Maria
Emanuel of Saxony, Margrave of Meißen and undisputed Head of the Royal House of
Saxony, has passed away suddenly on 23 July 2012. His death took place at home
in La Tour de Pails, an idyllic lakeside town located between the better-known
towns of Montreux and Vevey on the shores of Lake Leman. The Margrave of Meißen
had lived in La
Tour de Peilz for several decades and starting right after his marriage to
Princess Anastasia-Luise of Anhalt.
Born in Prüfening
near Regensburg on 31 January 1926. He was the firstborn child of Friedrich
Christian of Saxony (1893-1968) and of his wife Elisabeth Helene (1903-1976),
the only daughter, among several children, of Fürst Albert of Thurn und Taxis
and of his wife Margareta, née Archduchess of Austria, herself the daughter of
Archduke Josef and of his wife Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha (a
granddaughter of King Louis Philippe of the French and older sister of King
Ferdinand I of the Bulgarians).
Friedrich Christian
of Saxony was the second son of King Friedrich August III (1865-1932) and of
his wife Louisa, née an Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany. The King's sister,
Maria Josepha, was the mother of Emperor Karl I of Austria, thus making
Friedrich Christian a first cousin of the last Austro-Hungarian monarch.
Married into a deeply Catholic family, Archduchess Louisa did not really fit in
with her in-laws, This led to painful scenes for the family and much
commentary, only incremented exponentially when she ran away with one of her
children's tutors. Once divorced from Louisa, Friedrich August raised his
children alone and the Royal family had only minimal contact with Louisa, who
was thrown out of the Austrian Imperial House in lieu of her troublesome
behavior and shenanigans. Louisa's last daughter, Anna Monica, was eventually
brought back to Dresden and raised at court by a loving King Friedrich August
III. She later married Archduke Josef Franz of Austria, a nephew of Prince
Friedrich Christian's mother-in-law Margareta.
Maria Emanuel was
not the first Prince of Saxony born after the fall of the monarchy in 1918,
when his grandfather King Friedrich August III was forced to abdicate as the
empire crumbled all around him. The King's third son, Ernst Heinrich
(1896-1971), was married to Princess Sophie of Luxembourg (1902-1941) and they
had three sons, oddly named Dedo, Timo and Gero. Their peculiar characters, and
behavior, where as one of Sophie's nieces once said, "as queer as their
names!" More on the odd Saxons later, I promise. (Also, what the princess
meant was that they were "strange" – not Gay!)
In 1928 Princess
Elisabeth Helene gave birth to a second child, Maria Josepha, who was followed
the following year by another sister, Maria Anna. Five years later a second
son, Albert, joined the children in the nursery. In 1936 the couple's youngest,
Mathilde, was born. By then Friedrich Christian had succeeded his father as
Head of House Saxony due to his older brother Georg taking holy orders, the
King having died in 1932. As such, Friedrich Christian took the title of
Margrave of Meißen.
The family spent
time between their former kingdom, where they continued to own vast lands, and
the Free State of Bavaria, where the Margravine's family owned vast properties.
In fact, their five children were born in Southern Germany.
As Catholics, the
Saxons opposed both Hitler's rise to power and the establishment of the Nazi
regime. They would pay dearly for this stand. In 1943, former Crown Prince
Georg, an open critic and opponent of Hitler, was found dead in mysterious circumstances
near a bridge in Potsdam. Friedrich Christian and his siblings tried to stay at
their various Saxon and Eastern German properties while avoiding further
confrontation with the overlords from Berlin. His largest property, Schloß
Sybillenort, which the Saxons had inherited from the last Duke of Brünswick,
provided the family with comfortable refuge during the war. However, as Soviet
forces poured across Germany's borders the Saxons were forced to flee west.
Ernst Heinrich, who resided at the beautiful Schloß Moritzburg, barely had time
to bury some treasures in a forest and flee quickly toward the west. In the end
all these properties were lost, along with the priceless treasures that they
housed. When reaching the west, the Saxon Royal family found itself dependent
on the goodwill of the Thurn und Taxis and Luxembourg relations.
Finding husbands
for dispossessed German princes and princesses proved a mighty obstacle for the
Meißens. Maria Josepha never married, although she gave birth to a daughter. In
1953 Maria Anna married Robert de Afif, whose family were Lebanese princes. Her
sister Mathilde married Prince Johannes Heinrich of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha in
1968. He was from the Catholic (Austrian) branch of the Coburgs. They had one
son, Johannes Albrecht who was born in 1969 but died in a climbing accident in
1987. His uncle Maria Emanuel's cause was to suffer a grave loss with this
untimely death.
Maria Emanuel
married in 1962. His bride was Princess Anastasia-Luise of Anhalt (b. 1940),
only child of Prince Eugen of Anhalt and his wife, the former Anastasia
Jungmeier. Because the Bride's family lived in La Tour de Peilz, where Prince
Eugen enjoyed a comfortable position working in finance, Maria Emanuel settled
there as well. He joined his father-in-law and enjoyed considerable
professional success. Sadly, the Margrave and Margravine of Meißen (he had
inherited the title in 1968) were to remain childless. This situation was to
cause deep complications for the Royal family, since Prince Albert remained a
bachelor until 1980, when at the age of forty-six he married a commoner four
years his senior, Elmira Henke, a forceful lady of Polish extraction. This
marriage, clearly, was in contravention of Wettin Family law. Not surprisingly,
Albert and Elmira remained childless.
The absence of an
heir became a tantamount question for the Royal Saxons. As previously
mentioned, the Margrave of Meißen firstly chose his nephew Johannes Albrecht of
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha as heir. However, the young prince's untimely death
left the succession question unresolved once again. Maria Emanuel's first
sister had an illegitimate daughter and that would not do. His next sister had
three sons from the Prince of Gesaphe: Alexander, Friedrich Wilhelm and Karl
August. The Afifs thus provided the Margrave with a viable succession option,
which was not the case with his weirdly named cousins. Gero and Dedo had
migrated, with their father, to Ireland. Later on they moved to Canada where
they became farmers. They remained unmarried and had no children. Their brother
Timo, a most peculiar character, married several times and left two morganatic,
and troublesome, children from the first of his three morganatic unions.
Rüdiger Prinz von
Sachsen, Timo's only son, was to be the source of much trouble. Of course not
being a full royal weighed heavily on him, yet he made no effort when searching
for a bride from at the very minimum an aristocratic family. (Neither did his
sister, who engaged in at least four marriages, one as disastrous as the next)
Rüdiger married a German commoner and had three sons with his first wife before
ending in jail for trying to run a medical business without having any medical
background, or even a license to dispense prescriptions, which he was doing to
unsuspecting patients. His wife had an early death in 1989, leaving her husband
to raise (with shortage of funds) their three sons. In later years, these
morganatic Saxons would suffer from the same self-delusions that affect member
of the Romanoff Family Association. They have convinced themselves of having
royal status, which of course they never had, nor did the Margrave of Meißen
ever grant them such a position or any titles for that matter.
In the meantime,
Alexander de Afif, Prince of Gessaphe, eldest son of Princess Maria Anna of
Saxony, was chosen by a family council, and at the urging of the Margrave of
Meißen, his uncle, as the family's standard-bearer. In 1987 Alexander further
strengthened his case by marrying his long-time girlfriend, Princess Gisela of
Bavaria 9b. 1964), youngest child of Prince Rasso and his wife Theresa, née
Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany, a great-granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph
of Austria.
Maria Emanuel
clarified his stand further by declaring that Alexander would succeed him as
Head of House. Prince Alexander of Saxony, as he is widely known today, has led
a successful business career and for several years worked for the Saxon
government's office of foreign investment. Alexander and his team played an
important role in attracting foreign investment and businesses to the State of
Saxony.
Alexander and
Gisela have four children: Georg Philipp (b. 1988), Mauricio (b. 1989), Paul
Clemens (b. 1993) and Maria Teresita (b. 1999). The three boys were born in
Mexico City, where Prince Alexander managed his family's businesses. Their
daughter was born in Dresden, the first Royal Saxon to be born in the family's
ancient kingdom since 1936!
And
now we turn to the succession...This is could to be, potentially, a messy
situation.
I have
met all three men involved. The late Margrave told me that his heir was
Alexander, as per a family agreement signed by all members of the family,
Prince Albert included.
Now,
let me state...Alexander and Gisela are personal friends of mine. I first met
Gisela soon after she settled in Dresden. We are both friends of Fé Coburg
(half-sister of the late Johannes Albrecht of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha), and she
put us in contact more than 12 years ago...it seems like long time when I first
came to meet Gisela in Dresden. She later introduced me to her husband and we
have remained in constant contact ever since. Earlier this year Alexander
informed me that his mother had died before the news was made public. Both
Alexander and Gisela are delightful people.
Some
years ago I met Prince Albert. He came to the hotel where I was staying, a
well-known Munich establishment. I took him and his wife to lunch and we talked
for hours. Prince Albert seemed to me to be a rather affable, soft-spoken man,
the "professorial" type. He told me that he had signed the family
pact recognizing Alexander's rights...but his wife, a rather pushy and abrupt
lady, interrupted and said, "well, we
shall see when the Margrave dies...there are other candidates that I, we, think
should be looked at!"
I
reminded her that her husband had signed a family compact...she dismissed it
and said the Rüdiger ought to be considered a viable candidate for Headship of
House. "Agreements
can be broken," Elmira
emphatically said. "Not
gentlemen's and family agreements, Madame," I replied. She seemed on edge and
intent on making sure one knew who she was. I knew exactly who she was: a woman
born in Lodz, a morganatic spouse...nothing more, nothing less. Needless to say
there was not a second meeting.
Shocked
by her out of place pushiness and meddling, I immediately informed both the
Margrave and Prince Alexander and wrote out the transcript of the interview with
Albert, parts of which I wrote for Eurohistory.
It
seemed to me that Albert was under the control of his wife. He had trouble
speaking due to the degenerative disease he suffers (poor man) and seemed
completely dependent on dear Elmira.
Here
is where it all rests...Alexander and Gisela have attended many royal events
around Germany and other European nations. They are a delightful couple and
have an extensive circle of friends and relations among the Gotha.
Albert
(a talented historian) and Elmira live in isolation in Munich and, well, enough
said. Rüdiger and his bunch...two sons are married to commoners, one has a
child, making Rüdiger a grandfather. In a decision that raised many an eyebrow,
a few years ago Rüdiger placed an add advertising for a wife and in it he
informed prospective brides that he had an income of €3,000, not a princely sum
by any stretch of the imagination…really enough said.
The Margrave
of Meißen, as he lived most of his very admirable life, will be laid to rest in
private. He is succeeded by his wife Anastasia-Luise and his nephews and their
descendants, all in shock by their beloved Maria Emanuel’s quick demise.
Prince
Alexander of Saxony now becomes the Head of House Saxony.
The
King is Dead...Long Live the King
King Friedrich August III of Saxony
(1865-1932)
Friedrich Christian, Margrave of Meißen
(1893-1968)
Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meißen
(1926-2012)
Alexander, Margrave of Meißen
(b. 1954)
