Is Queen Maria Christina opposed to Ena?

March 19, 1906


European newspapers, discussing the recent conversion to the Roman Catholic Church by Princess Ena of Battenberg, allege that her future mother-in-law, Queen Maria Christina of Spain "is bitterly opposed to the match" on the ground that Ena has been raised a Protestant, and "then goes on to declare that the family statutes, representing the views of the adult members, absolutely forbid unions, not only with Protestants but even with converts to Roman Catholicism from that church," writes the Marquise de Fontenoy in her latest column.

The Marquise points out that none of the statements made in the European media "have any foundation of fact." She points out that there is no evidence that the queen mother "entertains any objection to the bride of her only son." Queen Maria Christina is a devout Catholic, but she is " by no means a bigot."

She is the granddaughter of a Protestant princess, Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, who became a Catholic when she married Archduke Josef. His brother, Archduke Karl, also married a Lutheran princess, Henriette of Nassau, "who positively declined to abandon the church in which she had been reared."

Every Sunday, the Archduchess attended services at the Lutheran church in Vienna, and her presence there helped contribute to "emancipate its members from the restrictions, and even persecutions, to which, until that time, they had been subjected by the Austrian authorities."