November 14, 1903
The difficulties proved insurmountable for a marriage between Princess Clara of Bavaria and Baron Theodore von Cramer-Klett. On November 8, the young baron married Baroness Anna von Würtzberg, according to the Marquise de Fontenoy.
German newspapers tried to parlay the news of a noble-royal romance into frequent reports of an "impending engagement" between Princess Clara, whose sister is the wife of the Duke of Genoa.
Cramer-Klett, a Lutheran, made large donations to several Roman Catholic institutions, especially to the Benedictine monastery at Eltz, which was "looked upon as destined to secure the support and goodwill of the Roman Catholic monastic orders and clergy in Bavaria" in order to try and overcome objections to the marriage,
The Bavarian regent did allow Clara's eldest sister, Princess Elvira, to marry Count Rudolf von Wrbna, the head of a "mediatized or formerly sovereign house," which made the marriage equal, but he has not allowed his granddaughter, Princess Elisabeth, to return to court or even into Bavaria, following her "runaway marriage" with Baron Seefried, although her other grandfather, Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, has done all he can to "induce him to relent toward the young couple."
The Seefrieds are an old German baronial family, unlike the young Cramer=-Klett is seen as "distinctly plebeian," whose father, a newspaper reporter who turned to manufacturing, and parlayed it into a great fortune. He eventually died in a lunatic asylum, "under restraint." The late baron was convinced that he would die of starvation. He succumbed to cancer of the throat, which prevented him from "taking any form of nourishment."
The present baron is his only son and heir and is worth about $30 million.
Princess Clara is said to have "lost her heart to him." She is said to be more amiable than comely," actually "remarkably homely." Some years ago, when she was "selected" as a bride for the Count of Turin, he "absolutely refused to marry her" because of her looks.
There will be sympathy for the princess with the marriage of her former suitor, as her home life is scarcely agreeable," and she is doomed to remain with her "eccentric mother, Princess Amelia, an Infanta of Spain."
The Marquise describes Princess Amelia as "the craziest of royal personages outside the bars of a lunatic asylum."
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