Princess Mathilde of Saxony (1863–1933)
Encyclopedia
Princess Mathilde of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony (19 March 1863, Dresden
, Saxony
– 27 March 1933, Dresden
, Saxony
, Germany
) was the third child and third-eldest daughter of George of Saxony
and his wife, Maria Anna of Portugal
. She was an elder sister of the Kingdom of Saxony
's last king, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony
.
, had planned a marriage between Mathilde and Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, however Rudolf rejected this arrangement and instead married Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
.
It was then agreed that Mathilde would marry a nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I
and the presumptive heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand
. However, dynastic relations between the Saxon royal family and the Habsburgs were once again strained when Franz Ferdinand chose to marry morganatically
Sophie Chotek, Countess of Chotkov and Vojnín
. (Relations between the two nations improved only when Mathilde's younger sister Maria Josepha
married her second cousin, Archduke Otto Francis.)
Mathilde became embittered by these rejections and turned critical and waspish; she also turned to alcohol to ease her unhappiness, acquiring the nickname "Schnapps-Mathilde" for obvious reasons. She made life difficult for other members of the royal family, and as a consequence was the least popular of the royals by a wide margin among the people of Saxony.
She was a talented painter and took lessons from the artist Alfred Diethe from 1890 to 1901. Some of her paintings, mainly landscapes and scenes of court life in Pillnitz, were made into prints. Others appeared on postcards, which were sold to raise money for charity.
Mathilde died unmarried on 27 March 1933 at the age of 70. She was interred in the New Tomb of the Katholische Hofkirche
in Dresden.
name was Prinzessin Mathilde Marie Auguste Viktorie Leopoldine Karoline Luise Franziska Josepha von Sachsen, Herzogin zu Sachsen
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
– 27 March 1933, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) was the third child and third-eldest daughter of George of Saxony
George of Saxony
-Life:George was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He was the second son of King John of Saxony and his wife Princess Amelia of Bavaria , daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria ....
and his wife, Maria Anna of Portugal
Maria Anna of Portugal
Infanta Maria Ana of Portugal was a Portuguese infanta , the eldest surviving daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and her...
. She was an elder sister of the Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
's last king, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony
Frederick Augustus III of Saxony
This article is about King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. For the elector Frederick Augustus III, see Frederick Augustus I of Saxony.Frederick Augustus III was the last King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.Born in Dresden, Frederick Augustus was the son of King George of Saxony...
.
Life
As a young girl, Mathilde was quiet and gentle, but she was not especially good-looking. Her father, George of SaxonyGeorge of Saxony
-Life:George was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He was the second son of King John of Saxony and his wife Princess Amelia of Bavaria , daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria ....
, had planned a marriage between Mathilde and Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, however Rudolf rejected this arrangement and instead married Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Stéphanie was a Belgium princess by birth, and then made Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf...
.
It was then agreed that Mathilde would marry a nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
and the presumptive heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, 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...
. However, dynastic relations between the Saxon royal family and the Habsburgs were once again strained when Franz Ferdinand chose to marry morganatically
Morganatic marriage
In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...
Sophie Chotek, Countess of Chotkov and Vojnín
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg ; 1 March 1868 – 28 June 1914) was a Czech aristocrat, the morganatic wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Their assassination sparked World War I.- Early life :...
. (Relations between the two nations improved only when Mathilde's younger sister Maria Josepha
Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony
Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony was the mother of Emperor Charles I of Austria and the fifth child of George of Saxony and Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal.-Early life:...
married her second cousin, Archduke Otto Francis.)
Mathilde became embittered by these rejections and turned critical and waspish; she also turned to alcohol to ease her unhappiness, acquiring the nickname "Schnapps-Mathilde" for obvious reasons. She made life difficult for other members of the royal family, and as a consequence was the least popular of the royals by a wide margin among the people of Saxony.
She was a talented painter and took lessons from the artist Alfred Diethe from 1890 to 1901. Some of her paintings, mainly landscapes and scenes of court life in Pillnitz, were made into prints. Others appeared on postcards, which were sold to raise money for charity.
Mathilde died unmarried on 27 March 1933 at the age of 70. She was interred in the New Tomb of the Katholische Hofkirche
Katholische Hofkirche
The Katholische Hofkirche is a Roman Catholic Cathedral, located in the 'Altstadt' in the heart of Dresden, in Germany. Previously the most important Catholic parish church of the city, it was elevated to cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in 1964.-Overview:The Hofkirche...
in Dresden.
Full name
Her birth name was Mathilde Marie Auguste Viktorie Leopoldine Karoline Luise Franziska Josepha of Saxony, Duchess of Saxony. Her full GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
name was Prinzessin Mathilde Marie Auguste Viktorie Leopoldine Karoline Luise Franziska Josepha von Sachsen, Herzogin zu Sachsen