Daisy, Princess of Pless

Full name
	Mary Theresa Olivia

Daisy
Daisy
	Princess of Pless
	File:Daisy von Pless.jpg
Born	Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West; 28 June 1873; Ruthin Castle, Denbighshire, Wales
Died	Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.; Waldenburg, Silesia; (today Poland)
Spouse	Hans Heinrich XV
Full name
	Mary Theresa Olivia
House	House of Hochberg
Father	Col. William Cornwallis-West
Mother	Mary "Patsy" FitzPatrick

Daisy, Princess of Pless (Mary Theresa Olivia; née Cornwallis-West; 28 June 1873 – 29 June 1943), was a noted society beauty in the Edwardian period, and a member of one of the wealthiest European noble families. Daisy and her husband Hans Heinrich XV were the owners of large estates and coal mines in Silesia (now in Poland) which brought the Hochbergs enormous fortune. Her extravagant lifestyle coupled with disastrous events and political and family scandals were tasty morsels for the international press.

Biography

File:Daisy Princess of Pless.jpg

Undated sketch of Daisy by John Singer Sargent

Born Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West at Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire, Wales, she was the daughter of Col. William Cornwallis-West (1835–1917) and his wife, Mary "Patsy" FitzPatrick (1856–1920).^[1] Her father, born William West, was a great-grandson of John West, 2nd Earl De La Warr. Her mother was a daughter of Reverend Frederick FitzPatrick and Lady Olivia Taylour, herself daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Headfort.

File:DaisyVPless.jpg

Memorial to Daisy in Pszczyna, Poland

During her marriage, Daisy, known in German as the Fürstin von Pless, became a social reformer and militated for peace with her friends William II, German Emperor and King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. During World War I she served as a nurse.

After her divorce at Berlin on 12 December 1922 she published a series of memoirs that were widely read in the United Kingdom, the United States, and, in the German language, on Continental Europe.

Hans Heinrich married as his second wife, at London on 25 January 1925, Clotilde de Silva y González de Candamo (1898–1978). This marriage produced two children, and was annulled in 1934. Subsequently Clotilde married her stepson, Bolko, and was the mother of Daisy's and Hans Heinrich's only grandchildren.

Daisy's brother George in 1900 married Jennie Churchill, the mother of Winston Churchill, as his first wife, and after their divorce married in 1914 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the actress, as his second. Her sister, Constance, married in 1901 Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, and after their divorce she married in 1920 James FitzPatrick Lewes.

Marriage

On 8 December 1891, in London, she married Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, Count of Hochberg, Baron of Fürstenstein (1861–1938), one of the wealthiest heirs in the German Empire, becoming châtelaine of Fürstenstein Castle and Pless Castle in Silesia.

They had three children:

Hans Heinrich XVII, 4th Prince of Pless (1900–1984)
Alexander, 5th Prince of Pless (1905–1984)
Count Bolko Konrad Friedrich of Hochberg (1910–1936)

The Princess maintained her links with English society, appearing with her children in Country Life magazine. ^[2]

The Princess of Pless was a Dame of the Order of Theresa of Bavaria and of the Order of Isabella the Catholic of Spain, and was awarded the German Red Cross Decoration.^[3]

Death

Daisy, Princess of Pless, died in 1943 in relative poverty at Waldenburg, today Wałbrzych, Poland.

References

Princess Daisy of Pless, Princess Daisy of Pless by Herself, London, John Murray, 1929.
Princess Daisy of Pless, Better Left Unsaid, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1931.
Princess Daisy of Pless, What I Left Unsaid, New York: Cassell, 1936.
Princess Daisy of Pless, The Private Diaries of Princess Daisy of Pless - 1873 - 1914, D. Chapman-Huston, editor, London: John Murray, 1950.
Koch, John, Daisy Princess of Pless 1873-1943: A Discovery, W. John Koch Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-9731579-0-9

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↑ PLESS, HSH Daisy; Princess of (Mary Theresa Olivia), Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 21 Dec 2011