Princess Louise-Marie of Belgium
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Louise-Marie Amélie, Princess of Belgium (18 February 1858 in Brussels – 1 March 1924 in Wiesbaden) was the eldest daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium and his wife Marie Henriette of Austria. Her aunt, Leopold's sister, was Carlota of Mexico, Belgium's first princess.
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[edit] Marriage & Issue
She married Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her second cousin, in Brussels on May 4, 1875 and had two children;
- Leopold Clement Philipp August Maria (Hungary, 19 July 1878 - Vienna, 27 April 1916). He died when a prostitute flung acid in his face.
- Dorothea Maria Henriette Auguste Louise (Vienna, 30 April 1881 - Württemberg, 21 January 1967), married on August 2, 1898 to Ernst Günther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.
[edit] Scandal & Divorce
In 1895, Louise began a involved romantically with Géza Mattachich (1868-1923), stepson of Count Oskar Keglevich. Mattachich was a lieutenant in a Croatian Regiment of the Austrian army. They met in the Prater in Vienna.
In January 1897 she scandalized Vienna by leaving the Prince permanently for Mattachich and taking her daughter with her.[1] They traveled first to Paris, then Cannes, living in other destinations in the south of France and the rest of Europe. Her son became estranged from her because he felt her scandalous actions had ruined his chance for inheritance. Her daughter soon left her mother at the advice of her fiancé, the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.
In 1898, Prince Philipp and Mattachich fought a duel in Vienna, first with guns, then with swords, in which the Prince was injured.[2]
Louise and Prince Philipp were finally divorced on January 15, 1906, almost eight years after Louise had begun divorce proceedings.
[edit] Later Life
Estranged both from her father, her husband, and her children, Louise's extravagant expenses brought her deeper and deeper in debt. Despite being daughter of arguably the wealthiest King of the age, she was forced to claim bankruptcy after it became known that Mattachich had forged the signature of Louise's sister, Princess Stéphanie, on promissory notes for jewelry worth approximately $2,500,000.[3] As a result of this episode she was institutionalized in May of 1898 for six years. Mattachich was sentenced to 4 years in prison for forgery. Once his sentence was over, he helped Louise escape from the asylum she was in, and they were together until his death in Paris. After his death she was given a home by one of her relations, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.
[edit] Controversy
A renowned flirt before her marriage, it is suspected that her lovers included her future husband's brother Prince Ferdinand, her sister Princess Stéphanie's future husband, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, as well as Archduke Ludwig Viktor, the youngest brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria.
