Maria Josepha of Bavaria
Maria Josepha Antonia Walburga Felizitas Regula, Princess of Bavaria and Bohemia (born March 20, 1739 in Munich , † May 28, 1767 in Vienna ) was the daughter of the Roman-German Emperor and Bavarian Elector Karl Albrecht and his wife Maria Amalie of Austria , a daughter of Emperor Joseph I. By marriage in 1765 she became Empress herself.
biography
After the early death of his beloved first wife Isabella von Bourbon-Parma († November 27, 1763), the Roman-German King Joseph , son of Emperor Franz Stephan and Maria Theresia of Austria, did not want to marry again and only chose under pressure from his mother the Bavarian Princess Maria Josepha, his 2nd cousin, to his second wife. The marriage took place on January 23, 1765 in Schönbrunn Palace . The following wedding celebrations included u. a. the world premiere of the opera Telemaco by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the Burgtheater . Maria Josepha was then 25 years old, and she was promoted to Empress in the year of her marriage, when her husband became Joseph II's new emperor and co-regent of his mother after the death of his father Franz Stephan († August 18, 1765).
Joseph II's marriage to Maria Josepha, who was two years older than him, was not a happy one. The emperor described his “wife” as a “small and fat figure” with “ugly teeth”. However, he admitted that Maria Josepha was an "unprovoked woman" who loved him and whom he valued for her good qualities and that he suffered from not being able to love his second wife. The two probably never married. Joseph avoided the shared bedroom and even had the shared balcony in Schönbrunn Palace partitioned off so that he would not have to see his wife.
When a serious smallpox epidemic broke out in 1767 , Maria Josepha fell victim to this dangerous infectious disease after only two years of marriage - like her predecessor Isabella before. Joseph II had not stayed by her bed, but stayed with his mother Maria Theresa, who also had smallpox and who survived. As soon as the young empress died at the age of 29, her corpse was sewn in due to its horrific condition and exposed on a catafalque . Maria Josepha was in Vienna Imperial Crypt buried, Joseph II. Did not attend her funeral.
The unloved Empress only played a role for her husband Joseph II once more when he raised claims to large parts of spa Bavaria in 1778/1779 and, among other things, cited his marriage to the Bavarian Maria Josepha, which ultimately led to the War of the Bavarian Succession , in which the Habsburgs could only win the Bavarian Innviertel .
Pedigree
| Pedigree of Maria Josepha of Bavaria | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
Elector |
Duke |
Jakub Sobieski (1590–1646) |
Henri de la Grange d'Arquien (1613–1707) |
Emperor Ferdinand III. (1608–1657) |
Elector Philipp Wilhelm of the Palatinate (1615–1690) |
Georg Fürst von Calenberg (1582–1641) |
Eduard von der Pfalz (1625–1663) |
| Great grandparents |
Elector |
King |
Emperor Leopold I (1640–1705) |
Johann Friedrich Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1625–1679) |
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| Grandparents |
Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel of Bavaria (1662–1726) |
Emperor Joseph I (1678–1711) |
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| parents |
Emperor Charles VII (1697–1745) |
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Maria Josepha of Bavaria |
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literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Maria Josepha of Bavaria . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 49 ( digitized version ).
- Maria Josefa . In: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): The Habsburgs . Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-8000-3247-3 , p. 323
- Helga Thoma: Unloved Queen . Piper 2006
- Friedrich Weissensteiner : The daughters of Maria Theresa. Bastei-Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1996, ISBN 3-404-64145-0 , pp. 110 and 165
Web links
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Maria Theresa of Austria |
Roman-German Empress 1765 to May 28, 1767 |
Maria Ludovica of Spain |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maria Josepha of Bavaria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maria Josepha Antonia Walburga Felizitas Regula of Bavaria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Daughter of Emperor Karl VII. Albrecht, Princess of Bavaria and Bohemia, by marriage to Empress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1739 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 28, 1767 |
| Place of death | Vienna |