Jump to content

Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn and Taxis

From Catholicism Wiki
Princess Elisabeth Helene
Margravine of Meissen
Elisabeth Helene, 1920.
Elisabeth Helene, 1920.
Consort of Head of the Royal House of Saxony
Tenure 18 February 1932 – 9 August 1968
Born 15 December 1903
Regensburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died 22 October 1976 (aged 72)
Wildbad Kreuth, Bavaria, West Germany
Burial Königskapelle Brennbichl, Tyrol, Austria
Spouse Friedrich Christian, Margrave of Meissen
(m. 1923; died 1968)
Issue Prince Maria Emanuel
Princess Maria Josepha
Princess Anna
Prince Albert
Princess Mathilde
Names
Elisabeth Helene Maria Valerie Franziska Maximiliana Antonietta von Thurn und Taxis
House Thurn and Taxis (by birth)
House of Wettin (by marriage)
Father Albert, 8th Prince of Thurn and Taxis
Mother Archduchess Margarethe Klementine of Austria

Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn and Taxis (German: Elisabeth Helene, Prinzessin von Thurn und Taxis; 15 December 1903 – 22 October 1976) was a German noblewoman by birth and became the titular Queen consort of Saxony through her marriage to Friedrich Christian, Margrave of Meissen.[1][2]

Early life

Princess Elisabeth Helene was born on 15 December 1903 at St. Emmeram Palace in Regensburg, Kingdom of Bavaria.[3] She was the sixth child and the only daughter born to Albert, 8th Prince of Thurn and Taxis and Archduchess Margarethe Klementine of Austria. Raised within the residential court of her family at Regensburg alongside her seven brothers, she received a comprehensive private domestic education conducted by tutors that focused heavily on modern European languages and political history.[4]

Her early youth was directly impacted by the geopolitical upheavals of World War I and the subsequent German Revolution of 1918–19, which led to the institutional dissolution of the German regional monarchies. Her upbringing inside the Thurn and Taxis household, which maintained extensive communication and administrative networks across Central Europe, provided her with continuous exposure to the aristocratic and political shifts of the era prior to her adulthood.[5]

Marriage and later life

During the early 1920s, Princess Elisabeth Helene met her future husband, Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony, through regional aristocratic networks following the post-war restructuring of the German nobility. He was the second son of the last reigning King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III, and Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany. Following a period of courtship, the couple announced their formal engagement in 1922.[6]

On 16 June 1923, Elisabeth Helene married Prince Friedrich Christian at St. Emmeram Palace in Regensburg. Upon her marriage, she relocated to Saxony and assumed the titular role of Margravine of Meissen within the non-reigning Albertine branch of the House of Wettin. In February 1945, following the severe destruction of the family's residential properties during the Allied bombing of Dresden, Elisabeth Helene organized and led the family's evacuation westward to evade the advance of the Soviet Red Army.[7]

The family permanently relocated to Bavaria within the American occupation zone, losing their ancestral estates in eastern Germany. In the post-war decades, she engaged in the preservation of Saxon historical heritage and art collections. Elisabeth Helene died on 22 October 1976 at the age of 72 in Wildbad Kreuth, Bavaria, and was interred at the Königskapelle Brennbichl in Tyrol, Austria.[8]

Issue

Ancestry

References

  1. Back to citation Walter, v. Hueck (1987). "Sachsen". Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels: Fürstliche Häuser. Limburg an der Lahn: C.A. Starke Verlag.
  2. Back to citation McNaughton, Arnold (1973). "Thurn und Taxis". The Book of Kings: A Royal Genealogy. London: Garnstone Press. ISBN 0-900391-19-7.
  3. Back to citation Gothaisches, Genealogisches (2015). "Thurn und Taxis". Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch: Fürstliche Häuser. Marburg: Verlag des Deutschen Adelsarchivs. ISBN 978-3981724301.
  4. Back to citation Dallmeier, Martin (1996). "Regensburg". Das Fürstliche Haus Thurn und Taxis: Regenten, Residenzen, Patrimonium. Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet. ISBN 978-3791714929.
  5. Back to citation Behr, Kamill von (1854). "Thurn und Taxis". Genealogie der in Europa regierenden Fürstenhäuser. Leipzig: Verlag von Christian Ernst Kollmann.
  6. Back to citation Huberty, Michel (1988). "Sachsen". L'Allemagne dynastique: Les quinze dynasties de l'Empire. Vol. 5. Le Perreux-sur-Marne: Alain Giraud.
  7. Back to citation Marburg, Silke (2008). "Thurn und Taxis". Europäischer Adel im 19. Jahrhundert: Thurn und Taxis und Oettingen. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. ISBN 978-3050044033.
  8. Back to citation Sachsen, Albert von (1995). "Sachsen". Die Wettiner in Lebensbildern. Graz: Styria Verlag. ISBN 978-3222123016.

Further reading

  • Frank, Barbara (1999). Das Fürstliche Haus Oettingen-Spielberg: Dynastie, Territorium und Kultur (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3406452314.
  • Heydenreuter, Reinhard (2006). Königreich Bayern: Klerus, Adel und Bürgertum im 19. Jahrhundert (in German). Regensburg: Pustet Verlag. ISBN 978-3791719917.
Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn and Taxis
House of Thurn and Taxis
Born: 15 December 1903 Died: 22 October 1976
Titles in pretence
Vacant
Title last held by
Carola of Vasa
As Queen consort 		— TITULAR —
queen consort titular of Saxony
18 February 1932 – 9 August 1968
Reason for succession failure:
Kingdom abolished in 1918 		Succeeded by
Princess Anastasia of Anhalt
Retrieved from "https://catholicism.wiki/index.php?title=Princess_Elisabeth_Helene_of_Thurn_and_Taxis&oldid=119382"