How was her relationship with her daughter?
Stéphanie's relationship with her daughter was far from idyllic, especially after Erzsi's divorce from Otto Windisch Graetz. The young woman's unconventional & provocative behaviour was not at all to Stéphanie's liking. Erzsi was very much her father's daughter - she inherited Rudolf's rebellious spirit & radical opinions as well as his exaltation & instability (to put it midly). Mother & daughter's personalities were so radically opposed that they could not fail to clash. All contact ultimately ceased between the 2 women. In later life, Stéphanie did not allow her daughter's name to be pronounced in her presence.
She was very young and still somewhat immature when she became a mother. Although she loved Erzsi I doubt she was a very attentive parent. Neither was her sister Louise who took no interest whatsoever in her 2 children. This seems a bit strange to me. One would have imagined that the 2 sisters who received so little love & affection from their parents, and so obviously suffered from it, would have acted the reverse with their own children. Clémentine, on the contrary, was a loving & caring mother to Louis & Marie Clotilde.
As for the princesses and their own mother - why, there is no denying that Marie Henriette was cold & distant. I think it is Stéphanie who enjoyed the best relationship with the Queen. Clémentine's relationship with her was stormy. As for Louise, her inconsequences and follies drove her mother mad. Marie Henriette spent her time directing and rebuking her eldest in the numerous letters she sent her.
