Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony (Maria Anna Sophia Sabina Angela Franciska Xaveria; 29 August 1728 – 17 February 1797) was a daughter of King Augustus III of Poland

Augustus III of Poland

Augustus III, known as the Saxon ; ; also Prince-elector Friedrich August II was the Elector of Saxony in 1733-1763, as Frederick Augustus II , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1734-1763.-Biography:Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Imperial Prince-Elector...

 and his wife Maria Josepha of Austria

Maria Josepha of Austria

Maria Josepha of Austria was born an Archduchess of Austria, and from 1711 to 1713 was heiress presumptive to the Habsburg Empire...

 who became Electress of Bavaria.

Biography

In all, her parents had fifteen children; her most notable siblings were Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony

Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony

Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony was the Prince-Elector of Saxony for less than three months in 1763...

, Queen Maria Amalia of Spain

Maria Amalia of Saxony

Maria Amalia of Saxony was a German princess from the House of Wettin and was the wife of Charles III of Spain; she was the Queen consort of Naples and Sicily from 1738 till 1759 and then Queen consort of Spain from 1759 until her death in 1760...

 and Maria Josepha, Dauphine of France, the mother of Kings Louis XVI

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

, Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

, and Charles X

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

 of France.

She was married to the Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n Elector

Prince-elector

The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...

 Maximilian III Joseph in 1747.

Having no children of her own, Maria Anna negotiated with Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...

 after her husband's death in 1777 to secure Bavaria's independence against Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and to support the succession rights of the Wittelsbach branch Palatinate Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld

House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld

Palatinate-Birkenfeld , later Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, was the name of a collateral line of the Palatine Wittelsbachs. The Counts Palatine from this line initially ruled over only a relatively unimportant territory, namely the Palatine share of the Rear County of Sponheim; however, their...

 in Bavaria when the new Elector Charles Theodore

Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria

Charles Theodore, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria reigned as Prince-Elector and Count palatine from 1742, as Duke of Jülich and Berg from 1742 and also as Prince-Elector and Duke of Bavaria from 1777, until his death...

 attempted to cede Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...

 to Austria. A secret treaty with Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

 Joseph II had been concluded. In exchange for Lower Bavaria, Charles Theodore was to receive the Austrian Netherlands (close to his ancestral domains), the Palatinate (already his patrimony), Jülich and Berg.

These plans failed with the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, in which the Prussian king stifled the Austrian attempts to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria. When Emperor Joseph II tried the scheme again in 1784, Frederick created the Fürstenbund

Fürstenbund

The Fürstenbund was a union of German minor princes in the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1785 under the leadership of Frederick II of Prussia, to oppose the ambition of Emperor Joseph II to add Bavaria to the Habsburg domains....

.

After her husband died, Maria Anna Sophia spent the rest of her life in Fürstenried Palace

Fürstenried Palace

Fürstenried Palace is a Baroque palace in the southwest of Munich, Germany.-History:It was built by Joseph Effner for Elector Maximilian Emanuel in 1715–17 as a hunting lodge. Two pavilions are added each in the south and north of the main building....

 and enjoyed the gratitude of the Bavarian people and the heirs of the Zweibrücken branch: Charles II, Duke of Zweibrücken

Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken

Charles II/III August Christian was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1775 to 1795. He was the son of Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria Franziska of Sulzbach...

, and his brother Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, who finally succeeded Charles Theodore in 1799.

Ancestry

Titles and styles

• 29 August 1728 – 9 July 1747 Her Serene Highness Princess Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony
• 9 July 1747 – 30 December 1777 Her Serene Highness The Electress of Bavaria
• 30 December 1777 – 17 February 1797 Her Serene Highness The Dowager Electress of Bavaria