Countess Xenia and the Hapsburgs

From Wikipedia

Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov properly Countess Xenia Chernysheva-Besobrazova (c. 1933- 20 September 1968 near Soigny, France) was the first wife of the late Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1919-2010), the youngest son of Karl I of Austria, the last reigning emperor.

She was the younger daughter of Count Serge Chernyshev-Besobrazov, later of 61 East 95th Street, New York City by his wife Countess Elisabeth Dmitrievna Sheremeteva, who was descended from a prominent Russian comital family.

The engagement between Archduke Rudolf and Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov was announced on April 30, 1953. The couple were married in June 1953 at Tuxedo Park, New York, where the Archduke and his mother the Dowager Empress Zita were said to live on a "large estate".

Background

Xenia was an alumna of Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She then attended Smith College for two years, but did not graduate. At the time of her engagement, she worked for Air France, and was based in New York City.

The bride's father, Count Sergei, was a Czarist courtier, whose father was made a Russian count in 1908 as the son-in-law of the last Count Chernyshev-Kruglikov (that family, now extinct, itself rose to comital status 1832, confirmed 1852, by marriage to the heiress of the extinct counts Chernyshev, who were created counts in 1742)

Count Sergei fled Russia after the Revolution, and settled in the United States with his wife Elizabeth, his son Alexander, and two daughters Irina and Xenia. In 1949, his older daughter Irina married Prince Teymuraz Bagration (1912-1992) as his second wife, without issue.

Teymuraz's mother Princess Tatiana of Russia was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, and the first cousin of three successive kings of Greece (whose mother was Grand Duchess Olga of Russia). By 1953, his son Alexander was also married.

Marriage

Archduke Rudolf and Countess Xenia were married on June 23, 1953 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Tuxedo Park, New York. The wedding, officiated by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, was attended by over one hundred guests, including Dowager Empress Zita.^[3] The press reports claim that this was the first imperial marriage in the United States, but the first such marriage was actually between Napoleon's younger brother Jerome Bonaparte and an American heiress Elizabeth Patterson (Betsey Patterson).

On the bride's side, there was Princess Vera of Russia (the bride's brother-in-law Prince Teymuraz's maternal aunt), Count Hilarion Woronzow-Dashkow, a distant cousin, the bride's brother Alexander Czernichev-Besobrasov, and his wife.

Subsequent life

The Archduke and Archduchess planned to make their home in New York, but their children were born in various countries, mostly the Belgian Congo. Archduke Rudolf worked at the time of his marriage in a New York City private banking firm. Their children are:

• Archduchess Maria Anna (born 1954) married Prince Peter Galitzine (born 1955), and has issue
• Archduke Karl Peter (born 1955) married Princess Alexandra of Wrede (born 1970), a niece of his father's second wife, and has issue
• Archduke Simeon of Austria (born 1958) married Princess María of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (born 1967), 2nd daughter of Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria, Head of the Royal House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies by one account, and first cousin to King Juan Carlos I of Spain.
• Archduke Johannes Karl (1962-1975) who died in a road accident.

The Archduchess was killed on 20 September 1968 when the car she was in with her husband collided with a truck. Her husband was seriously injured. She was buried on the grounds of the Chateau de Beloeil in Belgium.