Condessa d'Edla

Elise Friedericke Hensler (in Portuguese, Elisa) was born on 22 May 1836 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Neuchâtel canton of Switzerland. She was the daughter of Johann Friederich Conrad Hensler and his wife, Louise Josephe Hechelbacher. Her family was Swiss-German. When she was twelve, her family moved to Boston in the United States, where she was given a remarkable education, with the arts and languages playing an important role. She finished her studies in Paris and, as an adult, could easily speak seven languages.
On 10 June 1869, Elise married morganatically, in Benfica (Lisbon), the former King Ferdinand II of Portugal, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Just before the ceremony, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a cousin of Ferdinand and the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, granted to Elise the title of Gräfin von Edla (Countess of Edla). The marriage was childless