Melanie Metternich-Zichy

Princess Melanie Marie Pauline Alexandrine von Metternich-Zichy (27 February 1832 in Vienna – 16 November 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian aristocrat.

Biography A member of the House of Metternich, she was the daughter of Austrian diplomat and politician Prince Klemens von Metternich and his third wife, Countess Melanie Zichy-Ferraris (1805–1854).

Not a traditional conservative like her father, Princess Melanie Metternich-Zichy played a role in founding the Christian Social Party (Austria). For example, in 1888, her palace was the site of a meeting of politicians who would eventually found the Christian Social Party; that meeting was attended by, among others, Karl Lueger and Karl Freiherr von Vogelsang.

French journalist Dominique Paoli claimed to have found evidence that Maxime Weygand was the illegitimate offspring of Belgian general Alfred van der Smissen and Mélanie Zichy-Metternich, lady-in-waiting to Empress Carlota. Paoli further claimed that Weygand had been born in mid-1865, not January 1867 as is generally claimed.

Ancestry