The Copenhagen Connection
The de Bourkes
Madame de Bourke
Maria (or Anna) Assunta Leonida Bourke (née Butini) was born in Tuscany in 1764. Her husband was Count Edmund (or Edmond) (de) Bourke (1761-1821), a Danish diplomat of Irish descent. The name Bourke derives from the French de Bourg; in Italian she was known as the countess Anna Dubourg.
She was part of Anne's circle of aristocratic friends in Paris.
Sophie Ferrall was probably Edmund Bourke's half great-niece.
Madame de Bourke died in 1845 and was buried with her husband in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Sophie Ferrall
I can find no record of this Sophie in the O'Ferrall family tree, so her lineage is somewhat speculative. However, given the marriage announcement and the Italian material, I think it likely that this is the right Sophie.
Born Sophie or Sophy O'Ferrall to Roger Fergus O'Ferrall, who was of Irish descent and chamberlain to the Danish King, and Sophy Krempien, who was born in St Petersburg. "O'Ferrall" & "Ferrall" seem to be interchangeable.
According to the diary she was 24 in late 1833, so would have been born in 1808 or 1809. The Italian sources suggest 1810/1811 and 1813.
She was the sister of Emily O'Ferrall, who was the wife of Count Gustav Blücher of Altona (the Copenhagen "Bluchers" of the diary). Her brother was Count Edward O'Ferrall-Bourke, who, possibly, inherited his title from Count Edmund Bourke (Madame de Bourke's husband) - Roger Fergus O'Ferrall's mother, Sophie's grandmother, was Edmund Bourke's half-sister.
A "Sofia O'Ferrall" married Italian revolutionary Federico Confalonieri in 1841; Italian sources almost certainly identify her as Sophie Ferrall. In the book "Princess Belgiojoso" by Raffaello Barbiera, she is described as follows (excuse the translation):
"Sofia O'Ferrall, a Danish woman of poor origin, was a companion to the countess Anna Dubourg; but the superb Confalonieri never let anyone know this detail.
"The Italian and Polish emigrants, between '33 and '44, received a cordial, warm welcome in Paris from the Countess Anna, as they called her. The Lombard emigrants all went to the house of Countess Anna; the illustrious leader of the conspirators of 1821, Count Federico Confalonieri, also went there when, freed from the long, dark martyrs of Spielberg, he saw Paris again; and it was there, in the Dubourgs' salon, that he met Sofia O'Ferrall, the chosen woman who, moved by the suffering of the patrician resembling a poor spectre, and enthusiastic about that indomitable character, fell in love with it; and he made her his second wife, to have a partner, a nurse.
"Sofia O'Ferrall was ugly, with a flattened face, but her noble manners showed her race. In fact, she was descended from a very noble family, already Lady d'Annaly in Ireland, that had fallen into miserable conditions.
"Sofia's spirit flew ready, quick, but pungent: champagne turned into vinegar. She died in Blevio, poor, but still youthful."
A Wikiwand article on Confalonieri states:
"In Paris on July 31, 1841 he married Sofia O'Ferrall (Copenhagen 1813 - Blevio September 22, 1868), of Irish origin.
"In a letter to Silvio Pellico dated 16 October 1841, he describes her as follows: 'This girl, who is now my good, affectionate and dear consort, is 30 years old, was born in England and is now of a Danish family, but of Irish origin. She speaks English, Danish, German and French as her languages, and Italian as an adopted language... She is called by the name Sofia, by the surname O'Ferrall d'Annaly, a province that was possessed with almost royal dominion... She has an Italian or Spanish figure rather than Nordic, she is not beautiful but has no defects'." (
www.wikiwand.com/it/Federico_Confalonieri)
Sophie's marriage was reported in
The Court and Lady's Magazine of July 1841:
"Ferrall, Sophy, dau. of the Hon. Roger Ferrall, of Copenhagen and the Island of St.Croix, Chamberlain to his Danish Majesty, to Count Frederick Confalonieri; at Paris."
Sophie travelled with Anne from Paris to Copenhagen in 1833; Anne's opinion of her varied from
"Very good friends now. She sat on my knee tonight and has kissed me these three nights" (6-Sep-1833) to
"Shall be too happy to get rid of her - she does me no good and is very stupid and odd" (9-Sep-1833).
The Blüchers
Count Gustav Carl Frederik von Blücher
As mentioned above Gustav Blücher was married to Sophie's sister Emily, and, like Sophie Ferrall's father, was a chamberlain at the Danish court. The Blüchers were Danish, from Altona which was then under Danish administration (now a Hamburg suburb).
He was born in 1798 in Copenhagen, and died in 1864 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Countess Emily von Blücher
Born Emily Sophy Mary O'Ferrall in New York in 1802, she was Sophie Ferrall's older sister. She assumed the title "Countess" on her marriage.
Anne mentions "2 little girls, aged 6 and 3 (Sophie & Fanny)" in 1833.
We first meet the Blüchers on GJ day 59 at the dinner party held by the de Hagemanns.
Emily died in Copenhagen in 1885, aet. 82.
The Hagemanns
Jasper Lützow Hagemann
This is the "Mr de
Hagermann" who meets Anne at the docks when she arrives in Copenhagen with Sophie Ferrall. He was born in 1784 in Fredrikstad, Norway. In 1820 he married
Vere Hobart's half-sister, Harriet:
"Oh you've got to go to Copenhagen! My half sister - Lady Harriet - she'd be delighted if you turned up in Copenhagen!".
In her diary Anne writes that Sophie Ferrall told her that
"Mr de Hagemann a peasant's son brought up by the charity of a man whose daughter he now takes little notice of" (18-Aug-1833), but I can't find any basis to this story - it seems that he was born into a military family; both his
father and grandfather were army officers.
Jasper Hagemann followed his father into the army, becoming a chamberlain at the Danish court
"one of the King's many aides-de-camp". He died at Copenhagen in 1858 with the rank of Lieutenant General.
Lady Harriet Hagemann
Born Harriet Hobart in 1796, she was fifth child of the Honourable George Vere Hobart, the second son of the third Earl of
Buckinghamshire, and Jane Cataneo. After Jane Cataneo's death (date unknown) George Vere Hobart married
Vere's mother, Janet Maclean, on 26 April 1802 - shortly before his own death on 5 December of the same year.
Harriet's older sister, Lady Albinia Jane Foster, also lived in Copenhagen (until 1824); she was the mother of the educationist and philanthropist Vere Henry Foster.
All the sisters assumed the title "Lady" in September 1832 when they were granted "the style and precedence of the daughter of an Earl".
The Hagemanns had two children: Fredrik, who Anne records as being 12 in
1833, and the artist Albinia Vilhelmine Jane Louise Hagemann (1824-1897) - who married the improbably named Baron Vilhelm Joseph Henrik Schaffalitzky de Muckadell. Portraits of Harriet and Jasper by Albinia can be seen
here and
here.
Lady Harriet died in Copenhagen on December 28, 1868.
The Danish Royal Family in 1833
This is a small part of the Danish Royal Family family tree, the grey background showing everyone who was alive in 1833 when Anne was in Copenhagen. Yellow boxes indicate individuals that Anne met. Prince Christian divorced his first wife, Charlotte Frederica (blue box) for infidelity; she was living in Karlsbad, Bohemia in 1833.
Click
here to open the image directly
Marie of Hesse-Kassel
This is the Queen who Anne meets after mistakenly curtsying to the wrong person:
"unluckily took the chief maid for the Queen... got over it well enough" (23-Oct-1833); it was her 66th birthday party that Anne attended.
She was born in Germany in 1767; German was her first language. She spoke poor Danish when married, later becoming fluent in the language.
She had eight children, but only two - both girls - survived to adulthood. There were no grandchildren. On the King's death the crown passed to Christian, the King's half-brother's son (husband of
"Princess Christian").
Marie was widowed in 1839, and died at Amalienborg in 1852.
Caroline Amalie of Augustenburg - "Princess Christian"
Born in 1796 to Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and Princess Louise Augusta of Denmark and Norway (whose mother was Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain).
She married Prince Christian in 1815, after Christian's divorce from his first wife in 1810, and became Queen of Denmark when Christian became King Christian VIII in 1839.
On their first meeting Anne describes her as being
"very handsome very dignified but pleasing & agreeable... in love with Princess Christian" (23-Oct-1833).
She died in 1881 and was buried at Roskilde Cathedral with her husband.
Princess Caroline
Born as Crown Princess
Caroline in 1793, she was the Queen's eldest surviving daughter. According to Wikipedia
"Caroline was not described as either talented or beautiful". The same article continues:
"In 1812, she was engaged to her uncle Prince Christian of Hesse, but he died in 1814. Finally, on 1 August 1829 at Frederiksberg Palace she married her father's first cousin, Prince Ferdinand of Denmark (1792-1863) who was third in line to the throne. The marriage was arranged for political reasons and was childless."
As Anne writes in her diary
"Princess Caroline the King's daughter that was burnt - her throat & lower part of her face still bearing strong traces of the fire", Caroline had been badly burned in 1830 when her hair caught fire, causing permanent damage. Anne adds that Princess Caroline didn't
"have much to say for herself, but was very civil" (23-Oct-1833).
The supremely unfortunate Caroline was burnt again in 1858, causing futher permanent injury, this time to her arm and shoulder. Prince Ferdinand died in 1863, and, as the Wikipedia article concludes:
"Caroline eventually came to live quite harmoniously with her spouse. She tolerated his adultery and money problems... As a widow she lived an isolated life, occupying herself by paying her husband's debts. During her final years she became deaf. Hereditary Princess Caroline died in her residence in Copenhagen on 31 March 1881" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Caroline_of_Denmark).
Princess Wilhelmina
Born Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark and Norway in 1808, she was Princess Caroline's younger sister. She married Prince Frederick of Denmark, separating in 1834 and divorcing in 1837. She remarried the following year, to Karl Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksbur. Karl died in 1878; Wilhelmina was a widow for 13 years, during which time she, like her sister, became deaf.
Anne's verdict was:
"Princess Wilhelmina about 23 - very gracious but only kept us about 5 minutes - I thought her pretty" (23-Oct-1833).
She died in Prussia in 1891.
Princess Juliane
"Princess
Juliana" in the diary, she was born Princess Juliane Sophie of Denmark in 1788. She married Prince William of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld in 1812; they had no children.
Anne described her as "the least intellectual of the princesses".
She died at Copenhagen in 1850.
Princess Charlotte
Born Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark in 1789, she was both a princess of Denmark and a princess of Hesse-Kassel by marriage to Prince William of Hesse-Kassel.
She, like Juliane, was the sister of Prince Christian, Princess Juliane & Prince Ferdinand, and the sister-in-law of both Princess Christian & Princess Caroline.
She died at Copenhagen in 1864.