Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici

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Electress Anna Maria Luisa in hunting costume , around 1695, Jan Frans van Douven
Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici , 1690/91
portrait by Antonio Franchi
Double portrait of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz and his wife Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici by Jan Frans van Douven (1708)
Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici mourns her husband, Elector Johann Wilhelm (1716)

Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici (born August 11, 1667 in Florence , † February 18, 1743 ibid) was the last member of the ruling Florentine line of the Medici family and sister of the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gian Gastone de' Medici . She was the wife of Johann Wilhelm ("Jan Wellem") and thus from 1691 to 1716 Electress of the Palatinate . She left the palaces and art treasures of the Medici family to the city of Florence.

childhood

Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici was the daughter of Cosimo III. de 'Medici and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans and only sister of Gian Gastone de' Medici . Her mother left the unhappy marriage and went back to Paris in 1675. The eight-year-old was then raised by her grandmother Vittoria della Rovere .

Wedding ceremony and Düsseldorf years

Cosimo considered various possible marriage candidates for his daughter u. a. Viktor Amadeus II. , Peter II. , Jakob II. And Karl II. Finally a marriage with Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz was arranged.

When she married the Elector on April 29, 1691 in the Florentine Cathedral, it was a proxy marriage , at which her bridegroom was not present, but was represented by Anna's brother, Ferdinando de 'Medici . The bond primarily corresponded to the political ambitions of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I. The marriage contract was concluded on April 21, 1691, after Grand Duke Cosimo had been awarded the title of "Royal Highness" by the Emperor in March of that year. Such arranged rulers for reasons of state were mostly associated with little sympathy and love. However, the marriage of Anna Maria Luisa was a notable exception in this regard. Until the death of Johann Wilhelm in 1716, she had a childless, but nevertheless happy marriage.

Both loved music, painting and hunting. As patrons of the arts, the elector and his wife developed their residence city of Düsseldorf into a European art metropolis at times. A high point of these activities was the construction of the Gemäldegalerie Düsseldorf , one of the “earliest, independent museum buildings in Europe”. However, the core of the painting collection is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. In 1696 an imposing baroque opera house was opened. Georg Friedrich Handel was a frequent guest at the electoral court. Arcangelo Corelli dedicated his Concerti Grossi op.6 to the princely couple . The construction of the Bensberg hunting lodge as well as the renovation and expansion of the Düsseldorf palace also took place during this period.

Return to Florence

After the elector's death, Anna Maria Luisa left Düsseldorf on September 10, 1717 and returned to Florence, where she was greeted with gunshots and bells, especially since it became apparent - which had been very unlikely at her birth - that she would rule could compete over Tuscany . After the death of his older son, her father had the Senate pass an appropriate succession regulation. The European powers ignored this decision and initially agreed on the future King Charles III. of Spain as successor.

From 1731 Anna Maria took over the role of the first lady of the state under her childless brother Gian Gastone de 'Medici , who after taking office in 1723 initially preferred his widowed sister-in-law Violante Beatrix of Bavaria for this role, since his separated wife was - to his Relief - had refused to move to Florence. At this time, the succession was disputed again among the powers of Europe, since Emperor Charles VI. did not want to accept a Spanish-Bourbon succession. As a feudal lord of the Grand Duchy (which was a pledge of the empire in imperial Italy ) he had constitutional authority to decide if the fiefdom should revert to the empire through the extinction of the Medici in the male line. However, in 1732 Charles of Spain had more than 30,000 soldiers stationed in his neighboring duchy of Parma (as well as in Tuscany). During the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738) there were changing occupations.

After Gian Gastone's death on July 9, 1737, it was decided in the Peace of Vienna in 1738 that Tuscany - together with the Duchy of Parma - should be given to the son-in-law of the Habsburg Emperor, Franz III. of Lorraine, should fall, the husband of Maria Theresa and later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . This was supposed to compensate for the loss of his rule over Lorraine , which he had to cede to King Stanislaus I. Leszczyński of Poland at the instigation of France . In return, the Spaniard received the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. The Prince of Craon, Marc de Beauvau (1679–1754), took over the regency for the new Grand Duke ; Soon afterwards, Franz von Lorraine politely offered Anna Maria the reign of the Grand Duchy (not its crown), but she refused and instead withdrew into private life. However, she had inherited the entire private fortune of the Medici family from her brother , which he had previously separated from the state assets, including the Palazzo Pitti , the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and the large art collection.

In her last will, she bequeathed the Medici personal property to the city of Florence on the condition that it was never removed from the city. This property, which makes up the majority of the important art collections in Florence ( Uffizi , Palazzo Pitti ), etc., is largely still there today. Her grave is in the crypt of San Lorenzo in Florence. The donation act was called "Family Pact" and was a cultural and family-political contract that was signed on October 31, 1737 between the Lorraine Duke and the new Tuscan Grand Duke Franz and Anna Maria Luisa after the death of the last Medici Grand Duke Gian Gastone. The agreement laid the basis for securing the extensive grand ducal art treasure in Florence and in the state of Tuscany, as well as its tourist use. Franz Stefan received a. a. the remaining Medici villas .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Müller: A princely marriage in the age of Ludwig XIV. Johann Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg and Anna Maria Luisa von Medici. In: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf: Anna Maria Luisa Medici. Electress of the Palatinate. Article in the exhibition catalog, Verlag R. Meyer, Düsseldorf 1988, p. 35 ff.
  2. ↑ Bernd Dreher: The Florentine Marriage . In: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf: Anna Maria Luisa Medici. Electress of the Palatinate. Article in the exhibition catalog, Verlag R. Meyer, Düsseldorf 1988, p. 158
  3. ↑ dapd: History: The last representative of the Medici dynasty is exhumed in autumn. In: welt.de . July 2, 2012, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Lorenzo De 'Medici: The Medici. My family story . Hockebooks, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9575-1156-0

literature

  • Baumgärtel, Bettina (ed.): Heavenly - glorious - courtly: Peter Paul Rubens, Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz and Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici. Exhibition catalog, Museum Kunst-Palast, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-86502-192-2 .
  • Antje Kahnt: Düsseldorf's strong women - 30 portraits Droste, Düsseldorf 2016, ISBN 978-3-7700-1577-1 , pp. 27–34.
  • La principessa saggia. L'eredità di Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici, Elettrice Palatina. Livorno 2006, ISBN 978-88-8347-359-3 .
  • Vossen, Carl: Anna Maria, the last Medici, Electress of Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 978-3-87784-032-0 .

Journalistic articles

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Medici, Anna Maria Luisa de '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Medici, Anna Maria Ludovica de '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Johann Wilhelm , Elector of the Palatinate
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1743
Place of death Florence