Sophie, Duchess d'Alencon

Post pics and/or information/anectdotes here about dear Sophie d'Alencon(too lazy for accents at the moment).


She was the sister of Sissi, wasn't she??

When Sophie was almost 20 years old, she was engaged to King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1867. But the engagement was dissolved that same year.
She got married on 28th September 1868 to Ferdinand d’Orleans, Duke d’Alencon (1844-1910). They got two children, daughter Louise and son Emmanuel.
Sophie died on 4 May 1897 in a charity bazaar that was caught on fire.

At last a thread about Sophie  , her real name is Sophie Charlotte, her death was very tragic, she took part in "Le Bazar de la charité", where aristocratic's people sold things for their charitable work. The place was like a medieval street with booths painted in vivid color, and in a little place, a cinematograph  was installed, and it is this one who set fire on the building  . The poor duchess was nearly the far end of the Bazar, she indicated an exit in a little waste ground for her assistants and gives orders   "The young girls before, then visitors...", she wanted to leave the last. The Duc d'Alençon was at the other end of the place, he gaves orders, too, for the evacuation, but people were panicked, when at last he saw he couldn't do anything more, he crossed counter-current the Bazar to save his wife. At this moment Sophie realised too that the situation was critic, with a baronne she tried to escape and walked a little in the bazar, but when she saw all this corpses in the floor, she didn't want to walk on it, and above all she was persuaded that her husband had not left without her. Some people recognised her and tried to push her toward the exit but she refused and said "Saves the others". During this time the Duc , with the beard burned, reached the stand of his wife, he yelled  her name, some women told him that the duchess was saved in the waste ground, but infortunately she was only at a few meters of him. He ran towards this place but logically didn't see her but it was too late, the roof of the Bazar collapsed, killed around 143 people  

I have much anectodes about this woman, she is not really knew in France, how do you have been interested in her story, Smiths Chips  ?

An engraving of the bazar before the fire :

Ferdinand Philippe Marie, Duc d'Alençon :

I was always surprised that Louise married Alfons, especially due to the fact that her cousin Marie Valérie refused to marry him. I wouldn´t like to marry someone who had been abandonned by my own cousin...

Two pics of Sophie´s children (hope they haven´t been shown yet). One of Louise: http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-families/bourbon/bborleans2/1869%20Louise-01.jpg
and one of Emmanuel: http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-families/bourbon/bborleans2/1872%20Emmanuel-03.jpg

Posted by: Linnea Posted on: Today at 5:05am
I was always surprised that Louise married Alfons, especially due to the fact that her cousin Marie Valérie refused to marry him. I wouldn´t like to marry someone who had been abandonned by my own cousin...  

Although she looks sad on her wedding picture, is possible that Louise was in love with Alfons.

Daniela

P.S. But than, I don't know much about Louise's life.

Although she looks sad on her wedding picture, is possible that Louise was in love with Alfons.

Daniela

P.S. But than, I don't know much about Louise's life.

Who knows, maybe she just wanted to lead a own life as her relationship with her mother wasn´t the best one. Marie Valérie wrote about Alfons after a dinner at Schönbrunn (her sister Gisela wanted to make a match between M.V. and A.) :"I had the feeling that Alfons looked at me like "a cow on the cattle market" as Mädi says...a tall, broad-shouldered soldier, with red cheeks, blonde bard and hair and laughing, blue eyes, very homely (urgemütlich), talks much and very "munichan"(münchnerisch)-unimportant, without serious manliness."

Although she looks sad on her wedding picture, is possible that Louise was in love with Alfons.

Daniela

P.S. But than, I don't know much about Louise's life.

Louise´s cousin, Marie Valérie, wrote about this:"I was telling her about Franz (of Austria-Tuscany) and Louise was telling me about Alfons of Bavaria. But she doesn´t seem really in love to me (11 Sep 1887).

Wonderful pics of Madi and her family!.. She looks sad and distant...Queen Marie of Romania wrote that Madi was an invalid. And I always amused by Prince Wilhelm's
(Madi's husband)smiling face -- it seem he was constantly in a good mood --in most of his pictures he smiles!..And his 2 spouses were always sad...

As for "was Louise in love with Alfons or not" I guess she had no choice. She was a catholic Princess and as we know many of European princes were Protestants. She had to find (I mean her parents had to find) a catholic Prince for her...the choice was not so wide.

I don´t think that it was impossible for a catholic to marry a protestant. Just have a look at the royal Bavarian house, which seemed to love marrying protestants (Hesse-Darmstadt (2x), Baden, Sachsen-Hildenburghausen, Prussia (2x)). And also the French Orleans married protestants: Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Prince Waldemar of Denmark.

Well, such things as a Catholic married a Protestant were quite acceptable . But such marriages between the royalties were rare, weren't they? Helene and Ferdinand Philippe, Marie and Waldemar - exceptional cases.Still a Catholic prince (or Princess) was meant to marry a Catholic --esp. in the families like the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbachs, the Orleans...Who knows possibly a niece of Franz Josef simply could not permit herself to marry a non-Catholic Prince. :-/  

Re Catholics marrying Protestants - Charles I of Great Britain was a Protestant and married Catholic Henrietta Maria of France. Also, Catholic Catherine of Braganza married Protestant Charles II - but I'm off topic!  :-/