My Own Affairs

A Belgian princess offers a candid memoir tracing childhood at court, fraught family relations with a powerful father and queen, and early marriages into European royal houses. She recounts life at the Austrian Hofburg, the tragedy at Meyerling, disputes over inheritance and paternal indifference, and the ordeal of her later captivity, psychiatric proceedings, and release. The narrative moves through wartime exile, legal and public intrigues surrounding the king's death, and reflections on suffering, reputation, and attempts at personal restoration, while providing portraits of monarchs and intimate scenes of court life across Europe.