Crown Prince Rupprecht, his wives Marie Gabrielle & Antonia (nee Luxemburg)

[Kalafrana]

Indeed, it all depends on the individuals concerned. My grandfather did apparently, set about teaching his children to read and working on their spelling when they were quite small (he seems to have been a serious-minded man and particularly concerned that they should have a good education - he had left school at 13 himself). My father also remembers being taken along with him on odd visits before he went to school (as I do with my father) - presumably to give his mother a break as much as anything.

But in any case, back in the 1920s, when Rupprecht was producing his second family, men weren't expected to be all that interested in infants. If Rupprecht was a good provider, provided discipline where needed and set them an example, that was all that was needed.

Interestingly, George V (29 when his eldest child was born) seems to have been quite the hands-on father when his children were infants (giving them baths and the like), but distance developed when they got older.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. Those were the times when a distant father was expected. Must read Immengrad's memoirs to get more clues. Put it off as it was in German.

Not really, George V was never a hands on father, at least according to his eldest son. But in that case, neither was Queen Mary. The only doting figures to the children were the grandparents. Both Edward VII and Queen Alexandra spoiled the grand children.

[Kalafrana]

According to Philip Ziegler's biography of the Duke of Windsor, George V was noticeably doting when his children were small. Ziegler quotes some letters of his which verge on the nauseating.

More interestingly, we learn from another thread that the marriage between Antonia's sister Charlotte and Felix of Bourbon Parma was initially  very unpopular in Luxembourg because Felix had served in the Austrian army. How did the Luxembourgers view Antonia's marriage to Rupprecht, who had not been a mere subaltern but a Field Marshal! And how did Antonia get on with Rupprecht's son Albert, who was only six years younger than she was?

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...It is always easy to be nice to a cute baby or a lovely woman, bur not to a boy or a man. That is the case with George V. He was very lenient with Elizabeth & Marina.

Interesting. I read they got along fine.

[grandduchessella]

The topic of George V as a father is more nuanced & complex than 'he didn't get along with his kids' but does belong on the correct thread.

As for Antonia's marriage, they engaged prior (in 1918) and the engagement was either broken or postponed because of the anti-German sentiments of the Luxemburgers towards the groom. This proposed tie of the Luxemburg ruling family with a German royal helped feed the sentiment against Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide which led to abdication months later. The couple finally married in 1921. Didn't her sister (Sophie?) also have a broken engagement to a Wurttemberg Duke for the same reason?

[Dru]

The topic of George V as a father is more nuanced & complex than 'he didn't get along with his kids' but does belong on the correct thread.

As for Antonia's marriage, they engaged prior (in 1918) and the engagement was either broken or postponed because of the anti-German sentiments of the Luxemburgers towards the groom. This proposed tie of the Luxemburg ruling family with a German royal helped feed the sentiment against Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide which led to abdication months later. The couple finally married in 1921. Didn't her sister (Sophie?) also have a broken engagement to a Wurttemberg Duke for the same reason?

Actually, it was Hilda who had been engaged to Philipp of Wurttemberg; she later married Adolph of Schwarzenberg, but not until 1930, when she would have been thirty-three or so (I've always wondered why she married at such an "advanced" age when, according to Marlene's blog, she was one of Europe's wealthiest princesses).  Sophie's husband was Prince Ernst-Heinrich of Saxony.  But you'd think that match wouldn't have been popular in Luxembourg, either?

[Kalafrana]

Thanks. Was it the Luxembourgers or the Wittelsbachs who broke off the engagement? I imagine it was the Luxembourgers or a joint effort, as it was 'not done' then for a man to break off his engagement.

But the marriage took place less than three years after the end of the war, when memories were still raw. Did the Luxembourgers reconcile themselves fairly quickly to Felix, so making the way open for Antonia to marry Rupprecht?

Albert was 16 when his father remarried, an awkward age, even if his stepmother had not been of his generation rather than his father's. So how they all got on is an interesting question. And what about relations between him and his much younger half-siblings? awkward, for him to be the only survivor of the first marriage, and then faced with quite a crowd of half-brothers and half-sisters.

Ann

[Dru]

Antonia.

[THERRY]

Today, October 9, is the anniversary of the birth of Marie Gabrielle of Bavaria

Smiling Princess di WGABRY, su Flickr

http://donnenellastoria-wgabry.blogspot.it/2011/05/marie-gabrielle-wittesbach.html  One of my Blog

[Dru]

And Sunday, October 7th, was the anniversary of the birth of Princess Antonia

[THERRY]

My personal and affectionate tribute to the hundredth anniversary of the death of Princess Marie Gabrielle of Bavaria.  October 24 1912
http://donnenellastoria-wgabry.blogspot.it/2012/10/omaggio-100-anni-dalla-sua-scomparsa.html

[Marie Valerie]

Herzogin Marie Gabrielle in Bayern, Prinzessin von Bayern

[JamesAPrattIII]

Rupprecht wrote about his WW I experiences post war "In Treue Fest Mwin Kriegstabuch" 3 volumes some of the daily entrys are in the book "The German Army at Cambrai" by Jack Shelton.

[Eric_Lowe]

Was that book published recently ?

[Marie Valerie]

The book by Rupprecht is called: In Treue fest, Mein Kriegstagebuch.