Aristocratic Communities
Radziwill, Catherine
10 THE COMMONWEAL May 8, 1929 ARISTOCRATIC COMMUNITIES By CATHERINE RADZIWILL WHEN the late Queen Maria Christina of Spain died recently, we heard much concerning the convent of which she...
...Other gentlemen could only be entertained in the general parlor of the house...
...Most of them had been founded by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, or by other sovereigns, and richly endowed...
...But somehow it never attained the popularity achieved by the Noble Ladies of the Hradschin, although it...
...One day one of the lady superiors whose duty it was to watch over the morals of the young inmates of the establishment, entered the Countess's room to be informed that the Prince was her brother, a statement which she accepted...
...exists still, having, unless I am mistaken, a Princess Schonborn for its abbess...
...In reality she and all her ladies had enjoyed far more liberty than even their married sisters...
...In Bavaria there are two chapters of Noble Ladies, that of Saint Elizabeth and that of Saint Anne, but unlike the Hradschin community, they receive widows as well as girls among their inmates...
...Another equally celebrated Protestant community of Noble Ladies is that of Itzehoe in Schleswig...
...In the latter country they were abolished during the Revolution...
...The Reformation put an end to a good many in northern Germany, but a few, by going over to Lutheranism, survived with all their privileges, and kept their estates and their wealth...
...As can be seen from the above, the late Queen Maria Christina of Spain was not a nun, in spite of the fact that she was called an abbess, and might have worn a mitre if asked to put the crown on the head of a Queen of Bohemia...
...She contrived to receive him in her own apartment under the pretext that he was her brother...
...And they were treated with immense respect not only by the public in general but by their own families as well...
...It was a proof that one's May 8, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 11 quarterings were above reproach, and that consequently one could pretend to marriage with the highest in the land...
...She made herself extremely beloved, however, among the members of this famous chapter...
...It has, not an abbess, but a "grande maitresse," who now is the wife of the former Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria...
...death retired there and ended her days within its walls...
...They have as a distinctive sign a broad blue ribbon which they put on on state occasions, and a decoration worn on a white and blue bow on the left shoulder...
...10 THE COMMONWEAL May 8, 1929 ARISTOCRATIC COMMUNITIES By CATHERINE RADZIWILL WHEN the late Queen Maria Christina of Spain died recently, we heard much concerning the convent of which she was supposed to have been an abbess...
...The lady at the head of such a community generally was called its abbess, although neither she nor the ladies under her care and supervision were nuns, or had pronounced any vows except the vow of respecting its rules, but she seldom resided in her community beyond the required time, and generally led a very gay life in her father's house, enjoying all the worldly pleasures within her reach...
...As for the chapter of the Noble Ladies of the Hradschin in Prague, it was founded in the fifteenth century by the second wife of the Emperor Maximilian, and has always had for its abbess an Austrian archduchess...
...In reality, the Queen had never been a nun, had never even wished to be one, and the position of abbess of the Noble Ladies of the Hradschin in Prague is not a religious office, but merely the highest dignity which the Austrian court was able to confer on a woman...
...It thus became almost a necessity to do something to assure the existence of Germany's many princesses and countesses...
...The present abbess is the Archduchess MarieAnnonciade, a step-aunt of the late Emperor Charles, who in spite of her youth did the honors of the Vienna Hofburg after the death of the Empress Elizabeth...
...There were arrangements by which even more latitude might be enjoyed—which reminds me of an amusing story from the community house in Prague...
...Marriage was thus not forbidden to them, nor was the enjoyment of worldly pleasures...
...To have such a canoness among one's relatives was considered a great honor...
...If the proper person was not to be found, the girl had to remain single—in those days anything but an agreeable fate, especially if she were poor, as girls in high circles usually were...
...Their inmates, selected from a waiting list, had to bring a modest dowry which became the property of the chapter when they died or left to be married...
...There were at the beginning of the fifteenth century a great many of these chapters in Germany and France...
...It was of this community that the late Queen Mother of Spain was abbess, but she hardly ever resided in Prague, only appearing there when absolutely necessary...
...They were not even compelled to reside in the house of the community, except for four weeks in the year, and on certain religious holidays, but they had to recite appointed prayers night and morning, and they wore as a distinctive sign a broad ribbon crossing the chest, with an order pinned on the left shoulder...
...Communities such as I have described were exacting in regard to the proofs of nobility submitted to them with applications for membership...
...The Archduchess is now past thirty, but so far has not shown any inclination to marry, although she could easily have done so...
...A solution was soon found, and in imitation of the Teutonic and Maltese orders, which were reserved to men, chapters of canonesses were established for women...
...As its head she enjoyed at the court of Vienna a special rank above all the other archduchesses, with the exception of the crown princess...
...The most famous among them is that of Driibeck in the Harz, endowed by the Counts of StolbergWernigerode, of which the wife of the head of that family is the abbess...
...These remarks inevitably resolved themselves in a general wonderment as to how she could have married King Alfonso XII if she were a nun...
...When they were living in the community, they had sumptuous suites allotted to them where they received such male visitors as fathers, brothers and brothers-in-law...
...These were in reality houses where ladies belonging to noble families could find a home and reside in safety, as well as enjoy an income enabling them to hold their rank in the world...
...At present this dignity is held by the Princess Marie of Stolberg-Wernigerode, by birth a Countess of Castell-Riidenhausen...
...They received an income from the community which, if not large, was absolutely sufficient for their needs...
...and one could be quite sure that after these had been passed upon and approved, one was quite right from the point of view of birth...
...The Noble Ladies of the Hradschin have a magnificent palace enclosed within the walls of the old fortress, and during the winter season, which is always very gay in Prague, they entertain in quite a regal manner...
...There is also the chapter of Saint Teresa, accessible to married .ladies, girls and widows but this is an entirely secular institution, with easier admission requirements than any of the others...
...These chapters, of which there were several, possessed great privileges, and their members ranked with the princesses of the Empire, were, like them, called "Madam," and could go about unattended except for a lackey...
...It was not always possible to arrange suitable marriages —marriages, that is, with men of equal birth...
...But then, kings and queens in this age of democracy have become as mediaeval as the Noble Ladies of the Hradschin themselves, and do not get crowned any longer...
...The abbess, who evidently had her share of sense and humor, pronounced, to the relief of the culprits, one imagines: "All men are our brethren, until they become something else...
...A young Countess Nostitz, who was one of the inmates of the Hradschin community of Noble Ladies, was very much in love with a young Prince Furstenberg, who for some reason or other could not marry her immediately...
...Another Austrian chapter of Noble Ladies was that of Saint Anne in Briinn, Moravia, which was founded by the Archduchess Maria Anna, the eldest daughter of the Empress Maria Teresa, who after her mother's...
...It is a very rich community, and its head is in possession of the unusual privilege of crowning the Queens of Bohemia—a privilege exercised for the last time in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the Empress Maria Anna received the crown of Bohemia...
...A few months later the couple were married, and when they came to pay the customary solemn visit to the community after their wedding, the same lady, happening to be present, indignantly demanded an explanation...
...At a time when orders of chivalry flourished, no head of an aristocratic family, especially of one of those who were known as "Reichsunmittelbar," which meant "next to the Empire," would have dreamt of allowing any of his relatives to wed into a family unable to produce thirty-two unimpeachable quarterings on both sides...
...In mediaeval Germany, families belonging to the highest aristocracy were preoccupied with the future of their children and especially of their daughters...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 1
