Prince Leopold Clement of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
| Prince Leopold Clement | |||||
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| Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Duke in Saxony |
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| Born | 19 July 1878 Svätý Anton, Hungary |
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| Died | 27 April 1916 (aged 37) Vienna, Austria |
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| Burial | St. Augustin, Coburg | ||||
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| House | House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry | ||||
| Father | Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
| Mother | Princess Louise of Belgium | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
Prince Leopold Clement Philipp August Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (19 July 1878, Szent-Antal, Hungary – 27 April 1916, Vienna)[1] was an Austro-Hungarian officer and the heir apparent to the wealth of the House of Koháry. His death in a murder-suicide shocked the royal courts of Austria and Germany.
Background[edit]
Prince Leopold Clement was the elder child and only son born in the troubled marriage of Princess Louise of Belgium and Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, both of whom were Roman Catholic members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He shared his name with his maternal grandfather, King Leopold II of Belgium, and a number of other Coburger relatives. Prince Leopold Clement was the sole heir to the wealth his father's family had inherited from their ancestress, Princess Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág.[2]
Fatal affair[edit]
A Hussar captain in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Prince Leopold Clement met a Viennese girl named Camilla Rybicka[note 1] at a charity bazaar[2] in 1913. Rybicka was one of the daughters of Court Councillor Rybicka, an officer in the Vienna State Police. Then in her early twenties, she belonged to high society, but was nevertheless a commoner. The two soon started a romantic relationship. Rybicka left the family home, and the two travelled around the Austro-Hungarian Empire before settling down in an apartment in Vienna.[3]
Rybicka, however, was not satisfied with being only the Prince's lover and demanded that he marry her.[2][3] In Paris on 1 July 1914, Prince Leopold Clement wrote her a letter, promising to marry her within six months, naming her his sole heir, and requesting his father to pay her 2 million Austro-Hungarian krones in the event of his death.[4] After Prince Leopold Clement was called to fight in the First World War, she insisted that he marry her before leaving.[3] Leopold Clement was aware that such a mésalliance would have deprived him of the fortune he stood to inherit[2] because his father had no intention of permitting the union,[3] and that marrying Rybicka would have forced him to resign his officer's commission.[2]
When her pleas, intrigues and threats all failed to secure her marriage to Leopold Clement, she was offered 4 million Austro-Hungarian krones as compensation. On 17 October 1915, the Prince called her to his first-floor flat in Vienna to say goodbye and sign the cheque, but Rybicka did not intend to take the money.[2] Instead, she fired five shots at him at close range and then smashed a bottle of sulfuric acid in his face,[2][5] before firing the sixth bullet through her heart.[6] Neighbours testified that they heard him scream in agony.[5] The half-naked Rybicka was lying dead by the bed when the police came, but the Prince was alive on the floor and still screaming.[5][6] Rybicka was cremated in Jena, Germany in December 1915.[4] Having lost an eye and much of the flesh on his face, Prince Leopold Clement died after six months of suffering.[2] His remains were interred in the vault of St. Augustin in Coburg.[7]
Aftermath[edit]
Following the death of his only son, Prince Philipp bequeathed his fortune to his grandnephew, Prince Philipp Josias.[2] The deaths of Prince Leopold Clement and Camilla Rybicka shocked the royal courts of Austria and Germany. They were reminiscent of the 1889 Mayerling Incident, an apparent murder-suicide involving Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, Prince Leopold Clement's maternal uncle, and Rudolf's teenage mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera.[3]
Ancestry[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Her name is sometimes given as Lotte, and her surname as Rybika or Rybicska.
References[edit]
- ^ Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Leopold Clemens Philip Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha". Retrieved 10 May 2003.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Was the Surrender of King Leopold a "Runs-in-The-Family" Tragedy?". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 21 July 1940. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "Royal Love Tragedy: A Woman's Revenge". 1916. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b "Princes' Matrimonial Scandals". The Argus. 11 December 1915. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b c Ashdown, Dulcie M. (1981). Victoria and the Coburgs. Robert Hale Limited. ISBN 0709185820.
- ^ a b Duff, Albert (1972). Albert & Victoria. Müller.
The last bullet she had kept for herself. She lay, half naked, by the bed, shot through the heart.
- ^ Sandner, Harald (2001). Das Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha 1826 bis 2001. Eine Dokumentation zum 175-jährigen Jubiläum des Stammhauses in Wort und Bild. Coburg: Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse. pp. 317–320. ISBN 3-00-008525-4.
External links[edit]
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