Queen Maria Sophia of Two-Sicilies,nee Duchess in Bavaria

[Eric_Lowe]

I think they must be blue...just a guess.

[Agneschen]

If so she must have cut a striking figure with her dark hair and blue eyes ! It is difficult to tell from black & white pictures. I do not know why I had always thought her eyes were dark. Some of her siblings were brown-eyed, others were blue so she might have been the one or the other.

[MarieCharlotte]

This isn't a silly question at all, Agneschen.

At the moment I don't know the colour of Marie's eyes, but I will look for the answer in my books.
Sophie d'Alencon and Carl Theodor had blue eyes. Elisabeth of Austria's eyes were brown. But what about the other siblings? (Maria Theresia, Mathilde Trani's daughter had blue eyes ... maybe Mathilde's eyes were blue, too?

[Agneschen]

Mathilde and also Mapperl seems to me to have had the same kind of fair colouring as Gackel & Sophie (blond hair / blue eyes). On the other side, both Ludwig and Helene were darkhaired and also probably dark eyed. But this is just a point of view and, as I said earlier, black & white pics are not of great help in this matter.  

[MarieCharlotte]

I refer to the observations of Marie Redwitz, a lady-in-waiting of Carl Theodor's daughters. In some parts of her book ("Hofchronik"), she describes different royals very exactly and even mentions their eye-colours.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes MarieCharlotte, tell us more about this book ?

[MarieCharlotte]

"Hofchronik" is one of my favourite books ...

Marie, Freiin von Redwitz was a lady-in-waiting of Duchess Amélie in Bavaria. After Amélie had married Wilhelm Urach, she cared about Carl Theodor's three daughters Sophie, Elisabeth and Marie Gabrielle. It seems that the whole family loved her a lot. Especially Marie Gabrielle wrote her many letters when she was married to Prince Rupprecht.

The book itself was published by "Verlag für Kulturpolitik, München" in 1924. Its exact title is "Hofchronik.  1888 - 1924". Marie Redwitz writes about everything that happend in Carl Theodor's family, also very common things. She decribes the people around her, weddings (for example those of Marie Valérie of Austria and Mädi of Bourbon - Two Sicilies), trips to Marie José's sisters, etc. Redwitz writes very authentically - in a way, I feel like having seen everything through my own eyes.

Of course, this books is absolutely rare. I bought it last years for about 80€. And I don't think that is was translated into other languages.

BTW: Marie Redwitz didn't write anything about the colour of Marie's eyes ...

[Agneschen]

I have been looking on the internet to see if I could locate a used copy of Hofchronik but was unsuccessful. The only book I was able to find by Marie Redwitz is called Prinzen-Märchen. Does anyone know what it is about ?

[MarieCharlotte]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what this book is about.

Here you can find a copy of "Hofchronik" (33,20 Euro):

http://www.buecherwurm-hd.de/gesch02.htm

And this library has also a copy:

http://kirke.hbz-nrw.de/dcb/131/Alle_000/Buecher_4
4/in_NRW_24/000159885.html

Hope I could help.

Marie

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...portraits usually are idealised. For example you do not see wrinkles or any realistic features of a woman who was supposed to be middle-aged. Most of her sister Sisi's portraits (especially ones of her older years)can be safely catagorized as such.

[Eric_Lowe]

I saw most of the portraits that she has brown eyes instead of blue...

[paola]

Eric, where was her home in Paris?

[Eric_Lowe]

I can find out for you. Also the address was also noted in biographies of Maria Sophia (sad that they are in Italian). 

[paola]

Thanks. Dominique Paoli, in the biography of her sister, Sophie d' Alencon, writes that Marie and Francis owned a villa in Saint Mandé. Do you mean to this villa? I think Marie also  lived in a hotel in Paris. I would be interesting to know which one and if still exists.
 Iam not sure, but could be that Marie lived in this hotel together with her sister Mathilde and brother in law Luigi Trani. And as Luigi suicided in a hotel in Paris, perhaps it was in this same hotel.

[MarieCharlotte]

Marie and Francesco moved to France in spring 1874. They lived in a house in St. Mandé near the park of Vincennes where her sister Sophie lived.
As it seems Marie liked France a lot, but sometimes she felt sorry that her Bavarian relatives didn't want to visit her. Duchess Ludovica refused to come and Carl Theodor, too. So she wrote Carl that she had problems with her eyes, which was a lie of course. But Carl, who wanted to help his sister, finally traveled to St. Mandé and Marie was happy.