after Marie met her long-time lover, Barbu Ştirbey. Historians generally agree that Ştirbey was the father of Prince Mircea. The paternity of Ileana is uncertain, as is the paternity of Marie’s second daughter, Maria (or Mignon), the future Queen of Yugoslavia. Ferdinand’s paternity of the three other children, Carol, Nicholas and Elisabeth, has not been disputed." (What is the Use of Being a Queen if You Can't Take a Lover?)
Marie's children.
" . . . Marie had produced several children whose paternity was as suspect as Elizabeth's own maternity. Marie herself had blurted out to King Carol I that her third child, and namesake daughter Marie (mignon), was not her husband's but her cousin Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich Russia's. Her next child, and second son, Nicholas, was commonly supposed to be the progeny of her lover William (sic) Waldorf Astor, even though in later life he so closely resembled the Hohenzollerns that there is some doubt as to whether he was indeed an Astor. Her last two children's natural father, however, was her long-term lover Prince Barbu Stirbey, though, in keeping with the principle of presumption of legitimacy, they were members of the House of Hohenzollern and known as Princess Eleana and Prince Mircea of Romania." (The Queen Mother: The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon)
Ferdinand I Photo Gallery
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| Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania @carolathhabsburg.tumblr
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| Ferdinand I of Romania |
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| Marie-Henriette of Austria Queen of the Belgians @Wikipedia |
Queen of the Belgians 1865
(1836-1902)
Daughter of Archduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine of Hungary & Maria Dorothea of Württemberg.
Wife of Leopold II of the Belgians, mar 1853, sep 1872
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| Marie-Henriette of the Belgians @Wikipedia |
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"The Queen was of medium height and of slender build. Her beauty and grace were unrivalled. The purity of her lines and her shoulders merited the expression 'royal.' Her supple carriage was that of a sportswoman. Her voice was of such pure timbre that it awakened echoes in one' soul. Her eyes, a darker brown than those of the King, were not so keenly luminous, but they were far more tender, they almost spoke." (My Own Affairs)
"In the spring of 1853, preparations were made for the marriage of Leo with 16-year-old Marie Henriette, the fun-loving daughter of Archduke Joseph, the Palatine of Hungary. She was rather a plump girl, brown-eyed and fair. Leo wrote to his siblings from Vienna that she was 'a bit fat and not very pretty, though without being ugly.' Marie Henritte had also dreamt of a prince charming other thgan the one her parents picked for her, this sinister coughing six-feet-tall gimp with the biggest nose ever. She told her half-brother Stephan before leaving for Burssels that she felt 'like a nurse going to tend a patient with consumption.'" (A Throne in Brussels: Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianisation of Europe: 66)
Personal & family background.
"Marie Henrietta of Austria was born on 23 August 1836 as the daughter of Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary, and Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg. Dorothea de Ficquelmont described the young Archduchess as “having been raised as a boy.” Marie Henrietta was a happy girl, who learned to speak German, French, English and Italian. She was musically gifted and played the piano and the harp. She rode horses like a professional." (History of Royal Women)
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| Leopold II & Marie-Henriette @Wikipedia |
Unhappy marriage, separate lives.
"The marriage started out unhappy, remained unhappy, and the couple lived mostly separate lives. Leopold had many mistresses and he made no real attempt to have a successful marriage. Marie Henriette was cold and inaccessible. Her only passion remained her Hungarian horses. Their children were brought up very strictly and with discipline. In 1869 when her only son Leopold died, Marie Henriette was devastated. King Leopold blamed Marie Henriette for their son’s death. Little Leopold had fallen into a pond, caught pneumonia and died." (Unofficial Royalty)
A disastrous mismatch.
"No match could not have been more disastrous. The sixteen-year-old bride was best known for her passion for horses and for a most unroyal raucous laugh. Leopold had a distinct tendency to fall off horses and no visible sense of humor. He was an ungainly, haughty young man whom his first cousin Queen Victoria of England thought 'very odd' and in the habit of 'saying disagreeable things to people.' Then known as the Duke of Brabant, Leopold had a pedantic obsession with trade matters, which baffled everyone. In Vienna, one lady observed that this puzzling engagement was 'between a stable-boy and a nun, by nun I mean the Duke of Brabant.'" (King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa: 35)
" . . . It was the second son, Leopold II, who, in 1865, bregan a reign of nearly forty-five years. When only eighteen, he married the Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria, a woman of many prejudices and peculiarities, who cared for little but horses and dogs. She did not approve of tennis; she objected to Wagner. She was an invalid for many years, and it is chritable to suppose that the King's lack of home life was accountable for some of the scandals associated with his name." (The Spell of Belgium)
1. Pierre Chazal (1808-1902)
Belgian minister of war.
Son of Jean-Pierre Chazal, French lawyer
Belgian minister of war.
Son of Jean-Pierre Chazal, French lawyer
Husband of Anne-Therese-Elisabeth Graff, daughter of a cloth merchant.
"Their marriage effectively over, Marie-Henriette, now aged thirty-six, withdrew almost completely from court life, spending most of her time at a house she bought in the health resort of Spa in the Ardennes, where she devoted herself to breeding dogs and horses -- and to Pierre Chazal, the minister of war. He was as fond of animals as she was; he had once owned a park with zebras and kept a monkey in his living room -- and so presumably did not much mind the smell of animals that observers reported hung around the Queen. After Chazal returned to his native south of France in 1871, he was replaced in her affections by Henri Hardy, the young royal veterinarian, who looked after he when she was ill. 'Treat me as if I were a horse,' Marie-Henriette used to tell him. The full misery of her life was revealed only in letters published a few weeks after her death in September 1902 in the Neues Wiener Tagblatt and reproduced in the New York Times. 'I am an unhappy woman,' she had written in September 1853, just a month after her marriage. God is my only support. If God will hear my prater, I will not live longer.'" (Great Survivors: 148)
"When she was in Brussels, Marie-Henriette spent many evenings at the opera. Leopold never accompanied her, but she often invited Pierre Chazal, the Minister of War. She adored the old General. He was as fond of horses, dogs and exotic animals as she was. Chazal owned a part with zebras, and in his living room he kept a monkey, which bit him once. It made him very ill and he nearly died. The General also used to take the Queen along military manoeuvres, where -- an excellent rider -- she joined cavalry charges. In the old man's company, Marie-Henriette relaxed and behaved in an almost flirtatious manner. . . ." (A Throne in Brussels: Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianisation of Europe)
2.Henri Hardy.
Belgian royal veterinarian.
" . . . After Chazal retired to his native South of France in 1871, the Queen struck up an intimate friendship with the young royal veterinarian Henri Hardy. When she was ill, she preferred to be treated by the veterinarian rather than by a doctor. 'Treat me as if I were a horse,' she would ask." (A Throne in Brussels)
Belgian royal veterinarian.
" . . . After Chazal retired to his native South of France in 1871, the Queen struck up an intimate friendship with the young royal veterinarian Henri Hardy. When she was ill, she preferred to be treated by the veterinarian rather than by a doctor. 'Treat me as if I were a horse,' she would ask." (A Throne in Brussels)
