Maria Anna of the Palatinate (1667–1740)
Maria Anna von Pfalz-Neuburg (Spanish: María Ana del Palatinado-Neoburgo ; * October 28, 1667 Benrath Castle near Düsseldorf ; † July 16, 1740 in Guadalajara ) was Princess and Countess Palatine of Neuburg and, by marriage, Queen of Spain , Naples and Sicily and Sardinia and Duchess of Milan .
Life
Lineage and Early Life
Maria Anna was a daughter of Elector Philipp Wilhelm von der Pfalz (1615–1690) from his second marriage to Elisabeth Amalie (1635–1709), daughter of Landgrave Georg II of Hesse-Darmstadt . Maria Anna received a comprehensive, not only scientific, but also well-founded musical education. The religious training of the princess was incumbent on a Jesuit . When her brother Karl Philipp stormed Buda , the six-year-old daughter of Pascha Hassan von Gran was captured, who Karl Philipp sent to his sister in Heidelberg for care. Maria Anna took care of the girl and later took her to Spain with her. She later died as the Prioress of the Carmelites of Neuburg.
Marriage to Charles II and Queen of Spain
After the childless Spanish King Charles II had become a widower through the death of his first wife Marie Louise d'Orléans († February 12, 1689) , Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld , who was the imperial ambassador in Madrid , was largely responsible for Maria Anna's being Charles II's new bride was chosen. The Habsburg family policy thus also triumphed over the Bourbon family policy . The wedding by procuration , at which the imperial couple was present, took place on August 28, 1689 in Neuburg an der Donau . Because the War of the Palatinate Succession provoked by Louis XIV was in progress at that time, Maria Anna had to make her journey to Spain by sea, with support from England. It was not until May 4, 1690 that she was able to celebrate her personal wedding with Charles II in the San Diego Monastery near Valladolid and move into Madrid on May 20.
Maria Anna liked to refer to herself as her husband's “first minister”, as she had great political influence over the king, who had considerable mental and physical weakness. In 1691, it enforced that the leading minister Manuel Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo , eighth Count of Oropesa, had to resign from his high office. However, she was unable to get her older brother Johann Wilhelm to become governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1692 ; Instead, the Bavarian Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, supported by the Queen Mother Maria Anna of Austria , received the government of this country from King Karl II. Although the Spanish queen initially maintained friendly relations with her mother-in-law, the relationship between the two women later deteriorated considerably.
For the authority of Maria Anna had a disadvantageous effect that she had the aspirations of her Palatinate dynasty in mind rather than the interests of Spain. Just as little did her reputation benefit from the fact that she consulted mainly German confidants. These included her confessor Gabriel Pontifeser (1653–1706), who came from South Tyrol and on whose instigation she founded the Capuchin monastery in Klausen in 1699 , her secretary Heinrich von Wiser and her first lady-in-waiting, Countess Maria Josefa von Berlepsch . These favorites were so unpopular that Maria Anna's position increasingly suffered from them; von Wiser had to leave Spain as early as 1695. The queen was also harmed by the fact that she could not fulfill the actual purpose of her marriage, which was to give Charles II an heir. Countess Berlepsch therefore spread the rumor several times that the queen was pregnant. However, this only strengthened Maria Anna's position for a short time. After her mother-in-law and adversary Maria Anna of Austria died in May 1696, the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero appeared as her political opponent. Portocarrero followed a pro-French course.
From 1699 Maria Anna stood up for Archduke Karl (later Emperor Charles VI ) as heir to the Spanish throne, whereas Portocarrero wanted Philip of Anjou , a grandson of Louis XIV, to succeed King Charles II. In fact, the high prelate was able to convince Charles II of his view shortly before his death. It was not until Charles II's last will, as sought by Portocarrero, that Philip V's claim to the throne was established. Maria Anna, with the support of the Austrian envoy, Count Harrach , managed to destroy the will and sent a letter to Emperor Leopold I , in which she described Archduke Karl as heir to the throne and invited him into the country with troops. The emperor shied away, however, and the Bavarian party with the deceased electoral prince and former Spanish heir Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria was encouraged by this, whereby Maria Anna left the side of the emperor again.
Queen widow and death
On November 1, 1700, Charles II died childless; he was the last Spanish Habsburg. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out, fighting over his inheritance. Maria Anna briefly belonged to the Junta de gobierno (Regency Council), but was not in a position to have a significant say in politics.
Before Philip of Anjou took office as Philip V , Maria Anna had to withdraw to Toledo on the orders of the French king . She lived there for the next five years and hoped in vain to be able to play a greater role again as the queen widow than the Habsburg pretender, Archduke Karl, as Karl III. Was proclaimed King of Spain in 1703 and achieved some military successes on the Iberian Peninsula in 1705/06. In 1706 Maria Anna was forced to go into exile in the French Basque Country in Bayonne . In this city she kept a court of 400 people, but her further life was very sad. She suffered from constant financial difficulties because she did not receive the pension that Charles II had bequeathed to her in his last will. In Bayonne she received visits from famous memoir writers, Count Pöllnitz and the Duc de Saint-Simon, among others . Even during her time in Spain the rumor had spread that she had a lover, a Jewish banker, Count von Adanero, with whom she had also had an illegitimate child. At times it was suggested that the adventurer Count of Saint Germain was this illegitimate child.
In 1738 Maria Anna returned to Spain from Bayonne and spent the last two years of her life in the Palacio del Infantado in Guadalajara , where she died at the age of 73. Maria Anna was buried in chapel 9 of the Pantheon of the Infants in the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial , her heart separated in the monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid.
ancestors
| Philipp Ludwig (Pfalz-Neuburg) (1547-1614) | |||||||||||||
| Wolfgang Wilhelm (Pfalz-Neuburg) (1578–1653) | |||||||||||||
| Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg (1552–1632) | |||||||||||||
| Philipp Wilhelm (Palatinate) (1615–1690) | |||||||||||||
| Wilhelm V (Bavaria) (1548–1626) | |||||||||||||
| Magdalene of Bavaria (1587–1628) | |||||||||||||
| Renata of Lorraine (1544–1602) | |||||||||||||
| Maria Anna of the Palatinate (1667–1740) | |||||||||||||
| Ludwig V (Hessen-Darmstadt) (1577–1626) | |||||||||||||
| George II (Hessen-Darmstadt) (1605–1661) | |||||||||||||
| Magdalena of Brandenburg (1582–1616) | |||||||||||||
| Elisabeth Amalia of Hessen-Darmstadt (1635–1709) | |||||||||||||
| Johann Georg I (Saxony) (1585–1656) | |||||||||||||
| Sophie Eleonore of Saxony (1609–1671) | |||||||||||||
| Magdalena Sibylle of Prussia (1586–1659) | |||||||||||||
literature
- Adalbert of Bavaria : Maria Anna von Neuburg Queen of Spain (= The end of the Habsburgs in Spain. Volume 2). Bruckmann, Munich 1929.
- Karl Theodor von Heigel : Maria Anna von Neuburg, Queen of Spain (= sources and treatises on the recent history of Bavaria. Volume 2). Munich 1890, pp. 182-204.
- Ludwig Hüttl: Maria Anna. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , pp. 204-206 ( digitized version ).
- Maria Anna von Pfalz-Neuburg , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 298 f.
- María de los Ángeles Pérez Samper: Mariana de Neoburgo , in: Diccionario biográfico español , Madrid 2009–2013, online version
- Helga Thoma: Unloved Queen. Marriage tragedies at Europe's royal courts. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8000-3783-1 (as paperback: Series Piper 3526, Munich / Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-492-23526-3 ).
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Maria Anna von der Pfalz-Neuburg . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 25 ( digitized version ).
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Linda Maria Koldau : Frauen-Musik-Kultur: a handbook on the German language area of the early modern period , Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2005, p. 183
- ^ FA Förch: Neuburg und seine Fürsten , A. Prechter, 1860, p. 126
- ↑ a b c d e Ludwig Hüttl: Maria Anna. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , pp. 204-206 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ a b c d Maria Anna von Pfalz-Neuburg , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 298.
- ↑ Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus: The old Bavaria. The territorial state: from the end of the 12th century to the end of the 18th century. , C. H. Beck, 1988, p. 489
- ^ Maria Anna von Pfalz-Neuburg , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 299.
- ^ Friedrich Bülau: Secret stories and enigmatic people , FA Brockhaus, 1850, p. 341.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Marie Louise d'Orléans |
Queen of Spain 1690–1700 |
Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maria Anna of the Palatinate |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pfalz-Neuburg, Maria Anna von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Queen of Spain |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1667 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Benrath Castle |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 16, 1740 |
| Place of death | Guadalajara (Spain) |