Lissa of Bavaria

September 7, 1900


The Marquise de Fontenoy provides a profile today of the future Queen of the Belgians. She writes that the Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, known as "Lissa," to family and friends, will marry Prince Albert of the Belgians on the first of next month. She "bears a striking resemblance" to her father, Duke Karl Theodor in Bavaria, the famous oculist. She has the "same high forehead, her eyes are a deep blue, her hair fair and curly, while her voice is warmed toned with a musical ring." She is also a "clever violinist," and "almost as perfect an equestrienne" as her paternal aunts, the former Queen of Naples and the late Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
Lissa is "far from being as tall as her future husband." Her head "barely reaches his shoulders," and she will appear "somewhat sort besides such big women as Princess Clementine and the Queen of the Belgians." She is also a trained nurse, and she has assisted her father "in many of the 3,000 operations for the removal of cataracts, which he has to his credit."
She is also "merry and high-spirited", and she may be "relied upon to bring some life and merriment into the court of Brussels, the gloomiest of all Europe."