Marie Therese of Austria-Este (1849-1919)

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Maria Therese Queen of Bavaria

Marie Therese Henriette Dorothea, also Maria Theresia (* July 2, 1849 in Brno ; † February 3, 1919 at Wildenwart Castle / Chiemgau), was Archduchess of Austria- Este , Princess of Modena and from November 5, 1913 to November 7, 1918 the last queen of Bavaria .

Life

family

Marie Therese was the only child from the marriage of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este , Prince of Modena (1821–1849), and Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska Maria of Austria (1831–1903) on October 4, 1847 . Marie Therese lost her father in December 1849, five months after she was born, when he fell victim to a typhus epidemic . In 1854 her mother married Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria (1818–1874) a second time . The marriage produced six children: Franz-Joseph (* / † 1855), Friedrich , Maria Christina , Karl Stephan , Eugen and Maria Eleonora (* / † 1864).

Marie Therese was a descendant of the Stuarts . She was therefore regarded by the Jacobites as the holder of the English throne after the death of their uncle Francis V and referred to by them as Mary III, Queen of England, Scotland, Ireland and France. However, she has never publicly claimed this title. Her position as heiress of the House of Stuart passed to her son Rupprecht von Bayern (Robert I and IV) .

Princess of Bavaria

Franz V , the guardian of Marie Theresa, had long since decided that the Archduchess should marry Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, fourteen years her senior . But Marie Therese met the Bavarian Prince Ludwig at Whitsun 1867 at the funeral of her friend Mathilde in Vienna , who was traveling on behalf of Ludwig II , and they both fell in love. This outraged Franz V so much that Ludwig's father, Prince Luitpold (later Prince Regent (1886–1912)), traveled to Salzburg in August 1867 to talk to Franz.

The official engagement finally took place on October 22nd, 1867 at Seelowitz Castle in Moravia . The castle, plus the Sárvár Castle in western Hungary between Lake Neusiedl and Lake Balaton, a mill in Pornopat, brought the bride into the marriage in addition to funds as marriage goods . After the engagement, the couple lived in the Palais Modena in Vienna until November 20th . While the groom was returning to Munich , the bride traveled with her mother to Prague and Brno at the end of November 1867 , where she visited the grandfather of her future husband, Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany and his second wife Maria Antonia of Naples-Sicily .

Maria Theresa as Princess of Bavaria (1908)
Official portrait for the golden wedding, 1918 (by Walther Firle )

On February 20, 1868, the solemn wedding took place in the Vienna Hofburg in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph . The bishop of Brno, Anton Ernst von Schaffgotsch , who had already given Marie Therese baptism , first communion and confirmation , also celebrated the marriage. The celebrations had started eight days before the wedding. The bridal state was publicly exhibited in the palace of Archduke Albrecht on the Augustinian Bastion and cast a spell over the whole of Vienna. The couple was scheduled to move into the royal seat of Munich on February 22, 1868, but no festivities were planned, as the death of Ludwig I was to be expected and the queen mother Marie Friederike von Prussia was also seriously ill. In front of the residence , the princes and princesses greeted the couple, who immediately went to the queen-mother's sickbed. Then Marie Therese and Ludwig moved into the Leuchtenberg Palace on Odeonsplatz .

After Prince Regent Luitpold died on December 12, 1912, Ludwig was proclaimed the new Prince Regent because the rightful King Otto was permanently incapable of governing.

Queen of Bavaria

After a constitutional amendment, Ludwig ascended the Bavarian throne on November 5, 1913 and Marie Therese became queen. At that time she was already 64 years old and the first Catholic Queen of the Kingdom of Bavaria . At the beginning of December, on the occasion of the accession to the throne, a ball took place in the Munich Residenz, to which Kaiser Wilhelm II also appeared. After Christmas, the court ball followed in 1914, at which a royal couple could be seen again after 50 years. That is why the festival was celebrated with all splendor and pomp.

On August 1, 1914, Ludwig III. at the side of his wife from the balcony of the Wittelsbacher Palais from the mobilization known. Marie Therese then wrote an appeal to the Bavarian women and girls, in which she called on all women to support the country and the soldiers at the front. In addition, Marie Therese converted the Nibelungen Halls in the Residenz into the “largest sewing room in Germany” and gathered the wealthy women of Bavaria there to make packages of clothing and food for soldiers and wounded. She urged Bavarian girls to follow their daughters Hildegard, Helmtrud and Gundeline as an example and to become a sister in the German Red Cross. Marie Therese firmly believed in the German victory and took care of soldiers and wounded throughout the war, visited hospitals and tirelessly called on women to help their husbands.

On February 20, 1918, in the midst of the turmoil of World War I , Marie Therese and Ludwig III. their golden wedding. On the occasion of this event, the royal couple donated ten million marks for charitable purposes. The situation in Munich deteriorated more and more because of the war losses at the front and the shortage of food; the women had to work harder and harder in the factories.

Exile and death

On the evening of November 7, 1918, Kurt Eisner declared King Ludwig III. for deposed and proclaimed the Free State of Bavaria. Mass demonstrations across Munich followed and the royal family fled to Wildenwart Castle .

Grave slab in the Munich Frauenkirche

The first family high point after the abdication of Ludwig III. was the engagement of the daughter Gundeline on November 24, 1918 to Count Johann Georg von Preysing-Lichtenegg-Moos. The wedding, scheduled for February 3, 1919, had to be postponed because the former queen's health suddenly deteriorated and she passed away on that very day. Ludwig planned to have his wife buried in the Wildenwart palace chapel and later to transfer her to Munich.

Ludwig III died on October 18, 1921. at Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár ( West Hungary ). The mortal remains of Ludwig were brought from Hungary to Wildenwart, where both coffins were placed in the palace chapel before they were transferred to Munich by special train. King Ludwig III. was buried in the Frauenkirche with his wife in the family crypt of the Wittelsbach family. After the Second World War, the lower church of the Munich women's cathedral was redesigned by Cardinal Faulhaber . The coffins of the Wittelsbachers buried there were transferred to new wall niches and walled behind grave slabs.

Marie Therese's heart was buried separately and is in the Chapel of Grace in Altötting .

progeny

From the marriage with King Ludwig III. thirteen children were born:

  • Rupprecht (1869–1955), Crown Prince of Bavaria
  1. ⚭ 1900 Duchess Marie Gabriele in Bavaria (1878–1912)
  2. ⚭ 1921 Princess Antonia of Luxembourg and Nassau (1899–1954)

literature

Web links

Commons : Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1849–1919)  - Collection of images
Predecessors Office Successors
Marie of Prussia Queen of Bavaria
1913–1918 		-
Francis I. Mary III., Jacobite heir
1875–1919 		Robert I. and IV.
personal data
SURNAME Marie Therese of Austria-Este
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marie Therese Henrietta Dorothea of ​​Austria-Este (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archduchess of Austria-Este, Princess of Modena and Queen of Bavaria (1913–1918)
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1919
Place of death Wildenwart Castle , Chiemgau