Maria Luisa of Spain
Maria Luisa of Spain | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Burial | |||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue |
| ||||
| |||||
House | Bourbon | ||||
Father | Charles III of Spain | ||||
Mother | Maria Amalia of Saxony |
Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain (Spanish: María Luisa, German: Maria Ludovika; 24 November 1745 – 15 May 1792) was Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the spouse of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor.[1]
Early life
Maria Luisa was born in
Her father, the future
Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Maria Luisa was originally intended to marry the future Emperor
On 16 February 1764 she was married by proxy at
At the time of her wedding, Maria Luisa was described as a blue-eyed beauty with a vivid charm, unpretentious and simple and with a disposition to be generous and kind, and her natural warm friendliness was said to have contrasted to the somewhat cold nature of Leopold.[2] Through her strict Catholic upbringing, Maria Luisa was raised to endure any hardship of pregnancy and marriage without complaint, a role she fulfilled during her marriage.[3] The relationship between Maria Luisa and Leopold has been described as happy, and Maria Luisa as a supporting and loyal wife. She accepted the infidelities of her spouse without complaint: among his best known lovers were Lady Anna Gore Cowper, and another was the ballerina Livia Raimondi, with whom he had a son, Luigi von Grün (1788–1814), and he gave her her own palace at Piazza San Marco, Florence.
As grand duchess of Tuscany, Maria Luisa made herself appreciated in the first year in Florence, during the famine of 1765, when she provided the poor and needing with food and medical aid, and she was referred to as an ideal "model of feminine virtue".[4] She was never crowned as grand duchess, though she was present at the coronation of Leopold in July 1768. She accompanied her sister-in-law, Maria Carolina of Austria, at the latter's marriage to her brother, King Ferdinand IV of Naples: the couple remained there for the summer of 1768. In 1770, she accompanied Leopold on his visit to Vienna. Neither Maria Luisa nor Leopold enjoyed formal occasions and rarely participated in representation or indeed upheld much of a ceremonial court life at all; while Leopold spent his time with politics and his personal pleasures, Maria Luisa isolated herself almost completely from high society and devoted herself completely to the upbringing of her children.[5] Maria Luisa and her spouse gave their children a very free upbringing, away from any formal court life, and occasionally took them on trips to the countryside and the coast. She remained mostly unknown to the local aristocracy, and restricted her private social life to a very small circle of friends.[6]
Holy Roman Empress
In 1790, on the death of Leopold's childless brother,
Issue
- Anton of Saxonyand had issue.
- Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835), married Duchess Elisabeth of Württemberg and had issue; married Maria Teresa of Naples and Sicily and had issue; married Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, no issue; married Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, no issue.
- Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (6 May 1769 – 18 June 1824) married Luisa of Naples and Sicily and had issue; married Princess Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony, no issue.
- Maria Anna of Austria(22 April 1770 – 1 October 1809), died unmarried.
- Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburgand had issue.
- Alexander Leopold of Austria (14 August 1772 – 12 July 1795) died unmarried.
- Albrecht Johann Joseph of Austria (19 September 1773 – 22 July 1774), died in infancy.
- Maximilian of Austria (23 December 1774 – 10 March 1778), died in childhood.
- Joseph of Austria (9 March 1776 – 13 January 1847), married Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia and had issue; married Princess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym and had issue; married Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg and had issue.
- Maria Clementina of Austria (24 April 1777 – 15 November 1801) married Francis I of the Two Sicilies and had issue.
- Anton of Austria (31 August 1779 – 2 April 1835), died unmarried, Grand Master of Teutonic Knights
- Maria Amalia of Austria (15 October 1780 – 25 December 1798), never married, no issue
- Johann of Austria (20 January 1782 – 11 May 1859), married Anna Plochl morganatically. His children were created Counts of Meran.
- Rainer of Austria (30 September 1783 – 16 January 1853), married Princess Elisabeth of Savoy-Carignano and had issue.
- Louis of Austria (13 December 1784 – 21 December 1864), died unmarried.
- Rudolph of Austria (8 January 1788 – 24 July 1831), died unmarried.
Ancestry
Ancestors of María Luisa of Spain Augustus II of Poland | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6. Augustus III of Poland | |||||||||||||
13. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth | |||||||||||||
3. Maria Amalia of Saxony | |||||||||||||
14. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor | |||||||||||||
7. Maria Josepha of Austria | |||||||||||||
15. Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick | |||||||||||||
References
- ^ "Leopold II | Infoplease".
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
- ^ Maria Luisa's participation in her husband's coronation as king of Bohemia in Prague in 1791 is detailed in Daniel E. Freeman, Mozart in Prague (Minneapolis, 2021), 193–230; the passage from Meissner's Rococo-Bilder that attributes the phrase "porcheria tedesca" to her is translated on p. 226. Besides the late authority recorded for this remark, Freeman also points out that Meissner had a habit of attributing concocted Italian witticisms to culture figures of Italian origin in his Rococo-Bilder and that the members of the Imperial court of Austria always spoke to each another in French, not German or Italian.
- ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 9.
- Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa (2010)
External links
Media related to Maria Luisa of Spain at Wikimedia Commons