Prince Leopold Clement Philipp August Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (19 July 1878 – 27 April 1916) was an Austro-Hungarian officer and the heir apparent to the wealth of the House of Koháry. His death in a murder–suicide shocked the royal courts of Austria and Germany.
| Prince Leopold Clement | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Duke of Saxony | |||||
 | |||||
| Born | 19 July 1878 Szentantal, Hungary | ||||
| Died | 27 April 1916 (aged 37) Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Austria-Hungary | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| |||||
| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry | ||||
| Father | Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
| Mother | Princess Louise of Belgium | ||||
Background
editPrince Leopold Clement was the elder child and only son born in the troubled marriage of Princess Louise of Belgium and Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, both of whom were Roman Catholic members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He shared his name with his maternal grandfather, King Leopold II of Belgium, and a number of other Coburger relatives. Prince Leopold Clement was the sole heir to the wealth his father's family had inherited from their ancestress, Princess Maria Antonia Koháry.[1]
Fatal affair
editA Hussar captain in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Prince Leopold Clement met a Viennese girl named Camilla Rybicka[note 1] at a charity bazaar in 1907.[1][2] Rybicka was one of the daughters of Court Councillor Rybicki, an officer in the Vienna State Police. Then in her early twenties, she belonged to high society, but was nevertheless a commoner. The two soon started a romantic relationship. Rybicka left the family home, and the two travelled around the Austro-Hungarian Empire before settling down in an apartment in Vienna.[3]
Rybicka, however, was not satisfied with being only the Prince's lover and demanded that he marry her.[1][3] In Paris on 1 July 1914, Prince Leopold Clement wrote her a letter, promising to marry her within six months, naming her his sole heir, and requesting his father to pay her 2 million Austro-Hungarian krones in the event of his death.[4] After Prince Leopold Clement was called to fight in the First World War, she insisted that he marry her before leaving.[3] Leopold Clement was aware that such a mesalliance would have deprived him of the fortune he stood to inherit[1] because his father had no intention of permitting the union,[3] and that marrying Rybicka would have forced him to resign his officer's commission.[1]
When her pleas, intrigues and threats all failed to secure her marriage to Leopold Clement, she was offered 4 million Austro-Hungarian krones as compensation. On 17 October 1915, the Prince called her to his first-floor flat in Vienna to say goodbye and sign the cheque, but Rybicka did not intend to take the money.[1] Instead, she fired five shots at him at close range and then smashed a bottle of sulfuric acid in his face,[1][5] before firing the sixth bullet through her own heart.[6] Neighbours testified that they heard him scream in agony.[5] The half-naked Rybicka was lying dead by the bed when the police came, but the Prince was alive on the floor and still screaming.[5][6] Rybicka was cremated in Jena, Germany in December 1915.[4] Having lost an eye and much of the flesh on his face, Prince Leopold Clement died after six months of suffering.[1] His remains were interred in the vault of St. Augustin in Coburg.[7]
Aftermath
editFollowing the death of his only son, Prince Philipp bequeathed his fortune to his grandnephew, Prince Philipp Josias.[1] The deaths of Prince Leopold Clement and Camilla Rybicka shocked the royal courts of Austria and Germany. They were reminiscent of the 1889 Mayerling incident, a murder–suicide involving Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Prince Leopold Clement's maternal uncle, and Rudolf's teenage mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera.[3]
Honours
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Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, 1896[8]
Empire of Japan: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 9 February 1907[9]
Korean Empire: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Golden Ruler, 27 February 1907[10]
Ancestry
edit| Ancestors of Prince Leopold Clement of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
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Notes
edit- ^ Her name is sometimes given as Lotte, and her surname as Rybika or Rybicska.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Was the Surrender of King Leopold a "Runs-in-The-Family" Tragedy?". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 21 July 1940. Retrieved 15 June 2013. [dead link]
- ^ Olivier Defrance et Joseph van Loon, La fortune de Dora : Une petite-fille de Léopold II chez les nazis, Bruxelles, Racine, 2013, p.120
- ^ a b c d e "Royal Love Tragedy: A Woman's Revenge". 1916. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b "Princes' Matrimonial Scandals". The Argus. 11 December 1915. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b c Ashdown, Dulcie M. (1981). Victoria and the Coburgs. Robert Hale Limited. ISBN 0709185820.
- ^ a b Duff, Albert (1972). Albert & Victoria. Müller.
The last bullet she had kept for herself. She lay, half naked, by the bed, shot through the heart.
- ^ Sandner, Harald (2001). Das Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha 1826 bis 2001. Eine Dokumentation zum 175-jährigen Jubiläum des Stammhauses in Wort und Bild. Coburg: Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse. pp. 317–320. ISBN 3-00-008525-4.
- ^ "Herzoglich Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden und Sachsen Meiningensche Ehrenzeichen", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen (in German), Meiningen: Brückner & Renner, 1912, p. 23, retrieved 3 December 2019
- ^ 刑部芳則 (2017). 明治時代の勲章外交儀礼 (PDF) (in Japanese). 明治聖徳記念学会紀要. p. 150.
- ^ "조선왕조실록".
External links
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