Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Clementine of Orleans
As a princess, Clementine was sought after as a bride by royal families throughout Europe. In 1836, it was rumoured that Clementine would marry her cousin,
Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies
, when the period of his widowhood expired.
[3]
King
Leopold I of Belgium
organised the marriage of Clementine and
Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, who was closely connected to the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico and Austria-Hungary. August's cousin
Albert
married August's other cousin
Queen Victoria
and was
Prince Consort
in the United Kingdom.
[5]
The contract of marriage between Clementine and August was signed in Vienna on 24 February 1843 by the French Ambassador
Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut
, representing Clementine and the Belgian Ambassador Baron O'Sullivan, representing August.
[6]
Prior to the wedding, the couple sought to reside in Austria, and an application was made to
Prince Metternich
, to know on what footing the husband of Princess Clementine would be received at the Court of Vienna.
[7]
The answer was that Princess Clementine would be received as Princess of the Royal Family of the Bourbons but the Austrian Court would not recognise August as a Royal Highness.
[7]
In consequence, it was decided that Prince Augustus would reside in France, and that he would quit the Austrian service and enter that of France, although he was an Austrian subject.
[7]
On 20 April 1843, Princess Clementine married Prince August at the
Chateau de Saint-Cloud
, with much "of European royalty in attendance."
[8]
The couple had five children.
Princess Clementine, with her two eldest sons,
Philip
and
Augustus
, 1845
Described as "a woman of formidable character and ambition... Clementine dominated her husband and spoilt her children. Having herself married no more than a wealthy but undistinguished prince, she sought thrones for her sons."
[9]
Name
|
Birth
|
Death
|
Notes
|
Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
|
28 March 1844
|
3 July 1921
|
married his cousin,
Princess Louise of Belgium
, eldest daughter of King
Leopold II of Belgium
, on 4 February 1875; had issue
|
Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
|
8 August 1845
|
14 September 1907
|
married
Princess Leopoldina of Brazil
, younger daughter of Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil
, on 15 December 1864; had issue
|
Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
|
8 July 1846
|
3 June 1927
|
married
Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria
, Palatine of Hungary, and became the foremother of the so-called Hungarian branch of the Habsburg dynasty, on 12 May 1864; had issue
|
Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
|
23 October 1848
|
6 May 1894
|
married
Duke Maximilian Emanuel in Bavaria
, the youngest brother of
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
, on 20 September 1875; had issue
|
Ferdinand
,
Tsar
of
Bulgaria
|
26 February 1861
|
10 September 1948
|
married
Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma
, eldest daughter of
Robert I of Parma
, on 20 April 1893; had issue
|
The
Revolutions of 1848 in France
led to the end of her father's reign, forcing Clementine and her family to flee France, although Clementine and Auguste, after ensuring their children were safely away, mingled with the crowd on the
Place de la Concorde
during the abdication
[10]
before leisurely travelling to
Versailles
by train.
[11]
She then accompanied her father to the French Embassy in London
[12]
before heading to Coburg, and then onto Vienna, where her husband was an officer with the
Austro-Hungarian army
.
Clementine campaigned to regain the assets taken by decree from the Orleans by
Louis Napoleon
, seeking the return of the ancestral inheritance by, amongst other things, a letter writing campaign to the French media.
[13]
She publicly refused the offer from Emperor Napoleon III of 200,000
francs
, demanding instead the heritage of her father.
[14]
While staying with Queen Victoria in July 1851, Clementine had to cut short her visit to return to Spain when news arrived that her sons' tutor "had gone off his head".
[15]
Victoria fretted that she would share Clementine's fate and revolution would end the British monarchy, and feared what would happen to her children.
[16]
August died in 1881.
[17]
Clementine did not remarry, living almost to the age of 90.
Clementine and the election to the Bulgarian throne
edit
Realising that she would never be queen, Clementine turned her efforts to instilling in Ferdinand, her favorite child, the idea that, as a descendant not only of Louis-Philippe but of
the Sun King
, he deserved to be a king, of which country was not an important matter.
[
citation needed
]
Clementine ensured that Ferdinand was widely educated; fluent in several languages, Ferdinand also gained a great interest in the natural sciences and nature,
[18]
all of which, Clementine believed, would make Ferdinand an excellent king.
As it turned out, that country was
Bulgaria
and Clementine actively lobbied for Ferdinand's election as Prince of Bulgaria.
[19]
Clementine then worked to ensure European recognition of Ferdinand, lobbying other heads of state, including
Kaiser Wilhelm II
and Ferdinand's
suzerain
, Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
of the
Ottoman Empire
. She was said to "cast a beneficent and civilizing glow around [Ferdinand], smoothing away many difficulties by her womanly tact and philanthropic activity."
[
citation needed
]
Clementine also found time to design a royal crown for Ferdinand, which included a "requisite number of jewels from her own dressing case".
[20]
Unfortunately, Ferdinand made a number of alterations to the design but decided not to pay the painter for painting a portrait of the new crown, leading him to be sued by the painter in a
Munich
court.
[20]
Clementine in Bulgaria
edit
Princess Clementine of Orleans
Clementine followed her son to Bulgaria, where she became an important person as the mother of the sovereign. Extremely wealthy, Clementine made herself popular in her adopted homeland by showering money on Bulgaria, including a donation of four million francs towards the completion of a railway line linking Bulgaria to Europe's rail network.
[21]
She is considered to have had a positive impact on Bulgarian society, and created good will for Ferdinand among the Bulgarian public by large donation to charitable and public causes: she financed the construction of several buildings and institutions, such as a school for the Blind and the Klimentinskata Hospital, and she was also one of the founders of the Bulgarian
Red Cross
.
[
citation needed
]
Clementine also gained a reputation for haughtiness and disdain for anyone not of royal blood, although she surprised many observers with her charm and good humour at times.
[22]
At official dinners, it is said she "smiled at the small incongruities committed during these meals by the uncouth Bulgarian notabilities of those days, and she contrived somehow by her tact, and without ever wounding any one among them, to teach them that peas are not to be eaten with one's knife, and that it is not altogether the thing to drink from the finger-bowl."
[22]
A friend of
Queen Victoria
, Clementine would lunch with Victoria, particularly at Coburg when Victoria would visit her German relatives.
[23]
Said to be "one of the cleverest royal ladies in Europe",
[24]
Clementine was known for her "shrewd mind and a remarkable understanding of European politics and diplomacy", and was often sent by Ferdinand as his representative on diplomatic missions around Europe.
[
citation needed
]
Clementine also sought a suitable bride for Ferdinand and was said to be "anxious" to arrange a marriage between Ferdinand and
Princess Helene of Orleans
, the
Comte de Paris's
daughter, but Princess Helene demurred.
[24]
In February 1896, Clementine was reported to have "broken off relations" with Ferdinand following Ferdinand's consent to have his son
Boris
baptised into the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
.
[25]
They reconciled, however, and one of the highlights of her life was seeing Prince Ferdinand hailed as a recognized head of state during an official visit to Paris later that year. This was particularly poignant, as it recalled her father's forced abdication and flight from Paris in 1848.
[26]
Princess Clementine with her daughter-in-law
Marie Louise
and her son, the future Tsar
Boris III of Bulgaria
In 1899, her daughter-in-law
Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma
died following complications from the birth of daughter
Nadezhda
[27]
(who was privately christened Clementine in honour of her grandmother)
[28]
and Clementine assumed responsibility for the education of the children.
Following the
Ilinden?Preobrazhenie Uprising
of 1903 and the resultant increase in refugees, Clementine co-ordinated the humanitarian response, gathering donations throughout Europe, including 2000 Francs from Kaiser Wilhelm II.
[29]
In October 1903, Clementine, along with Prince Boris, was on the
Orient Express
when it collided with a goods train near the Serbian border. Although shaken, they were not hurt.
[30]
Increasingly deaf as she aged, Clementine became dependent on an enormous
ear trumpet
and on people obligingly raising their voices for her. It became an occupational hazard of the Bulgarian court to be caught in long, loud conversations with Clementine that she was reluctant to end. However, even well into her eighties, Clementine often traveled to Paris to study the latest fashions.
[24]
Although she saw Ferdinand recognized internationally as Prince of Bulgaria (albeit under the nominal
suzerainty
of the
Ottoman
Sultan), Clementine died the year before the dream of seeing her son
installed as an independent monarch
was realized.
[
citation needed
]
Clementine suffered from inflammation of the right lung in February 1898 and, while there were fears for her health,
[31]
she was able to recover satisfactorily.
[32]
In early February 1907, Clementine was struck with a bout of
influenza
, which, considering her age, was feared to be terminal.
[33]
Clementine was reported to have recovered from this bout "so that all danger has passed"
[33]
but remained weak.
Clementine died in
Vienna
on 16 February 1907, at the age of eighty-nine.
[34]
[35]
Her influence on
Ferdinand
was so pronounced that people began to predict his downfall. She was buried in
Coburg
, with an inscription on her memorial, composed by Ferdinand after his installation as tsar in 1908, reading "King's daughter, no Queen herself, yet King's mother.".
[36]
She was the last surviving child of Louis-Philippe.
Ancestors of Princess Clementine of Orleans
|
---|
|
- Aronson, T.
(1986)
Crowns in conflict: the triumph and the tragedy of European monarchy, 1910?1918
, J. Murray, London.
ISBN
0-7195-4279-0
.
- Barman, R. (2002)
Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825?1891
, Stanford University Press.
ISBN
0-8047-4400-9
.
- Constant, S. (1979)
Foxy Ferdinand, 1861?1948, Tsar of Bulgaria
, Sidgwick and Jackson, London.
ISBN
0-283-98515-1
.
- de Saint-Amand, I. (1895)
The Revolution of 1848
, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
- Ilchev, I., Kolev, V. & Yanchev, V. (2005)
Bulgarian parliament and Bulgarian statehood
, St. Kliment Ohridski University Press,
ISBN
954-07-2197-0
.
- Jobson, D. (1848)
Career of Louis-Philippe: with a full account of the late revolution
, E. Churton.
- Longford, E.
(1987)
Victoria R.I.
, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, London.
ISBN
0-297-17001-5
.
- Mansel, P. (2001)
Paris Between Empires
, Phoenix, London.
ISBN
1-84212-656-3
.
- Princess Catherine Radziwill
(1916, reprinted 2010)
Sovereigns and Statesmen of Europe
, Get Books,
ISBN
1-4455-6810-1
.
- ^
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/24696/data.pdf
- ^
By an ordinance he signed on 13 August 1830, Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, defined the manner in which his children, as well as his sister, would continue to bear the name and arms of Orleans:
- Ordonnance du roi qui
determine les noms et titres
des princes et princesses de la famille royale.
- LOUIS PHILIPPE ROI DES FRANCAIS, a tous presens et a venir, salut.
- Notre avenement a la couronne ayant rendu necessaire de determiner les noms et les titres que devaient porter a l'avenir les princes et princesses nos enfans, ainsi que notre bien-aimee sœur,
- Nous avons ordonne et ordonnons ce qui suit?:
- Les princes et princesses nos bien-aimes enfans, ainsi que notre bien-aimee sœur,
continueront a porter le nom et les armes d'Orleans.
- Notre bien-aime fils aine, le duc de Chartres, portera, comme prince royal, le titre de duc d'Orleans.
- Nos bien-aimes fils puines conserveront les titres qu'ils ont portes jusqu'a ce jour.
- Nos bien-aimees filles et notre bien-aimee sœur ne porteront d'autre titre que celui de
princesses d'Orleans
, en se distinguant entre elles par leurs prenoms.
- Il sera fait, en consequence, sur les registres de l'etat civil de la Maison royale, dans les archives de la Chambre des Pairs, toutes les rectifications qui resultent des dispositions ci-dessus [...]
- ^
a
b
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
, "From the Latest London Papers", 13 September 1836, p. 3
- ^
Mansel, p. 311
- ^
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
, "Their Majesties will come to town on the 29th", 29 May 1838, p. 3
- ^
Courier
(Hobart), "Isle of France", 15 September 1843, p. 4
- ^
a
b
c
The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art
, Leavitt, Trow, & Co., v. 1 (Jan. ? Apr. 1843), p 431
- ^
Court and Lady's Magazine, Monthly Critic and Museum
, "MARRIAGE OF H.R.H. THE PRINCESS CLEMENTINE of ORLEANS, TO PRINCE AUGUSTUS OF SAXE-COBURG GOTHA", June 1843, p. 110
- ^
Barman, p. 156
- ^
de Saint-Amand, p. 211
- ^
de Saint-Amand, p. 277
- ^
Jobson, p. 71
- ^
The Moreton Bay Courier
, "British and Foreign", 1 November 1856, p. 4
- ^
News of the World
, "Protest of the Princess Clementine", 13 July 1856, p. 2
- ^
Longford, p. 217
- ^
Longford, p. 197
- ^
The Advertiser (Adelaide)
, "Obituary: Princess Clementine", 19 February 1907, p. 7
- ^
Ilchev, I., Kolev, V. & Yanchev, V., p. 55.
- ^
Constant, pp. 41?43, 54
- ^
a
b
News of the World
, "Gossip of the Day", 9 December 1900, p. 6
- ^
Constant, pp. 107?108
- ^
a
b
Radziwell, p. 137.
- ^
The Times
, "The Queen at Coburg", 24 April 1894, p. 5
- ^
a
b
c
The London Journal
, "Princess Clementine of Orleans", 8 July 1893, p. 11
- ^
The Brisbane Courier
, "Baptism of Prince Boris", 8 February 1896, p. 5
- ^
Constant, p. 183
- ^
Marlborough Express
, "Death of a Princess", 3 February 1899, p. 2
- ^
New York Times
, "Vienna, 31 January 1899", 1 February 1899, p. 2
- ^
Hawera and Normanby Star
, "The Balkans", 3 December 1903, p. 2
- ^
The Advertiser
(Adelaide), "Serious Railway Accident", 5 October 1903, p. 5
- ^
The Times
, "Court Circular, 12 February 1898, p. 12
- ^
The Times
, "Court Circular", 17 February 1898, p. 6
- ^
a
b
The Times
, "Court Circular", 5 February 1907, p. 7
- ^
New York Times
, "Princess Dead Aged 89", 17 February 1907, p. 9
- ^
the Star
, "Princess Clementine of Saxe-Coburg", 18 February 1907, p. 3.
- ^
Constant, p. 207
- ^
a
b
Phillips, Walter Alison
(1911).
"Louis Philippe I."?
. In
Chisholm, Hugh
(ed.).
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol.?17 (11th?ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^
a
b
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Marie Amelie Therese"?
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol.?17 (11th?ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^
a
b
Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans
[
Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living
] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p.?90.
- ^
a
b
Delille, E. (1822).
Journal de la vie de S.A.S. madame la Dsse. d'Orleans, douairiere
(in French). J.-J. Blaise. pp.?1?2.
- ^
a
b
Genealogie ascendante
, p. 9
- ^
a
b
Genealogie ascendante
, p. 1