A noble wedding in 1916

Marlene A, Eilers Koenig collection

It was March 4, 1916, in Prague at the height of the first world war. Looking at this photo one wonders about the weather. Warm perhaps. Certainly no snow. Prague, the capital of what would become Czechoslovakia, was one of the major cities of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The bride and groom are Princess Francoise Lobkowicz (1893-1964) and Franz Anton Prince von Thun und Hohenstein (1890-1973).

Franz Anton was the second child but eldest son of Jaroslav Prince Thun von Hohenstein and Countess Marie Chotek v.Chotkowa u.Wognin, the elder sister of Countess Sophie Chotek, the morganatic wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

This wedding of Sophie's nephew took place nearly two years after Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were assassinated at Sarajevo, the event that precipitated the start of the first world war.

As the women are wearing matching dresses, it can be assumed that this photo shows the bride and groom and their wedding party.

Eight months after the wedding, Francoise gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, Ida.

A son and heir, Christoph, was born on November 10, 1918, one day before the Armistice was declared. Marie Assunta was born in 1925 and Theresia was born in 1929. Both were born in Tetschen, which is now Decin in the Czech Republic.