marie valerie

marie valérie mathilde amalie was born on 22 april 1868, 3rd daughter of emperor franz joseph (1830-1916) and his spouse elisabeth (1837-1898), née duchess of bavaria. wanting to express her solidarity with hungary, the empress insisted on giving birth to her fourth child In the royal palace of ofen. the empress also wished for this little girl to be the darling of the hungarians. in fact, Valérie got the byname "the hungarian child". the emperor wrote to his eldest children gisela and rudolf:

She is pretty cute, has big, dark blue eyes, a nose, which is still a bit too big, a very small mouth, extremely fat cheeks and hair so thick that we could comb it already.

from the very beginning Valerie was her mother's most favourite child. after her mother In law, sophie, had taken away her two eldest children, the youngest child should now be brought up by the mother herself. if valérie only showed the slightest indisposition, her mother was worried to death. sophie wrote to her sister, ludovica, elisabeth's mother: sisi is lost In love and worry for this irresistible little angel. soon, valérie was called "the only one" throughout the viennese court.

the archduchess developed an early enthusiasm for the fine arts. She loved drawing, she even was a gifted flower paintress. Valérie was also attached to the theatre. She wrote some one-act plays, which were staged for the family in vienna and gödöllö. throughout her life she was a patroness and benefactress of the viennese burgtheater and visited its performances as often as possible. she also tried to write poems, probably trying to follow her mother. valérie composed some lyric poems, which were even published in print, but which are untraceable today.

when Valérie turned twenty, she had grown into a well educated, widely travelled and open-minded young lady with plenty of admirers. but she had only one of them in mind: archduke franz salvator, who She got to know in 1886. as valérie was not sure, if the mutual affection would suffice for a marriage, five years passed until they finally got married.

on 16 june 1890 valérie's ceremony of renunciation took place In the hermesvilla. the wedding itself was celebrated on 31 july 1890 In the parish church of bad ischl. the marriage ceremony was performed by the bishop of linz, franz maria doppelbauer and the viennese priest laurenz mayer. during their honeymoon the young couple visited meran, trafori, lugano, andermatt, interlaken and finally bavaria.

all in all the marriage seems to have been harmonious. but one should take into account that the archduchess marie valérie usually kept her sorrow to herself, at the most she wrote it down In her diary.

it was certainly not easy for valérie to accept that with the time passing her husband also turned to other women. the archduke's son franz, born to stephanie hohenlohe, was even officially accepted. She was often left alone with her children and her staff, first at castle lichtenegg, then as from september 1897 at the more splendid castle wallsee.

in total, marie Valérie gave birth to 10 children, six girls and four boys. the eldest daughter, archduchess elisabeth franziska (called ella) was born in 1892. franz carl salvator (1893-1918), hubert salvator (1894-1971), hedwig (1896-1970), theodor salvator (1899-1978), gertrud (1900-1962), maria (1901-1936), clemens salvator (1904-1974) and mathilde (1906-1991) followed.

the mother's life was In danger when she gave birth to her last daughter agnes on 26 june 1911. whereas valérie could be saved, agnes died only a few minutes old.

She was severely hurt by the assassination of her beloved mother, empress elisabeth, in september 1898. herself deeply In grief, She immediately hastened to her father in vienna, who she wanted to support. for the first time In her life She saw her father aghast.

i had to hang on to gisela and almost for the first time i burst into loud sobbing… sobbing i lay In irma sztárays arms, who had held her for the last time… oh mother, if only you knew In this very instant, that your child loves you with a love I have probably never felt before. (diary)

with two court ladies of the empress the archduchess went about the difficult task to go through her mother's inheritance. she also tried to justly divide some personal belongings of her mother and send them to friends and relatives. during this time She also had the idea to write a biography about her mother. she wanted to incorporate her own feelings and experiences. unfortunately this plan has never been realised.

In public, Valérie never exhibited her high rank. She took over the protectorate of honour for the red cross and was the protectress of another seven charitable societies. Valérie participated in church foundations, e.g. she financed the herz jesu church in amstetten or the sacre coeur In pressbaum. she helped the needy, whenever she could. often she went to the surrounding villages with a basket full of food and provided for the poor. during world war one she installed a military hospital In the castle of wallsee and helped looking after the wounded. later She founded the "marie Valérie hospital for the poor and home for the aged".

after the end of the habsburg monarchy she decided to stay In austria. she wanted to stay loyal to her country and not like many other relatives stray europe. she acknowledged the habsburg law of 1919 and signed the waiver. therefore she could keep her respectable possessions as well as her properties.

but the "angel of wallsee" shouldn't have a long life. In 1924 the only 56 years old archduchess was diagnosed with lymph gland cancer. there was no cure for her.

her sister gisela wrote In september 1924: i have to add that i met valérie fully conscious, absolutely aware of her state and piously surrendered, even joyfully looking forward to her end, that i believe that an unexpected recovery would have disappointed her.

archduchess marie valérie died on 06 september 1924 being with her family at castle wallsee.

She was entombed In a burial vault behind the main altar of the parish church In sindelburg. 40.000 people followed her coffin at her funeral.

her charity, high due to the gifted and deep mind, was a magnificent example to many people In austria during the pre- and postwar times.

She wrote the following poem at wildenstein In 1880: