Duchess Sophie Charlotte Augustine in Bavaria (23 February 1847 – 4 May 1897) was a granddaughter-in-law of King Louis Philippe of France, the favourite sister of

Empress Elisabeth of Austria Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Elisabeth was ...

and fiancée of

King Ludwig II of Bavaria King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...

Life

Sophie Charlotte was born at the

Possenhofen Castle Possenhofen Castle (german: Schloss Possenhofen) is located in the town of Possenhofen on the western shore of Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany. History The castle was built in 1536 by Jakob Rosenbusch, was destroyed during the Thirty Years' ...

, the residence of her paternal family, the

Dukes in Bavaria Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

. She was a daughter of

Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria Duke Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria (4 December 1808 – 15 November 1888), known informally as Max in Bayern, was a member of a Duke in Bavaria, junior branch of the royal House of Wittelsbach who were Kings of Bavaria, and a promoter of Bavarian f ...

and

Princess Ludovika of Bavaria Princess Ludovika of Bavaria (Marie Ludovika Wilhelmine; ''Mary Louise Wilhelmina''; 30 August 1808 – 25 January 1892) was the sixth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife, Karoline of Baden, and the mother of Empress El ...

. The ninth of ten children born to her parents, she was known as ''Sopherl'' within the family.

Marriage

Upon the 1861 marriage of her elder sister Duchess Mathilde Ludovika to the Neapolitan prince Louis of the Two Sicilies, her parents looked for a suitable husband for Sophie Charlotte. Sophie then was engaged to her cousin

, and their engagement was publicised on 22 January 1867, but after having repeatedly postponed the wedding date, Ludwig finally cancelled it in October as it seemed Sophie had fallen in love with the court photographer

Edgar Hanfstaengl Edgar Hanfstaengl (15 July 1842, in Munich – 28 May 1910, in Munich) was a chief clerk, commercial purchaser and art publisher. He was significantly the son of a famous Bavarian court photographer who was connected with the circle of Ludwig II a ...

. Other proposed husbands included the renowned homosexual Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria, brother of both

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...

and

Maximilian I of Mexico Maximilian I (german: Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, link=no, es, Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena, link=no; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor ...

, as well as the future

Luís I of Portugal Dom Luís I (31 October 1838, in Lisbon – 19 October 1889, in Cascais), known as The Popular (Portuguese: O Popular) was a member of the ruling House of Braganza,"While remaining patrilineal dynasts of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha accord ...

. Another candidate was

Duke Philipp of Württemberg Duke Philipp of Württemberg (30 July 1838 – 11 October 1917) was a German prince, head of the Roman Catholic cadet branch of the dynasty which ruled the Kingdom of Württemberg. Biography He was the son of Duke Alexander and of Princess ...

,Son of Princess Marie of Orléans, daughter of Louis Philippe I. the first cousin of her eventual husband. She refused all the candidates, and was sent to stay with her aunt Amalie Auguste, then the Queen of Saxony as wife of King John. It was in Saxony Sophie Charlotte met Prince Ferdinand of Orléans, ''Duke of Alençon'', the son of

Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours Prince Louis of Orléans, Duke of Nemours (Louis Charles Philippe Raphaël d'Orléans; 25 October 1814 – 26 June 1896) was the second son of King Louis-Philippe I of France, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. Life Childhood ...

and grandson of the late King Louis Philippe. Soon after, on 28 September 1868, she married him at Possenhofen Castle, near

Starnberg Starnberg is a German town in Bavaria, Germany, some southwest of Munich. It is at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the " Five Lakes Country", and serves as capital of the district of Starnberg. Recording a disposable per-capi ...

Duchess of Alençon

She had a good relationship with her husband as well as with her sister-in-law

Princess Marguerite Adélaïde of Orléans Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

, wife of Prince Władysław Czartoryski. Her mother-in-law,

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Victoria Franziska Antonia Juliane Luise, Victoire Francoise Antoinette Julianne Louise); 14 February 1822 – 10 November 1857) was the daughter of Ferdinand, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Kohá ...

, cousin of

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

, had died in 1857. Sophie Charlotte did not have an overly good relationship with her father-in-law, the widowed

Duke of Nemours Duke of Nemours was a title in the Peerage of France. The name refers to Nemours in the Île-de-France region of north-central France. History In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Lordship of Nemours, in the Gatinais, France, was a possession of th ...

. The year after their marriage, the ducal couple moved into

Bushy House Bushy House is a Grade II* listed former residence of King William IV and Queen Adelaide in Teddington, London, which Lord Halifax had constructed for his own enjoyment on the site of a previous house Upper Lodge, Bushy Park, between 1714 and 1 ...

in the

Teddington Teddington is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2021, Teddington was named as the best place to live in London by ''The Sunday Times''. Historically in Middlesex, Teddington is situated on a long m ...

area of Southwest London, where Sophie Charlotte gave birth to her first child,

Princess Louise of Orléans , title = Princess Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies , image = Louise of France Princess of Bourbon.jpg , image_size = , caption = , spouse = , issue = , house = Orléans , father = Prince Phi ...

Later years and death

Sophie Charlotte wrote her last will and testament on 4 October 1896, seven months before her death: she died in a fire at the

Bazar de la Charité The ''Bazar de la Charité'' was an annual charity event orchestrated by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris beginning in 1885, when it was first organised by Englishman Henry Blount, the son of banker Sir Edward Blount, a financier of ra ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 4 May 1897, where she had been helping to raise funds for charity. She refused to be rescued, insisting that the girls, visitors and nuns working alongside her at the bazaar be saved first. A Dominican nun who had managed to escape from the fire explained that she saw the Duchess get down on her knees and start praying. Identifying Sophie Charlotte's remains was not easy; her personal maid was unable to recognise the body, as it had been severely disfigured by the fire. The Duchess's dentist, M. Lavanport, was called in. After two hours examining various bodies, he identified Sophie Charlotte on the basis of her gold fillings. Thus she became one of the first people whose remains were identified by forensic dentistry.

Issue

* Louise Victoire Marie Amélie Sophie d'Orléans (19 July 1869 – 4 February 1952); married

Prince Alfons of Bavaria , image =Wedding Louise d'Orléans Alfons von Bayern.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = , spouse = , house = Wittelsbach , father = Prince Adalbert of Bavaria , mother = Infanta Amalia of Spain , ...

and had issue. The family line ended in dynastical sense in 1990 in male line, with

cognatic Cognatic kinship is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be known ...

descendants still present. * Philippe Emmanuel Maximilien Marie Eudes d'Orléans, ''Duke of Vendôme'' (18 January 1872 – 1 February 1931); married

Princess Henriette of Belgium nl, Henriëtte Maria Charlotte Antonia , father = Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders , mother = Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = , death_place = Sierre, ...

Sister of

Albert I of Belgium Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...

and daughter of

Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders nl, Filips Eugeen Ferdinand Marie Clemens Boudewijn Leopold Joris , image = Philippe comte de Flandre (1880).jpg , caption = , spouse = , issue = , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father ...

who in turn was a grandson of

Louis-Philippe of France Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...

. and had issue. The family line ended dynastically in 1970 in male line, with

descendants still present.

Ancestry

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sophie Charlotte In Bavaria, Duchess 1847 births 1897 deaths Nobility from Munich Duchesses of Alençon Princesses of France (Orléans) House of Wittelsbach Duchesses in Bavaria Burials at the Chapelle royale de Dreux Deaths from fire Accidental deaths in France