Kitty Rothschild

Portrait of Kitty, by Philip de László, 1922[1]

Katherine "Kitty", Baroness Eugène von Rothschild (née Wolff, formerly Countess Erwein von Schönborn-Buchheim and Mrs. Dandridge Spotswood; 13 March 1885 – October 9, 1946) was an American socialite. She was chosen by noted Parisian dress designers as one of the world's ten best-dressed women.[2]

Early life

Portrait of Kitty, by John Quincy Adams, 1916

Katherine "Kitty" Wolf was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 13 March 1885. She was a daughter of the Dr. Lawrence Wolff (1844–1901), a physician in Philadelphia, and Mary Olivia (née Keys) Wolff (1864–1897), who married in 1883.[a] Her father was an 1880 graduate of Jefferson Medical College.[3][4] Her maternal grandparents were Dr. Roger Keys and the former Kate Olive Cathcart.[5]

She studied music in Munich.[2]

Personal life

After her time in Munich, she eloped in Manhattan on 20 June 1904 to Dandridge Spotswood (1872–1939), a New Yorker of Virginian ancestry. An industrial and mining engineer, he was the son of William Francisco Spotswood and Isabella Matoaca (née Dunlop) Spotswood. The young couple lived for a period in New York before she moved to Europe, attaining a high social position in Paris and London as well as in New York. The marriage ended in divorce.[6]

Second marriage

On October 24, 1911, she married Count Erwein von Schönborn-Buchheim (1871–1937) at the Church of St. Honoré d'Eylau in Paris.[7][b] He was the youngest son of Erwein, 4th Count of Schönborn-Buchheim and Countess Franziska von Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.[c] Although she was raised Protestant, she became a Roman Catholic in order to marry Count Erwein. Among his siblings were Countess Anna Marie von Schönborn-Buchheim (wife of Prince Gottfried Karl Joseph of Hohenlohe-Langenburg),[9] Countess Franziska von Schönborn-Buchheim (wife of Prince Konrad of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst),[10] Countess Irma Caroline Gabrielle von Schönborn-Buchheim (wife of Maximilian Egon II, Prince of Fürstenberg),[11][12] and Friedrich Karl, 5th Count of Schönborn-Buchheim (who married Donna Teresa Dentice di Frasso, a daughter of Count Don Ernesto, 7th Prince Dentice di Frasso, and Countess Luisa Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin).[13]

Third marriage

Schloss Enzesfeld, 2020

On 28 April 1925, after living together in Paris following her 1924 divorce,[14] she married Baron Eugène von Rothschild (1884–1976), a younger son of Albert Salomon von Rothschild and Bettina Caroline de Rothschild, members of the Austrian branch of the family.[15] "Upon her marriage into the Rothschild family, it was reported that she had embraced the Jewish faith."[6]

A friend of Wallis Simpson, after Edward VIII abdicated he traveled to Schloss Enzesfeld, Kitty and Eugène's castle in Enzesfeld near Vienna,[16] staying there for three months until Simpson's divorce was finalized so they could marry.[17][6]

In 1940, shortly after the beginning of World War II, Kitty and Eugène left France for the United States.[18] In 1941, they settled at Still House, a Georgian Colonial style home set on a 44-acre estate formerly owned by Paul D. Cravath in Locust Valley on Long Island. Kitty "often assisted financially various charitable and patriotic causes. In 1940 she presented shoes to an entire French regiment."[2]

The marriage to Baron Eugène was happy, but childless. The Baroness died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 62 at Still House on October 9, 1946.[2] After her death, Eugène remarried the British actress Jeanne Stuart on 21 December 1952.[15] They both lived in New York City and Long Island but eventually left to live in Monte Carlo where he died in 1976.[19]

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Interviewed on a visit to New York in 1938, the Baroness denied a report that her grandfather had been an Austrian baron and that she herself had been a lady-in-waiting in the Austrian court. Other fanciful stories had been told of her early days in Europe."[2]
  2. ^ The witnesses for the bridegroom were Count Charles Schönborn-Buchheim and Prince Emile von Fürstenberg, and for the bride Rear Admiral William T. Swinburne, U.S.N., retired, and Maj. Thomas Bentley Mott, the American Military Attaché.[7]
  3. ^ Countess Franziska von Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (1844–1898), was a daughter of Prince Ferdinand Joachim von Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (a grandson of Prince Ferdinand von Trauttmansdorff) and Princess Anna of Liechtenstein (a daughter of Prince Karl of Liechtenstein, himself a grandson of Prince Karl Borromäus of Liechtenstein).[8]
Sources
  1. ^ "The Catalogue | Rothschild, Baroness Eugène de, née Katherine Wolff; other married name Countess Erwein Schönborn-Buchheim". www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com. The de Laszlo Archive Trust. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. (October 10, 1946). "KITTY ROTHSCHILD, WIFE OF BARON, 62; Noted Beauty, Once Toast of 2 Continents, Dies in Locust Valley--American by Birth". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  3. ^ "Marriages". College and Clinical Record: 144. 1883. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  4. ^ "Medical News and Miscellany". The Medical Bulletin: A Monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery. F. A. Davis: 139. 1883. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  5. ^ "MARRIAGES". The Medical and Surgical Reporter. Crissy & Markley, Printers: 378. 1859. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  6. ^ a b c "Edward's Host, Son of a Vienna Banker, Is One of Central Europe's Richest Men". The New York Times. December 14, 1936. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b "MRS. SPOTSWOOD WEDS.; Married in Paris to Count Erwin von Schonborn-Bucheim". The New York Times. 25 October 1911. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  8. ^ of), Melville Amadeus Henry Douglas Heddle de La Caillemotte de Massue de Ruvigny Ruvigny and Raineval (9th marquis (1914). The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who", of the Sovereigns, Princes and Nobles of Europe. Harrison & Sons. p. 1550. Retrieved 5 May 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Monarchy, Austro-Hungarian (1912). Handbuch des allerhöchsten Hofes und des Hofstaates seiner K. und K. Apostolischen Majestät ... (in German). K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. p. 402. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  10. ^ Nemec, Norbert (2010). Erzherzogin Maria Annunziata (1876-1961): die unbekannte Nichte Kaiser Franz Josephs I. (in German). Böhlau Verlag Wien. p. 227. ISBN 978-3-205-78456-2. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  11. ^ Horstkotte, Jo (28 September 2022). Das Fürstenbergdenkmal in Baden-Baden: Ein Engel aus Dankbarkeit und eine Engelswiese zum Entwickeln (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. p. 18. ISBN 978-3-7568-2475-5. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  12. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fürstenberg" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 365–366, see page 366, third para. In 1909 there were two branches of the princely house of Fürstenberg: (1) the main branch, that of Fürstenberg-Donaueschingen, the head of which was Prince Maximilian Egon (b. 1863), who succeeded his cousin Karl Egon III. in 1896
  13. ^ "The Catalogue | Schönborn-Buchheim, Countess Karl von, née Teresa Dentice dei Principi di Frasso and her daughter Princess Alfred zur Lippe, née Franziska Schönborn-Buchheim". www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com. The de Laszlo Archive Trust. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  14. ^ "COUNTESS SCHOENBORN REPORTED AS BRIDE; Her Marriage to Baron Eugene Rothschild Said to Have Followed a Dispensation". The New York Times. October 28, 1924. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  15. ^ a b "The Rothschild Archive Family Tree". The Rothschild Archive. The Rothschild Archive. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  16. ^ Ross, Fiona (17 October 2016). Dining with the Rich and Royal. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4422-5228-8. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  17. ^ Sandgruber, Roman (2023). Pretty Kitty und die Frauen der Rothschilds (in German). Wien: Molden-Verlag. p. 304. ISBN 978-3-222-15100-2.
  18. ^ "Baron Eugene De Rothschild Arrives by Clipper; Nurse Tells of Nazi Brutality in Paris". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. August 5, 1940. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  19. ^ "The Rothschild Archive Biography". The Rothschild Archive. The Rothschild Archive. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
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