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Eugénie de Montijo
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==Youth== [[File:L'impératrice Eugénie à la Marie-Antoinette.png|thumb|upright=1|Empress Eugénie as [[Marie Antoinette]] (by [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter]], 1854)]] María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina was born on 5 May 1826 in [[Granada]], Spain. She was the youngest child and daughter of Don [[Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero]], three times [[Grandee|Grandee of Spain]], whose titles included 13th [[Duke of Peñaranda de Duero]], 9th [[Count of Montijo]], 15th [[Count of Teba]], 8th Count of Ablitas, 8th Count of Fuentidueña, 14th [[Marquis of Ardales]], 17th [[Marquis of Moratalla|Marquis of Moya]] and 13th Marquis of la Algaba,<ref>{{cite web |title=Cipriano Palafox y Portocarrero, 8. conde de Montijo |url=http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=5573 |website=Geneall |url-access=registration |language=es |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref> and [[María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée]]. María de Grivegnée was the daughter of the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn (1764–1837), who became United States [[consul]] to [[Málaga]], and later was a wholesale wine merchant, and his wife, Marie Françoise de Grivegnée (born 1769), daughter of [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège|Liège]]-born Henri, Baron de Grivegnée and Spanish wife, Doña Francisca Antonia de Gallegos y Delgado (1751–1853).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vizetelly |first1=Ernest Alfred |title=Court Life of the Second French Empire, 1852-1870: Its Organization, Chief Personages, Splendour, Frivolity, and Downfall |date=1908 |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |pages=62–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgPSAAAAMAAJ&q=montijo&pg=RA1-PA62 |access-date=6 September 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In later life, the Empress told Lady Helena Gleichen that "she was born in the middle of an earthquake and [[María Manuela Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée|her mother]] was carried out of the house and laid under a tree, her family ever after used to mock at her saying, 'The mountain was in travail and it brought forth a mouse.{{' "}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gleichen |first=Lady Helena |title=Contacts and Contrasts |publisher=Butler & Tanner Ltd. |pages=72}}</ref> Eugenia's elder sister, [[Maria Francisca de Sales Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick]], nicknamed "Paca", who inherited most of the family honours and was 14th Duchess of Peñaranda, Grandee of Spain and 9th Countess of Montijo, a title later ceded to Eugenia, married the [[Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 15th Duke of Alba|15th Duke of Alba]] in 1849. Until her marriage in 1853, Eugenia variously used the titles Countess of Teba or Countess of Montijo. However, some family titles were inherited by her elder sister, through which they passed to the [[Duke of Alba|House of Alba]]. After the death of her father, Eugenia became the 9th Countess of Teba and is named as such in the ''[[Almanach de Gotha]]'' (1901 edition). After Eugenia's demise, all titles of the Montijo family came to the [[House of FitzJames|Fitz-Jameses]] (the Dukes of Alba and [[Duke of Berwick|Berwick]]). On 18 July 1834, María Manuela and her daughters left Madrid for Paris, fleeing a [[1829–51 cholera pandemic|cholera outbreak]] and the dangers of the [[First Carlist War]]. The previous day, Eugenia had witnessed a riot and murder in the square outside their residence, Casa Ariza.{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=4–5}} Eugénie de Montijo, as she became known in France, was formally educated mostly in Paris, beginning at the fashionable, traditionalist [[Hôtel Biron|Convent of the Sacré Cœur]] from 1835 to 1836.{{CN|date=May 2024}} A more compatible school was the progressive Gymnase Normal, Civil et Orthosomatique,{{CN|date=May 2024}} from 1836 to 1837, which appealed to her athletic side (a school report praised her strong liking for athletic exercise, and although an indifferent student, that her character was "good, generous, active and firm").{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=16–18}} In 1837, Eugénie and Paca briefly attended a boarding school for girls on [[Royal York Crescent]] in [[Clifton, Bristol|Clifton]], Bristol,<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Clifton |last=Jones |first=Donald |year=1992 |publisher=Phillimore |location=Chichester |isbn=0-85033-820-4 |page=138 }}</ref> to learn English. Eugénie was teased as "Carrots" for her red hair and tried to run away to India, making it as far as climbing on board a ship at Bristol docks. In August 1837, they returned to school in Paris.{{sfn|Seward|2004|page=7}} However, much of the girls' education took place at home, under the tutelage of English governesses Miss Cole and Miss Flowers,{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|page=17}} and family friends such as [[Prosper Mérimée]]{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=13 et seq.}} and [[Stendhal|Henri Beyle]].{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=18 et seq.}} In March 1839, on the death of their father in Madrid, the girls left Paris to rejoin their mother there.{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=11–12}} In Spain, Eugénie grew up into a headstrong and physically daring young woman, devoted to horseriding and a range of other sports.{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=17–18}} She was rescued from drowning and twice attempted suicide after romantic disappointments.{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=20–22}} She was very interested in politics and became devoted to the [[Bonapartist]] cause, under the influence of Eleanore Gordon, a former mistress of [[Louis Napoléon]].{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=17–18}} Due to her mother's role as a lavish society hostess, Eugénie became acquainted with Queen [[Isabella II of Spain]] and the prime minister [[Ramón Narváez]]. María Manuela was increasingly anxious to find a husband for her daughter and took her on trips to Paris again in 1849 and England in 1851.{{sfn|Seward|2004|pages=20–26}}
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