Daisy, Princess of Pless

Daisy, Princess of Pless (Mary Theresa Olivia; née Cornwallis-West; 28 June 1873 – 29 June 1943) was a noted society beauty in the Edwardian period, and during her marriage a member of one of the wealthiest European noble families. Daisy and her husband Hans Heinrich XV were the owners of large estates and coal mines in Silesia (now in Poland) which brought the Hochbergs enormous fortune.

Daisy
Princess of Pless
BornMary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West
28 June 1873
Ruthin Castle, Denbighshire, Wales
Died29 June 1943(1943-06-29) (aged 70)
Waldenburg, Silesia
(present-day Poland)
SpouseHans Heinrich XV von Hochberg
Full name
Mary Theresa Olivia
HouseHochberg (by marriage)
FatherCol. William Cornwallis-West
MotherMary "Patsy" FitzPatrick

Biography
Undated sketch of Daisy by John Singer Sargent

Born Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West at Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire, Wales, she was the daughter of Col. William Cornwallis-West (1835–1917) and his wife, Mary "Patsy" FitzPatrick (1856–1920).[1] Her father was a patrilineal great-grandson of John West, 2nd Earl De La Warr. Her mother was a daughter of Reverend Frederick FitzPatrick, himself a descendant of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 1st Baron Upper Ossory (and thus the Kings of Osraige) and Lady Olivia Taylour, herself daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Headfort. Since the Cornwallis-West family was impoverished, the Hochbergs were forced to pay and organise the wedding. The wedding ceremony took place at St. Margaret's in Westminster on 8 December 1891. Notable witnesses were Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and his wife Princess Alexandra.

Memorial to Daisy in Pszczyna, Poland

During her marriage, Daisy, known in German as the Fürstin von Pless, became a social reformer and militated for peace with her friends William II, German Emperor and King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. During World War I she served as a nurse.

After her divorce at Berlin on 12 December 1922 she published a series of memoirs that were widely read in the United Kingdom, the United States, and, in the German language, in Continental Europe.

Hans Heinrich married as his second wife, at London on 25 January 1925, Clotilde de Silva y González de Candamo (1898–1978). This marriage produced two children, and was annulled in 1934. Subsequently, Clotilde married her stepson, Bolko, and was the mother of Daisy's and Hans Heinrich's only grandchildren.

Daisy's brother George in 1900 married Jennie Churchill, the mother of Winston Churchill, as his first wife, and after their divorce married in 1914 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the actress, as his second. Her sister, Constance, married in 1901 Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, and after their divorce she married in 1920 James FitzPatrick Lewes.

Marriage

On 8 December 1891, in London, she married Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, Count of Hochberg, Baron of Fürstenstein (1861–1938), one of the wealthiest heirs in the German Empire, becoming châtelaine of Fürstenstein Castle and Pless Castle in Silesia.

The couple had four children:[2]

  • Daughter (25 February 1893 – 11 March 1893).
  • Hans Heinrich XVII William Albert Edward (2 February 1900 – 26 January 1984), Prince of Pless, Count von Hochberg and Baron of Fürstenstein. Married twice but had no issue.
  • Alexander Frederick William George Conrad Ernest Maximilian (1 February 1905 – 22 February 1984), Prince of Pless, Count von Hochberg and Baron of Fürstenstein. Unmarried and childless.
  • Bolko Conrad Frederick (23 September 1910 – 22 June 1936), who later caused a scandal by marrying his stepmother Clotilde de Silva y Gonzáles de Candamo (19 July 1898 – 12 December 1978), daughter of the 10th Marquis de Arcicóllar (and Hans Heinrich XV's second wife).

A photograph of the Princess with her children appeared in an issue of the British magazine 'Country Life in 1910.[3]

The Princess of Pless was a Dame of the Order of Theresa of Bavaria and of the Order of Isabella the Catholic of Spain, and was awarded the German Red Cross Decoration.[4]

The Diaries

The Private Diaries of Princess Daisy of Pless - 1873 - 1914, edited by Major Desmond Chapman-Huston, were first published in London by John Murray in 1931. This was the second selection from the diaries of Princess Daisy and, according to the introduction by the editor, was selected from a series of diaries totalling 600,000 words. The diaries describe the Princess's life as a member of the European aristocracy.

There are a number of descriptions of significant pre-war political and social figures. These descriptions are not always discreet. The ambassador Metternich is described as dull and looking older than his age.

In a diary entry dated 19 July 1905 the author exhibits anti-Semitic views. She describes a journey to Hamburg on a Hamburg America liner. The accommodations were not to her liking, and she described the ship as 'crammed full of awful American-German Jews'.

Death

Daisy, Princess of Pless, died in 1943 in relative poverty at Waldenburg, today Wałbrzych, Poland.

Notes
  1. "Princess Daisy of Pless; the happy years".
  2. Jan Henryk XV von Pless in: genealogia.grocholski.pl [retrieved 5 February 2015].
  3. "Royal Babies 1910-1919". Country Life.
  4. PLESS, HSH Daisy; Princess of (Mary Theresa Olivia), Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 21 Dec 2011

References
  • Princess Daisy of Pless, Princess Daisy of Pless by Herself, London, John Murray, 1929.
  • Princess Daisy of Pless, Better Left Unsaid, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1931.
  • Princess Daisy of Pless, What I Left Unsaid, New York: Cassell, 1936.
  • Princess Daisy of Pless, The Private Diaries of Princess Daisy of Pless - 1873 - 1914, D. Chapman-Huston, editor, London: John Murray, First Edition 1931, re-issued 1950.
  • Koch, John, Daisy Princess of Pless 1873-1943: A Discovery, W. John Koch Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-9731579-0-9

Ancestry

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