Princess Elisabeth Marie of Bavaria was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach. She was known as Princess of Bavaria until 1918.
Birth and family
Elisabeth was born in Munich, Bavaria, the first child of Prince Leopold of Bavaria and his wife, Archduchess Gisela of Austria, a daughter of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She had one younger sister, Princess Auguste Maria of Bavaria, and two younger brothers, Prince Georg and Prince Konrad of Bavaria. She married, 2 November 1893, at Genoa, Italy, Otto Ludwig Philipp von Seefried auf Buttenheim, Freiherr zu Hagenbach. Elisabeth and Otto eloped and married secretly, as they knew they would never be officially permitted to marry. Not only was Otto of much lower rank than Elisabeth, he was also a Protestant. In a letter announcing the marriage to his new parents-in-law, Otto stated that he and Elisabeth were so determined not to be parted that they had felt forced to choose between elopement and mutual suicide. Elisabeth's father, and especially her paternal grandfather, Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, were incensed upon being presented with this fait accompli. It took years for Elisabeth's relationship with her father to recover; their reconciliation was mostly due to the efforts of her mother, Gisela, and maternal grandfather, Emperor Franz Joseph. Both of the latter gave the couple their blessing after the marriage was announced, and Franz Joseph presented them with a palace near Vienna. He also appointed Otto a lieutenant of the 1st Regiment of Infantry at Troppau and raised him to the rank of Count in 1904. At the time of the elopement, Franz Joseph had written to his wife that while he was not happy about the marriage, he felt that Elisabeth had shown courage and strength of character. The marriage proved to be a very happy one, and the couple had five children; the first, Gisela, died as a baby. In 1908, Count Seefried auf Buttenheim inherited :File:Schloss_Buttenheim.jpeg|Castle Buttenheim in Gresten, Lower Austria, which has remained the family seat to the present day. She died aged 83 in 1957, and was buried at the cemetery in Gresten.
