# Júlia Hunyady de Kéthely

Countess Júlia Hunyady de Kéthely (Serbian: Јулија Хуњади де Кетељ; 26 August 1831 – 19 February 1919) was a Hungarian noblewoman and the Princess consort of Serbia as the wife of Prince Mihailo Obrenović III. She remained a widow for seven and a half years after his assassination in 1868, until January 1876 when she married her lover, Duke Karl of Arenberg, Prince of Recklinghausen (1831–1896).

## Life

Júlia was born in Vienna into an old Hungarian noble family, the only daughter of Count Ferenc Hunyady de Kéthely (1804–1882) and his wife, Countess Júlia Zichy de Zich et Vásonkeő (1808–1873). She had three brothers, László (1826–1898), Kálmán and Vilmos (b. 1830). On 1 August 1853, less than a month before her 22nd birthday, she married her first husband Mihailo Obrenović, the deposed ruler of Serbia.

### Princess of Serbia

On 26 September 1860, after the death of his father, Miloš Obrenović, Mihailo once again assumed power as the ruler of Serbia, making Júlia the Princess consort. She was not popular with the Serbs, as they mistrusted her Catholic religion and Hungarian background. Prince Mihailo was not a faithful husband, and he had at least one illegitimate child, a son Velimir Mihailo Teodorović, from his youthful relationship with a seventeen year old Styrian girl, Maria Berghaus (1831–1863). It was Velimir who had a more close relationship with Júlia and visited her more often than his own father Mihailo, with whom he spent time only in the evening, playing billiards in the basement of the Old Palace. Mihailo's last mistress was Katarina Konstantinović, the young, vivacious, pretty daughter of his first cousin Princess Anka Obrenović, both of whom resided at the royal court at Mihailo's request. Katarina had even entertained hopes of eventually becoming Mihailo's wife on account of Júlia's inability to bear the Prince a child, and Mihailo was considering a divorce in spite of the national outrage such a move would invariably cause. In 1867, the esteemed Prime Minister Ilija Garasanin was dismissed from his post for having voiced his opposition to Mihailo's proposed divorce and marriage to Katarina. Katarina openly despised Princess Júlia and made her life miserable by flaunting her affair with Mihailo. Júlia retaliated by conducting her own love affair with Duke Karl of Arenberg (1831–1896), who was her first love and with whom she kept secret contact throughout her marriage to Mihailo. Duke Karl was a younger son of Prosper Louis, 7th Duke of Arenberg, second cousin of Empress Sissi, and his wife, Stéphanie Tascher de La Pagerie (1788–1832), niece of Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of the French.

### Later life

On 10 June 1868, Mihailo was taking a stroll through the park of Košutnjak, close to the royal summer residence on the outskirts of Belgrade. He was in the company of Princess Anka and his mistress, Katarina. All three were shot by assassins, leaving Prince Mihailo and Princess Anka dead, while Katarina was wounded. It was believed at the time that the assassination was the work of the Karađorđević, the rival dynasty of the Obrenović. Mihailo was succeeded by Milan IV, his cousin and the son of Princess Anka's brother, Miloš. Milan would in 1882 reign as King Milan I of Serbia.
The same year Mihailo was assassinated, Katarina married General Milivoje Blaznavac and later assumed the role of first lady at her cousin King Milan's court, when the latter's wife, Queen Natalie, separated from him to live abroad. Júlia continued her love affair with Duke Karl, finally marrying him on 16 January 1876 at Ivanka pri Dunaji, which her first father in law Prince Miloš acquired for her and Mihailo as their wedding present from the widowed Princess Leopoldine Grassalkovich de Gyarak, born Countess Esterhazy (1776–1864). Upon her second marriage, Júlia officially became Duchess of Arenberg and Princess of Recklinghausen.

### Death

She died, childless and alone, in her birthplace of Vienna on 19 February 1919 and was buried on 22 February 1919 in Vienna Central Cemetery. Her ashes rest in the urn compartment located at the second entrance with the signature KNLH 13. Júlia was 87 years old, having outlived both her husbands and all her brothers and their spouses.