Princess Marie of Erbach Schonberg (nee Battenberg)

[grandduchessella]

From friends on another board (I'll keep checking) this is all I've found out so far:

She was only 71 when she passed away.
Marie was outlived by her sister-in-law (Anna of Montenegro received monetarial help from Edwina Mountbatten): Franz Joseph (Padua 24 Sep 1861-Schaffhausen, Switzerland 31 Jul 1924); m.Cetinje 18 May 1897 Anna Pss of Montenegro (Cetinje 18 Aug 1874-Territet, Switzerland 22 Apr 1971)

children of Gustav, 1st Fürst und Graf zu Erbach-Schönberg  by his wife Princess Marie von Battenberg (1852-1923)? She outlived her husband by 15 years. They had at least four children:  Alexander, Maximilian, Victor and Elisabeth. She had one child who suffered from a severe mental handicap...and was very candid about it. This may have been Maximilian since he died at 14 and was the only one, I believe, without marriage/issue.

[Ilana]

Yes, Thomas, I've visited that area too as well as their castle.  There was something truly lovely about the garden at the castle... very foresty, misty with a plaque about Queen Victoria on one of the trees... tried to get a pic but it was too dark a day.

That whole area is nice.  They are using the Erbach-Schoenberg castle for offices or something now, aren't they??

[elisa_1872]

Yes, Thomas, I've visited that area too as well as their castle.  There was something truly lovely about the garden at the castle... very foresty, misty with a plaque about Queen Victoria on one of the trees... tried to get a pic but it was too dark a day.

That whole area is nice.  They are using the Erbach-Schoenberg castle for offices or something now, aren't they??

Queen Victoria wrote some lovely little reminiscences of Schoenberg. Here are some from her visit:

"An.. old burg and one drives in under an archway on to a sort of terrace, which goes the whole length of the house and is planted with flowers and shrubs.. The house is very old, the most ancient part dating from the 12th and 13th centuries and the latest being 200 hundred years old.. Most of the rooms are small and low but very comfortably and nicely arranged. There are many family pictures in the house..."

She goes on to mention about the "winding corkscrew staircase" reminding her of Rosenau.

"We went out to look at the beautiful view from the terrace and walked in the gardens where i planted a tree".

[Guinastasia]

I'm reading Hugo Vickers's bio of Princess Alice of Greece, and at one point, it mentions her cousin, a boy named Maxi, who died at age fourteen.  The book described him as "subnormal",  and having been a "hopeless life."  What's the story?  Why was he "subnormal?"

[Svetabel]

He was mentally handicapped. In some thread this topic was discussed, though I don't remember where..

[Guinastasia]

Oh, how sad!  I guess I just think the author shouldn't have used the term "subnormal"...it just struck me as very distasteful, when he could have said mentally retarded, or disabled.

[Speedycat]

From March 2005 "Royalty Digest" article entitled "Dear Marie Erbach".........."Of Marie's own self in these final years we see only the faintest glimpses...............She lived long enough to know of her eldest grandchild, Imma's, marriage to Hans-Karl, Baron von Dornberg on 31 May 1923, though she may not have been able to attend.  Three weeks after the ceremony, on 20 June 1923, Marie of Battenberg, Princess of Erbach-Schonberg, died at the Schloss where she had spent most of her married life.

[mardam]

Last week I was in Schönberg and took pictures on the cemetery of the Erbach family. Here is the portrait on the grave of Maxi. More pictures on my website http://www.royaltyguide.nl. Choose: Countries - Germany - Schönberg.

[mardam]

No, the church was closed. We didn't have time to go to the castle.

[VN]

Hallo everybody. I'm usually a "silent user" of the forum which is by the way great and I am very glad to have discovered it. Well anyway....


While reading the Memoiren of Marie von Erbach,  the first thing I had in mind was that Maxi had severe brain damage caused either from a complicated and long birth (oxygen shortage) or maybe intra-uterin damage through infection of the mother (rubella, hepatitis etc. ) or hemorrhage of the brain). All the symtoms described by Marie are a result of early Infant Braindamage. Often the cause is never found and for the time Maxi was born even more unlikely to know about. As far as I know this "Illness" was first discribed by an english Doctor named W.J. Little 1853.   .............. these are just my personal thoughts about it (came up because of my work as a physical therapist and having to work with patients with these conditions) .


Greetings VN

[bluetoria]

Hello VN - how lovely that you are no longer silent!  

Thank you for your interesting thoughts which do seem to explain his condition very clearly.

[rita]

Today the castle is an educational house of the Bundesknappschaft. This is the health and pension organisation for miners and steelworkers.

[TampaBay]

I read somewhere (do not ask me where) quoting Marie Battenberg that she & brothers were treated the "best" by Alice & Louis of Hesse and Queen Victoria. She also stated that OV always treated she & her brothers when they were children as if they were truly her niece and nephews.

Therefore, it seems QV had her eyes on the "Battenberg Boys" before Liko "bumped" into Beatrice at the wedding of Victoria & Louis in Hesse.

TampaBay

[Marc]

It would be great to see pictures from Erbach-Schoenberg castle and also would be great to see their family members!Maybe there is a book about them in the castle?

[Ilana]

Tampa Bay,
Wishful thinking I would guess since it took Beatrice at least 6 months to convince her mother to let her marry Liko.

Think she just liked the look of them, and QV always liked their mother.