Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (1772–1807)

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Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily
Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily

Princess Maria Theresia Karolina Giuseppina of Naples and Sicily (born June 6, 1772 in Naples , † April 13, 1807 in Vienna ) was the last Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and first Empress of Austria by marriage .

Life

Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily from the House of Bourbon Sicily (1751-1825) and his wife Archduchess Maria Karolina of Austria (1752-1814), daughter of Emperor Francis I Stephan and the Archduchess Maria Theresa . The princess grew up at the court of her parents and in 1790 was envisaged as the wife of the future Roman-German Emperor Franz II (1768-1835).

Relationship and marriage

After Franz's first wife and sister-in-law of the Russian heir to the throne, Grand Duke Paul , Princess Elisabeth of Württemberg , died on February 18, 1790 giving birth to their first child, he remarried after just seven months. On September 19, 1790, the second marriage to Maria Theresa took place in Vienna.

The young couple immediately took a liking to each other, although their natures were very different. The young Archduke already had a tendency towards melancholy in his youth, was poor in feeling, shy, serious and withdrawn, and also of Spartan simplicity. He was strict with himself and conscientious. His figure was gaunt, his features pale and expressionless. Maria Theresia, on the other hand, was a graceful blonde woman with light blue eyes, full lips and a nose that was a little too big. She was a cheerful person with a southern temperament, radiated sensuality. The two, however, got along brilliantly and their seventeen year marriage was a happy one.

The bride and groom were the product of one of those carefully elaborated marriages of the old Empress Maria Theresa : In this case, the Habsburgs' marriage policy won over marriage hygiene several times when Emperor Leopold II married his eldest son Franz to the daughter of his sister Maria Karolina in 1790 , who his mother Maria Theresa had married the King of Naples, Ferdinand von Bourbon.

Emperor Franz II / I. had the same grandparents as King Charles III through his mother Maria Ludovica , a native princess of Spain as the sister of Ferdinand von Bourbon . and Maria Amalia of Saxony . Maria Theresa and Franz II had in common, however, also the Habsburg grandmother Maria Theresa of Habsburg-Lothringen and the grandfather Franz I.

Franz II married his first cousin on both sides. Since Princess Maria Theresa brought the willingness to give birth so much sought after by the Habsburgs, the close blood relationship had a fatal effect: the unhappy children of the first Austrian imperial couple, especially Ferdinand I , had to bear the consequences.

Maria Theresa's younger sister Maria Amalia Teresa di Borbone was Queen of the French from 1830. Through her, Maria Theresa became posthumously the great-aunt of Charlotte , Princess of Belgium and Empress of Mexico (1840–1927), who was married from 1857 to the Austrian Archduke and later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico .

Maria Theresa's grandson Peter II of Brazil, a son of King Peter IV of Portugal and Archduchess Maria Leopoldine of Austria, married Teresa Maria Cristina of Naples-Sicily , Princess of Bourbon and Naples-Sicily in 1843 . Teresa Maria Christina, for her part, was the cousin of Peter's mother, Maria Leopoldine of Austria, who died early and was a daughter of Maria Theresa.

Maria Theresa settled in well in Vienna. Like her mother Maria Karolina , who had lived through a turbulent youth in Vienna at her parents' court, she loved parties and entertainment. Despite the many pregnancies, she attended almost all of the carnival balls during her time in Vienna. She especially loved the waltz, which was then fashionable.

She hardly dealt with government affairs, although she showed interest in the political events of her time and her husband also discussed political problems with her. She is said to have campaigned for the dismissal of the cabinet councilor Johann Baptist von Schloißnigg and the head of the imperial chancellery Colloredo . Napoleon's bitter opponent also supported the warring party at court, which called for a fight against France.

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philip V King of Spain (1683–1746)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles III King of Spain (1716–1788)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabetta Farnese (1692–1766)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand I of Naples and Sicily (1751–1825)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Friedrich August II. Elector of Saxony , as August III King of Poland (1696–1763)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Josepha Archduchess of Austria (1699–1757)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Leopold of Lorraine (1679–1729)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Emperor Franz I Stephan (1708–1765)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orléans (1676–1744)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maria Karolina of Austria Archduchess (1752–1814)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Emperor Charles VI. (1685-1740)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Empress Maria Theresa (1717–1780)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1691–1750)
 
 
 
 
 
 

death

In the winter of 1806, Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily fell ill with tubercular pleurisy, which the imperial physician, Andreas Joseph von Stifft , treated with bloodletting. However, it did not trigger an improvement in the state of health, but a premature birth. When Empress Maria Theresa died after the premature birth (the daughter died a few days after the mother) on April 13, 1807, the Emperor was inconsolable and had to be removed from his wife's corpse by force. She was buried in the Imperial Crypt under the Capuchin Church in Vienna. The shaken emperor stayed away from the funeral and instead traveled to Ofen with his two oldest children . Her heart urn is in the heart crypt of the Habsburgs , her gut urn in the ducal crypt . Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily 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).

progeny

This dynastic marriage policy took revenge on the offspring. In the seventeen years of their marriage, the Neapolitan gave birth to twelve children. Only two of the sons survived: Ferdinand and Franz Karl, who was nine years younger than him. One of the five surviving daughters was the even less fortunate Maria Ludovika, called Marie Louise, Empress of the French.

  • Maria Louise (1791–1847), Empress of the French, Duchess of Parma,
  1. ⚭ 1810 Emperor Napoleon I , son of Carlo Bonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino
  2. ⚭ 1821 Count Adam Adalbert von Neipperg , son of Count Leopold Johann von Neipperg and his wife Countess Wilhelmine von Hetzfeld-Wilfenburg
  3. ⚭ 1834 Count Karl von Bombelles, son of Marc Marie Marquis de Bombelles and his wife Princess Angélique de Mackau

Trivia

Joseph Haydn is said to have dedicated his Theresienmesse, composed in 1799, to Marie Therese. She even sang a few soprano solos of his works herself.

literature

Web links

Commons : Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Friedrich Weissensteiner: Women on the Habsburg throne - the Austrian empresses , Ueberreuter Vienna, 1998, ISBN 3-8000-3709-2
  2. ^ Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
Predecessors Office Successors
Maria Ludovica of Spain Roman-German Empress
1792 to 1806 		NO
  Empress of Austria
1804 to 1807 		Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este
personal data
SURNAME Maria Theresa of Naples-Sicily
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Naples and Sicily, Princess Maria Theresa of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION last Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and first Empress of Austria by marriage
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1807
Place of death Vienna