Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg

Maria Wilhelmina von Auersperg , née Countess von Neipperg (* April 30, 1738 , † October 21, 1775 ) was a lady in waiting for Maria Theresa and an alleged mistress of the Roman-German Emperor Franz I Stephan .

Life

Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg

She was born as the daughter of Count Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg and Countess Maria Franziska Theresia von Khevenhüller-Frankenburg . On the paternal side she was the granddaughter of Eberhard Friedrich, Freiherr von Neipperg, and Margareta Lucretia von Hornberg and on the maternal side of Franz Ferdinand Anton, Count Khevenhüller-Frankenburg, and Maria Theresia, Baroness von Lubetich and Chapelot. Maria's father had been an educator from 1723 and later a good friend of Emperor Franz I Stephan.

Her father introduced her to court at the age of 16, where she caused a sensation because of her extraordinary beauty and her natural, amiable nature. So she was soon called “la belle Princesse”, with her beautiful hands receiving special praise. She became a lady-in-waiting of Empress Maria Theresa and lived at Schönbrunn Palace . There she caught the attention of the emperor. In April 1756 (according to other sources as early as 1755) Maria Wilhelmina married (allegedly on the orders of Maria Theresa) the widowed Prince Johann Adam von Auersperg . The couple then lived in the Palais Auersperg in Vienna . With Johann Adam she had no offspring of her own, but took care of his child from his first marriage. Rumors that she was the mistress of the 30-year-old emperor were never confirmed.

In 1765 she accompanied the emperor to the wedding of his son Leopold to the Spanish infanta Maria Luisa in Innsbruck , where he suddenly died. After Franz Stephan's death, Wilhelmina withdrew more and more into private life and died on October 21, 1775 at the age of 37. Joachim Wilhelm von Brawe dedicated his tragedy "Brutus" to her.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c family tree of Maria Wilhelmina von Neipperg geneall.net
  2. ↑ a b Biographical Lexicon of the Austrian Empire (60 volumes, 1856-91) Vol. 20, 154f.
  3. ↑ Renate Zedinger: Francis Stephen of Lorraine (1708-1765). Monarch, manager, patron. ( Series of publications by the Austrian Society for Research in the 18th Century , Volume 13) Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78109-7 , pp. 271f.
  4. ↑ Facsimile of the dedication

Web links

Commons : Maria Wilhelmina von Auersperg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Auersperg, Maria Wilhelmina from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neipperg, Maria Wilhelmina from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lover of Emperor Franz I Stephan (HRR)
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1738
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1775