Leontine Adelheid Marie Pauline of Metternich-Winneburg was one of the daughters of prince Klemens von Metternich-Winneburg by his first wife, Eleonore (Laure) von Kaunitz-Rietberg. Leontine was married, when she had twenty-four, with an hungarian count, Moriz Sándor of Szlavnicza, known in the Empire as a passionate horseman. One year after the wedding Moriz & Leontine, they had their only daughter,
Pauline Clementine Marie Walburga Sándor of Szlavnicza, born in Wien 26th February 1836.
Pauline spent her whole childhood in the Wien residence of her maternal grand-father, prince Metternich, who lived with his third wife, Melanie Zichy-Ferraris. Of course, Paulina knew from her most tender age Richard, the only son born in the second marriage of Metternich with lovely Maria Antonia von Leykam, so a younger half-brother of Leontine and uncle of Pauline
On June 1856, Richard, twenty seven years old, married his niece Pauline, twenty years old. It was a love match. They were happy, despite the frequent affairs of Richard with actresses. I suppose that Pauline could understand very well her unfaifthful husband. Richard had a deep resemblance with his father, Pauline´s grand-father, Klemens. As a young diplomat, Richard wished to became an emminence of european diplomacy as his father was, and, in his private life, Richard followed the line traced by Klemens, too... Remember that old Metternich had a very succesful marriage with his first wife Eleonore (grand-mother of Pauline) as he had extra conjugal relationships with notorious women as the russian Ekaterine Bragation, the princess of Courland Wilhelmine Biron or, later, Dorothea princess Lieven
Pauline, a energetic and passionate woman, ardent patron of music, accompanied her husband to the diplomatic missions at Dresden and, later, Paris. This was another connection to her grand-mother Eleonore, who, as a newly married, accompanied Klemens to diplomatic missions at Dresde and Paris, too
Richard and Pauline had three daughters:
1.-Sophie Marie Antoinette Leontine Melanie Julie Metternich-Sándor von Winneburg.
2.-Antoinette Pascaline Metternich-Sándor von Winneburg.
3.-Klementine Marie Melanie Sophie Leontine Crescentia Metternich-Sándor von Winneburg.
The younger daughter, Klementine, was badly injured by her dog in her childhood. She survived, but she was disfigured...and she decided never to marry due her scarred face. Another tragedy in Pauline´s life happened in 1890, when her son-in-law Georg Wilhelm von Waldstein, insane and alcoholic, murdered his wife Antoinette Pascaline in Duchkov. This also remembered her grand-mother Eleonore, who suffered a lot when she lost before time his two elder daughters, the clever and lovely Marie (favourite of her father) and the beautiful Clementine.
Pictures of Pauline:
Pauline described herself as the "best-dressed monkey at Paris". She was not a beauty, but she had her own style and she became the face of fashion in Second Empire. French courtiers nicknamed her "Madame Chiffon", but, at the same time, all their wives and daughters wished to wear chiffon dresses in a special tone of green as Pauline did. She was always a woman of character, who performed operas an her house playing a role herself, but also fought a duel in Liechtenstein, on 1892, with countess Kielmansegg over arrangements at the Vienna Musical and Theatrical Exhibition!
