Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria

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Sophie Charlotte
Duchess of Alençon
Born	(1847-02-23)23 February 1847 Possenhofen Castle, Possenhofen, Bavaria
Died	4 May 1897(1897-05-04) (aged 50) 17 Jean-Goujon Street, Paris, France
Burial	Chapelle royale de Dreux
Spouse	Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Alençon ​ ​ (m. 1868)​
Issue	Louise, Princess Alfons of Bavaria Prince Emmanuel, Duke of Vendôme
House	Wittelsbach
Father	Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria
Mother	Princess Ludovika of Bavaria

Duchess Sophie Charlotte Augustine in Bavaria (23 February 1847 – 4 May 1897) was a granddaughter-in-law of King Louis Philippe of France, the favourite sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and fiancée of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Biography[]

Portrait of Sophie Duchess of Alençon in 1886 by Joseph Albert.

Sophie Charlotte was born at the Possenhofen Castle, the residence of her paternal family, Dukes in Bavaria. She was a daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (1808–1888) and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. The ninth of ten children born to her parents, she was known as Sopherl within the family.

She was also a sister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen Maria Sophie of the Two Sicilies. After the 1861 marriage of her older sister, Duchess Mathilde Ludovika in Bavaria, to the Neapolitan Prince Luis of the Two Sicilies, her parents then looked for a suitable husband for Sophie Charlotte.

She was engaged to her cousin King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Their engagement was publicised on 22 January 1867, but after having repeatedly postponed the wedding date, Ludwig finally cancelled it in October, as it seemed Sophie had fallen in love with the court photographer, Edgar Hanfstaengl.

Other proposed husbands included the renowned homosexual Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria, brother of both Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico, as well as the future Luís I of Portugal. Another candidate was Duke Philipp of Württemberg,^[1] the first cousin of her eventual husband.

She refused all the candidates. She was sent to stay with her aunt, Amalie Auguste, then the Queen of Saxony as wife of King John of Saxony. It was in Saxony Sophie Charlotte met Prince Ferdinand of Orléans (12 July 1844 – 29 June 1910), Duke of Alençon, the son of Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours and grandson of the late King Louis Philippe (died 1850). Soon after, on 28 September 1868, she married him at Possenhofen Castle, near Starnberg.

She had a good relationship with her husband as well as with her sister-in-law Princess Marguerite Adélaïde of Orléans, wife of Prince Władysław Czartoryski. Her mother in law, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, cousin of Queen Victoria, had died in 1857. Sophie Charlotte did not have an overly good relationship with her father-in-law, the widowed Duke of Nemours.

The year after their marriage, the ducal couple moved into Bushy House in the Teddington area of Southwest London, where Sophie Charlotte gave birth to her first child, Princess Louise of Orléans.

Sophie Charlotte wrote her last will and testament on 4 October 1896, seven months before her death. She died in a fire at the Bazar de la Charité in Paris on 4 May 1897, where she had been helping to raise funds for charity. She refused to be rescued, insisting that the girls, visitors and nuns working alongside her at the bazaar be saved first. A Dominican nun who had managed to escape from the inferno explained that she saw the Duchess get down on her knees and start praying.^[2]

Identifying Sophie Charlotte's remains was not easy; her personal maid was unable to recognise the body, as it had been severely disfigured by the fire, so the Duchess's dentist, M. Lavanport, was called in. After two hours examining various bodies, he identified Sophie Charlotte on the basis of her gold fillings.^[3] Thus she became one of the first people whose remains were identified by forensic dentistry.^[4] Her sister, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, was assassinated the following year.

Issue[]

• Louise Victoire Marie Amélie Sophie d'Orléans (19 July 1869 – 4 February 1952) married Prince Alfons of Bavaria (1862–1933) and had issue; (the line ended in dynastical sense in 1990 in male line, with cognatic descendants still present).
• Philippe Emmanuel Maximilien Marie Eudes d'Orléans, Duke of Vendôme (18 January 1872 – 1 February 1931) married Princess Henriette of Belgium^[5] and had issue (the line ended dynastically in 1970 in male line, with cognatic descendants still present).

Ancestry[]

References and notes[]

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