Salm-Salm, Agnes zu (1840-1912)

Salm-Salm, Agnes zu

ACTOR (GERMANY)

BORN 25 Dec 1840, Swanton, Vermont - DIED 20 Dec 1912, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg
BIRTH NAME Joy, Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerc
GRAVE LOCATION Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Alter Friedhof ((ashes) next to Mildred Scheel)

Agnes zu Salm-Salm was born as Agnes Leclerc Joy. She was the daughter of the American general William Leclerc Joy (1793-c1886). Little is known about her life. It is possible that she worked in a circus and as an actress in Cuba until 1861. She was staying near Washington when she met Prince Felix Salm-Salm, a distant relative of emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. Against the wishes of her family they married on 30 August 1862. Felix was posted in the Army of the Potomac as adjutant of Louis Blenker and Alice foloowed him to the battlefield where she cared for wounded soldiers. She travelled with the army for four years.

In 1866 they left for Mexico where Salm-Salm entered into the service of emperor Maximilian I. Just as they arrived the French army under Bazaine was leaving. Soon Maximilian's regime collapsed and both he and Felix Salm-Salm were captured. She travelled to Mexico city several times, spoke to General Porfirio Díaz and and went on her knees for President Benito Juarez, asking him to spare the fallen emperor and her husband. Juarez answered that it caused her pain to see her like this on her kneees, but that even if every king and queen were in her place he couldn't spare the emperor's life because the people and the law claimed his life. But he did offer to spare her husband's life. She attempt to organise an escape plan but her efforts failed. After the emperor was executed in June, Felix was released in December and escaped seven years of imprisonment. They went to Germany where Felix joined the Prussian army. Agnes trained as a nurse at the University of Bonn and she was a famous society person now because of her efforts to free the emperor.

Prince Felix was killed during the Franco-Prussian War in combat at Saint-Privat-la-Montagne near Metz on 18 August 1870. After his death she collected funds for military hospitals. She lived in Switzerland and Italy. In 1876 she married the diplomat Charles Heneage, but the marriage was dissolved. In 1899 she revisited the US. She returned to Germany where she died in Karlsruhe in 1912. She was buried at the Alter Friedhof in Bonn and not like her husband in Anholt.

Family
• Husband: Salm-Salm, Felix zu (1862-1870)

Related persons
• has a connection with Maximilian of Austria, emperor of Mexico

Images
The grave of Agnes zu Salm-Salm at the Alter Friedhof, Bonn. Picture by Androom (17 Mar 2022)	The grave of Agnes zu Salm-Salm at the Alter Friedhof, Bonn. Picture by Androom (17 Mar 2022)