Stéphanie de Beauharnais

Stéphanie, Grand Duchess of Baden (Stéphanie Louise Adrienne de Beauharnais) (August 28, 1789 – January 29, 1860) was the consort of Karl, Grand Duke of Baden.

Biography

Born in Versailles at the beginning of the French revolution, Stéphanie was a great-granddaughter to Claude de Beauharnais (1680 - 1738) and Renee Hardouineau (1696 - 1744) who were married in La Rochelle during 1713. Their oldest son was François de Beauharnais, Marquess de la Ferte-Beauharnais (1714 - 1800) who served as a governor of Martinique. Their younger son was Claude de Beauharnais, 1st Count des Roches-Baritaud (1717 - 1784).

Claude was married in 1753 to Marie Anne Françoise Mouchard (1738 - 1813), known in poetry as "Fanny de Beauharnais". Their oldest son was Claude de Beauharnais, 2nd Count des Roches-Baritaud (1756 - 1819). In 1783 the 2nd Count married Claude Françoise de Lezay (1767 - 1791). The marriage resulted in the birth of first her older brother Alberic de Beauharnais (1786 - 1791) and then Stephanie herself. Her father was remarried in 1799 to Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis (1775 - 1850). The second marriage resulted in the birth of her half-sister Joséphine de Beauharnais, Marchioness de Quiqueran-Beaujeu (1803 - 1870).

The fates of her family however would be defined by another Joséphine. On December 13, 1779 Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, first cousin of her father, was married to Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie. On July 23, 1794, Alexandre was guillotined. Joséphine had affairs with several influential figures of the French Directory, including Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras. The later would introduce her to his recent favorite Napoléon Bonaparte. Napoléon soon started courting her.On March 9, 1796 they were married.

General Napoléon was now stepfather to Eugène de Beauharnais and Hortense de Beauharnais, second cousins of Stephanie. As his prominence and wealth continued to rise, Napoléon found himself being de facto patron to both the Bonaparte and the de Beauharnais families. Stephanie would soon see her patron rise to become First Consul of France.

Her "uncle" crowned himself Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804. As a prominent member of the new Imperial Family, Stephanie held residence in the Tuileries Palace. Her new status allowed her to live a rather luxurious life. She would soon however have to depart both the Palace and France.

This was a consequence of Napoleon's effort to secure an alliance with the Prince-elector of Baden. The alliance was to be secured through a marriage between the descendants of the two sovereigns, connecting the two dynasties. The Prince-Elector was to be represented by his grandson. Napoleon on the other hand lacked legitimate descendants of his own. He adopted Stephanie and named her "Princesse Française" (French Princess). The marriage took place in Paris on April 8, 1806. On July 25, 1806 her new grandfather-in-law was named Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden. He would serve as head to the Confederation of the Rhine.

By most accounts the arranged marriage was not particularly successful. Her husband was determined to continue living as a bachelor. He set residence in Karlsruhe. She was allowed to settle separately in Mannheim. Even the official complaints by the Emperor of French did not resolve this situation. The Grand Duke offered Schwetzingen to be their common summer residence. But only Stephanie accepted the offer. The situation changed somewhat when it became evident that the aging Grand Duke would not live much longer. The couple apparently reconciled in an effort to produce heirs for the throne.

Children

On June 10, 1811, Karl Ludwig Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden succeeded his grandfather. He and Grand Duchess Stephanie would have five children:
*Princess Luise Amelie Stephanie of Baden (June 5, 1811 - July 19, 1854). She was married on November 30, 1830 to Gustav, Prince of Vasa.
* Unnamed son (September 29, 1812 - October 16, 1812), some theories suspect the dead child to be unrelated to her and the actual son (and therefore the hereditary prince) to be Kaspar Hauser
* Princess Josephine Friederike Luise of Baden (October 21, 1813 - June 19, 1900). She was married on October 21, 1834 to Karl Anton, Fürst of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
* Prince Alexander of Baden (May 1 - May 8, 1816)
* Princess Marie Amelie Elisabeth Karoline of Baden (October 11, 1818 - October 8, 1888). She was married on February 23, 1843 to William Alexander Anthony Archibald Douglas-Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton.

Among her descendants are the former Kings of Romania and former King of Yugoslavia, the present King of the Belgians, the present Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the present Sovereign Prince of Monaco.

The Grand Duke died on December 8, 1818. Stephanie remained a widow for the rest of her long life. She was reportedly a devoted mother to her three daughters. Her residence in Mannheim became a popular Salon for artists and intellectuals. Stephanie died in Nice at the age of 71, in 1860, 41 years after her husband.

Mysterious Feral Child

Theories connect her as the mother of Kaspar Hauser, a mysterious feral child of Nuremberg that appeared, claiming to have lived mostly of his life kept from human contact in a dark room.

In 2002, the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Münster analyzed hair and body cells that were also alleged to belong to Kaspar Hauser, and came to a more conclusive result. They took six samples from different sources: The boy's hat and trousers along with his hair curls, partially from the private collection of the Ansbacher chief presiding judge Feuerbach. The analysis took a long time as the results in the laboratory were examined several times over for the sake of accuracy. The genetic code was the same in all six samples, and was a 95% match to that of Astrid von Medinger, a descendant of Stéphanie de Beauharnais, who would have been Kaspar Hauser's mother if indeed he had been the hereditary prince of Baden. The DNA evidence would seem to argue that Kaspar Hauser was indeed related to the House of Baden.Fact|date=May 2008 The House of Baden continues to be silent on the matter of Kaspar Hauser, and has so far refused all attempts to gather further DNA evidence from the family vault.Fact|date=May 2008

External links

* [http://www.bad-bad.de/gesch/stephanie.htm A German article and portrait of her]