| Duchess Marie Antoinette | |
| Full Name: | Marie Antoinette Margarethe Mathilde |
| House: | House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (by birth) |
| Father: | Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg |
| Mother: | Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz |
| Birth Date: | 28 May 1884 |
| Birth Place: | Venice |
| Death Place: | Bled, Yugoslavia |
Duchess Marie Antoinette of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, also Manette (Marie Antoinette Margarethe Mathilde; 28 May 1884 – 26 October 1944) was the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by birth and potential bride for King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
Marie Antoinette was born in Venice, as the third child and the second daughter of Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg and his Austrian wife, Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz. Her brothers and sisters were Duke Paul Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1882–1904), Duchess Maria Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1883–1883), Duke Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1885–1942), and Duke Joseph of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1889–1889).[1]
She had a difficult relationship with her cousin Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, who regularly had to amortize her debts. So, Marie Antoinette regularly had to sell archaeological artifacts belonging to her mother, excavated in Austria and Carniola, including Hallstatt Archaeological Site in Vače. Some of these objects are still today in Harvard, Oxford and Berlin. She regularly remained in Bled with her lady in waiting Baroness Antonia Pilars de Pilar. During World War I from 1914 to 1918 they both served in several military hospitals as red cross ladies.
She was German Kaiser Wilhelm II's candidate for a bride for King Alfonso XIII of Spain although he would marry the Kaiser's maternal first cousin, Princess Victoria Eugenie, niece of British King Edward VII.[2]
She died on 26 October 1944 in Bled, Yugoslavia. She was the last of her siblings to die.