Here is a portrait of Princess Josephine Friederike Luise of Baden (1813-1900), the maternal grandmother of Albert I, King of the Belgians. (It seems that yesterday was the anniversary of her death).The daughter of Karl, Grand Duke of Baden and his wife, the famous Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Josephine was the consort of Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and the mother of six children, including King Carol I of Romania, Queen Stephanie of Portugal and Princess Maria Luise, Countess of Flanders, the mother of Albert I. From the painting, it appears that Josephine was quite the dignified, brunette beauty, a kind of counterpart to Albert's paternal grandmother, Queen Louise-Marie of the Belgians, a lovely blonde.
5 comments:
The Belgian royal family probably has one of the most interesting pedigrees in Europe. At one side they descend from all the great dynasties of both the Catholic and Protestant world (Bourbon, Habsburg-Lorraine, Braganza, Wittelsbach, Orange-Nassau, Hohenzollern, etc), but they also have a lot of ancestors who belonged to Napoleonic families (Bernadotte, Murat, Beauharnais, Clary). It's really interesting!
Yes, they seem to blend the great families of both pre- and post- revolutionary Europe.
She died at Sigmaringen 19 June 1900 (aged 86)
Beautiful and serene looking lady.
Albert must have inherited his soulful looking eyes from his mother's side of the family!
Yes, I believe Marie-José made a comment to the effect that her father had inherited something of the expression of his mother's eyes.
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