The Count of Paris having died in 1894, his son the Duke of Orléans inherited at the age of 25 the immense fortune of the Orléans and their claims to the crown of France. He must marry according to his rank in order to ensure descendants.
However, no sovereign - including the Belgian uncle - was ready to give one of his daughters in marriage to the Orléanist suitor; if only for fear of displeasing the French Republic.
It is the princess Clémentine, political head of the family (she succeeded in putting her youngest son Ferdinand on the throne of Bulgaria) and tireless matchmaker, who proposes the candidate: her own granddaughter, the archduchess Marie-Dorothée , from a younger branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine whose leaders were viceroy of Hungary, but also a cousin from the Duke's first cousins.
The diamond tiara diadem of the Duchess of Orleans, was probably an wedding gift of her grandmother Princess Clementine of France, Duchess of Sachsen-Coburg-Kohary, it is noted in the Archiv of Maison Chaumet, Paris with 3 different versions, and the big diamonds are setted like lancette like leaves, set with diamonds.
Marie-Dorothée de Habsbourg-Lorraine , Princess Imperial, born onJune 14 , 1867-1932, is an Archduchess of Austria and Royal Princess of Hungary, Duchess of Orléans as the wife of the Orléanist pretender to the throne of France from 1896 until his death.
Princess Imperial and Archduchess Marie-Dorothée was the daughter of Prince Imperial and Archduke Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine (1833-1905), Count Palatine of Hungary, and his wife Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary 1846-1927, herself daughter of Princess Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of the King of the French Louis-Philippe.
Through her father, the Princess is the great-granddaughter of Emperor Leopold II of Austria while, through her mother, she is the great-granddaughter of the French King Louis- Philip I.
The Orléans, like the Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha (notably the King of the Belgians and the mother of the Archduchess) have a good sense of business and their families are not only royal but also extremely wealthy.
The princess was brought up by her parents in the worship of Hungary and loyalty to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, head of their House and crowned King of Hungary in 1867, the year of Marie-Dorothée's birth.
As she was a member of a younger branch of the Imperial House, such a marriage could not harm Austro-French relations, especially since Austria-Hungary was already officially Germany's ally.
Such a marriage would also allow the dowry to remain in the family.
Thus Prince Philippe of Saxe-Cobourg-Kohary, eldest son of Princess Clémentine and uncle of Marie-Dorothée married in 1875 Princess Louise of Belgium, eldest daughter of the King of the Belgians; the latter's sister, Stéphanie of Belgium married in 1881 the archduke-heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Rudolf of Austria.
All these marriages were very unhappy but the fortune was thus preserved.
Almost 30 years old, the Archduchess looks like an old maid and has little chance of finding another suitor than her first cousin. She can only nod.
The Orleans having been condemned to exile in 1886, the marriage took place in Vienna on November 5 , 1896.
In her Memoirs, titled " Comment j'ai vu 1900 ", the Comtesse de Pange , who was 9 years old at the time, wrote:
" This royal wedding greatly excited the imagination of legitimists and all the high French aristocracy hoped to be invited (...) the d'Uzès, the Luynes, the Noailles, the d'Harcourts, the La Rochefoucaults, the d'Haussonville, etc.
(...) Archduchess Marie-Dorothée was neither young, nor pretty, nor amiable, nor smiling, and her ill-assorted union with the Duke of Orléans did not promise anything good. She uttered a heavy solemn "Ya" which seemed very awkward for a queen of France.
(...) From a distance we followed the stages of the journey and read the stories in the newspapers. The Gazette de Château-Gonthier devoted its first page to it, while the Réveil de la Mayenne only made ironic allusions to it. My grandmother went to a solemn mass of thanksgiving which was celebrated at Château-Gonthier and where all the "right-thinking" nobility of the country were present."
The marriage of Marie-Dorothée and Philippe d'Orléans caused the eldest of the Orléans to renounce for a time the great expeditions of which he was accustomed.
But Philippe still retained his taste for travel and he embarked, in 1897, with his wife on Mediterranean cruises aboard the yacht Maroussia.
The couple stayed in particular at the Palais d'Orléans in Palermo where they received the Gotha, notably Kaiser Guillaume II of Germany and the Kaiserin.
But, as the years go by, Marie-Dorothée turns out to be sterile. The couple's relationship deteriorated and the suitor decided to resume his overseas expeditions while Marie-Dorothée spent more and more time, each year, in her family's castle, in Alcsút, Hungary.
Despite everything, in 1906, Philippe tried to reconnect with his wife and went to her in order to convince her to settle with him at the Manoir d'Anjou, near Brussels.
A waste of time, the Duchess of Orléans refuses outright and the Orléanist suitor must resume his solitary life and give headlines in newspapers about his lovers as Nellie Melba.
The Archduchess's decision was so firm that, when the First World War broke out in 1914 , she decided to stay in Hungary , a country allied with Germany, although she was for the Orleanists "Queen of France", a decision that her husband will never forgive her. The couple separated as soon as peace returned.
The Duke died in 1926 in Palermo, the Duchess in 1932 in Alcsút.
The marrige of her sister Elisabeth Fürstin von Thurn und Taxis was happy and she had 7 children.
Habsburg Orleans Vermählung im Kaiserhause
Anlässlich der Gala in Schönbrunn "Wunderschön
sah die erlauchte Braut, Erzherzogin Dorothea, aus, deren
Robe aus mit Silber und Perlen gesticktem blauen Velours-
Miroir, der mit weißen Straußfedern garniert war, gefertigt
schien.
Ein Diadem aus taubeneigroßen Solitären, eine Riviere
aus Brillanten und Türkisen und ein riesiger Fächer aus weißen
Straußfedern vervollkommneten diese in den Farben des Hauses
Orleans-Frankreich gehaltene Toilette. Das Haar war zu einer
russischen Kronenfrisur geordnet. Viel bewundert wurde auch die Mutter der Braut der bekannte
Smaragdschmuck weiland der Erzherzogin-Palatina, den Frau
Erzherzogin Klotilde trug. Ihre Robe war aus blaßrosa,
golddurchwirktem Brocat mit Goldspitzen."
Der Herzog von Aumal hat nach der Verlobung der Braut seines Neffen eine kostbare Diamant-Riviere gesendet, siehe oben im Bild.
Herzog Ludwig
Philipp von Orleans hat vor seiner Abreise
von Wien den Herren und Damen der französischen
Aristokratie, welche aus Anlaß seiner Vermählung nach
Wien gekommen waren, zur Erinnerung an die Hochzeit eine Gedenkmedaille zum Geschenke gemacht,
welche eigens zu diesem Zwecke geprägt worden ist.
Die eine Seite der Medaille trägt die Reliefporträls
des neuvermälten Paares, auf der anderen Seite ist
folgende Inschrift zu lesen:
„Se. königliche Hoheit Prinz Ludwig Philipp
Herzog von Orleans.— Ihre kaiserliche und königliche
Hoheit Erzherzogin Maria Dorothea, vermählt. November 1896.
Mit Hochzeitsgeschenken hatte sich noch das bulgarische Fürstenpaar eingestellt: Fürst Ferdinand hat der Erzherzogin Maria Dorothea eine
brachtvolle Lilie aus Brillanten und Rubinen, die
Fürstin einen silbernen Toilettentisch im Style
Louis XV. übersendet.
Die Königin von Portugal hat der Erzherzogin Maria Dorothea
den portugiesischen Louisen-Orden verliehen.
Von
der vielbesprochenen Brillantenkrone hatte sich während
der Fahrt zum Dejeuner im Palais Coburg der
die Spitze bildende selten große Brillant abgelöst,
doch wurde er noch im Wagen gefunden. Infolge
dessen mußte die fachkundige Intervention eines Hofjuweliers zur Zusammenfügung des beschädigten Kleinods betraut werden.
Quelle:Le Nouvelliste de l'Est hebdomadaire;Moniteur Universel;L’Avenir des Hautes-Pyrénées;La Vérité ; Gaulois,Pester Lloyd;Archive Ursula Butschal;The Graphic;The Queen;
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Emerald and Diamond Parure |Royal France |Jewels Queen Marie Amelie |Joyaux de la Reine Marie-Amélie
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