#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.

[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.

[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

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Elisabeth of Thurn and Taxis, Duchess of Braganza.

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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.

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

[archduchessofnowhere]

Who are all of the children of Maximilian in Bavaria and Ludovika in Bavaria? I only know Sisi

Hello! Sorry it took me so long, I’ve been putting together this answer for a while. This is a somewhat basic introduction to the siblings, since I didn’t want this post to be even longer than already is.

Duke Maximilian and Duchess Ludovika had a total of ten children, five girls and five boys. Their second son, Wilhelm Karl, sadly died at a month and half old, and their fourth son, Maximilian, was stillborn. The surviving eight children were (by order of birth): Ludwig Wilhelm, Helene, Elisabeth, Karl Theodor, Marie, Mathilde, Sophie and Maximilian Emanuel.

The eldest, Ludwig Wilhelm, born in 1831, was always known as “Louis” in his family. In 1858 he gave up his position as the future head of the Dukes in Bavaria branch in order to marry his mistress, former actress Henriette Mendel. He seems to have been somewhat difficult, at least judging by something Elisabeth told to her lady-in-waiting Countess Mária Festetics: “It is a good thing that Henriette is his wife, for anybody else would long since have left him, and he is happy with her.” What does this exactly mean I have no idea. Louis and Henriette had two children, Marie (born a year before her parents marriage) and Karl, who died as a baby. As was customary for Wittelsbach princes he did a military career, and in 1866 fought in the Seven Weeks War. We don’t really have much more information about him; many accounts about the Duke and his family that come after the Mayerling affair, in which his daughter Marie Larisch played a key role as the go-between Crown Prince Rudolf and Mary Vetsera, are heavily affected by the negative reputation that had befallen over her. His relationship with his sister wasn’t unaffected by this either, and he and Elisabeth became distant, though Elisabeth’s daughter Marie Valerie still wrote affectionately of her “Aunt Henriette”, so it may have been more out of a sense of awkwardness than Louis being directly blamed for the affair. He went to Elisabeth’s funeral, visibly affected by his sister’s death, and was one of the men who took her coffin to the Capuchin Crypt. A year after his wife’s death in 1891 he married actress Antonie Barth, forty years his junior. This marriage ended up in a divorce in 1913, after she had a child whom Louis claimed wasn’t his (I found some gossip articles about this on newspapers but that’s a whole rabbit hole I haven’t gone down yet). Ludwig Wilhelm died in Munich 1920, aged eighty-nine-years-old.

Born in 1834, the third child an eldest daughter, Helene, nicknamed “Nené” and “Lenza”, is probably the most known of Sisi’s siblings, and also the most misrepresented. She has gone down in history for being the disciplined, exemplary daughter that was groomed for years to become empress only to have “her fiancé” stolen by her younger sister. Except that none of this is true. In her old age Ludovika often complained that Helene had been a troublesome child who had caused her a lot of grievances. And it’s unlikely that Helene had ever expected, let alone been prepared, to become empress years in advance: not only there had been serious attempts to get Princess Anna of Prussia’s hand for Franz Josef in 1852 (why would they have done this if Helene was supposedly waiting in the wings to marry him?), but also when Ludovika was told that the emperor wanted to marry Sisi she became very emotional “for in her great modesty she had always doubted that the Emperor would really think in one of her daughters”.

By late 1857 Ludovika lamented that her daughter had pretty much become a spinster. But in the beginning of 1858 Helene met Maximilian, Hereditary Prince of Thurn und Taxis, and soon after he proposed. This marriage wasn’t well received by King Maximilian II, since the Taxis were subjects of the Bavarian king and therefore not equal to marry a Wittelsbach, but eventually King Max gave them the all-clear and they married. Reportedly the marriage was happy, but her husband sadly died only ten years later of an illness, and she fell into a deep grief. When Helene’s father-in-law died in 1871 she became the de facto head of the house of Thurn und Taxis until her son Maximilian reached the majority. Helene was sadly to suffer two more big blows in her life: in 1881 her daughter Elisabeth died of childbirth complications aged only 20-years-old, and in 1885 her son Maximilian died of cardiac problems aged only 24-years-old. Helene’s last years are said to have been very sad, since she never recovered from the untimely deaths of her husband and children. She died in 1890 at the age of 56, likely of cancer. At her deathbed were her two surviving children, Louise and Albert, and her sister Elisabeth.

The fifth child and third son, Karl Theodor, called “Gackl” by his family, was Elisabeth’s favorite brother. He seems to have been a very charismatic man, since everyone that met him had nothing but good things to say about him. In 1865 he married his first cousin Princess Sophie of Saxony, and they had one daughter, Amalie. Sadly Sophie’s health was severely affected by childbirth, and died over a year later of influenza. Like his elder brother he also did a military career starting from a young age, and fougth in the Seven Weeks War. However, afterwards he left active service and went to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied medicine. His studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, but he got his degree as a doctor in medicine, later specializing in ophtalmology. During this time Karl Theodor had remained a widower, but in 1874, seven years after his wife’s passing, he married Infanta Maria José of Portugal, daughter of the deposed King Miguel I of Portugal and seventeen years his junior. They had five children: Sophie, Elisabeth, Marie Gabrielle, Ludwig Wilhelm and Franz Josef. Gackl became a renowned oculist, and in 1895 he opened the Augenklinik Herzog Carl Theodor (Duke Carl Theodor Eye Clinic) in Munich, which exists to this day. He personally operated thousands of people, assisted by Maria José, and later also by his daughters. Karl Theodor died in 1909, a few weeks after his 70th birthday, from bronchitis.

While Helene is the most known of Elisabeth’s sister solely because everyone and their moms know the (incorrect) story of her being “rejected” by FJ, the sixth child and third daughter, Marie, is the most famous sister for her own merits. She was the last Queen of the Two Sicilies as the wife of King Francesco II, and has gone down in history for leading the resistance during the Siege of Gaeta, the last stand of the Bourbon dynasty in Naples. She was only nineteen when her husband finally surrounded, and lived in exile for the rest of her life. After ten years of marriage Marie and her husband had one child, Maria Cristina, who sadly passed away while still a baby. They tried to have more children, but all her pregnancies ended up in miscarriages. She spent the rest of her life traveling; when WWI broke she settled down in Munich, where she died aged 82 in 1925.

Marie has gotten an interesting reputation: she is either known for being the brave queen who stood up next to her troops until the end, or for being a haughty woman who deeply envied her imperial sister and lived full of resentment. The first is just one, although crucial, brief moment in her life; and the second is literally just what Mária Festetics, one of Elisabeth’s ladies-in-waiting, thought of her. Once I realized how little we actually knew about Marie, how much is just hearsay and speculation, she became fascinating to me, but sadly we still don’t have a good biography about her that uses primary sources instead of relying in gossipy second hand accounts.

Mathilde, called “Spatz” (Sparrow), is the sister we have the least information of. She and Marie were the closest of the sisters; they were always together, and would often even dress the same (as you can see in the Stieler portrait). In 1861 Mathilde married Prince Luigi, Count of Trani, half-brother of Marie’s husband, and joined her sister in Rome, were the Bourbons in exile had settled their court. The marriage turned out to be unhappy, since her husband was an alcoholic and cheated on her, though they did had one child: Maria Teresa, called “Mädi”, born in 1867. Mathilde and Luigi separated eventually, though she did went to his aid and nurse him when he was sick. But the person she dedicated her life was her daughter, who for many years suffered from poor health (likely sclerosis); Mathilde took care of Mädi until her death, aged only 42. She spent the last years of her life with her sister Marie, and died only months after her, in 1925.

The youngest daughter, Sophie, born in 1847, is probably the most “romantic” of the Wittelsbach sisters. Just like Helene she has gone down in history for being a “rejected bride”, though in her case, it’s actually true. She was briefly engaged to her cousin Ludwig II of Bavaria, and it was an absolute disaster: he had no interest in marriage (not really that surprising when you consider that he was gay) and often publicly snubbed Sophie; she in turn was absolutely miserable because she felt he was playing with her. Ludwig kept postponing the wedding until Sophie’s father, Duke Max, send him an ultimatum, to which the king responded by just canceling it. As if these months hadn’t been stressful enough for Sophie, during this time she also had an affair with Edgar Hanfstaengl, the son of the court photographer. I don’t really know much about this liaison, only that she was aided by two ladies-in-waiting in order to meet him in private and that some love letters she wrote to him have survived. But whatever the extent of her feelings, the relationship could never become serious, and one year later she married Prince Ferdinand of Orléans, Duke of Alençon, a grandson of King Louis Philippe I of the French. I don’t know if this marriage was ever a love match or if Sophie simply wanted to settle down for good after all her failed romantic experiences; whatever the case they did have two children, Louise and Emmanuel. The Orléans had been living in exile in England since the deposition of Louis Philippe, and only after the fall of the Second French Empire in 1872 were they allowed to return to France. This probably improved Sophie’s mood, since she had suffered from depression since her children’s birth, and the English weather didn’t make her feel better.

After the death of her former fiancé Ludwig II in 1886, Sophie fell ill and on advice of her brother Gackl she searched for a treatment in Munich under a Dr Glaser. But while he treated her she fell in love with her doctor, who was also married with children. This time Sophie didn’t want to give up her enamored, and did something unthinkable for a woman of her status in the 19th century: she sought for a divorce from Ferdinand. Sadly things didn’t work out for her, because her husband, on the advice of her brother Karl Theodor, retaliated by having Sophie interned in a mental clinic for “moral insanity”, where she suffered the appalling “treatments” for mental illnesses of the time. After seven months she was considered cured, and allowed to leave the institution. She never again tried to divorce.

Sophie dedicated the last years of her life to charity work. In 1897 she was one of the organizers of the Bazar de la Charité, an annual charity event held in Paris since 1885, and was in the place when an accident set it on fire, taking the lives of 126 victims. She was one of the victims of the fire, and although she had the chance to leave she refused she refused to abandon the Bazar until everyone else was out, guiding and helping people to find the exist until her last moments. She had been fifty-years-old.

Lastly the youngest child Maximilian Emanuel, nicknamed “Mapperl”, is the brother we know the least about. Born in 1849, he was only two years and a half younger than his sister Sophie, whom he was the closest to: they were often referred as “die Kleinen” (the little ones). As his eldest brothers he did a military career, and fought both in the Seven Weeks War (aged only sixteen!) and in the Franco-Prussian War. At Sophie’s wedding he met and fell for a cousin of the groom, Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which would have been great… if she hadn’t been already engaged to Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Here’s when things get a bit messy: according Briggitte Hamann, Elisabeth found out about the situation and decided to step in and free Mapperl’s beloved… by introducing her daughter Gisela to Leopold. Which is. Hmmm. A questionable thing to do. However, other authors claim that Elisabeth actually had nothing to do with that, specially considering that Mapperl’s wedding took place three years after Leopold and Gisela got engaged - if the goal was to make Amalie available, he definitely took his sweet time to make his move. One day I’ll look deep into it because I’m genuinely curious as to which is the truth; whatever the case, both couples had happy marriages, so good for them. Max Emanuel and Amalie had three sons: Siegfried, Christoph and Luitpold. Sadly Max Emanuel died quite unexpectedly in 1893 from an ulcer, aged only 43-years-old.

Again, this is only an introduction to the siblings, there’s far more information out there that I could possibly put in a single post. Thank you for your question! The Dukes and Duchesses in Bavaria are really interesting an I think they deserve the spotlight as much as their imperial sister.

[livesunique]

Schloss Thurn und Taxis, Regensburg, Germany,

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

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✵ May 31, 1980 ✵

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

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Princess Karl Ludwig of Thurn and Taxis (1881-1945) née Princess Maria Theresa of Braganza, Infanta of Portugal. 1909.

She was the granddaughter of Duchess Helene in Bavaria (Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis) who was the oldest sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Among her first cousins were Empress Zita of Austria, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg and Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians.

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Thurn und Taxis Emerald Drop Tiara ♕ Albert, 12th Prince of Thurn und Taxis

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Princess Helene of Thurn and Taxis nee duchess in Baviera (1934 - 1890)

Also known as Nene, she was the oldest sister of Empress Sissi

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MARIAE GLORIA DOMI THURN TAXISQUE DICET: PECUNIOSAE NON MANDURANDAE