Born into one of 19th century Europe’s more powerful families, Archduchess Marie Valerie was the favorite daughter of her father, Austria’s Emperor Franz Joseph, and her mother, Empress Elisabeth. A sensitive young woman, she was determined to marry for love and in 1890 wed her cousin, Franz Salvator of Tuscany, and bore him 10 children.
The dashing Archduke was not faithful to his devoted wife. His affair with Stephanie Richter, a young, middle-class Jewish woman with a knack for flattering powerful men, lead to an illegitimate child, a royal title of her own and a career as a double-agent in the prelude to World War II. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe became vital to Adolf Hitler, betrayed the German Jews, the British government, and her home country of Austria-until Hitler betrayed her, leaving her without allies or protectors.