Princess Clémentine of Belgium (, ; 30 July 1872 – 8 March 1955) was the third daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium, and Marie Henriette of Austria. She was by birth a Princess of Belgium and member of the House of Wettin in the branch of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; as such she was also styled Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony. In 1910, Clémentine became Princess Napoléon, and claimant to be Empress consort of the French as the wife of Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the Imperial throne of France as Napoleon V.
Life Early years
The third daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium and Queen Marie Henriette, Clémentine Albertine Marie Léopoldine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born at the Palace of Laeken on 30 July 1872, at 6 p.m., three years after the accidental death of her older brother Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, the King's sole direct heir. The latter nourished the hope of having a second son and had therefore resumed an intimate life with the Queen; but, after a miscarriage in March 1871, another girl was born: Clémentine. She was to be the couple's final child. She was baptized on 3 September 1872 at the Palace of Laeken during a short ceremony, followed by a gala lunch attended by around 80 guests. Her first name pays homage to her godmother and great-aunt, Princess Clémentine of Orléans, while her middle name refers to that of her godfather, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen, a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
The royal couple already had two daughters, Louise and Stéphanie, aged 14 and 8 respectively, so the birth of a new daughter deeply disappointed the King. The coldness that had settled between Leopold II and Marie Henriette reflected on their relationship with their youngest daughter, and the Queen, above all, was particularly distant and bitter. She nicknamed Clémentine Reuske ("the little giant") because of her large size. Like her sisters, Clémentine received lessons in French, German, music, history and literature. A zealous student, Clémentine showed a predilection for history and literature, while her mother took care to instill in her a careful musical training thanks to the lessons of the pianist and composer Auguste Dupont.
Louise, the princess' older sister, married in 1875 with a cousin, Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and settled in Vienna. Before her prestigious marriage to Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, in 1881, Stéphanie played a maternal role with her younger sister, somewhat neglected by her mother. From the age of 8, Clémentine was the only child of the Belgian royal couple to stay in Belgium and spent a sad and lonely childhood at the Palace de Laeken. Even though she sees her cousins Henriette and Joséphine Caroline weekly, her universe was essentially limited to adults, including her governess Omérine Drancourt. According to her biographer, Dominique Paoli, "the unbalanced Queen gives the impression of a mother led by her mood. [She] makes Laeken's atmosphere unbreathable. Jealousy often guides her [...] She is angry with the whole world for her misfortunes, and, of course, Clémentine sometimes pays the price for it".
Very pious, Clémentine was authorized by her parents to frequent Madame Cléry, the superior of the Collège du Sacré-Cœur de Jette, not far from Laeken. There she rubbed shoulders, for a few hours on Thursday and Sunday, with other aristocrats, such as Marguerite de Limburg-Stirum and Nathalie de Croÿ. In April 1889, two months after the death of her brother-in-law Rudolf in strange circumstances in Mayerling, Clémentine and her mother stayed with Stéphanie, now widowed, at the Miramare Castle. The two sisters strengthened their bond and happily played music together. It was also in the spring of this year that Clémentine discovered the charms of Venice.
In December 1889, her studies were officially over, but she still took some classes in religion, English and German. Her governess was replaced by a maid of honor, an aristocrat and pianist in her spare time, Zoé d'Oldeneel, while her parents allocated her a living room where she could receive guests. However, Clementine's joy was clouded by drama: On 1 January 1890, while Clémentine was alone in Laeken with Omérine Drancourt and her maid Toni, Clémentine settled in the rooms of her mother, who was absent to attend the New Year's celebrations with the King, and played the piano. Toni shouted to Clémentine to come down before warning Omérine Drancourt to run away because a fire had broken out in the Palace. Omérine Drancourt began to pray, before trying to take personal items. They could not find Omérine, whom Clémentine wanted a servant to look for, because a thick smoke prevented any rescue. Clémentine was reduced to assist helplessly, from the lawn of the Palace, to the intervention of the firefighters who ended up discovering Omérine Drancourt's lifeless body.
In 1890, as Clémentine approached her eighteenth birthday, she learned to drive carriages: Guided by her mother, she trained to lead station wagons. She succeeded very well and considered this hobby amusing. She showed a predilection for the equestrian world and was able to identify the different breeds of horses she met. In summer, she attended horse shows in Brussels, one of her favorite distractions with the amenities provided by the park of the Palace of Laeken where she liked to have lunch on the grass and sometimes even load haystacks. In July, she accompanied her parents to Ostend. When she turned 18, Clémentine was with her mother in Spa. The Queen took her and three of her retinue on a donkey ride through the city. They were followed by an army of curious people, astonished to see them ride these "little noble steeds"..
First loves and more independence
As a teenager, Clémentine fell in love with her cousin Prince Baudouin, considered the future heir to the throne. The young man, who did not share the feelings that his cousin had for him and did not like the atmosphere that reigned at his uncle's house in Laeken, was supported in his refusal by his parents, accentuating the cooling of relations between Leopold II and his brother the Count of Flanders, father of the intended groom. The latter found his niece a "beautiful lady, but too tall and affected"; he was also critical to the girl, whom in private he called "the big Clémentine". All hope vanished when Prince Baudouin died of pneumonia on 23 January 1891 at the age of 21. The princess drew on faith the courage to overcome the death of her cousin and first love.
Queen Marie Henriette increasingly fled the Belgian court to take refuge in Spa where she acquired a villa in 1894; in her mother's absence, Clémentine fulfilled the functions of "first lady" alongside King Leopold II, who protected her from her mother's embittered character and granted her an independence that few unmarried princesses could enjoy at that time. To her sister Stéphanie, Clémentine wrote, "I have a very nice situation, I have my small property, my horses; I got from papa not to go to Spa anymore, because I can't anymore, so that in the summer I will be free".
The property to which she referred was the Belvédère Château, built on the domain of Laeken. Clémentine also knew what Dominique Paoli calls a "loving friendship" with Baron Auguste Goffinet, secretary and confidant of Leopold II. However, the nature of the relationship with the Baron, who was almost 15 years older than her and not of royal blood, remained platonic.
In the autumn of 1896, a more plausible party appeared as a suitor for her hand, Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, but the princess refused this union because she confided to her father that she did not like the candidate and that, in her life, the unknown scared her. In spite of her father's insistence, who judged Rupprecht favorably and considered him an advantageous political choice for Belgium, Clémentine maintained her refusal to marry the Bavarian suitor and Leopold II finally relented.
Family affairs While Clémentine had acquired a certain freedom, her older sisters were gradually ostracized from the Belgian royal family. In 1895, the eldest, Louise, fell under the spell of a Croatian officer, Geza Mattachich (Croatian: Gejza Matačić), with whom she had an adulterous relationship known throughout Europe. King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette forbade Stéphanie to see her sister Louise, who was no longer received in Belgium. In 1898, Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Louise's scorned husband, provoked his rival into a duel. He then had to settle large debts contracted by Louise, but he failed to meet the demands of the many creditors. Prince Philip and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria were determined to bring Louise back to Austria and keep her away from Mattachich. Supported in his designs by the Belgian sovereigns, Prince Philip then had his wife declared insane and convinced the Austrian Emperor to have her locked up in a psychiatric hospital. She remained interned there until 1904 before they finally divorced in 1906.
Stéphanie was also already distant from her parents, who did not wish to visit her because of her proximity to the scandals affecting Louise. However, the King had authorized Clémentine to see her sister again in April 1898 because she was recovering from severe pneumonia. Leopold II had even escorted Clémentine in the Dolomites, so that she stayed with Stéphanie, convalescing. However, when Stéphanie remarried in 1900, against her parents' advice, to , a Hungarian nobleman of lower rank, the Belgian sovereigns, offended that Stéphanie had not trusted them with her matrimonial projects, severed any relationship with their daughter, whom they also forbade to return to Belgium.
Stay in Saint-Raphaël and broken engagement
During the winter of 1899–1900, due to her bronchial pathologies, Clémentine spent a few months, on the advice of her doctors, in Saint-Raphaël, on the Var coast. The isolation was complete there and for the first time in her life, the princess found herself without any member of her family. She devoted herself to photography, thanks to a camera offered to her by her aunt, the Countess of Flanders. In March 1900 however, her stay was interrupted by an illness of the Queen who only saw her for a few minutes each day at Spa. On the other hand, Marie Henriette claimed her dogs, causing the return of Clémentine, wounded by the little maternal attitude of the Queen, from the south of France.
From time to time, Clémentine received invitations from royalty. She was invited by Queen Victoria (who was also staying on the Côte d'Azur) and to Cannes by the Count and Countess of Caserta (heads of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies), where, at the instigation of her sister Stéphanie, she met Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (nicknamed "Nino"), second son of the Count and Countess. Clémentine seemed favorably impressed by the young man, two years her senior: "Nino is very good, very handsome. I believe him to be serious, straightforward, honest. It is highly praised. He is very pious and has all the qualities required, it seems to me, to make a woman happy". The press mentioned an engagement, and Clémentine believed she had to break it because she was no longer under the spell of the Prince, who nevertheless found her to his liking.