#House Thurn and Taxis

[archduchessofnowhere]

Letter from Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria to her niece, Countess Théodolinde of Württenberg (née Princess of Leuchtenberg):

Munich, 20 April, 1846

... I would not have thought of taking on a sub-governess, as I have an excellent nanny for the younger girls, with whom my Charles [Karl Theodor] is still with; but Hélène's character makes me wish to separate her from her sister Elise [Elisabeth]; without being mean, she has nevertheless influenced her sister, who is much gentler and of a very conscientious nature, but the elder one undermines her, and I am convinced that it is necessary to separate them as much as possible. My intention is: that the governess should manage the education, but so that she can take care of each one separately, I would like to take Mlle Richelle for fear of detouring from one to the other during this time. Also to take charge of French entirely, and to convey the lessons of M Zesage [?]. These are my intentions, but I can't make up my mind until I've heard back from the lady to whom I'd like to entrust my daughters. In the meantime I forgot to mention the reason for all these changes, which is that Miss Nembald is marrying Count Spreti, and will be leaving my daughters in the course of the summer! Thank God I always have good news from Louis [Ludwig Wilhelm], who is in such good hands! It's a great reassurance, and the 5 [children] I have left give me, as you can see, no shortage of work. For my Charles, I have the good fortune to have an excellent nanny capable of teaching him German, French, arithmetic etc. like a man, and who imposes more on him than a governor ever did on his brother, because he loves her very much - but it is not a small thing to rule this world! because other than that I have 2 teachers attached to our house who follow us on the campaign, one teacher of religion and the other, universal, for everything, because he teaches everything we can ask including Greek and Latin, for the boys and music. I kept him when Louis left, as he had only been with us for a few years. If he had had him earlier, he would have taken his education in a different direction, which would undoubtedly have been more successful...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Kate Connolly at The Guardian:

A German aristocrat who hosted Samuel Alito at her castle in 2023 has revealed new details about her friendship with the rightwing supreme court justice, including that they share a mutual friend who played a key role in JD Vance’s conversion to Catholicism. Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a onetime party girl turned traditionalist Catholic activist who has faced criticism for her defense of far-right politicians in Germany, told the Guardian that she first met Alito in Rome – she could not remember what year – and that both were friends of Dominic Legge, a priest and Yale Law graduate in Washington who Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has often cited in discussions about his adult conversion to Catholicism.

The relationship between the 64-year-old noblewoman and Alito sparked media interest after the supreme court justice revealed last week in a financial disclosure form that he had accepted concert tickets worth $900 from the billionaire, who refers to herself as a princess even though Germany’s aristocracy was officially disbanded after the first world war. She later told the German press that Alito had overestimated the cost of the tickets, but did not elaborate. The supreme court justice has previously faced scrutiny for failing to report free travel on a private jet from a wealthy conservative billionaire who had business before the court, a story first reported by ProPublica that is a part of a broader ethics scandal that has engulfed the high court in recent years. Alito faced a separate controversy earlier this year after it was discovered that his household had flown an upside-down flag, a symbol of Stop the Steal campaigners who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, as well as a second flag at a beach property that was associated with the Christian nationalist movement. Alito’s disclosure about the free tickets are significant for another reason: they reveal new insights into Alito and his wife Martha-Ann’s apparent personal ties to a European aristocrat who is deeply entrenched in an international rightwing movement that is seeking to advance conservative Catholic policies.

Allies in her fight include the rightwing nationalist Steve Bannon and the ultra conservative German cardinal Gerhard Müller, who she once called the “Donald Trump of the Catholic Church”. Her circle is known to be fiercely critical of Pope Francis – who is seen as too liberal by orthodox and traditionalist sects of the Catholic church. Legge, who leads the Thomistic Institute in Washington, is a prominent member of an elite circle of traditionalist Catholics in the US capital, and sits on the board of an organization – the Napa Legal Institute – alongside Leonard Leo, the powerbroker who is widely seen as having used his influence to install Republicans’ conservative supermajority on the supreme court and reportedly recently called for conservative activists to “crush liberal dominance at the choke points of influence and power in our society”.

[...] Von Thurn und Taxis compared herself to the late British Queen Elizabeth – whose family she noted was of German descent – and said the role of the aristocracy in Germany was to unite people and “keep politics out of the salon”. She also claimed in an email not to know that the decision that overturned abortion rights is called the “Dobbs decision”. But an examination of von Thurn und Taxis’s own activities shows that the woman who was known during a punk phase – before her turn to conservative Catholicism – as Princess TNT, for her explosive personality – has deep political ties that have given her access not only to supreme court justices, but inside the Trump White House.

[...] “This is not just about the arrogance of a powerful man already embroiled in controversial ties to billionaires. It is also about the company he keeps: choosing to accept very expensive concert tickets from a woman who embraces far-right politicians who are aligned with her outspoken hostility toward abortion access and marriage equality,” said Lisa Graves, the managing director of Court Accountability and a former deputy assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice. Graves added: “Their alliance is unsurprising though very troubling since Alito has been using his position on the supreme court to advance a parallel regressive agenda into law.” In October 2019, at a speech in Washington in which she effusively praised the Trump administration, von Thurn und Taxis personally thanked Leonard Leo for setting up meetings for Cardinal Müller, who she was traveling with, to visit the White House and meet with people who were directly advising Trump on religious liberty and free speech.

She warned that, if Trump was not re-elected, “they will come after us” and that “nothing less” was at stake than the right to worship. Democrat Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, later won the 2020 election, but neither he nor Nancy Pelosi, another prominent Democratic Catholic politician, are seen as authentic Catholics by traditionalists. During that trip, von Thurn und Taxis also met and was photographed with Alito, Cardinal Müller, the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Brian Brown, who was then the head of the anti-LGBTQ+ group National Organization for Marriage (NOM). According to reporting by the New Yorker, NOM was actively lobbying the court on cases involving gay rights at the time of the meeting.

This year, in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels in April called Threats to Faith and Family, von Thurn und Taxis served up a series of grievances about the state of the family in Europe, complained that “only homosexuals want to get married”, while unmarried heterosexual couples were opting for pets instead of children. She also criticized – in an apparent reference to the availability of reproductive rights in Europe – how leaders continued to “finance the killing of our offspring”, which she said would exacerbate future labor shortages on the continent. “Does this make any sense? Is there some kind of racism? Are we not supposed to reproduce?” she asked rhetorically, before launching into praise of Hungary, which she said was an outlier in supporting families with children. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian autocratic leader, has been a guest at the noblewoman’s festival.

The Guardian has a explosive report that SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito has ties to far-right German aristocrat Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.

[tigermike]

A rarity for Europe – 12th century 🏰 Reifenstein Castle (or Castel Tasso in Italian) that was never conquered and destroyed. The gloomy medieval fortress is thought to be the best preserved in Italy’s South Tyrol. From the 16th to early 19th century the castle belonged to the Teutonic order, when it was disbanded the castle was given to the Thurn and Taxis counts whose descendants still own it today (current head of the house is $1.6bn worth). The mighty fortress began as a square tower that was encircled by a wall. It was later supplemented with a palace where the residents moved from the keep. The castle stands on a hill over a plain that used to be a swamp. It now even hosts a tiny airport. The castle is famous for its authentic medieval interiors, it still has the original kitchen, bathroom and medieval sleeping bunks.

📸 Photo by @thephotog.raphi

[royal-confessions]

“The princely house of Thurn und Taxis is often underestimated, despite its remarkable legacy. During the golden age of European monarchies, this noble line played a crucial role in the postal service in Europe. In addition, their elegance and collection of magnificent jewellery also contributed to their distinction.” - Text & Image Submitted by cenacevedo15

[wgmbol]

Francis II and Marie Sophie, last King and Queen of The Two Sicilies. A carte de visite photograph by Alphonse Bernoud, Naples 1959. From my own collection.

Queen Marie Sophie of The Two Sicilies in 1924.

I found this interview with Marie Sophie online, it's in Italian so I google translated it. Far from perfect!! But it gives some interesting info on our Queen one year before her death.

Posted by Giuseppe Grifeo on 19 February 2022, grifoneartigliopenna.com.

Interview with Her Majesty Queen Maria Sofia

Published in Corriere della Sera in November 1924.

by Giovanni Ansaldo.

Maria Sophia of Bavaria, Queen of Naples, widow of His Majesty King Francis II of Bourbon. Not only does she still live, but she reigns. Duchess of Castro for the vulgar of hotel maîtres and bellboys, empress of the soul for me.

I love the beauty and dignity of tragedy in her.

There will always be kings, they will triumph over theories and revolutions, because tragedy is necessary, and they alone are its characters.

Poor men need living beings, freed by birth from the miseries of sentimental promiscuity and from certain conventions towards equality, from certain leveling of pain, from certain ménagements of respectability.

A few days ago, Queen Maria Sophia was rummaging through some old crates, which had not been opened for years.

She drew out two poor water-colours, two views of Vesuvius, sweetly veiled by a languor of exile, which had trembled in the hand of the amateur. Her trusty Barcelona, who was next to her, found them beautiful.

"Do you think so?" replied the queen, squinting her eyes and looking at the two watercolors in perspective. "Do you think so? My king painted them."

And she laughed.

The old queen of eighty-three years still laughs, softly or with a sharp convulsion, and a wave of blood still rises youthfully from her heart to her temples, to the root of her white hair; she still laughs today as in his father's house in Possenhofen, in the palace of Naples, in the casemates of Gaeta, at the time of her eighteenth birthday.

The great disdainful are inclined to laughter: it is, in them, an attitude of defense against life. Unlike her sister Elisabeth of Austria, Maria Sophia sought happiness.

She says it: "We, Duke Max's five daughters, used to call us die Wittelsbacher Schwestern, the Wittelsbach sisters, when we were young. We wore all five, black braids, drawn round just above the ears and on the forehead, in the manner of the peasant women of Oberbayern.

"Then we all took flight: Elisabeth became Empress of Austria, Helena became Princess of Thurn und Taxis, Matilda married Louis, Count of Trani, Charlotte the Duke of Alençon: but of all five, I was the one most disposed by nature to enjoy life."

Her design was therefore a slow and laborious conquest, her indifference being a crown far more glorious than that Norman monarchy.

The anxieties of recent years, the vicissitudes of a barely well-to-do old age, have not deprived her of her laughter, which even today veils her purple face, the purple of her intimate and victorious kingship, which the adventures of the world and of men cannot offend. Maria Sophia lives in Munich. She was the guest of her nephew, the son of Duke Karl Theodore.

The old palace built by Duke Max on Ludwigstrasse houses the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in the left wing; in the right wing, the Queen of Naples.

The young Wittelsbach princes, the new generations, have built themselves other mansions, in Bad Kreut, in Berchtesgaden, in Tegernsee: they bring with them valid servants: they have left the old queen two servants who wore with extreme decorum the livery of the Wittelsbachs, white and blue, and whom they enter with dignity into the antechamber naked, with a few yellow satin armchairs, but without, God willing, all the bric a brac of the private apartments of the poor and banal kings with kingdoms.

Two old retired servants, two maids, the secretary—this is Maria Sophia's court. The secretary is a man from Catania, Mr. Barcelona, who has been in the service of the queen for more than twenty years. And, he says, with the naïve and honest devotion of an employee.

The Count de La Tour, Baron Carbonelli, the Count of San Martino, the last gentlemen who surrounded the old Maria Sophia before the war, all dead.

"I'm the only one who replaces them," says Mr. Barcelona with infinite discretion.

"Her Majesty's estate was all invested in Austrian funds. You understand the consequences. The queen also owned a beautiful villa on the boulevard Maillot in Paris. It was there that, indeed, the war surprised us. Oh, all the adventures to send the German servants back to Germany.. The queen has Italian citizenship, she is Italian. The French Public Security was then very kind, for the passport. I said, "But you understand, gentlemen, you don't want an old queen to come to the commissariat in person!" They understood, and sent a delegate. Then came the moratorium of interests: we were already here in Munich. But the Wittelsbachs still helped the queen: the prince regent was on the throne. Leopold, the same one who led her to the altar, by proxy of Franceschiello. Many Italians, many, visited the queen in prisoner of war camps. The queen speaks fluent Italian, just a few French terms, but rarely: and they were surprised". And she explained it like this: "I am a lady, who knows Naples well". Or: "I'm a lady, who learned to speak Italian when I was young." Then she said: "Poor people! They are astonished to find me so much like them, for I ask if they have had their full ration of broth!" She gave all his Italian books to the prisoner of war camps.

At the time of the "republic of councils", the queen was accommodated at the Kaiserhof on the Stachus. The Spartacists defended themselves from the barricades erected right in front of the hotel, on Karlsplatz. The owner said: "But Your Majesty, I decline all responsibility." The queen laughed, and said: "My dear, absolutely not. I will not go down to the cellar. I want to see if at least the revolutionaries of today shoot better than those of my time." And she always watched from her apartment all the phases of the struggle.

General Epp, who commanded the government troops, liked her very much because she rode well. Then we left for Paris, boulevard Maillot, where we spent two years: from October '20 to October '22 (it is presumed that they are still the words and the story of the trusty Mr. Barcelona) Now, the beautiful house on Boulevard Maillot is sold. The last three Italian servants took their leave. This winter the queen would also have liked to spend the winter in Paris: we wrote to some good hotels, not the first ones: but what prices! One hundred francs a day. The queen, you will understand, has to fix at least three or four chambers. For this year you will have to give it up. As with newspapers.

In the past, we received about twenty newspapers, quite a few, even Italian newspapers: but how do you do it now? The queen still gets a few Italian newspapers, but so you know... So, when there's something interesting...

The secretary does not want to say his own words: "second-hand".

He's right. Kings cannot accept anything second-hand: neither the throne nor the newspaper.

I reflect: how beautiful and noble it would be if the greatest Italian newspapers sent a copy as a tribute to an old lady of eighty-two, who was... But yes. Not even to think about it. We would be accused of latent Bourbonism.

"That's the way it is with the mail. What a lot of mail you used to do, madam! The queen did a lot of charity, she paid small pensions. She wants to pay one even now, to old Giovanni Tagliaferri, of Caserta, who was with her at Gaeta: he is the one who still remembers more things than when the queen was young, and drove six horses, with a firm hand, through the avenues of Capodimonte. But also the mail, little by little... It was very sad when she had to suspend the subsidy to the hospice of small Italian glassmakers, at the Plaine Saint-Denis, near Paris."

"It was Sister Maria d'Ajutolo who is now dead too, who had taken her to see what the misery of those people was. Sister Marie d'Ajutolo was an energetic woman, who when she spoke of the horrors of the Plaine Saint-Denis, or of some other affair of the kind, would fix her eyes in the Queen's face, and say, 'Shame on you, Your Majesty.'"

And the queen replied firmly with conviction: "Yes, there is something to be ashamed of, Sister Maria."

When I told her that the subsidy could no longer be spent, the queen was sitting at her work-table on the other side, and repeated two or three times, looking into space, "Shame on you, Your Majesty." Then she added, "No one ever spoke to me so well as Sister Maria."

In fact, she had a high esteem for them.

Now, the queen writes to fewer people. In Italy she still has some friends from distant times: such as the Duchess Della Regina, who is also Countess of Macchia, of Naples.

For the 4th of October, which is the Queen's birthday, and for Marie's nameday, the Duchess always sends to ask what the Queen would like best. And you know, what do I always receive? A box of macaroni, with a little cheese and preserve, so much so that you can make some dry pasta.

And the Duchess always sends everything on time. The duchess is old too, she met the queen in Caserta, she never saw her again, from those days. But she still does the packing, I know the handwriting. You have to write on the address: "Liebesgaben".

Then at the border they don't open the parcel, the German customs don't open the parcels of gifts. "Liebesgaben", "gift of love". You are a great soul, old lady. You write with trembling hands the foreign word, the mysterious word, the word that must open distant frontiers to homage to the queen of your youth. "Liebesgaben", "gift of love...".

"The Queen, when she receives the Duchess's parcels, with Liebesgaben written on them, is very happy. She sends for an old Neapolitan, here from Munich (in Paris, there were the Tagliaferri, uncle and nephew) and has delicious dry pasta made, which she lets as many people as possible taste. The last time, she invited the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Pacelli, to lunch: but such a confidential lunch, it is understandable: the Nuncio is very intelligent and knows the queen's condition. After all, few visits. the Kronprinz Rupprecht, who comes to be the Queen's nephew-in-law, when he comes to Munich from Berchtesgaden is always engaged in official ceremonies of military leagues, or whatever: he pops here to the palace, but only a few minutes."

"The Queen also had, some time ago, the visit of an Italian princess, who has now entered our House: Princess Bona. She comes to be her great-granddaughter by purchase, because Prince Conrad her husband is the son of a daughter of the Empress Elizabeth."

Mr. Barcelona orients himself in the Wittelsbachian-Habsburg kinship with the safety of a bat in a cave. And then, a few other friends. Every evening at five o'clock, the Queen's sister, the Duchess of Trani, comes. Matilda who lives at the Vierjahreszeiten hotel on Maximilianstrasse. To have tea. Then I do a little reading of the newspapers, because the Duchess of Trani, though less old than the Queen, cannot read easily, without glasses, like the Queen."

"The Duchess of Trani is eighty years old. The queen says that their speeches are as gloomy as that line by Schiller in the ballad of Rudolf of Habsburg: "Als dächt'er vergangener Zeiten" (as if thinking of times gone by) but she says it without regret. Then I always accompany the Duchess of Trani back to the hotel, which is quite far away, and because of the darkness some misfortune could happen to her."

"Rudolf of Habsburg, when past times seize him, and make him weep, sits at the palatine banquet, in the midst of his court, and can hide his tears "in the mantle of purple folds." Maria Sophia has only the purple of her face, which protects her from the ravages of the vulgar, from curiosity and compassion, better than the imperial mantle "des Mantels purpurnen Falten".

Standing next to her work table, straight as the trunk of a young pine tree, the queen receives. Beneath the fringe of her white hair, and the great and perfect arch of her eyebrows, the eyes look at the newcomer, and at the same time they look into the distance: She feels that she is on the edge of that proud life; guests, episode. The thin mouth is painful, yes, and for being good and benevolent, but it cannot smile with the easy and banal encouragement of charmeurs.

The queen who resists death so tenaciously has something in her face of those children, for whom one fears that they will soon die: this fear, this reluctance before life is the same on her face today, as in the portrait of her seventeen-year-old Piloty painted, before she was married.

Because of this anxious and disdainful face of hers, Maria Sophia is saved from obscene old age, she is the contemporary of all the generations that have passed: she is the ageless woman of the ancient Hellenic poem, who, struck by the misfortune of her house, yet not despairing of the justice of the gods, happy and proud of her own beauty that cannot be taken away from poor men, Praise the designs of fate.

The tone with which it asks the visitor for the name, the majors, the homeland, is frankly Homeric. The queen believes in the goodness of blood and the importance of at least clean ancestry. She also asks for years, and says her own, without any senile vainness. "I'm eighty-three years old. One more than Mr Giolitti. I'm very old."

The queen is silent. I furiously search my brain for the questions to ask her, the issues, the arguments. Nothing. That last sentence of his makes me feel like a portcullis, suddenly lowered on a window where I wanted to nibble with my curiosity. "I am very old": implied: "Let your words be counted".

I raise my head: the queen is motionless. I can't see or think of anything other than the two objects on the table: a white tricot work, and a newspaper.

I end up asking the Queen what newspapers she reads.

"I'll tell you. I myself read Les Journal des Débats and Le Figaro every day. My foreign policy is somewhat directed by Mr. Gauvain, whom I consider to be the first political columnist in Europe, the most informed, independent and systematic. I read Le Figaro for the mundane part. It is the only newspaper in the world that gives a good account of the marriages, the deaths, the vacations of my relatives and my relationships, and of good society in general: a much more important thing than you think. Then the Figaro is the only one I trust for literary reviews. I buy the books he says well about, the others I certainly neglect."

"And what about German newspapers?"

"So, the Müncheners, for what's going on in the city. But Munich is sad, you know. These people of Munich have lost their minds." The queen lowers her voice, and repeats several times: "lost my head."

"Mr. von Kahn is a man very devoted to the monarchy: but he has no head, no, no."

The queen still nods nods, with her nod, with indulgence, with pity. "I know him as godly, but headless men are."

When the Queen learns that I have also visited the Ruhr, she asks me if it is true that French troops are committing so many atrocities. I answer what I know.

"But I always thought so! It can't be that the French deliberately do what these newspapers say," says the Queen, leafing through an issue of Münchener. "I am glad that you give me moderate and unbiased information. This story of French atrocities in the Ruhr is like that of German atrocities in Belgium. All the same, all so the same, sir! What about "black shame"? There, too, it must have been exaggerated."

A pause, full of poor humanity. The queen narrows her eyes as if not to see how deceitful and filthy men are. "Mon cher monsieur, le monde c'est fou. There is no way to heal it. Each generation repeats the mistakes of previous generations, taking them for sensational novelties."

The queen is very well informed about Italian affairs. Of the reigning House, above all: it asks hermetic, sealed questions, of which only an initiate to court life could grasp the hidden meaning.

He is pleased that Prince Umberto is a young man: "It is a great fortune for a king to be handsome and handsome: if not, he ends up staying... to remain, as the French say, aigri [soured]. Queen Elisabeth of Belgium (Maria José's mother) is my niece: she is a daughter of Duke Charles Theodore. And also my favorite, because it was the liveliest, the most daring, the one that most resembled us as a child, the Wittelsbach sisters, when we were also children, in my father's house, in Possenhofen."

A great esteem for Empress Zita of Habsburg. "You see how fine it is: she was the only royal character who did not write her memoirs. The American publishers would have paid her for them too. But a queen writing her memoirs... The Empress understood that."

"The memoirs about me, you say? Oh, how many I began to read! But novels, all novels that I threw away in annoyance...". No Bavarian eagle. "I was a healthy, cheerful girl. But let's get back to Empress Zita. He has two misfortunes: the name, which is ugly, and that plane trip to Hungary: those adventures... But his son will return to the throne."

Arco, Deauville, Tegernsee, the house of the Orléans in Twickenhan, the villa of Neuilly sur Seine: against the backdrop of coffins of exiled kings, the wedding of young princes, the solitary rides of her, the re-enactor.

"Tell me. I saw a photograph in the Illustration in which some nuns greet the King of Italy and Mussolini with their arms outstretched in the Roman style. Is this accurate? Or is it a trick?".

"I think that's right, Your Majesty."

"Is it true that the Honorable Mussolini tries to have excellent relations with the Pope?"

"I think that's true."

"But it's natural, it's natural..."

I don't insist. I am afraid of the memories of her youth and her years of reign...

"You see, I'm poor. And I live here by permission of one of my nephews; for otherwise I would have to live in a suburb of Schwibing or Sendling. I need Monsieur Barcelona out of devotion, certainly not for the salary I can pay him. I don't even have the means to subscribe to some Italian magazine and to buy the latest news from Treves, as I had always liked to do. The Savoys were not chic with us Bourbons."

"That Don Giovanni Rossi, who was an employee of our Royal House, and who had custody of the borderò [payment slip] of four million ducats, my husband's very private property, went at once to present it to Garibaldi, as soon as he entered Naples, to make himself credited, does not surprise me; That Garibaldi immediately confiscated it, together with the borders of the other Bourbon princes, does not surprise me either; Revolutionaries have always done so with fallen kings."

"But that the Savoys, after they had annexed the kingdom of Naples, did not feel the need to show a little respect to the Bourbons, who had been very legitimate kings, like them, this is what still amazes me today, after so many years. Victor Emmanuel also knew that those four million ducats came from the dowry of Francis II's mother, they came from the inheritance of Maria Cristina of Savoy, they were the result of the sale of the allodial assets of the first branch of the Savoy, in Piedmont, and of Palazzo Salviati, in Rome."

"And he knew well that the villa of Caposele, in Mola, had nothing to do with the goods of the crown, with the royal palaces of Portici and Capodimonte for example; but it had been the very personal property of King Ferdinand and left by him to King Francis, my husband, in his will, in his will, as a free property."

"But he didn't make any distinction either, like Garibaldi. He was a king who behaved towards us like a revolutionary, and that is not good. The French republic was much more ladylike with the Orleans than the kingdom of Italy was with us... And now you tell me that the children of the King of Italy are healthy and beautiful and that they enjoy life. I am happy about them and I wish them well. But the way they treated us is a bad omen. God forbid that one day they too will not have to defend their personal patrimony from exile..."

But the queen thinks of it, gently. She speaks of her Italian servants, the last three she had: she knows precisely their names, what they do, where they are. "They were three southerners who remained devoted to me beyond any personal convenience, until it was I who sent them away, because... They were young, they had come to my service on the recommendation of some old friend, they had to start a family, it was no longer possible for them to waste their time around an old lady."

"You can make a lot of railways, a lot of roads, a lot of schools in those countries: men don't change, you know. They will always remain attached out of personal devotion to the master who will be able to convince them: the best soldiers in the whole peninsula, together with the Alpine mountaineers. I had Gaetano. Gaetano Restivo, a Sicilian from Ficarazzo, in the province of Palermo: now he is over there in his village, he sent me a box of oranges some time ago. The last tribute I get..."

"Then Luigi Tagliaferri, from Caserta, nephew of another Tagliaferri, who was with me in Gaeta. Then Gaetano Marsala, from Pescocostanzo in Abruzzo, who is now a shoemaker in Paris. This Marsala is a simple soul, and he always spoke to me about the Angevin crown that is preserved in the collegiate church of his town. He seemed to have tales when he told of the Angevin crown, which, as I understood, must have been in some sacristy of the Church, and Marsala as a child, must have admired it for a long time, when he was preparing to serve mass. For him, there was truly a lost kingdom around the crown of Pescocostanzo, full of all splendors... much more so than for me. A Sicilian, one from Terra di Lavoro, an Abruzzese: all the provinces of the Kingdom were right around me."

The voice lowers, wearily, falls. At the point of dying, I feel that the queen bids me farewell, leaves me again on the sidelines of her rich life, in which I deluded myself, in some accent, that I could look with clear eyes. She didn't let me glimpse anything of this life of her: only glimpses, perspectives on her thought: judgments, if you will: but of the deep life, nothing. In her tragedy, there were never confidants, and monologues were abolished.

When I am at the threshold, the queen understands my foolish disillusionment, and has an ironic pity for it. High in the middle of the room, she beckons me. Perhaps, now, the real one appears to me for a moment, the barbarous Maria Sophia of Wittelsbach, made to be a horse driver, the companion of conquerors, the mother of kings? But the usual bewildered voice murmurs: "You are young, sir: you will still see old queens, so many things, so many things..."

As I attempted my first courtly bow, Maria Sophia still nodded, sadly, to the adventures of the world; that she will never see again. But perhaps she was watching. also my plebeian clumsiness in my deference to Majesty, and the obstacle in which I was to leave the room, without turning my back, as I have read in the books that are practiced with kings: and she lamented these wretched times, when bowing before queens is not even taught.

[sethshead]

Once upon a time, a princess of Thurn u. Taxis was patron to Rilke. The current dowager princess hosts the likes of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon.

To what banality has that house declined!

[aristo-men]

“His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, 12th Prince of Thurn und Taxis, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Member of the Holy Roman Empire Association, was born in Regensburg on the 24th of June in 1983. He completed his school education from 1993 to 1998 at the private Pindl grammar school in Regensburg and from 1998 to 2003 at the German School in Rome, where he passed his university entrance qualifications. Prince Albert studied economics and theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2004 to 2008, graduating with a Master of Arts. He trained as a chartered financial analyst in Zurich from 2008 to 2010. Afterwards he enrolled in a degree course in philosophy at the Pontificia Universitas Studiorum a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe in Rome, completing his doctorate in 2022.

In 2005, Prince Albert was admitted to the Order Coeur Royal de Jesus Souverain Pretre and to the Royal Order of Saint George for the Defence of the Immaculate Conception. He has been a member of the Order Constatiniana de San Jorge y de real de San Genaro since 2007, the Order of the White Deer of St. Hubertus since 2008 and an honorary Knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta since 2010.

As head of the Princely House, he holds the Thurn und Taxis House Order De Parfaite Amitié. He last awarded it in 2010 to the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Sir Matthew Festing, and to the Apostolic Protonotary, H.H. Prelate Dr Wilhelm Imkamp. www.HolyRomanEmpireAssociation.com.”

From FB

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

An eccentric German princess who evolved from a 1980s punk style icon to a conservative Catholic known for hobnobbing with far-right figures said on Monday that she hosted Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife at her castle during a July 2023 music festival.

Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis also told The New York Times that she viewed the justice as “a hero.”

“He is pro-life in a time where the majority follows the culture of death,” she wrote in a text exchange with The Times. She then typed a skull emoji, adding, “Christians believe in life. The Zeitgeist is nihilistic and believes in destruction.”

The 64-year-old princess said that Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, are her “friends” and that after her castle festivities, the three attended the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, the world’s premier venue for the performance of Wagner’s operas.

The details of the princess’s gift and the justice’s travels emerged after Justice Alito listed a $900 gift of concert tickets on his annual financial disclosure form, which was released late last week. The disclosure has prompted a new round of scrutiny of the justices, who have been in the spotlight after a series of revelations that some of them — most notably Justice Clarence Thomas — failed to report lavish gifts and travel from wealthy benefactors.

Justice Alito was the focus of a ProPublica report for failing to disclose a private jet flight paid for by a conservative billionaire who later had cases before the court. The jet trip was part of a luxury salmon-fishing vacation. Justice Alito, in an opinion columnin The Wall Street Journal before the article was published, maintained that he did not have a conflict in accepting the “hospitality” and that he was not obligated to disclose the trip.

Justice Alito has also been the focus of attention in recent months after The Times revealed that provocative flags flew outside the Alitos’ properties. Those included an upside-down American flagthat Trump loyalists had adopted to challenge President Biden’s 2020 electoral win flying outside the justice’s residence in the weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Last summer, an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which had been carried by Jan. 6 rioters and is now a symbol for a more Christian-minded government, was on display at the justice’s beach house.

Princess Gloria, who was once nicknamed “Princess TNT” for her explosive personality, has in recent years courted controversy in both the United States and Europe as a central figure among traditionalist Roman Catholics opposed to Pope Francis. Her 500-room Bavarian castle in Regensburg, St. Emmeram Palace, home to an annual music festival, has also been floated by the longtime Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon as a potential “Gladiator School” for the theological and media training of traditionalist conservative Catholics hostile to Francis.

Princess Gloria did not respond to other questions posed to her, including how long she has known the justice and his wife, whether she paid for other parts of the Alitos’ travel, including transportation, and whether she has given the justice other gifts in the past.

Justice Alito did not respond to requests for comment.

More details have emerged about the justice’s trip to the princess’s castle, including an interview with him by Christian Eckl, the editor in chief of a newspaper in Regensburg, who recognized the justice from reporting in The Times about the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion in the case.)

In the 32-second video, Justice Alito, with a beard and wearing a dark pinstriped blazer, spoke to an off-camera interviewer. The justice said the castle, seen in the background, was “amazing” and that he was looking forward to going to the Bayreuth Festival to see Wagner’s operas.

“I will enjoy it,” Justice Alito said. “A friend of mine has waited his whole life to get tickets to go, and so it’s quite a privilege to be able to go.”

Justice Alito did not say in the video which friend he was referring to, and he did not disclose any additional names on his annual financial form.

Mr. Eckl, who also spoke with the princess about her gift to the justice, described the festival as a mixture of classical music, jazz and rock. He said Elton John had performed there in a previous year.

A schedule for the July 2023 festival in Regensburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site built during the Roman Empire, featured an eclectic lineup, including a performance of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute,” a children’s musical about “Germany’s most famous and cheeky little witch,” a Michael Jackson tribute show and an act called the “Earth, Wind & Fire Experience.”

Mr. Eckl also described controversies around the festival because the princess had invited “many right-wing guests.”

The New York Times

By Abbie VanSickle and Philip Kaleta

Reporting from Washington

Sept. 9, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/us/politics/german-princess-alito-castle-visit.html

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Godfried Maes (baptised on 15 August 1649 Antwerp – 30 May 1700, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and designer of tapestries. He was active as a painter of altarpieces and allegorical scenes. He was a prolific draughtsman who made designs for tapestry workshops, publishers and house decorations. His patrons included leading personalities in the Southern Netherlands.

Godfried Maes was born in Antwerp where he trained with his father and the history painter Pieter van Lint. He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1672 and married Josina Baeckelandt in 1675. The couple did not have any children. He became dean of the Guild in 1682.

Godfried Maes was active in Antwerp in the period 1664-1700. His work was very well received throughout the Southern Netherlands. He completed commissions for churches and private clients in Antwerp, Brussels and Liège. He worked for Eugen Alexander Franz, 1st Prince of Thurn and Taxis in Brussels for whom he realized ceiling decorations with allegorical scenes glorifying the family of Thurn and Taxis. Between 1697 and 1700, he worked for Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, at the time the Governor of the Southern Netherlands, on the decoration of the ceiling of his residence, the Palace of Coudenberg, in Brussels. The design represented the figures of Peace and Freedom accompanied by the muses Calliope and Clio.

He was the teacher of Willem Ignatius Kerricx, Matheus Neckens, Anthonie du Pré, Dominicus Smout, Jacob Sucquet and Gerard Thomas.

He died in Antwerp on 30 May 1700 as is testified by the inscription on his grave in the St James Church in Antwerp.

Godfried Maes, 1649-1700

Illustrations to the Metamorphoses of Ovid, Apollo seducing Leucothoe, ca.1664/1700, black chalk, pen and brown and grey ink, brown and grey wash, brown ink framing lines, some with watermarks, 18x24 cm

Private Collection (Christie’s)

[venicepearl]

Princess Maria Theresia of Thurn and Taxi (6 July 1794 in Regensburg, Free Imperial City of Regensburg, Holy Roman Empire – 18 August 1874 in Hütteldorf, Penzing, Vienna, Austria–Hungary) was a member of the House of Thurn and Taxis and a Princess of Thurn and Taxis by birth and a member of the House of Esterházy and Princess Esterházy of Galántha from 25 November 1833 to 21 May 1866 through her marriage to Paul III Anthony, 8th Prince Esterházy of Galántha.

[archduchessofnowhere]

Not buying into the romanticized version of him, but I'll buy the real Duke Max wasn't the biggest fan of court protocol or ceremonial pomp for a man born into his kind of station. There were five wedding and wondering if Duke Max walked his daughters down the aisle? Although seems one had two wedding since Maria Sophie had a proxy wedding at the Court Church of All Saints in the Munich Residence before leaving for Italy and Duke Max wasn't at the second/real one?

Hello! While we don't have accounts of all the weddings, I tried to do my best to answer your question. Here's what I could find!

Unlike what is shown in some adaptations, Duke Max didn't walk Elisabeth down the aisle. This is not because he didn't want to, however: it was precisely the protocol of his daughter's Imperial wedding which prevented this.

After Franz Joseph and Elisabeth had entered the flats and all those present had bowed, the procession formed and started for the church. Two court harbingers were at the head, followed by the pages - young aristocrats who performed minor tasks in court ceremonies. This was followed by the superintendents, the chamberlains, the grand masters and finally the highest dignitaries. This succession reflected the court hierarchy - the closer one was to the emperor, the higher one's rank - and was an order observed by all men of the imperial family. After the archdukes, in the centre of the procession came the emperor, accompanied by his grand chamberlain, the captain of trabands and the first adjutant-general. Only after the men was it the turn of the women, who closed the procession: behind Franz Joseph walked the bride, whose long train was carried by pages. Elisabeth was accompanied by her mother and Franz Joseph's mother, on her right and left respectively. They were followed by all the archduchesses, then the palace ladies and finally the ladies-in-waiting of the archduchesses. (Winkelhofer, 2022)

According to Die Festtage Wiens, a contemporary book which recounted the celebrations for Franz Josef and Elisabeth's wedding, Duke Max and his sons walked behind the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the procession (Werner, 1854, p. 40).

The next wedding was Helene's, of which sadly I found no account. However, it was reported by the Bayreuther Zeitung that on August 21 of 1858 (three days before Helene's wedding) "His Royal Highness Duke Max in Bavaria went to Possenhofen Castle today". Since Helene married in Possenhofen's chapel, one could assume he went for the wedding.

As you pointed out, Marie married twice: first by proxy on January 8 of 1859, and again in person on February 3. Indeed, none of her relatives were present at her "real" wedding, which I guess must have felt lonely for her. About her proxy wedding I couldn't find too much, but the Frankfurter Journal reported the programme of the ceremony the day it took place. Here's what it says about Marie's walk down the aisle:

When the Majesties enter the court church, 60 cannon shots are fired. After the King has given the order for the clergy to enter through the chief master of ceremonies, the rings are consecrated at the altar. The chief master of ceremonies then invites Duke Ludwig to accompany the bride to the altar.

Marie's Italian biographer Arrigo Petacco also claims that Marie was walked down the aisle by her brother Ludwig (1993, p. 37), although in typical pop history fashion he doesn't cite his source (which can't be this newspaper, as his book's bibliography has no German sources). Now, where was her father? I haven't been able to place him for certain. He was in Munich three days later, when he attended a court ball held in Marie's honor (as it was reported by the Neue Würzburger Zeitung of January 13 of 1859). For his part, author Acton Harold in his book The Last Bourbons of Naples claims that Marie entered the church with her parents (1961, p. 372), but also refuses to cite his source.

As for Mathilde, we know even less about her wedding. Digging I was able to find an article from the Münchener Bote für Stadt und Land edition of June 7 of 1861 which gives us a brief account of the wedding (emphasis by me):

The wedding of His Royal Highness Count Trani and Her Royal Highness Duchess Mathilde of Bavaria took place yesterday evening at 7:30 p.m. according to the order laid down in the program already communicated. During the heavy thunderstorm, a large number of carriages drove into the royal residence, whose lords and ladies followed the royal family into the All Saints Court Church, into which a large audience had been granted access by means of admission tickets. The wedding ceremony took place in the traditional manner. Count Trani appeared in Neapolitan general's uniform (red trousers with gold braid), decorated with the large ribbon of the Bavarian Order of St. Hubert. The prince said "yes" clearly and loudly. The bride entered the church at the side of her noble parents and left on the arm of her young husband. This morning the newlywed couple began their journey to Rome, through Switzerland to Marseille, where a steamer belonging to the Queen of Spain awaits them to take them to Civitavecchia, from where they will immediately continue their journey to Rome.

I've never heard before of a royal wedding you could attend by buying tickets, I wonder what was that about. Also fun fact, in Argentina there is a belief that if it rains on your wedding day it means your marriage is blessed. Given how Mathilde and Luigi's marriage turned out, it seem it wasn't their case.

Lastly, Sophie: we have an account of her wedding by Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schilling, who was Minister President of Bavaria at the time. While he doesn't mention who walked the bride down the aisle, he does record the bride's father not only being present, but also visibly moved (emphasis by me):

Nobody cried, but Duke Max looked rather like it once or twice. The bride appeared extremely self-possessed. Before the "affirmation" the bridegroom first made a bow to his father, and the bride did the same to her parents. (1906, 306)

That was all I could find, Max definitely attended Elisabeth's and Sophie's weddings, and also Mathilde's if we trust that newspaper article. The only ones I couldn't confirm for certain were Marie's and Helene's, but he was at least *around* the days before and after, so it would be odd if he skipped those weddings. If I learn more I'll let you know!

Sources:

Acton, Harold (1961). The Last Bourbons of Naples (1825-1861)

Bayreuther Zeitung, August 23 of 1858

Curtius, Friedrich [ed.] (1906). Memoirs of Prince Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst. Volume 1 (translation by George W. Chrystal)

Frankfurter Journal, January 8 of 1859

Münchener Bote für Stadt und Land, June 7 of 1861

Neue Würzburger Zeitung, January 13 of 1859

Petacco, Arrigo (1993). La regina del Sud. Amori e guerre segrete di Maria Sofia di Borbone

Werner, Anton [ed.] (1854). Die Festtage Wiens vom 22. bis 30. April 1854

Winkelhofer, Martina (2022). Sissi. La vera storia. Il cammino della giovane imperatrice (translation by Federica Saccucci)

[gabriellademonaco]

Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis, wearing her Valentino wedding gown and Empress Eugénie’s pearl and diamond tiara and brooch

[tigermike]

🏰 Schloss Wörth , Germany

Wörth Castle is a castle in the town of Wörth on the Danube, Thuong Palatinate district of Regensburg in Bavaria. The castle is located next to the 3rd Highway 3 on a mountain in the middle of the town.

The majestic castle in the Renaissance style has the characteristics of a fortress, fully preserved and is one of the largest castles in East Bavaria. It returned was a hidden place from the 10th century (around 914) and was rebuilt, expanded over the centuries and gained the current appearance in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The castle was remodeled into a Renaissance style from 1522 in the 16th and 17th centuries. Most of the new buildings were built under the management of Count Palatine Johann III. (1507–1538). Around 1570, people still expand residential areas. In 1616, Bishop Albert Von Terring-Stein built a chapel and north wing. The castle is managed by caregivers and used as a summer place for bishops; Sometimes they move their own headquarters completely. The castle survived the war for thirty years without great damage. In 1803, this region fell into the new Regensburg.

On July 26, 1806, Prince-Prince Karl Theodor Von Dalberg, the last prince of the Empire, signed the Rhine Federal Act in the king's room. In 1810, "Wörth's free empire rule" came to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1812, the company handed it over to Thurn Und Taxis as a compensation for the postage postage of the Empire Director at that time, Karl Alexander Von Thurn Und Taxis. Until reorganized in 1848, there was a Court of property Thurn and Taxi in Wörth. Later, there was an older regional court and later the district court until 1939. In 1899, House of Thurn and Taxis was awarded the title of Duke Wörth and Donaustauf.

From 1933 to 1935, an empire's labor camp was placed in the castle. From 1946 to 1947, it was a meeting place for young people of Regensburg diocese and from 1949 to 1976, the German Federal Railway runs an advanced training school here. The Wörth Castle festival was held at Wörth Castle from 1952 to 1969. This event is of great importance to Wörth and the region from a cultural perspective. There are a total of 170 performances. In 1978, Johannes Prinz Von Thurn Und Taxis sold the castle to a construction contractor, and in 1984, it was bought by a castle community, in which Regensburg district was the most important. From 1985 to 1998, the entire palace population was comprehensively renovated. In 1988, the castle was hired by an elderly person and now has a retirement of Pro Seniore in the castle.

Wörth Castle is part of Regensburger Burgensteige. The inner yard of the castle can freely come in and out during the day, not inside the building. Visitors with guides are organized to view them. In addition to events organized by the project "Kiw - Culture in Wörth", the round room is also used to organize the wedding. The castle tunnel has been renovated by Regensburg in April 2005, also used by "Kiw - Culture in Wörth" and can also be used for other big events. "Schlossgalerie Wörth" in the basement of the old castle reserve occasionally organizes exhibitions.

The southern side of Schlossberg was a vineyard for a long time, until the first World War, the production of Baierwein was worth about seven days. There was a zigzag staircase that led to the castle there since the 1930s.

[tiny-librarian]

Helene in Bavaria, Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis.

[livesunique]

Schloss Thurn und Taxis, Regensburg, Germany,

Photo: © Todd Eberle from House of Thurn und Taxis, Rizzoli, 2015

[europesroyalsweddings]

✵ May 31, 1980 ✵

Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau & Prince Johannes 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis