Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Graetz
| Princess Stephanie | |
|---|---|
| Countess Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu | |
HSH Princess Stephanie of Windisch-Graetz with her mother
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| Born | 4 April 1909 |
| Died | 29 May 2005 (aged 96) |
| Spouse | Count Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu Karl-Axel Björklund |
| Issue | Alvar Etienne d'Alcantara de Querrieu Björn-Axel Björklund |
| House | Windisch-Graetz |
| Father | Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Graetz |
| Mother | Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria |
Princess Stéphanie of Windisch-Graetz (April 4, 1909 in Ploskovice, Bohemia – May 29, 2005 in Uccle, Belgium) was the daughter of Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Graetz (1873–1952) and Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria (1883–1963), only child of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. She was the great-grandchild of Emperor Franz-Joseph and Empress Elisabeth ('Sissi') of Austria. She was also the great-grandchild of King Leopold II of Belgium.
Her full name was Stéphanie Eleonore Maria Elisabeth Kamilla Philomena Veronika zu Windisch-Grätz in German, and Stéphanie Éléonore Marie Élisabeth Camille Philomène Véronique de Windisch-Grätz in French. She may have been named after her maternal grandmother, Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. Her nickname in the family was Fée.
As a child she suffered greatly from her mother's frequent absences, and her parents' inharmonious marriage. The couple was separated in 1924 and divorced in 1948. Her mother came to live in Brussels with the four children and Princess Clementine of Belgium offered a friendly refuge to Stéphanie.
In 1921, Archduchess Elisabeth had begun a relationship with the Austrian socialist member of parliament Leopold Petznek, whom she eventually married in 1948. Stéphanie got along well with her stepfather, but her relationship with her mother was not very good, and worsened after her second marriage. Archduchess Elisabeth did not like Karl-Axel Björklund, and forbade him her house. Stéphanie financially supported her father Otto Weriand in later life.
Stéphanie had three elder brothers:
In 1933 Stéphanie married Count Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu. Count d'Alcantara was the son of Jean d'Alcantara de Querrieu and Baroness Marie-Lucie t'Kint de Roodenbeeke. Count d'Alcantara was member of the household of King Leopold III. In 1942 he was arrested by the Gestapo and died two years later in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. She had one child by her first husband:
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