L'immortelle Helen Lewis :
La belle américaine devenue duchesse de Croÿ puis belle-fille de l'amiral Miklós Horthy
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| Hélène, duchesse de Croÿ (née Lewis) |
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| La mère d'Helen, Jane « Jennie » Bromley Lindsay Lewis en 1941. |
Le 22 octobre 1924, Helen Lindsay Lewis (née à Albany, New York, le 14 février 1898) devint la seconde épouse du duc Karl Rudolf de Croÿ (1889-1974). Helen était la fille de Thompson Howard Lewis (1869-1947), qui travaillait pour la Mutual Life Insurance Company à New York, et de son épouse Jane « Jennie » Bromley Lindsay (1871 – ?), fille de David Lindsay et Ella Augusta Bromley (1847-1910). Le couple se maria lors d'une cérémonie à Munich. Il s'agissait du premier mariage d'Helen ; pour Karl Rudolf, c'était le deuxième. De 1913 à 1922, il avait été marié à Nancy Leishman (1894-1983). De son premier mariage, le duc de Croÿ a eu trois enfants : Carl (1914-2011), Antoinette (1915-2011) et Marie-Luise (née en 1919).  |
| Elizabeth, baronne du Moray (née Lewis) |
La duchesse Hélène de Croÿ avait une sœur cadette, Elizabeth Willoughby Lewis (née à Albany, NY, le 9 juillet 1901). En 1928, Elizabeth s'était fiancée au baron Jean Le Couteulx du Moray (1886-1946), fils du baron Jacques Le Couteulx du Moray. Bien qu'Elizabeth n'était pas amoureuse de Jean et que leurs fiançailles aient été rompues au moins une fois, la sœur d'Elizabeth, Helen, et son beau-frère Karl Rudolf souhaitaient vivement que l'union ait lieu. Le duc et la duchesse de Croÿ persuadèrent Elizabeth de poursuivre le mariage, et la jeune Miss Lewis fut dûment unie au baron Jean Le Couteulx du Molay (1886-1946) le 21 mars 1929 à Paris. Il se trouve que le baron du Moray était toxicomane, et lui et Elizabeth divorcèrent le 16 avril 1935.
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| Hélène, duchesse de Croÿ |
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| Charles-Rodolphe, duc de Croÿ |
In 1930, a divorce action was initiated by Duchess Helen of Croÿ to terminate her marriage with Duke Karl Rudolf. According to press reports at the time, one of the reasons that Helen cited for ending the union was that an Austrian Archduchess (who was never named) had been soliciting the attentions of the Duke of Croÿ. Interestingly, even though the contents of the case were sealed, it was alleged that one of the reasons that the marriage of Duke Karl Rudolf and his first wife Nancy ended in 1922 was due to the interference of the very same archduchess. Karl Rudolf and Helen, the Duke and Duchess of Croÿ, were divorced in 1931; they had no children.
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| Helen, Duchess of Croÿ |
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| Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II |
On 22 December 1956, Helen Lewis, former Duchess of Croÿ, married Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II (1907-1993) in Edinburgh, Scotland. By this time, Helen had reinvented herself as Helen Margot Lindsay-Lewis (b.Puerto Madryn, Argentina 14 February 1916); the new bride thus made herself almost twenty years younger. Helen’s second husband was the youngest child of Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya (1868-1957), the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, and Magdolna Vilma Benedikta Purgly de Jószáshely (1881-1959).
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| Admiral Miklós Horthy de Nagybány, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary |
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| Magdolna Purgly de Jószáshely |
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| Countess Maria Consuelo Károlyi de Nagykároly |
In 1927, Miklós II married Countess Maria Consuelo Károlyi de Nagykároly (1905-1976); the couple had two children: Zsófia Horthy de Nagybanya (1928-2004) and Nicolette Horthy de Nagybanya (1929-1990). Miklós and Maria Consuelo eventually divorced; it was after this marital rupture that Miklós married Helen Lewis.
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| Helen Lewis, Duchess of Croÿ, Mrs Miklós Horthy de Nagybanya II |
Helen and Miklós Horthy did not have any children. On 23 March 1993, Miklós passed away in Portugal at the age of eighty-five. For decades, genealogists had an impossible time attempting to find when Helen Lewis had died. Due to her seemingly “immortal” status, the former Duchess of Croÿ was deemed to be a “Vampire of the Gotha.”
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| Helen’s Hungarian sister-in-law: Countesss Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai de Marosnémethi et Nádaska |
In 2016, Dutch royal historian and genealogist Netty Leistra discovered that Helen had passed away in December 1976 at Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Helen would have been seventy-eight years-old. Countess Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai de Marosnémethi et Nádaska, the sister-in-law of Miklós and wife of his brother István, recalled in her memoirs: “They did not always live in complete harmony, but when Helen got sick, Nicky [Miklós] nurtured her devotedly, and when she died, he became completely shattered.”
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| The resting place of Miklós Horthy II |
After his death, Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II was buried at the Horthy family crypt at Kenderes, Hungary. The final resting place of Helen Lewis is not known.
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