Maria Ludovica of Spain
María Ludovica of Spain (Spanish: María Luisa de Borbón ) (born November 24, 1745 in Portici , † May 15, 1792 in Vienna ) was a daughter of Charles III. of Spain (1716–1788) and Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760). She was by birth an Infanta of Spain and as wife of Leopold II (1747–1792) Archduchess of Austria from 1765 to 1792, Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790 and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and Queen of Bohemia , Croatia from 1790 to 1792 and Hungary .
Life
Origin and early life
Maria Ludovica was born in Portici ( Campania ), a place where her parents, who ruled as King and Queen of Naples and Sicily from 1735 to 1759, had a royal summer palace built. She was the fifth of seven daughters, of whom - besides her - only her sister María Josefa (1744-1801), who was one year older , reached adulthood. Of her six (younger) brothers, including Charles IV of Spain (1748–1819) and Ferdinand I of Sicily (1751–1825), only the youngest Francisco Javier (1757–1771) died as a teenager.
Maria Ludovica had a happy childhood in the palaces of Naples , Capodimonte and Portici . That is why she spoke Italian with a Neapolitan accent. When she was still a girl, it was decided to marry Archduke Karl Joseph , the second son of Empress Maria Theresa , but the prospective groom died in January 1761.
After her father was named Karl III in 1759. his half-brother Ferdinand VI. (1713–1759) inherited as King of Spain, Maria Ludovica, her parents and a few siblings moved to Spain. They sailed from Naples on October 6, 1759, landed in Barcelona on October 17, and from there set out for Madrid . Da Maria Ludovica and their brethren go in Zaragoza to the measles diseased, they arrived in the Spanish capital until December 9, 1759th Maria Ludovica spent the next few years together with her family in elegant residences in the Madrid region, especially in the Palacio del Buen Retiro , the Palacio Real de Aranjuez , the Palacio Real La Granja de San Ildefonso and the Escorial .
Marriage to Leopold II.
As part of Maria Theresa's marriage policy, who sought to marry several of her children with offspring of the Bourbon dynasty , it was agreed that Maria Ludovica would marry Archduke Peter Leopold , who was one and a half years younger and the third son of Emperor Franz Stephan and Maria Theresa. The Archduke was also the heir to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . King Charles III transferred the property of the Medici family to the newly wedded couple to which he was entitled through his mother Elisabetta Farnese . On February 16, 1764, Maria Ludovica's marriage by procurationem to Peter Leopold took place in Madrid, and large festivities were also held. However, she had previously had to renounce her claims to the Spanish throne at her father's request.
After Maria Ludovica had stayed in Spain until June 1765, she made her way to Innsbruck , where her personal wedding with her bridegroom was to take place. She landed in Genoa , and Peter Leopold traveled south to meet her from Innsbruck. The couple first saw each other on August 1, 1765. The Infanta was then described as a blonde woman with a beautiful, fair complexion and a friendly, modest demeanor. But Peter Leopold suffered from diarrhea and an intestinal infection. His illness overshadowed his wedding, which took place on August 5, 1765 in the Innsbruck parish church of St. Jakob. In addition, an opera composed for the occasion fell through and a large fireworks display had to be canceled due to bad weather. Only a few days later, on August 18, 1765, Emperor Franz Stephan also died, and Maria Ludovica's husband Peter Leopold became the new Grand Duke of Tuscany. Both events, the wedding between Peter Leopold and Maria Ludovica and the death of the emperor, were depicted on the Innsbruck triumphal arch and can still be viewed today.
Grand Duchess of Tuscany
After the emperor's death, the newlyweds moved to Florence , where they arrived on September 13, 1765 and settled in the Palazzo Pitti . From Florence they ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany until 1790 and implemented some reforms in the Enlightenment sense. Her reign was overshadowed by the dispute with Emperor Joseph II , who claimed and finally received the "Tuscan reserve fund" as his father's inheritance. As a result, the relationship between the two brothers deteriorated. Only with the birth of the sons Franz (* 1768) and Ferdinand (* 1769) did the relationship between the Habsburgs in Florence and Vienna slowly relax. Because of their numerous births, Joseph II began to respect his sister-in-law Maria Ludovica increasingly. He was grateful to her that the Habsburg succession was sufficiently secured and that he therefore no longer had to worry about his own offspring. A total of four main lines of the Habsburgs, which survived the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, descended from Maria Ludovica and her husband.
Maria Ludovica was always a loyal wife who stood by her husband's side and accepted his affairs with poise. Peter Leopold's childhood sweetheart, Countess Erdödy, once appeared in Florence and gave rise to court gossip with her visit. Some ladies of the Florentine nobility are also said to have been among his lovers. The Grand Duke's two best-known favorites were an English lady, Anna Cowper, and a Roman dancer, Livia Raimondi , with whom he had a son, Luigi von Grün (1788–1814), and to whom he gave a small palace in Florence. Maria Ludovica is even said to have been on friendly terms with Livia Raimondi, who followed Peter Leopold with her family to Vienna after his accession to the throne in 1790, and made handicrafts with her.
As the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Ludovica made herself popular in her first year in Florence during the famine of 1765, when she provided the poor with food and medical aid. She was never crowned Grand Duchess, although she was present at Peter Leopold's coronation in July 1768. She accompanied her husband and sister-in-law Maria Karolina of Austria on the occasion of the latter's marriage to her brother Ferdinand , King of Naples and Sicily; and the couple stayed there in the summer of 1768. In 1770 Maria Ludovica accompanied her husband on his visit to Vienna. While Peter Leopold devoted himself mainly to his political activities and his private amusements, Maria Ludovica isolated herself almost completely from aristocratic society and mainly took care of the upbringing of her children. She and her husband allowed their children a great deal of freedom without being tied to formal court life, and occasionally took them on excursions to rural areas and the coast. The Grand Duchess remained largely unknown to the local aristocracy and only had contact with a small group of friends in her private life. The governor of Trieste , Count Carl Zinzendorf, noted in his diary in 1779 that he was delighted with Maria Ludovica's casualness and friendship that she displayed in the company of her husband; but she looks very elderly and ugly.
empress
After the death of his childless brother Joseph II († February 20, 1790), Peter Leopold inherited the Habsburg lands in Central Europe. Shortly thereafter he was elected Roman-German Emperor Leopold II and moved to Vienna, where Maria Ludovica performed the duties of an imperial wife. At the coronation celebrations of Maria Ludovica and Leopold II as King and Queen of Bohemia, Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito was performed in Prague on September 6, 1791 . After their performance, she is said to have exclaimed “una porcheria tedesca” (“a German mess”). This alleged statement by the Empress is only attested late (for the first time in 1871 in Alfred Meißner's Rococo pictures ) and is therefore not reliably guaranteed. The rule in Tuscany took over her second son Ferdinand III. (1769-1824).
Just two years later, Leopold II († March 1, 1792) and Maria Ludovica († May 15, 1792) died, and their eldest son, Franz II (1768–1835), became the last Holy Roman Emperor that same year Rich crowned. Maria Ludovica was buried at the side of her husband in the Capuchin Crypt . Her heart urn is in the Loreto Chapel in Vienna's Augustinian Church , her entrails urn in the ducal crypt . Maria Ludovica is one of those 41 people who received a “ separate burial ” with the body being divided between all three traditional Viennese burial places of the Habsburgs (imperial crypt, heart crypt, ducal crypt).
Due to their early death, Leopold II and Maria Ludovica left behind several minor orphans.
Marriage and offspring
Leopold II and Maria Ludovica had 16 children, including:
- Marie Therese (1767–1827) ⚭ 1787 Anton , King of Saxony
- Franz II. Joseph Karl (1768–1835), German and Austrian emperor
- ⚭ 1788 Elisabeth of Württemberg (1767–1790)
- ⚭ 1790 Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (1772–1807)
- ⚭ 1808 Maria Ludovika Beatrix of Austria-Este (1787–1816)
- ⚭ 1816 Karoline Auguste of Bavaria (1792–1873)
- Ferdinand III. (1769–1824), Grand Duke of Tuscany
- ⚭ 1790 Maria Louisa of Naples and Sicily (1773–1802)
- ⚭ 1821 Maria Anna of Saxony (1796–1865), daughter of Maximilian of Saxony (1759–1838)
- Maria Anna (1770–1809), abbess of the Theresian women's monastery in Prague
- Karl von Österreich-Teschen (1771–1847), Duke of Teschen ⚭ 1815 Henriette Alexandrine von Nassau-Weilburg (1797–1829)
- Alexander Leopold (1772–1795)
- Albrecht (1773–1774)
- Maximilian (1774–1778)
- Joseph Anton Johann of Austria (1776–1847)
- ⚭ 1799 Alexandra Pavlovna Romanowa (1783–1801)
- ⚭ 1815 Hermine von Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym (1797–1817)
- ⚭ 1819 Maria Dorothea of Württemberg (1797–1855)
- Maria Clementine of Austria (1777–1801) ⚭ Franz I (1777–1830), King of Sicily
- Anton Viktor of Austria (1779–1835), Elector of Cologne
- Maria Amalia (1780–1798)
- Johann of Austria (1782–1859) ⚭ 1829 Anna Plochl (1804–1885)
- Rainer Joseph of Austria (1783–1853) ⚭ 1820 Maria Elisabeth of Savoyen-Carignan (1800–1856)
- Ludwig von Habsburg-Lothringen (1784–1864)
- Rudolf of Austria (1788–1831), cardinal and archbishop of Olomouc
ancestors
| Pedigree of Maria Ludovica of Spain | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
King |
Elector |
Ranuccio II. Farnese , Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1630–1694) |
Elector |
Elector Johann Georg III. von Sachsen (1647–1691) |
Margrave Christian Ernst of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1644–1712) |
Emperor Leopold I (1640–1705) |
Duke Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Calenberg (1625–1679) |
| Great grandparents |
Louis le Grand Dauphin (1661–1711) |
Odoardo II. Farnese , Hereditary Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1666–1693) |
King August II of Poland (1670–1733) |
Emperor Joseph I (1678–1711) |
||||
| Grandparents |
King Philip V of Spain (1683–1746) |
King August III. of Poland (1696–1763) |
||||||
| parents |
King Charles III of Spain (1716–1788) |
|||||||
|
Maria Ludovica of Spain |
||||||||
literature
- María de los Ángeles Pérez Samper: María Luisa Antonia de Borbóne , in: Diccionario biográfico español , Madrid 2009–2013, online version
- Friedrich Weissensteiner: The sons of Maria Theresa . Kreymayr & Scheriau, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-218-00726-7 .
- Brigitte Vacha (ed.): The Habsburgs. A European family story . Verlag Styria Graz, Vienna / Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-222-12459-0 .
- Maria Ludovica , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 331 f.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ a b c María de los Ángeles Pérez Samper: María Luisa Antonia de Borbóne , in: Diccionario biográfico español , Madrid 2009–2013, online version.
- ^ Maria Ludovica , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , p. 331.
- ↑ Hellmut Andics : Die Frauen der Habsburg , ISBN 3-453-07034-8 , 5th edition 1997, p. 204 f.
- ↑ Hellmut Andics: Die Frauen der Habsburger , p. 223 f.
- ↑ Hellmut Andics: Die Frauen der Habsburg , p. 225 f.
- ^ Justin C. Vovk: In Destiny's Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa , 2010.
- ↑ a b Maria Ludovica , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , p. 332.
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Maria Josepha of Bavaria |
Roman-German Empress 1790–1792 |
Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maria Ludovica of Spain |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Borbón, María Luisa de; Habsburg, Maria Luise; Maria Luisa of Tuscany |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish princess, Holy Roman Empress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 24, 1745 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Portici |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 15, 1792 |
| Place of death | Vienna |