Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg

Archduchess Eilika
Born (1972-08-22)22 August 1972
Bad Segeberg, West Germany
Spouse
Issue Archduchess Zsófia
Archduchess Ildikó
Archduke Károly-Konstantin
Full name
German: Eilika Helene Jutta Clementine
House Holstein-Gottorp
Father Duke Johann of Oldenburg
Mother Countess Ilka of Ortenburg
Austrian imperial family

Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg (née Duchess Eilika Helene Jutta Clementine of Oldenburg) (born 22 August 1972) is the wife of Georg von Habsburg, the third in the line of succession to the former Austro-Hungarian throne. She was in line of succession to the British throne before her marriage to a Roman Catholic. She is a daughter of Duke Johann of Oldenburg and his wife Countess Ilka of Ortenburg.[1] Her father is a younger son of Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

Marriage

Wedding ceremony

On 18 October 1997, Eilika married Georg von Habsburg in St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, Hungary.[1][2][3] He is the younger son of Otto von Habsburg (himself a son of the deposed Emperor Charles I of Austria) and his wife Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen. Among the wedding guests were Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Hassan II of Morocco.[2] Pope John Paul II sent his best wishes to the couple, and ambassadors of many foreign nations, including the United States, attended as representatives.[2] The 25-year-old Eilika wore a high-necked white dress, along with a veil worn by her great-grandmother Duchess Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1896.[4] The ceremony was broadcast live on Hungarian television; roughly 2,000 Hungarian citizens and tourists gathered outside the church to witness the wedding.[4]

Their wedding was the first union between the Catholic Habsburgs and Lutheran Oldenburgs in their families' histories (Archduchess Isabella of Austria married Oldenburg King Christian II of Denmark before the Reformation) and the first marriage between members of the houses of Habsburg and Oldenburg since the wedding of Archduke Joseph and Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, herself a member of the house of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, a branch of the Oldenburgs.[3] It was also the second time that a Habsburg was married in Hungary since the fall of communism in 1989.[3]

Issue

The couple have three children:

  • Zsófia Mária Tatjána Mónika Erzsébet Katalin (Sophie Maria Tatiana Monica Elisabeth Catherine, born 12 January 2001 in Budapest)
  • Ildikó Mária Walburga (Hilda Maria Walburga, born 6 June 2002 in Budpaest)
  • Károly-Konstantin Mihály István Mária (Karl-Konstantin Michael Stephan Maria, born 20 July 2004 in Budapest)

Succession and living arrangements

Georg is the only one of his siblings to make a dynastically equal marriage according to previous Habsburg family laws (though his sister Andrea married the Hereditary Count of Neipperg, heir to a mediatised family, and the requirements had previously been narrowed for his uncle Rudolf). Had his father not accepted his older brother Karl's marriage to Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, which would have been otherwise considered morganatic, Georg would have been his father's heir after his elder brother, as it would have been with Archduke Franz Ferdinand towards Emperor Franz Joseph.

She and her family live next to the village of Sóskút, in Pest County in Hungary. Their eldest child was the first Habsburg to be born in Hungary in more than fifty years. While Georg is a Roman Catholic, Eilika has chosen to remain a Lutheran.

Titles and styles

  • 22 August 1972 - 18 October 1997 Her Highness Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg
  • 18 October 1997 – present: Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Eilika

Ancestry

References

  1. 1 2 Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Eilika Helene Jutta Clementine von Holstein-Gottorp, Duchess of Oldenburg". Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Archduke of Austria Weds German Duchess in Hungary", European Stars and Stripes, Budapest, 19 October 1997
  3. 1 2 3 "Hungary to Host Royal Wedding", The Globe and Mail, Budapest, 18 October 1997
  4. 1 2 "Grandson of Last Emperor Married", Indiana Gazette, Budapest, 19 October 1997
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