• 25/03/2023
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Eleonora Amálie of Schwarzenberg: Vampire Princess of Český Krumlov<

Eleonora Amálie of Schwarzenberg: The Vampire Princess of Český Krumlov

The year is 1741 and the days of Eleonora Amálie of Schwarzenberg are quickly running out. Where are the times when he felled a bear with his own hand! She awaits the end with horror: will she be granted peace after death? Or will she become a cursed undead, bringing shame to her husband's family and casting a dark shadow over the future of her longed-for son?

Back then it was a real concern. In the 18th century, Bohemia was ravaged by vampire hysteria. Many doctors also believed in vampires. And the noblewoman who studied magic, raised wolves, paid tribute to hunting and tobacco, represented a grateful candidate for the undead.

She smoked tobacco. She loved hunting, she could kill three dozen deer in one day. Only she never shot wolves...

"She was a very distinctive and independent woman who did not allow herself to be bound by the conventions of her time," notes Pavel Slavko, castellan of the Český Krumlov castle.

Money comes first

Eleonora Amálie Magdalena was born on June 20, 1682 in Vienna as the eldest daughter of Prince Ferdinand August Lobkowicz. She was married to Adam František from Schwarzenberg at the age of nineteen. It wasn't a love marriage. Adam had secretly married another woman "below the level" shortly before, and his enraged father had the marriage annulled in 1701. A quick courtship with Eleonora, ending in marriage the same year, was supposed to correct the previous scandal.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Schwarzenegger heir did not love his legitimate wife very much. When ten years later, after the birth of a daughter and at least one miscarriage, he still did not have the desired son and heir, he accused her of infidelity and banished her back to her father. However, as it appears from the correspondence between Ferdinand Lobkowicz and his hofmeister Jan Melchior Bitsch, the real reason for the breakup was money. Eleonora was supposed to bring twenty-five thousand guilders as a dowry, but her husband received only three thousand, with the understanding that he would receive the rest in installments. But somehow the installments didn't come...

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After some time, Adam František began to send appanage to his rejected wife, but he did not meet with understanding. "I give him shit for his money. I still have enough to be able to give my daughter at least a piece of bread and not let her suffer to death," stated father Ferdinand in a letter to Hofmeister Bitsch. However, he did not mention that he would repay the owed dowry.

"I would be willing to live like an ordinary peasant and endure any suffering, if only I could go back!" Eleonora whined. She finally succeeded. In the summer of 1711, Adam František first let her live in his dilapidated château in Chrešťovice and then moved her to Hluboka. He checked with whom he corresponded, approved her visits... However, Smir was nowhere in sight. The course of conjugal meetings depended on the man's whim.

"Now and then, during his visits to Hluboká, he was very kind and nice to her, and there was also intimate contact... But at other times, if Adam was not in the mood, he forbade Eleonora for the duration of his stay in Hluboká, even before his arrival, through a special messenger leave her rooms, or at least refused to dine with her," writes historian Kristina Popelka in a study devoted to the Schwarzenbergs' marital split.

In 1719, however, Adam František inherited a fabulous fortune from his childless aunt Maria Ernestina and suddenly became one of the richest noblemen in Europe. Three years later he became the highest imperial groom. He already had enough money of his own, and keeping a woman in exile was no longer socially acceptable. Despite the fact that both spouses were over forty, the chances of conceiving a child decreased every year. And there was no other legitimate heir than Adam František and his possible sons in the family.

While the stabbing of a noblewoman's heart with a stake would have caused a scandal, it was simply excised as part of the autopsy.

Adam and Eleonora saw each other more and more often. Considering how her husband has treated her for years, it's surprising how much she liked him. "God is my witness that I love him infinitely. I never would have believed it, but now I can swear that the mere thought of seeing him again makes me giddy with joy. I know that I will still have to endure a lot, but I want to endure everything patiently, only if God wills and we reconcile," he hopes in an undated letter to Hofmeister Bitsch.

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Her wish finally came true in the spring of 1722, when she was finally allowed to share a new residence with her husband in Český Krumlov. Nine months later, the longed-for heir, Josef Adam, was born. The forty-one-year-old mother finally fulfilled her mission. However, there were many rumours. "The princess was obliged to visit the Viennese court, where the emperor himself or someone close to him allegedly looked at her with a very gracious eye. But of course that's just gossip," points out castellan Pavel Slavko.

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Marital happiness did not last long. In June 1732 Charles VI. accidentally shot his groom while hunting. "Tell the emperor that I fall on my knees before him and beg him to take care of my wife, child, people and subjects and not leave them," swore Adam František to the monarch on his deathbed.

Karl's remorse was soothed by a hefty life annuity for Eleonora. While her ten-year-old son was supported by the emperor in his studies in Vienna, the princess took charge of the property as regent. Although she faced great pressure from both court and church, she resolutely refused any attempts to remarry her, much to her displeasure.

Cuckoo's Eyes and Wolf's Milk

"In her time, it was unheard of for a woman to have a decisive influence on the management of such a vast and important estate. However, after the death of her husband, Eleonora was already a mature enough personality that she even stood up to Maria Theresa," states Pavel Slavko. You did great. She ruled with a firm hand and was finally enjoying life. She smoked tobacco like men. She loved hunting, she could kill three dozen deer in one day. Only she never shot wolves…

But then she started moaning. She couldn't sleep, she didn't feel like eating. She suffered from pains for which she sought relief in vain. The intravenous drip didn't work. The doctors just shrugged gloomily at her condition. So she turned to alternative medicine. She was interested in mysticism, esotericism, alchemy, and invited various healers to the castle.

"She left several dozen books with occult themes in the castle library, they are devoted to death, vampires, demons, witchcraft, the Inquisition, astrology - and there are handwritten notes in them, so they were definitely not just for decoration," reveals castellan Slavko . In the depositories of the Český Krumlov castle, there are - allegedly the princess's favorite - paintings depicting the transformation of a virgin into a witch or departure for the Sabbath. The Český Krumlov archive then stores lengthy bills for medicines.

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These were rare – and expensive – ingredients: crayfish eyes (actually sediments from the stomachs of river crayfish), sperm whale skin (fine fat from the cranial cavity of sperm whales), unicorn horn (narwhal horn or fossilized mammoth tusk) or wolf's milk, which we will return to later. The most complex recipe contains sixty items. It comes from April 30, 1739, from the night of Filipojakuba, when witches are burned... However, that didn't help either.

A bribe for silence?

The princess literally withered before her eyes. Her deathly pale skin became more and more translucent. Rumors began to spread through Podhrady: the lady is turning into a vampire! Český Krumlov was gripped by fear. When the noblewoman left for her son in the spring of 1741, the townspeople were relieved. In Vienna, in the Schwarzenberg Palace, Eleonora breathed her last on the morning of May 5. Barely three hours later, an autopsy was performed in the presence of five doctors.

Why? In aristocratic circles, it was not customary to dissect the dead, let alone in such a hurry. In addition, they were mostly doctors serving at the imperial court, i.e. the best in the country.

The professors discovered a tumor "about the size of an average child's head" under the intestines, in the left renal pelvis. They also found metastases on the pleura and solar plexus. Today we would diagnose cancer. However, doctors in the Baroque period did not know this, so the conclusion about the cause of death is missing from the autopsy protocol. Or perhaps they were not interested in the cause of death? Even that is surprising, because the costs of the autopsy were calculated at three thousand guilders, which today would represent an amount in the order of millions of crowns.

"The price was high probably because there was some risk involved. Possible infection. Or it was a bribe for silence... It is possible that one of the doctors was dealing with the vampire epidemic and thought it had affected Eleonora," says forensic pathologist Christian Reiter in the Austrian documentary Die Vampirprinzessin (The Vampire Princess).

An even more precise explanation is offered by Jaroslav Mareš in the book Top Secret Scandals. According to him, the autopsy was intended to cover up an anti-vampire crackdown: while the ritual stabbing of the heart with a sharp stake would have caused scandal in aristocratic circles, the organ in question was simply removed as part of the autopsy. An elegant solution! Perhaps even the noblewoman herself wanted him.

The dead travel fast

"Wherever I die, my body will be transported to Krumlov and buried without pomp in the church of St. Jan Nepomucký. On the tombstone let the following words be engraved: Here lies poor sinner Eleanor. Pray for her,” she wrote in her will. The wish was granted with astonishing speed.

In the evening of the same day that she took her last breath, they transported the body back to Český Krumlov. The funeral took place on May 10, 1741 in the church of St. Welcome. Although they laid to rest one of the richest Czech noblewomen, neither the high clergy nor the nobility took part in the ordeal. Even the son did not come to see his mother off on her last journey.

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The body of the "poor sinner" was placed in the chapel dedicated to the new family patron Jan Nepomuck, in a tomb with a solid cement vault, covered with a layer of consecrated cemetery soil. For sure? The granite tombstone - without a coat of arms and without a family name - is still covered with a carpet today... The removed heart rested in a niche next to the husband's heart.

Immediately after the funeral, the son began to distance himself from his mother. Wizarding books and paintings disappeared from view, the princess's servants were dismissed, the chambers were rebuilt. When they X-rayed Eleonora's hunting portrait in 1996, restorers discovered that some parts had been painted over. For example, the part at the bottom left, where two greyhounds cling to the feet of the hunters: were wolves originally in their place? The princess's face was also cut out of the canvas and replaced. Did Josef Adam just want to correct his mother's "inappropriate" behavior? Or was he actually afraid that the mother would return from the grave through the image?

Finding the truth after centuries is difficult. Especially when vampire legends are created even in the present day. But one archaeological find is enough…

In 2000, eleven skeletal graves were discovered during the reconstruction of utility networks in the Český Krumlov suburb of Plešivec. Three of them came from the first half of the 18th century and, contrary to Christian customs, were oriented from north to south. The skeletons buried in them had their limbs weighed down by stones. The hands of one of them were tied with a rosary, the skull was separated from the body and placed between the knees. Was she clutching a rock in her jaws - so she couldn't "chew" in the resurrection? Three cervical vertebrae were also missing, probably the result of beheading or hanging.

Vienna University professor Rainer Köppel was so intrigued by the discovery that he began searching for vampires in Bohemia. Following this, in 2007 he filmed the aforementioned documentary Die Vampirprinzessin, The Vampire Princess. Starring: Eleonora Amálie from Schwarzenberg. But...

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"The professor is not a historian, he works in the department of media studies. When I started studying Eleonora, I got in touch with him and he told me straight up that he had never researched in the archives. He just connected the facts and made up a lot of things to create an interesting story about how it could have been," historian Kristina Popelka, who studies the life of the princess, told Práva Magazine.

He also offers a rational explanation regarding drinking wolf's milk: "The Schwarzenbergs really had special wolf ranges in the Šumava to separate the pests from the game. However, they definitely did not milk the wolves. "In the list of Eleonora's medicines, there is an item called 'Wolfsmilch', which can be translated as 'wolf's milk', but it is the German name for the medicinal herb scurvy," she explains.

It is the same with the "witch images", attributed to the princess's strange hobbies. Although they provoke the imagination, they only come from the beginning of the 19th century, they did not exist during Eleonora Amálie's lifetime.

Kill the vampire!

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