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Princess Hedwige de Ligne

4 May 1877 – 22 Sep 1938

6 facts1 source

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 4 May 1877

    Born

  2. 20 Apr 1899

    A son is born

  3. 22 Sep 1938

    Dies, aged 61

Family

See the tree

Partner

Children · 1

During her lifetime

She lived through 7 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1870s · Princess is born

In the news1879–1883

Arrival of the telephone

The telephone arrived in Belgium between 1879 and 1883, transforming communication in the Belle Epoque.

Getting around

A Long Journey to the Coast

To travel from Brussels to Ostend, one had to take a stagecoach to Ghent in the middle of the night, ride a canal boat to Bruges, and transfer to another canal boat to reach Ostend by evening.

At the table

Cheap mussels for the poor

In working-class neighborhoods, mussels were a cheap staple, costing only 2.5 cents for one hundred at the time.

The Franco-Prussian War and a united Germany. Prussia defeated France, and the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.In Europe · 1870–1871

The Franco-Prussian War and a united Germany. Prussia defeated France, and the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Anton von Werner · public domain

What people wore

Festive Sunday attire for rural Belgians

Rural residents typically owned one set of festive Sunday clothes used for both church services and mourning. Men often wore a shiny blue smock on Sundays, while women wore a traditional regional cap.

Music

Late night dancing at Kermesse fairs

During the Kermesse fair, villagers danced in public houses until 2 or 3 in the morning, accompanied by a band or barrel-organ music.

Daily life

Crowded worker housing near Brussels

In some workers' homes near Brussels, a family of nine lived and slept in a small room barely larger than the space occupied by their two looms. They kept their food and live rabbits in a tiny adjacent space, where the family also slept on a mattress suspended above a loom.