Background
Born Auguste Henriette Mendel in Darmstadt, Hesse-Darmstadt, she was the daughter of Adam Mendel and of Anna Sophie Müller.
Born Auguste Henriette Mendel in Darmstadt, Hesse-Darmstadt, she was the daughter of Adam Mendel and of Anna Sophie Müller.
By him she was the mother of Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich. In English she is usually known as Henrietta Mendel. She was reportedly born Jewish.
She was an actress at Darmstadt"s Großherzoglich Hessischem Hoftheater when she and Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria fell in love.
Henriette and Ludwig had an illegitimate daughter, Marie Louise, born on February 24, 1858. When Henriette became pregnant a second time, a morganatic marriage was arranged.
Ludwig renounced succession rights to the Bavarian throne on March 9, 1859. Karl Emanuel only survived a few months, dying on August 1, 1859.
The couple had no more children.
The baroness died November 12, 1891 in Munich, Bavaria of stomach cancer. One year later, her widower, Duke Ludwig, married Barbara Antonie Barth, who had been created Baroness von Bartolf, on November 19, 1892.
As a Duke in Bavaria (Herzog in Bayern,) Ludwig was a high-ranking member of Bavaria"s Royal House of Wittelsbach.