News and commentary about the reigning royal houses of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, Monaco -- and the former European monarchies as well.
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A new wife for Rupprecht
January 6, 1914
Is Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria about to become engaged. The Marquise de Fontenoy reports that official sources in Munich and Vienna are hinting at the "impending official announcement" of a betrothal between Rupprecht and Archduchess Maria Annunciata of Austria.
Rupprecht's first wife, Marie Gabriele, a sister of Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians, died after a long illness in 1912 in Sorrento, Italy.
Maria Annunciata, who is the half-sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who is the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was previously engaged to Duke Siegfried in Bavaria. The engagement was broken after Maria Annunciata learned of her fiance's profligate and dissipated lifestyle. The deeply religious archduchess was heartbroken. She sought permission from Emperor Franz Joseph to become a nun, but her wish was not granted. Duke Siegfried is now considered mentally ill and is kept "under restraint" at Neu Friedenheim, a sanitarium near Munich.
Crown Prince Rupprecht is the father of two surviving sons, Leopold, who was born in May 1901, and Albrecht, born in May 1905.
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