Princess Joséphine Caroline of Belgium


Princess Joséphine Caroline of Belgium was the youngest daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. She was an older sister of Albert I of Belgium.

Biography

Joséphine Caroline married her maternal first cousin Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen on 28 May 1894 in Brussels. He was the youngest son of her mother's oldest brother. Their relationship was described as a happy one. They lived in Namedy Castle on the Rhine which they had purchased in 1909. During World War I, she made her home a military hospital for wounded soldiers while her husband served as a Prussian lieutenant general. Exhausted from years of warfare, he died shortly after his return to Namedy in 1919, at age 51. In 1936, Joséphine Caroline entered a Benedictine convent in Namur, taking the name of Sister Marie-Josephine, and remained a nun for the rest of her life. She is buried in the Couvent des Soeurs de Notre-Dame in Namur.

Marriage and issue

On 28 May 1894 in Brussels, she married her maternal first cousin Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, third son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern and Infanta Antónia of Portugal. They had the following children;