Princess Of Belgium Louise

Notable

Family

Belgian princess as the eldest daughter of Leopold II and his wife, Marie Henriette of Austria. Louise married Philipp, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her second cousin, in Brussels, on 4 February/4 May 1875 and had two children. n 1895, Louise became romantically involved with Count Geza Mattachich (1868–1923), stepson of Oskar Keglevich, Count of Buzin. Mattachich was a lieutenant in a Croatian regiment of the Austrian army. In January 1897, she scandalized Vienna by permanently leaving her husband, Prince Philipp, for Mattachich and taking her daughter with her. They travelled first to Paris, then Cannes, living in other destinations in the south of France and the rest of Europe. Her son became estranged from her, because he felt her actions had ruined his chance for inheritance. Her daughter soon left her mother at the advice of her fiancé, the duke of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1898, Prince Philipp and Mattachich fought a duel in Vienna, first with guns, then with swords, in which the prince was injured. Louise and Prince Philipp were finally divorced in Gotha on 15 January 1906, almost eight years after Louise had begun divorce proceedings. She died on 1 March 1924, aged 66, in Wiesbaden, Germany. Link to Wikipedia biography