Princess Alexandra of Bavaria

Princess Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria (26 August, 1826 - 21 September, 1875) was a member of the House of Wittelsbach who devoted her life to literature.

Alexandra was born in Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg, the eighth child and fifth daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and of his wife Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a young girl her portrait was painted by Joseph Karl Stieler for the "Gallery of Beauties" which her father commissioned at Schloss Nymphenburg.

Alexandra never married, and instead was appointed abbess of the Royal Chapter for Ladies of Saint Anne in Munich and Würzburg; this was a religious community specifically for noble ladies. In the 1850s Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte asked King Ludwig for Alexandra's hand in marriage, but he was divorced from his wife, and Ludwig refused, using as an excuse Alexandra's delicate health. [Egon Caesar Corti, "Ludwig I. von Bayern" (München: Bruckmann, 1942), 508.]

In 1852 Alexandra began a literary career. Her first book of stories was entitled "Weihnachtsrosen" (Christmas roses). The next year she published "Souvenirs, pensées et essais" (Memories, thoughts and essays). In 1856 appeared "Feldblumen" (Field flowers), the proceeds of which she donated to the Maximilian Orphanage. In 1858 appeared "Phantasie- und Lebensbilder" (Daydreams and biographical sketches), a collection of loose translations into German from English and French. In 1862 she produced a loose translation into German of some of the romances of Eugenie Foa. The following year appeared "Thautropfen" (Dewdrops), a collection of stories translated into German from French as well as others of her own.

In 1870 Alexandra produced "Das Kindertheater" (The children's theatre), a German translation of some French children's plays from Arnaud Berquin's "L'ami des enfants". That same year appeared "Der erste des Monats" (The first of the month), a German translation of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly's French book. In 1873 she produced "Maiglöckchen" (Lilies of the valley), a collection of stories. Alexandra also had a number of contributions published in Isabella Braun's periodical "Jugendblätter".

In spite of her literary accomplishments, Alexandra suffered several mental eccentricities. [Christian Dickinger, "Die schwarzen Schafe der Wittelsbacher: zwischen Thronsaal und Irrenhaus" (München: Piper, 2005), 101-102. ISBN 3492243452; Martha Schad, "Bayerns Königgen" (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1992), 113.] She had a fixation with cleanliness and later in life developed a delusion that she had swallowed a piano made of glass.

Alexandra died in 1875 at the age of forty-nine at Schloss Nymphenburg. She is buried in the Wittelsbach crypt in the Theatinerkirche in Munich.

Notes

ee also

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Bibliography

Rall, Hans. "Wittelsbacher Lebensbilder von Kaiser Ludwig bis zur Gegenwart: Führer durch die Münchener Fürstengrüfte mit Verzeichnis aller Wittelsbacher Grablegen und Grabstätten". München: Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds.