25: Louis and Stephanie

Louis, the eldest son of the field marshal, married Princess Stephanie Radziwill in 1828, heiress to the “Radziwill Fortune”, through the mediation of the Tsar. 

Around 100,000 serfs lived on her numerous estates in former Poland. Louis, who was very much involved in a liberal secret society leading to the “Decembrists” uprising, strove with Stephanie for social reforms, emancipation of serfs and school education. 

Stephanie died after only 4 years of marriage. Two small children, Peter and Marie, survived her. 

You see Marie as an elderly lady towards the end of the gallery. She later married the German Chancellor Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. Her daughter Stephanie, wife of Count Arthur of Schönborn-Wiesentheid, is the great-grandmother of today’s Princess Gabriela from Sayn.