Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz

Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz (11 December 1856 – 9 August 1929) was an Austrian noblewoman and a noted archaeologist. Early life and ancestry Princess Marie Gabriele Ernestine Alexandra was born in Vienna in 1856 as the daughter of Hugo, Prince of Windisch-Grätz (himself son of Weriand, Prince of Windisch-Graetz and Princess Maria Eleonore Carolina of Lobkowicz) and his wife, Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (herself the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Paul Frederick and Princess Alexandrine of Prussia). Biography In Schwerin on 5 May 1881, she married her first cousin, the German-born Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, second son of Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz. The couple had three surviving children, all of whom were raised as Roman Catholics, Marie's religion, and lived a quiet life in Venice, where they befriended Cardinal Sarto (later Pope Pius X), who often visited the family and acted as their spiritual advisor. On 21 April 1884 Duke Paul Frederick deferred his and his sons' rights of succession to Mecklenburg-Schwerin in favour of his younger brothers and their sons, so they would take precedence over him and his. In 1887 her husband, raised a Lutheran, converted to Roman Catholicism, the religion of his wife and their common children.