Countess Amalie Maximilianovna Adlerberg

Countess Amalie Maximilianovna Adlerberg (16 June 1808, Regensburg – 21 June 1888, Tegernsee) was an illegitimate daughter of Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, fathered by Bavarian diplomat Maximilian-Emmanuel Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering und Schönberg (1772–1809). Duchess Therese had had an affair with the Bavarian diplomat while her husband Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis was in Paris for several years at the invitation of Napoleon Bonaparte. Amalie's mother was an aunt of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Nicholas I. Her mother's husband, Karl Alexander Fürst von Thurn und Taxis (1770–1827), was invited by Napoleon for his new projects, and lived in Paris for years. In his absence, Princess Therese had a passionate affair with Count Maximilian-Emmanuel von Lerchenfeld (1772-1809). After her father, Graf von Lerchenfeld's death on 19 October 1809, Amalie was placed in the care of Therese's "von Sternfeld" relatives in Darmstadt (then in the Grand Duchy of Hesse), and the baby carried their surname after she was born. Amalie von Sternfeld was later brought to Regensburg, closer to Princess Therese and changed her surname to "Stargard". She was finally taken care of by the Lerchenfeld family and lived in their palace in Munich or at the family castle in Köfering near Regensburg. Finally, on 1 August 1823, the Grand Duke of Hesse gave the fifteen-year-old Amalie Stargard permission to carry the surname "von Lerchenfeld", but without rights to use the coat of arms or be listed in the family tree, which was the price for her extramarital birth. Youth In 1822, the fifteen-year-old beauty Amalie Stargard met young Fyodor Tyutchev, supernumerary attaché of the Russian diplomatic mission who arrived from Saint Petersburg. Young nineteen-year-old Tyutchev fell in love and the two young people shared tender romantic feelings. Tyutchev's poem Tears or Slyozy (Russian: Люблю, друзья, ласкать очами …) coincides with one of their dates, and most likely dedicated to Amalie. Among other poems inspired by Amalie are K N. and I Remember the Golden Time… First marriage The blooming Amalie caught the attention of the first secretary of the Russian diplomatic representatives, Baron Alexander von Krüdener (1786-1852). The old diplomat was of German Baltic descent, and the young but pragmatic princess opted for a baron's noble title rather than the untitled young poet Tyutchev.