Archduchess Regina Passed Away

Archduchess Regina of Austria, wife of the head of the Austrian imperial family, Archduke Otto, has died this morning in the family house in Pöcking near the Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany.  The 85 year old archduchess died peacefully at 08.40 AM, with several members of the family present, according to a spokesperson of the family.

Her eldest son, archduke Karl comments: ‘My mother was an example to all of us, with her we lose a great personality, who has formed us with her steadfast faith and her positive approach to life’. The archduchess has been suffering for quite some time with heart troubles.

The archduchess was born as princess Regina Helene Elizabeth Margarete of Saxe-Meiningen on January 6th 1925 in Würzburg, Germany as the the youngest of the four children born from the marriage of prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen (head of the ducal house of Saxe-Meinignen) and countess Klara Maria von Korff genannt Schmissing-Kerssenbrock. On 10 May 1951 Regina married Otto, Crown Prince of Austria, eldest son of Austria’s last emperor Karl, and his wife Empress Zita (née princess of Bourbon-Parma). The cpouple married in the Church of the Cordeliers in Nancy, France, with the blessing of Pope Pius XII. Below a youtube clip of the wedding:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOr_j7tmOTc

Since 10 May 1954 Regina and Otto have lived at his official residence in the Villa Austria, also called the “Kaiservilla” (Emperor’s Villa) or with a wink to the English royal family ‘Pöckingham Palace’, in Pöcking near Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany. Here the couple got five daughters and two sons:

Archduchess Andrea (1953), married Karl Eugen, hereditary count of Neipperg.

Archduchess Monika (1954), married Luis Gonzaga de Casanova-Cárdenas y Barón, duke of Santangelo, marquess of Elche, count of Lodosa and grandee of Spain.

Archduchess Michaela (1954), married 1stly to Eric Alba Teran d’Antin (divorced) and 2ndly to Count Hubertus of Kageneck (divorced).

Archduchess Gabriela (1956), married Christian Meister (divorced).

Archduchess Walburga (1958), married count Archibald Douglas.

Archduke Karl (1961), married baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Archduke Georg (1964), married duchess Eilika of Oldenburg.

Click on image to see photo at hna.de

On 2 December 2005 she suffered a brain injury and was taken to a hospital of Nancy. Nevertheless, by 22 February 2006 she had recovered sufficiently to participate in the transfer of the remains of her mother Duchess Klara and her older brother Anton Ulrich to the vault of the Veste Heldburg in the Church yard of Heldburg in the district of Hildburghausen. The transfer of the remains of her father duke Georg III from Tscherepowez (Russia), where he died as a Russian prisoner of war in 1946, took place in the spring of 2007. The archduchess got 22 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The last time she was seen in public was while she attended the wedding of her eldest grand child, count Philipp of Neipperg to Paula Wolff in Salzburg on April 26th 2008.

Filed under Austria-Hungary, Germany
Tagged Biography, Death, House of Habsburg, House of Saxe-Meiningen, Regina of Saxe-Meiningen.

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