Amalie Adlerberg

Who was Amalie Adlerberg?

Amalie Maximilianovna Adlerberg was an illegitimate daughter of Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, fathered by Bavarian diplomat Maximilian-Emmanuel Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering und Schönberg. Amalie's mother was an aunt of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Nicholas I.

Her mother's husband, Karl Alexander Fürst von Thurn und Taxis, was invited by Napoleon for his new projects, and lived in Paris for years. In his absence, Princess Therese had a passionate affair with Count Maximilian-Emmanuel von Lerchenfeld. After her father, Graf von Lerchenfeld's death on 19 October 1809, Amalie was placed in the care of Therese's "von Sternfeld" relatives in Darmstadt, and the baby carried their surname after she was born. Amalie von Sternfeld was later brought to Regensburg, closer to Princess Therese and changed her surname to "Stargard". She was finally taken care of by the Lerchenfeld family and lived in their palace in Munich or at the family castle in Köfering near Regensburg. Finally, on 1 August 1823, the Grand Duke of Hesse gave the fifteen-year-old Amalie Stargard permission to carry the surname "von Lerchenfeld", but without rights to use the coat of arms or be listed in the family tree, which was the price for her extramarital birth.