A Jacobite Gazetteer - Czech Republic

The city of Brno (formerly called Brünn in German) is located 200 kilometres southwest of Prague, and 100 kilometres north of Vienna. It is the major city of Moravia; today it is the second most important city in the Czech Republic. During the Habsburg empire it was a major military post.

In March 1848 Archduke Ferdinand, younger son of Queen Mary III and II and brother of King Francis I, was sent to Brno to command a regiment. He was accompanied by his wife Archduchess Elisabeth. The couple lived here for almost two years. In July 1849 Archduchess Elisabeth gave birth here to the future Queen Mary IV and III. The following December Archduke Ferdinand died here.

I have not yet been able to locate the house in which Archduke Ferdinand and Archduchess Elisabeth lived, and in which Queen Mary IV and III was born. There is a depiction of the house on a plate which forms part of a china service (called the Bayerische Königsservice) which Queen Mary's son Prince Franz gave to his parents to commemorate their golden wedding anniversary in 1918.

Birthplace of Queen Mary IV and III

Approximately twenty kilometres south of Brno is the village of Židlochovice (formerly Gross Seelowitz). This was the childhood home of Queen Mary IV and III after her mother married Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria in 1854. It was here that all six of her half-brothers and sisters were born. In 1918 the property was confiscated from her brother Archduke Friedrich by the Czechoslovakian state. Today the castle is used for weddings and other functions.

Gross Seelowitz