Maria Theresa of Savoy
Marie Thérèse of Savoy | |
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Countess of Artois | |
Born | 31 January 1756 Royal Palace, Turin, Savoy |
Died | 2 June 1805 (aged 49) Graz, Austrian Empire |
Burial | Imperial Mausoleum, Graz, Austria |
Spouse | |
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia | |
Mother | Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain |
Signature | |
Maria Theresa of Savoy (French: Marie Thérèse de Savoie; 31 January 1756 – 2 June 1805) was a French princess by marriage to Charles Philippe, Count of Artois. Her husband was the grandson of Louis XV and younger brother of Louis XVI. Nineteen years after Maria Theresa’s death, her spouse assumed the throne of France as King Charles X. Her son Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, married Marie Antoinette’s daughter Marie-Thérèse Charlotte.
Biography
Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy was born at the
Marriage
Her aunts, Maria Luisa of Savoy and Eleonora of Savoy, were once proposed as brides for Louis Stanislas' father Louis.
Following a series of dynastic alliances, Maria Theresa was betrothed to the Count of Artois, the youngest grandson of the reigning
Her marriage was arranged as a part of a series of Franco-Savoyard dynastic marriages taking place in a time span of eight years: after the wedding between her cousin
Maria Theresa married the Count in a proxy ceremony at the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi before she crossed the bridge of Beauvoisin between Savoy and France, where she was turned over by her Italian retinue to her French entourage, after which her official marriage took place at the Palace of Versailles on 16 November 1773.
As her husband was the grandson of a king, the newly named Marie Thérèse held the rank of granddaughter of France, and was commonly referred to by the simple style Madame la comtesse d'Artois.
Countess of Artois
Maria Theresa was described as diminutive, somewhat ill-shaped, clumsy and with a long nose and was not regarded a beauty, but her complexion was generally admired; as a person, she was regarded as "not distinguished in any sense", but nevertheless goodhearted.[1] Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, who corresponded with Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa regarding Marie Antoinette, said that she was silent and interested in absolutely nothing.[2] The brother of Marie Antoinette, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, said of her during his visit to France in 1777 that she was the only one in the royal family "to give birth to children, but is in all other aspects a complete idiot."[3]
During her first years in France, the three royal couples; the Count and Countess of Provence, the Count and Countess of Artois, the Dauphin and Dauphine, as well as her cousin, the Princess of Lamballe, who was the favorite of
Roughly a year after Maria Theresa's arrival at Versailles, she became pregnant with her first child, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême: He was the first child of the new royal generation, which was an important event, as there was at that point concern for the succession because the marriage of both the King as well as that of the first of his brothers, the Count of Provence, were childless, and the birth was reportedly stressful to Marie Antoinette, at the time anxious for the consummation of her marriage to take place and concerned for her lack of children.[4] After this birth, Marie Antoinette was harassed by the public for not given birth herself. The next year Maria Theresa gave birth to a daughter,
Prior to the meeting of the Estates General, every member of the Royal Family was publicly mocked by libelous verses, in which Maria Theresa was claimed to have given birth to an illegitimate child.[5]
Exile
Maria Theresa left France with her spouse after the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, and took refuge in her homeland of Savoy. She left one week after her spouse with a retinue of thirty people, and since she had her possessions sold in connection to her trip, the couple's official statement that they were to return in spring was doubted.[1]
When her spouse left Savoy in 1791, she stayed behind, and the couple lived separated for the rest of their lives. The Count of Artois refused to give her permission to stay with or visit him, even refusing her to attend the wedding of her son the Duke of Angoulême to
In April 1796, when Savoy was defeated by France under
In December 1798, when Piemonte was annexed by France, Maria Theresa left with her lady-in-waiting for Graz in Austria, where she was permitted to remain and where she died in 1805.[10] Because she died before her spouse became King of France, she remained Countess of Artois. She was buried in the Imperial Mausoleum near to Graz Cathedral.
Issue
- Marie Thérèse of France, had no issue.
- Sophie, Mademoiselle d'Artois (Versailles, 5 August 1776 – Versailles, 5 December 1783) died in childhood.
- Princess Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicilyand had issue.
- Marie Thérèse d'Artois, Mademoiselle d'Angoulême (Versailles, 6 January 1783 – Château de Choisy, 22 June 1783) died in infancy.
Gallery
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Maria Theresa of Savoy in 1785.
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A portrait miniature of the Countess of Artois clad in a white dress with a blue bodice and a white bow (by Ignace Jean Victor Campana).
Ancestry
Ancestors of Maria Theresa of Savoy Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg | |||||||||||||
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References and notes
Media related to Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ a b c Hardy, B. C. (Blanche Christabel), The Princesse de Lamballe; a biography, 1908, Project Gutenberg
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, The Journey, Anchor Books, (American edition, 2002): in Part One: Madame Antoine, p. 100
- ISBN 91-1-893802-7
- ISBN 91-1-893802-7
- ISBN 978-0-7538-1305-8
- ISBN 1-59691-057-7
- ^ a b A sister of Louis XVI, Marie-Clotilde of France, Queen of Sardinia (1759-1802), 1911
- ^ Reiset, Emile-Paul de, Joséphine de Savoie, comtesse de Provence, 1753-1810, Paris 1913
- ^ Reiset, Emile-Paul de, Joséphine de Savoie, comtesse de Provence, 1753-1810, Paris 1913
- ^ Reiset, Emile-Paul de, Joséphine de Savoie, comtesse de Provence, 1753-1810, Paris 1913
- ^ 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. 26.