King Charles will communicate with ancestors in Transylvania, including a beautiful Countess Claudia

The King is “completely at home” in Transylvania, as he once said. “It’s in my blood.”

No doubt he felt the same way over the past few days as, looking happy and relaxed, he met villagers and inspected his estate.

Charles owns several properties in the region tucked away in remote settlements where he can paint, walk, read and rest undisturbed.

What is less known is that many generations of his maternal ancestors lived in Transylvania, which had long been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The locals who see Charles silently nod to him on his walks as they pass by horse and cart, or who walk their cows back to their farms, are literally his own people.

One ancestor of whom the king is particularly fascinated is his triple great-grandmother, Countess Claudia Rhėdey, the grandmother of Queen Mary of Teck (wife of George V). his own great-grandmother.

In 2008, Charles visited her birthplace – a school at the time but now converted into a museum – in the village of Sângeorgiu de Pădure, as well as the nearby church where she is buried.

The then Prince of Wales was shown around by the village priest György Gáspár. His son, Pėter, is the guide at Rhėdey Castle and an authority on Claudia’s life. I recently interviewed him while doing research for a book on the king’s lineage.

‘The chateau was the summer residence of the Rhėdey family, and Claudia, whose full name contained Claudine in homage to her ancestor, was born here in September 1818 and baptized in the parish church when she was four days old.

“Her diaries were recently discovered in an archive and show that she was a deeply religious person. Her faith is also reflected in her personal coat of arms with the motto: ‘Believe in God’.

‘I spent most of the year at the family’s main residence in what is now Cluj-Napoca. Here she learned to dance, sing, play the piano, draw and learn languages ​​- she spoke French, Latin, German and Italian. ‘

“She was famously beautiful and had many suitors, especially when she attended the Austrian court in Vienna

While riding through the hills around Vienna, she met Duke Alexander of Württemberg.’

From contemporary lithographs we can see that Alexander was also attractive – tall, slim and in uniform with the stylish limp dark hairdo reminiscent of Prince Albert.

According to Pėter Gáspár: ‘It was love at first sight. They wanted to get married the next day, but that was forbidden because of her non-royal origin. Alexander lost his inheritance.’

The couple had two daughters and a son, Francis, the father of Queen Mary of Teck. They grew up without royal titles or status, although Francis became Duke of Teck upon marriage.

Alexander and Claudia could never bear to be apart. While serving with the Austrian army in Pettau (present-day Ptuj in Slovenia) in 1841, Claudia, who was pregnant with her fourth child, decided to make the 100km journey from Graz to see him.

During her journey, her carriage overturned. Claudia was injured but refused treatment. Determined to continue, she completed the remainder of the journey on horseback. Arriving at the military camp, she collapsed and had a miscarriage.

She survived another eight days, but died of internal bleeding on October 1, 1841. She was only 29 years old.

Alexander was robbed. It was Claudia’s last wish to be buried with her parents near their summer retreat and so he supervised the return journey, driving the carriage himself for the twenty days it took.

For the funeral he had her heart removed and placed in a gold coffin which he kept with him for forty years as a widower, after which it was buried with him in Vienna.

Claudia’s grave was inscribed with Alexander’s words, “Here lies a woman who never brought me sorrow, only happiness. Sadness and tears only now when she left me alone on this earth.’

Marriage had repercussions down the generations.

The Teck family were considered second-class royals.

Banned from marrying a wealthy German princess, the impoverished Francis settled for British Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a cousin of Queen Victoria.

The Queen thought Teck was “handsome and gentlemanly” when she first met him in 1865. Aware of the chip on his shoulder of his non-royal parentage, she gave him the status of a British “Highness” at the time of her golden jubilee in 1887.

His daughter, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, was always aware of her low royal status. She was also ineligible for marriage to a German prince.

Her granddaughter, Princess Margaret, told the writer Gore Vidal, “I hated Queen Mary. She was rude to all of us except Lilibet [the future Elizabeth II]. Of course she had an inferiority complex.

“We were royal and they weren’t.”

In the end, Mary had the last laugh. She married the future George V and became Queen Empress, while her ancestral kingdom of Wṻrttemberg became extinct along with all other German monarchies at the end of World War I.

Mary never visited Transylvania, although she maintained a relationship with the family. As Princess of Wales, she asked for a plaque in the church to honor her grandmother’s name. Thirty years later, in the silver jubilee year of 1935, she paid for the restoration of the church where her ancestors are buried.

During his 2008 visit, Charles inspected the two plaques commemorating Queen Mary’s generosity and saw the signed photograph she had also sent.

He was shown the Rhėdey family coat of arms on the church wall and given a specially carved wooden root to represent his own roots in Transylvania.

Pėter Gáspár recalls, ‘he looked visibly moved when he entered the church, and he was very humble.’

He left a bouquet of flowers in memory of the ancestor who was so wronged during her lifetime, but who is still remembered when most of her generation has been forgotten.

Included was a card with his code and the handwritten message: “In loving memory of my great, great, great grandmother. Karel.’

• The Throne: 1000 Years of British Coronations by Ian Lloyd is published by The History Press price £16.99