Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg (née Duchess Eilika Helene Jutta Clementine of Oldenburg) (born 22 August 1972) is the wife of Georg von Habsburg, the third in the line of succession to the titular Austro-Hungarian throne

Line of succession to the Austro-Hungarian throne

The dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was abolished in 1918. The current Head of the House of Habsburg is Archduke Karl. The succession law used is Semi-Salic.-Equal marriages:...

. She is currently 794th in line for the British throne. She is a daughter of Duke Johann of Oldenburg and his wife Countess Ilka of Ortenburg. Her father is a younger son of Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg

Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg

Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg was the eldest son of Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, last ruling Grand Duke of Oldenburg...

 and his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

Wedding ceremony

On 18 October 1997, Eilika married Georg von Habsburg in St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, Hungary. He is the youngest son of Otto von Habsburg

Otto von Habsburg

Otto von Habsburg , also known by his royal name as Archduke Otto of Austria, was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918, a realm which comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,...

 (himself a son of the deposed Emperor Charles I of Austria) and his wife Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen. Among the wedding guests were Felipe, Prince of Asturias

Felipe, Prince of Asturias

Felipe, Prince of Asturias de Borbón y de Grecia; born 30 January 1968), is the third child and only son of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain....

, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Hassan II of Morocco

Hassan II of Morocco

King Hassan II l-ḥasan aṯ-ṯānī, dial. el-ḥasan ettâni); July 9, 1929 – July 23, 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999...

. Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

 sent his best wishes to the couple, and ambassadors of many foreign nations, including the United States, attended as representatives. The 25-year-old Eilika wore a high-necked white dress, along with a veil wore by her great-grandmother Duchess Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Duchess Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Duchess Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a daughter of Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg by his third wife Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt...

 in 1896. The ceremony was broadcast live on Hungarian television; roughly 2,000 Hungarian citizens and tourists gathered outside the church to witness the wedding.

Their wedding was the first union between the Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 Habsburgs and Lutheran Oldenburgs in their families' histories. It was also the second time that a Habsburg was married in Hungary since the fall of communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 in 1989.

Issue

The couple have three children:

• HI&RH Archduchess Zsófia Mária Tatjana Monika Erzsébet Katalin of Austria (Sophie Maria Tatiana Monica Elisabeth Catherine), born in Budapest, 12 January 2001)
• HI&RH Archduchess Ildikó Mária Walburga of Austria (Hilda Maria Walburga), born in Budapest, 6 June 2002)
• HI&RH Archduke Károly-Konstantin Mihály István Mária of Austria (Karl-Konstantin Michael Stephan Maria), born in Budapest, 20 July 2004)

Succession and living arrangements

Georg is the only one of his siblings to make a dynastically equal marriage according to Habsburg family laws. Had his father not accepted his older brother Karl

Karl Habsburg-Lothringen

Karl von Habsburg , referred to in Austria as Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, in France as Charles de Habsbourg-Lorraine, in the Czech Lands as Karel Habsbursko-Lotrinský, in Hungary as Habsburg Károly, and by his royal name as Archduke Karl of Austria, is an Austrian politician,...

's marriage to Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza

Francesca von Habsburg

Francesca von Habsburg-Lothringen is an art collector and the wife of Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.-Life:...

, which would have been otherwise considered morganatic, Georg would have been his father's heir after his elder brother, as it would have been with Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...

 towards Emperor Franz Joseph.

She and her family live next to the village of Sóskút

Sóskút

-References:...

, in Pest County in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. Their eldest child was the first Habsburg to be born in Hungary in more than fifty years. While Georg is a Roman Catholic, Eilika has chosen to remain a Lutheran.

Titles and styles

• 22 August 1972 - 18 October 1997 Her Highness Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg
• 18 October 1997 – present: Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Eilika of Austria, Princess of Austria and Hungary

Ancestry

Eilika's ancestors in four generations