Who was Helene of Mecklenburg
In our previous blog we mentioned the portrait of Duchess Hélène of Mecklenburg (Mikla Burg meaning, big fortress) in the Royal Château d’Amboise.
The portrait is there because as a close member of the French royal family she stayed in the Château on several occasions. Her husband Crown Prince Ferdinand, duke of Orléans, the eldest son of Louis Philippe, lived in the Château supervising the restoration work commissioned by his father who turned the old, cold, Château into a comfortable holiday retreat for his huge family.
It would be wonderful if one of her visits was at Christmas because Hélène introduced* the German tradition of Christmas Trees to the French Court.
It wasn’t long before having a Christmas tree epitomized the rich upper classes then adopted by the fashionable French middle class bourgeoisie. It wasn’t just the tree. The picture of a close knit happy family was also emulated.
Christmas Tree, Château Royal d'Amboise
It’s not known when the tradition entered humble homes, but the French took to the idea of decorating a spruce tree (native to France) as a symbol of Christmas. They needed one. People find comfort in rituals. Before religion was banned during and after the French Revolution, Christmas was celebrated at the Mass of the Nativity. When churches were boarded up, families decorated a Crèche, a nativity scene with the manger, baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the three wise men.
Hélène would not have been daunted by the Court or her royal in-laws. Her mother was a royal princess, her father was a Prince and Grand Duke. She was born in a much larger, much grander château. The Mecklenburg dynasty was founded in 1167, older by far than The House of Orleans, with continuous rule until the fall of the German monarchy in 1918.
Although she was a Protestant - the French royal family were Roman Catholics - she was chosen, like many aristocrats before and after her, for political reasons. France wanted her cousin, the King of Prussia, as a useful ally.**
Hélène went against the wishes of her family when she accepted the marriage proposal of Crown Prince Ferdinand because she wanted to be Queen of France. Alas it was not to be (more anon).
Because Hélène was a Protestant, the Archbishop of Paris would not allow them to be married in Notre Dame de Paris. The couple were married in two ceremonies, Protestant and Catholic, at the Palace of Fontainebleau in 1837 before moving into a huge apartment complex in the magnificent Palais des Tuileries.***.
The marriage was very happy. The couple had two sons in quick succession. Prince Philippe, Count of Paris and Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres. The portrait in Château Amboise shows Hélène with her baby son Philippe who was born in the Tuileries.
Ferdinand enjoyed making engravings, etchings and lithographs including political satires. An art lover, he bought works of art by the tutors who taught him landscape painting, landscapes by Corot, The Prisoner of Chillon by Delacroix and commissioned Ingres to paint his portrait.
Then came a heart breaking tragedy. In 1842, the horses of his carriage bolted. Ferdinand jumped out and fractured his skull. He died a few hours later surrounded by family members who rushed to the scene of the accident. They had lost a much loved son, husband, father and brother. He was thirty-one. Hélène was devastated. His funeral was held in Notre Dame de Paris. He was interred in the Chapel Royal, Dreux, Eure-et-Loir.
When Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate six years later, Château Amboise was confiscated by the government. Hélène appeared at the French Assembly with her son Philippe to claim his right to the throne. It was refused.
Louis Philippe Study, Château Royal d'Amboise
The royal family went into exile in England. Hélène died of flu sixteen years after Ferdinand. Because she was a Protestant, she could not be buried in the Catholic Chapel Royal at Dreux. Instead, a room was built attached to the chapel and a window was opened between her and Ferdinand’s tomb. She is depicted reaching for her husband through the window. Their double tomb is beautiful, magnificent and poignant without being maudlin.
What goes round comes round.
When Château Amboise was returned to the Orleans family, Philippe, Count of Paris, the son with Hélène in the portrait, embarked on an ambitious restoration of the Château, the Saint-Hubert Chapel, the Charles VIII wing, the Tour des Minimes, the Renaissance wing and the Heurtault Tower.
Saint-Hubert’s Chapel, Château Royal d'Amboise
Today, the Saint-Louis Foundation maintains the much loved Château.
* From 1738, Queen Marie, wife of Louis XV, who was brought up in Germany, had Christmas Trees in the palace of Versailles but the tradition didn’t catch on outside the royal circle.
** In 1871 Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. Hélène’s second son Robert fought for France. Germany took France, most of Alsace and parts of Lorraine. It proclaimed the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm. The majority of Germans were united under a nation state for the first time in history.
*** A favoured royal residence for Catherine de Medicis, Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. The Communards, supporters of the Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco - Prussian War destroyed it in 1871
Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.
