Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda; 17 August 1877 – 6 August 1906) was the sixth child of Ludwig III of Bavaria and his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.[2] After her early death, Life-Dreams: The Poems of a Blighted Life, a collection of poems she wrote, was published in 1910.

Mathilde of Bavaria
Princess Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Born(1877-08-17)17 August 1877
Villa Amsee, Lindau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died6 August 1906(1906-08-06) (aged 28)
Davos, Switzerland
Burial
Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Rieden[1]
SpousePrince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
IssuePrince Antonius Maria Ludwig
Princess Maria Immaculata Leopoldine
Names
Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda
HouseWittelsbach
FatherLudwig III of Bavaria
MotherMaria Theresa of Austria-Este

Family and early life

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Princess Mathilde was born on 17 August 1877 as the sixth child and third daughter of Ludwig III of Bavaria at the family's summer residence of Villa Amsee in Lindau.[2] Though she was the favorite daughter of her father, she and her mother were not close. Some speculate that she only married as an escape from her home.

Later years

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Marriage and issue

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Mathilde and Ludwig with their son
 
Mathilde of Bavaria - Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 1900s

Various candidates were rumored to be engaged to Princess Mathilde at different times. These included, in 1896, the Prince of Naples,[3] but he married Princess Elena of Montenegro later that year. Others included Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,[4] and Jaime, Duke of Madrid.

On 1 May 1900 in Munich, Mathilde married Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a son of Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Princess Leopoldina of Brazil.[2] He was a captain in the Austrian army, and had been raised in Brazil as a grandson of Emperor Pedro II.[4] The prince was also from the Catholic branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They had two children: Prince Antonius of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (17 June 1901 – 1 September 1970); and Princess Maria Immaculata of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (10 September 1904 – 18 March 1940).

Death

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Mathilde died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, on 6 August 1906, in Davos, Switzerland.[2] Her remains are buried in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in the little village of Rieden near her family home at Schloss Leutstetten.[citation needed] Her husband remarried a year later to Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.

In 1910 Mathilde's family anonymously published some of her poems as Traum und Leben: Gedichte einer früh Vollendeten. In 1913 John Heard translated and published them in English as Life-Dreams: The Poems of a Blighted Life.[5][6]

Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ "WITTELSBACH, KINGS OF BAVARIA". Royalty (travel) Guide. Archived from the original on 3 January 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Mathilde Marie Prinzessin von Bayern". Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  3. ^ "Current News", New York Observer and Chronicle, 2 January 1896
  4. ^ a b "Buller and his Strange Visions", The Washington Post, 5 November 1899
  5. ^ R.R. Bowker Company (1913). The publishers weekly, Volume 84, Part 1. New York: Office of the Publishers' Weekly. p. 664.
  6. ^ Mathilde, Princess of Bavaria (1910). Life-dreams: the poems of a blighted life.