Dunkelgrafen

Their grave in 1863

The Dunkelgrafen (French : Comte et Comtesse des Ténèbres) - « Dark Counts » in German -is the nickname given by the locals to a wealthy couple who resided from February 1807 until their death in the vicinity of Hildburghausen, Thuringia, mainly in the castle of Eishausen where they settled in 1810. The man presented himself as Count Vavel de Versay and kept the woman’s identity secret, making only clear that they were neither married nor lovers. They led a secretive life, particularly the Countess who ventured out only in a carriage or with a veil covering her face. At her death (November 28, 1837) she was inhumated very fast, possibly without a religious service. The Count - later identified as Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck (born 22 September 1769 in Amsterdam), secretary in the Dutch embassy in Paris from July 1798 to April 1799 - gave her name as Sophie Botta, single woman from Westphalia ; according to the Dr Lommler, the physician who constated her death, she looked about 60 years of age. The Count stayed in the castle and died there on April 8, 1845.

The mysterious couple sparked much interest and speculations about the identity of the Countess started early on. The most notable – with very few support from historians though – proposes that she would be the true Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Marie Antoinette, imprisoned in the Temple and supposedly redeemed in 1795 in exchange for French prisoners. According to this hypothesis, Marie-Thérèse, traumatized by her trials or pregnant by rape, would have refused to go back in the world ; her half sister, Ernestine Lambriquet, would have taken her place.

The theory of exchanging the person ("Vertauschungstheorie" / "Substitution de personnes") sprang immediately after the wedding of Marie-Thérèse with the Duke of Angoulême in 1799. Pictures of the Duchess of Angoulême look remarkably different from pictures of Marie-Thérèse before 1795 and her social style is said to be very unlike that of the original Madame Royal. Following the theory it was her half-sister Ernestine Lambriquet ensuring at least a royal lineage. According to her lady in waiting Mme von Heimbruch, Mary of Hanover believed that she was indeed a Princess of Condé.

Among the counter evidence however there are letters of the Comtesse des Ténèbres written in plain German. The name given by the count, Sophie Botta, was not found in any civil registry in Westphalia however. As the dark count was later identified as Leonardus Cornelius van der Valck it looks however improbable that an officer fighting against the French monarchy would choose a life of covering a royal member for more than three decades. Also there are records about Ernestine Lambriquet to marry in 1810 in France and to have died in 1813 in France. So may be it was nothing but a photoallergy of a member of some important aristocratic family that made for the Comtesse to seal her face. The dark count continued to live in Castle Eishausen after her death.

The Dunkelgrafen are the theme of numerous historical essays and fictions in German and French. The graves of the Dark Counts are still untouched on the Eishausen cemetery. The local administration is repelling a possible DNA test since there is an interest in keeping the myth alive. The derelicts of Castle Eishausen were torn down in 1887 already.

Bibliography

• Frédéric de Saxe-Altenbourg : L'énigme de Madame Royale, Flammarion 1954
• Monique de Huertas : Madame Royale, Pygmalion 1999
• Patrick Ravignant, Pierre Mariel La Comtesse des ténèbres Editeur : Encre (1979) ASIN: B000LUT2MQ
• Noëlle Destremau Madame Royale et son Mystère, 1991, Nouvelles Editions Latines
• Cyr Belcroix Autour de Louis XVII : La comtesse des ténèbres, Le Relais (1999) ISBN 2902693486 ISBN 978-2902693481
• Ludwig Bechstein: Der Dunkelgraf. Roman. Meidinger, Frankfurt/M. 1858
• Richard Boehmker: Das Geheimnis um eine Königstochter. Die Lösung des mehr als 100jährigen Rätsels von Hildburghausen. Helingsche VA, Leipzig 1937
• Albert Emil Brachvogel: Das Rätsel von Hildburghausen. Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 1990, ISBN 3-86180-015-2
• Kurt Kluge: Nocturno. Erzählung. Reclam, Stuttgart 1949
• Helga Rühle von Lilienstern: Dunkelgraf und Dunkelgräfin im Spiegel vor Zeugen und Mitwissern. Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2000, ISBN 3-86180-067-5
• Helga Rühle von Lilienstern: Die Unbekannten von Eishausen. Dunkelgraf und Dunkelgräfin im Spiegel zeitgenössischer Veröffentlichungen. Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2003, ISBN 3-86180-056-X
• Helga Rühle von Lilienstern u. Hans-Jürgen Salier: Das große Geheimnis von Hildburghausen. Auf den Spuren der Dunkelgräfin. Salier Verlag, Leipzig u. Hildburghausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-939611-19-6
• Mark de Lannoy: Das Geheimnis des Dunkelgrafen. Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3833468476

External links

• Madame Royale
• Die vertauschte Prinzessin. Die Dunkelgräfin von Hildburghausen, MDR feature about the Dunkelgräfin