Religion Roman Catholic Name Princess of | House Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen | |
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Born 6 January 1925
Wurzburg, Weimar Republic ( 1925-01-06 ) Burial 1) 10 February 2010, Veste Heldburg
2) 16 July 2011, Imperial Crypt Vienna Issue
Detail Andrea, Hereditary Countess of Neipperg
Monika, Duchess de Santangelo
Michaela von Habsburg
Gabriela von Habsburg
Walburga, Countess Douglas
Karl von Habsburg
Georg von Habsburg Father Georg, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen Mother Countess Klara Maria von Korff genannt Schmissing-Kerssenbrock Died February 3, 2010, Pocking, Germany Spouse Otto von Habsburg (m. 1951–2010) Children Karl von Habsburg, Georg von Habsburg Parents Georg, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, Countess Klara Maria of Korff genannt Schmising-Kerssenbrock Similar People Otto von Habsburg, Karl von Habsburg, Georg von Habsburg, Walburga Habsburg Douglas, Andrea von Habsburg | ||
Archduchess Regina, Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia (6 January 1925 – 3 February 2010) née Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen (Regina Helene Elizabeth Margarete Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen) was a member of the House of Wettin.
Contents
Biography
She was born in Würzburg, the youngest of four children born to the marriage of Georg, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen and Countess Klara Maria von Korff genannt Schmissing-Kerssenbrock. Regina was the only one of her siblings to have children: of her two older brothers, Anton Ulrich died aged twenty, killed in action during World War II, and Frederick Alfred became a Carthusian monk who renounced his succession rights. Her only sister, Marie Elisabeth, died aged three months in 1923, before Regina's birth.
Regina was a second cousin of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and a great-great-granddaughter of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, half-sister of Queen Victoria.
Although the Saxe-Meiningen dynasty was Protestant, she was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her mother. Regina grew up in the Veste Heldburg which overlooks the Heldburger Land in south Thuringia. Her father, a judge in Meiningen and Hildburghausen, died a captive at the Soviet POW camp at Tschernpowetz on her 21st birthday in 1946. Her mother had fled with her to West Germany. There, while working at a Caritas home for Hungarian refugees, Regina met her future husband.
On 10 May 1951 she married Otto von Habsburg, eldest son of Emperor Charles I of Austria and former crown prince, in the Church of Saint-François-des-Cordeliers in Nancy, capital city of Lorraine, her husband's paternal ancestral lands, with the blessing of Pope Pius XII. After her marriage she used the names Regina, Crown Princess of Austria or Regina von Habsburg. From 10 May 1954 until her death Regina and Otto lived together at his official residence in the Villa Austria, also called the Kaiservilla, in Pöcking near Lake Starnberg.
Regina held several chivalric orders, including Dame and Supreme Protectress of the Order of the Starry Cross, Grand Mistress of the Order of Saint Elizabeth, Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
On 2 December 2005 she suffered a brain injury and was taken to a hospital in Nancy. Nevertheless, by 22 February 2006 she had recovered sufficiently to participate in the transfer of the remains of her mother and her brother, Anton Ulrich, to the vault of the Veste Heldburg in the churchyard of Heldburg. The transfer of the remains of her father thither from Tschernpowetz took place in the spring of 2007.
Regina died in Pöcking on 3 February 2010, aged 85, and was entombed at Veste Heldburg on 10 February. Her remains, except for her heart, were moved to Mariazell and then to the Kaisergruft in Vienna at the time of her husband's funeral on 16 July 2011.
Issue
Regina and Otto had seven children; two sons and five daughters: