Overview
Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov (Chernysheva-Besobrasova ; 11 June 1929, Paris20 September 1968, Casteau, Belgium) was the first wife of Archduke Rudolf of Austria, the youngest son of the last reigning Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I.
Background
She was the younger daughter of Count Sergei Czernyshev-Besobrasov (later of New York City) by his wife Countess Elisabeth Dmitrievna Sheremeteva, and has descended from two prominent Russian comital families. Xenia's father, Count Sergei, was a czarist courtier whose father was made a Russian count in 1908 as the son-in-law of the last Count Chernyshev-Kruglikov (that family, now extinct, itself rose to comital status in 1832, by marriage to the heiress of the extinct Chernyshev family, counts in Russia since 1742). Count Sergei fled Russia after the Revolution, and settled in the United States with his wife Elizabeth, his son Alexander, and two daughters Irina and Xenia. In 1949, his older daughter Irina married Prince Teymuraz Bagration (1912-1992) as his second wife, without issue. Teymuraz's mother was Princess Tatiana of Russia.
Xenia was an alumna of Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She then attended Smith College for two years, but did not graduate. At the time of her engagement, she worked for Air France, and was based in New York City.
Marriage
The engagement between Archduke Rudolf and Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov was announced on 30 April 1953. The couple were married on 23 June 1953 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Roman Catholic Church at Tuxedo Park, New York, where Rudolf and his mother the Dowager Empress Zita were said to live on a "large estate". The wedding, officiated by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, was attended by over 100 guests, including Dowager Empress Zita. The press reports claim that this was the first imperial marriage in the United States, but the first such marriage was actually between Napoleon's younger brother Jérôme Bonaparte and an American heiress Elizabeth Patterson (Betsey Patterson).
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