Marcela Zemanová
Little Hamlet or perhaps even the COunt of Rudolstadt? On the internal struggle of the young Franz Thun-Hohenstein (1809–1870)
It was not only in aristocratic society that primogeniture meant a huge commitment to family, ancestors and descendants - as well as to oneself. Great expectations and hopes were often attached to the eldest son, as well as high demands and strict requirements with regard to education, career and marriage. František Thun-Hohenstein (1809-1870) went down in historical memory primarily as an aristocrat who disappointed all his family's expectations due to his "misalliance" with chambermaid Magdalena König. But this was not some youthful indiscretion committed in a state of deep infatuation; his misalliance was actually a long-considered step, the culmination of, and proverbial last straw in, the young man's many years of internal struggle, which particularly manifested itself in his generational and personal conflict with his father, František Antonín Thun. This conflict consisted in František Thun's vacillation between what was expected of him, what he had been brought up to do, and what he wanted for himself, between the family obligation resulting from his privileged position and his own individuality. Several years of living abroad only exacerbated this conflict, which also made itself felt in the young count's emotional and love life. Here, too, he encountered class and social boundaries that contrasted sharply with his own feelings and preferences. The bitterest disappointment he experienced was with the English opera singer Adelaide Kemble. Their mutual love was not approved of by his family, so the marriage could not go ahead. However, it is possible that their love was at least consummated in fiction, as Count František Thun and Adelaide Kemble might have been the inspiration for a subplot in George Sand's novel Consuelo, in which a young singer falls in love with a romantically torn count somewhere in Bohemia. František Thun assuaged his heartbreak thanks to his mother's chambermaid, Magdalena König, with whom he had a long-standing relationship and two illegitimate sons. It was actually because of the children that Thun finally decided to legitimize the relationship, but the misalliance only brought the conflict with his father to a head. While Count Thun lost the opportunity to inherit the family fideicommissum, he was now able to build his own career.
Keywords: Count Franz Thun-Hohenstein – mesalliance – family duty – family conflicts
design by Bedřich Vémola
