Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov

Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov (Chernysheva-Besobrasova; ; 11 June 1929 20 September 1968) was the first wife of Archduke Rudolf of Austria, the youngest son of the last reigning Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I.

Background She was the younger daughter of Count Sergei Chernyshyev-Besobrasov (later of New York City) by his wife Countess Elisabeth Dmitrievna Sheremeteva, and has descended from two prominent Russian noble families. Xenia's father, Count Sergei, was a czarist courtier whose father was made a Russian count in 1908 as the son-in-law of the last Count Chernyshev-Kruglikov (that family, now extinct, itself rose to comital status in 1832, by marriage to the heiress of the extinct Chernyshev family, counts in Russia since 1742). Count Sergei fled Russia after the Revolution, and settled in the United States with his wife Elizabeth, his son Alexander, and two daughters Irina and Xenia. In 1949, his older daughter Irina married Prince Teymuraz Bagration (1912-1992) as his second wife, without issue. Teymuraz's mother was Princess Tatiana of Russia.

Xenia was an alumna of Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She then attended Smith College for two years,

Marriage The engagement between Archduke Rudolf and Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov was announced on 30 April 1953. The couple were married on 23 June 1953 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church at Tuxedo Park, New York, Karl Peter von Habsburg (born 13 October 1955) married on 2 May 1998 at Ellingen Castle in Bavaria Alexandra von Wrede (born 1970), a niece of his father's second wife, and has issue.