Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo (16 September 1854 – 6 September 1927) was one of the highest court officials of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Among his direct ancestors were members of the House of Habsburg and the Medici family.
Alfred | |||||
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Prince of Montenuovo | |||||
Born | Vienna, Austrian Empire | 16 September 1854||||
Died | 6 September 1927 Vienna, Republic of Austria | (aged 72)||||
Spouse | Countess Franziska Maria Stephania Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau | ||||
Issue | Juliana, Princess of Oettingen-Wallerstein Marie Felizia, Countess Franz of Ledebur-Wicheln Ferdinand Bonaventura, 3rd Prince of Montenuovo Franziska, Princess of Lobkowicz | ||||
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House | House of Montenuovo | ||||
Father | William Albert, 1st Prince of Montenuovo | ||||
Mother | Countess Juliana von Batthyány-Strattmann |
Private life
editPrince Alfred of Montenuovo was born in Vienna, Austrian Empire, the only son of Wilhelm, 1st Prince of Montenuovo (1819–1895; son of Adam Albert, Count of Neipperg, and Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, Empress of The French), and his wife, Countess Juliana Batthyány von Németújvár (1827–1871; daughter of Count János Baptist Batthyány-Strattmann and Countess Marie Esterházy von Galántha). His paternal grandmother, Marie Louise, was the Empress consort of Napoleon I of France from 1810 to 1814 and Duchess of Parma from 1814; she was married morganatically to his grandfather Count Adam Albert von Neipperg in 1821.
Alfred married on 30 October 1879 in Vienna Countess Franziska Maria Stephania Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau (26 December 1861 – 11 July 1935), daughter of Ferdinand Bonaventura, 7th Prince Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau, and his wife, Princess Maria Josepha of Liechtenstein (1835–1905). They had five children:
- Princess Juliana Rosa of Montenuovo (Margarethen am Moos, 15 November 1880 – Berg Palace in Berg, Munich, 27 June 1961); (1) Married in Vienna on 20 May 1903 to Count Dionys Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan (Szent-Kiraly, 28 June 1875 – Vienna, 8 March 1909). They were the parents of Countess Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan married to Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria. (2) Married in Bruck an der Leitha on 3 February 1914 to Karl, Prince of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Wallerstein (Königssaal, 27 April 1877 – Munich, 24 May 1930), no issue.
- Princess Wilhelmina of Montenuovo (Margarethen am Moos, 30 June 1884 - Margarethen am Moos, 2 July 1884)
- Princess Marie of Montenuovo (Margarethen am Moos, 20 October 1881 – Tegernsee, 10 August 1954); married in Vienna on 5 August 1909 to Count Franz Maria of Ledebur-Wicheln (Petersburg, Bohemia, 6 September 1877 – Wallerstein, 24 May 1954), had issue.
- Ferdinand Bonaventura Franz Alfred Wilhelm Erwin Maximilian, 3rd Prince of Montenuovo (Margarethen am Moos, 29 May 1888 – Márianosztra, 2 May 1951); married in Budapest on 10 November 1927 to Baroness Ilona Solymossy of Loós and Egervár (Nagyteremi, 18 April 1895 – Vienna, 13 July 1988), had issue. Last male of the family.
- Princess Julia Franziska Ilona Maria of Montenuovo (Budapest, 27 September 1930 - Vienna, 18 February 2003), married in Budapest on 11 May 1950 Gyula Mathe (Torok-Kanizsa, 1904 - Vienna, 8 July 1976)
- Princess Marie-Julie Johanna Gabrielle of Montenuovo (Budapest, 29 September 1931 - Vienna, 2 December 1987), married in Budapest on 24 December 1955 Robert Reithauser (Budapest, 1 December 1919 - Eisenstadt, 7 December 1989)
- Princess Franziska Marie Johanna Gabrielle of Montenuovo (Budapest, 24 May 1934 - Vienna, 25 April 1984), married in Budapest on 19 March 1955 Egon Nezsényi (Mezö-Hegyes, 6 July 1914 - ?)
- Princess Franziska of Montenuovo (Margarethen am Moos, 22 August 1893 – Wels, 3 November 1972); married in Vienna on 11 April 1918 to Prince Maria Leopold von Lobkowicz (Unterberkovic, 7 July 1888 – Prague, 15 May 1933), had issue.
He inherited the title Prince of Montenuovo in 1895 following the death of his father.
The prince died in 1927 in his palace at Löwelstrasse 6 in Vienna's city centre after suffering a heart attack. His body was interred at his family's crypt at Bóly (Német-Bóly) in Hungary.
Career
editAfter studying at the Catholic seminary in Salzburg, Alfred started a career as court official, in 1896/97 becoming Obersthofmeister (Grand Master of the Court) of Archduke Otto of Austria (1865–1906), brother of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the heir to the Austrian throne from 1896).
In 1898 Emperor Franz Joseph made him Second Obersthofmeister of the imperial court, alongside Prince Rudolf of Liechtenstein. In 1900, Montenuovo was honoured by the Order of the Golden Fleece, the personal order of the dynasty. After Prince Rudolf's death, Montenuovo advanced to become First Obersthofmeister in 1909. The Obersthofmeisteramt, as his office was called, among other duties supervised the court theatres. Montenuovo supported the decision to make Gustav Mahler conductor and director (from 1897) of the I.R. Court Opera.
Montenuovo was a long-time enemy of Franz Ferdinand.[1] Following the assassination of the latter and his morganatic wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, at Sarajevo in 1914, and with the emperor's connivance, Montenuovo decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub.[2] Even though most foreign royalty had planned to attend[citation needed], they were pointedly disinvited[3] and the funeral was attended by just the immediate imperial family, with the dead couple's three children excluded from the few public ceremonies. The officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train, and this led to a minor revolt led by Archduke Karl, the new heir to the throne. The public viewing of the coffins was curtailed severely and even more scandalously, Montenuovo tried unsuccessfully to make the children foot the bill.[citation needed] The Archduke and Duchess were interred at Artstetten Castle because the Duchess could not be buried in the Imperial Crypt.[4]
In 1917, the new emperor Charles I (r. 1916–1918) replaced Montenuovo as Obersthofmeister with Prince Konrad of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst.
Honours and arms
edit- Austro-Hungarian orders and decorations[5]
- Knight of the Iron Crown, 1st Class, 1897[6]
- Knight of the Golden Fleece, 1900[6]
- Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, 1908[6]
- War Medal (1873)
- Golden Jubilee Court Medal, 1898
- Golden Jubilee Medal for the Armed Forces, 1898
- Jubilee Court Cross
- Foreign orders and decorations[5]
- Anhalt: Grand Cross of the Order of Albert the Bear
- Baden: Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1908[7]
- Bavaria:
- Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
- Bulgaria: Grand Cross of St. Alexander, in Diamonds
- Denmark: Grand Cross of the Dannebrog, 12 May 1908[10]
- Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order
- Ethiopia: Grand Cross of the Star of Ethiopia
- Greece: Grand Cross of the Redeemer
- Hohenzollern: Cross of Honour of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern, 1st Class
- Holy See: Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX
- Japan:
- Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion
- Mecklenburg: Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown, with Golden Crown
- Montenegro: Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Danilo I
- Norway: Grand Cross of St. Olav, 25 February 1904[12]
- Oldenburg: Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig
- Ottoman Empire: Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class
- Persia:
- Order of the August Portrait, in Diamonds
- Order of the Lion and the Sun, 1st Class in Diamonds
- Prussia:
- Romania: Grand Cross of the Star of Romania
- Russia:
- Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the White Falcon
- Saxony:
- Grand Cross of the Albert Order, 1898;[13] with Golden Star and Silver Crown
- Knight of the Rue Crown
- Schaumburg-Lippe: Cross of Honour of the House Order of Lippe, 1st Class
- Siam: Grand Cross of the White Elephant
- Spain: Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, with Collar, 20 October 1908[14]
- Sweden: Knight of the Seraphim, 5 December 1908[15]
- Tuscan Grand Ducal Family: Grand Cross of St. Joseph
- United Kingdom: Honorary Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 9 October 1903[16]
- Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown, 1900[17]
Ancestry
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References
edit- ^
Winkelhofer, Martina (22 May 2012). The Everyday Life of the Emperor: Francis Joseph and his Imperial Court. Translated by McCabe, Jeffrey A. Haymon Verlag. ISBN 9783709974162. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
[...] Alfred Montenuovo [...] was never part of the complexly intertwined aristocratic network of relatives. But his most implacable enemy was [...] the [...] heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, who hated Montenuovo's guts for cooly smothering every attempt of the heir to gain a certain say in court business. Franz Ferdinand also hated Montenuovo because he held him responsible for the suffering his own bourgeois wife went through at court, day in and day out, under the strict etiquette of daily court life. The animosity between them was well known to the court, and to the general public as well [...].
- ^
King, Greg; Woolmans, Sue (3 September 2013). "'The Anguish Was Indescribable'". The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World. New York: St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 222-223. ISBN 9781250038678. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
That funeral [...] would be unlike anything Vienna had ever witnessed. [...] The ceremonies that unfolded for Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were as much a result of the old emperor's wishes as they were an expression of Montenuovo's hatred of the despised couple.
- ^ "The Funeral of the Archduke". The Independent. New York. 13 July 1914. p. 59. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
Nor did any of the other royalties attend. On an intimation from Vienna either that the aged Emperor desired to be alone with his grief, or that on account of the anarchists he feared for the safety of his guests, the visits were canceled.
- ^
"The Funeral of the Archduke". The Independent. New York. 13 July 1914. p. 59. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
Following a short ceremony at the Hofburg, attended only by members of the imperial family, the bodies were removed to Artstetten, in Lower Austria, where the archduke had exprest a wish to be buried, inasmuch as burial in the Hapsburg vaults under the Capuchin Church in Vienna was forbidden to his wife.
- ^ a b "Hofstaat Seiner Kaiserlichen und Koniglich Apostolischen Majestat", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1916, p. 16, retrieved 2 November 2019
- ^ a b c "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1918, pp. 51, 53, 81, retrieved 2 November 2019
- ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1910), "Großherzogliche Orden" p. 43
- ^ Hof- und - Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden". p. 89
- ^ "Königliche Orden", Hof- und – Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern (in German), 1914, p. 11 – via hathitrust.org
- ^ Bille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1912) [1st pub.:1801]. Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1912 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1912] (PDF). Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri. p. 14. Retrieved 30 April 2020 – via da:DIS Danmark.
- ^ "叙勲裁可書 (墺洪国外務省第一局長ミュラー、フォン、セントゼオルヂ外九名叙勲ノ件) - 明治43年10月28日".
- ^ "Den kongelige norske Sanct Olavs Orden", Norges Statskalender (in Norwegian), 1922, p. 1179-1180 – via hathitrust.org
- ^ Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden". Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 145 – via hathitrust.org.
- ^ "Real y distinguida orden de Carlos III". Guía Oficial de España (in Spanish). 1925. p. 197.
- ^ Sveriges statskalender (in Swedish), 1915, p. 671, retrieved 2018-01-06 – via runeberg.org
- ^ The London Gazette, issue 27604, p. 6148
- ^ "Königliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg, Stuttgart: Landesamt, 1907, pp. 50
Sources
edit- The Royal House of Stuart, London, 1969, 1971, 1976, Addington, A. C., Reference: I 65
- Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser, Reference: 1955 425
- Franz Ferdinand - The ruling prevented. Kapitel Die Schüsse von Sarajewo . Chapter The shots of Sarajevo. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Wien 1983, ISBN 3-215-04828-0 . Austrian Federal Verlag, Wien 1983, ISBN 3-215-04828-0