Princess Marie of Liechtenstein (born 1959)
Princess Marie of Liechtenstein is the eldest daughter of [Henri, Henri, Count of Paris (1908–1999)|Count of Paris (born 1933)|Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Duke of France] and his former wife Duchess Marie Thérèse of Württemberg. She is the wife of Prince Gundakar of Liechtenstein, a great-grandson of Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein.
Youth
Her paternal grandfather, the Comte de Paris, head of the Orléanist House of France, received a letter of congratulations upon the princess's birth from General Charles de Gaulle. Baptised 17 days after her birth by Maurice, Cardinal Feltin, the Archbishop of Paris, in the chapel of the Archdiocese, her god-parents were two of her grandparents; Philipp Albrecht, Duke of Wurttemberg and Isabelle d'Orléans, Duchess of Guise.Princess Marie's early childhood was spent in Paris where, from October 1959 to April 1962, her father worked at the Secretariat-General for National Defence and Security as a member of the French Foreign Legion. Transferred from there to a garrison in Germany, in the beginning of 1963 his family joined him at Bonifacio in Corsica where he took up a new assignment as military instructor.
Returning to civilian life in 1967, her brother, Prince Francois, Count of Clermont and his family briefly occupied the Blanche Neige pavilion on his father's Manoir du Coeur-Volant estate at Louveciennes in 1967, before renting an apartment of their own in the XVe arrondissement. For some months in that year Marie attended a private, parochial day school in Paris, before being sent to boarding school at Cours Dupanloup in Boulogne-sur-Seine in 1968 and Sacré-Coeur de Saint-Maur. In 1972 she boarded at a Dominican establishment in Fribourg during the family's residence in Corly while Clermont managed public relations for the Geneva office of a Swiss investment firm.
Upon receiving her bac, Marie enrolled at the Institut Catholique de Paris where she obtained a language interpretation degree in German and English after completing the Institut Supérieur d'Interprétariat et de Traduction curriculum. She also earned a professional degree through the Franco-German and Franco-English Chambers of Commerce, as well as a DEUG in German.
Career
As the eldest of five children, two of whom are intellectually disabled, much of Princess Marie's professional and volunteer work has been in behalf of children with special needs. In 1981 she spent several months serving needy children in Brazilian favelas through a Foi et Lumiere programme. Afterwards, she worked a year in Paris for a Catholic periodical. In 1984 Marie moved back to Geneva to organise the Enfants et Jeunes de la rue programme as part of the, conducting outreach in various countries, including Colombia and Brazil.Transferred by BICE back to Paris, the princess became head of the Commission on Special Medical-Pedagogical Services, which sponsors humanitarian conferences in Europe and the developing world.
Marriage
While on work assignment in Rio de Janeiro in September 1988, Marie attended a dinner hosted by Princess Isabel of Brazil, where she met their mutual cousin Prince Gundakar of Liechtenstein. Fifth cousins as great-great-great grandchildren of Maximilian I of Bavaria, both also descend from France's "Citizen-King", Louis Philippe d'Orléans.Marie and Gundakar encountered each other again in November 1988 at the wedding of two more mutual cousins, Duchess Mathilde of Wurttemberg and the Hereditary Count Erich von Waldburg-Zeil. More meetings in Europe followed. On 11 February 1989 the couple were received by Marie's paternal grandfather, Monseigneur the Count of Paris, at his Chantilly estate, after which the couple's betrothal was announced to the media. Although 250 guests attended the ceremony in Germany, absent were the Count of Clermont, the Count of Paris and all but two of Clermont's eight siblings; the hostess Diane, Duchess of Wurttemberg, was present, as was her brother Prince Jacques, Duke of Orléans, and their mother, Madame the Countess of Paris.
This was the first marriage of a member of the House of Orléans into a reigning dynasty since the 1929 wedding of Princess Françoise of Orléans to Prince Christopher of Greece. Gundakar is a third cousin of his sovereign, Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, and is in the line of succession to that principality's throne. Gundakar Albert Alfred Petrus of Liechtenstein is the eldest son of Prince Johann of Liechtenstein and Princess Clothilde of Thurn und Taxis. He has a twin sister, Princess Diemut, and five younger siblings.
Children
The couple have five children together:- Princess Léopoldine Eléonore Thérèse Marie of Liechtenstein, her godparents are Prince Eudes, Duke of Angoulême and Princess Eleonore of Liechtenstein. She is the godmother of her first cousin Princess Antoinette of Orléans, eldest daughter of the Count and Countess of Paris. She is engaged to Bruno Walter Pedrosa João.
- Princess Marie Immaculata Elisabeth Rose Aldegunde of Liechtenstein, her godparents are Prince Jean, Duke of Vendôme. She is the godmother of her first cousin Princess Jacinthe of Orléans, youngest daughter of the Count and Countess of Paris.
- Prince Johann Wenzel Karl Emmeran Bonifatius Maria of Liechtenstein, his godparents are Princess Blanche of Orléans and Prince Emmeran of Liechtenstein. He is the godfather of his first cousin Prince Joseph of Orléans, younger son of the Count and Countess of Paris. He married Countess Felicitas von Hartig civilly on 30 April 2023 and religiously in Vienna on 10 June. They have a daughter, Josefine.
- Princess Margarete Franciska Daria Wilhelmine Marie of Liechtenstein, her godparents are Prince François, Count of Clermont and Princess Daria of Thurn und Taxis. She is the godmother of her first cousin Princess Louise-Marguerite of Orléans, middle daughter of the Count and Countess of Paris.
- Prince Gabriel Karl Bonaventura Alfred Valerian Maria of Liechtenstein, his godparents are Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein and Madame Gilles Lambotte, née Maria-Edla de Rambuteau.