Maria Luisa of Spain
Encyclopedia
Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain (Spanish
: María Luisa, German
: Maria Ludovika) (24 November 1745 – 15 May 1792) was Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary as the spouse of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
.
being given the throne of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in 1735, Maria Luisa was born a Princess of Naples and Sicily. When her father became King of Spain at the death of her half-uncle, Ferdinand VI of Spain
in 1759, she became known as Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. She still had the use of the style of Royal Highness
.
, in Campania
, the site of the summer palace (Reggia di Portici) of her parents, King Charles, King of Naples and Sicily
and Maria Amalia of Saxony
. She was the fifth daughter, and second surviving child, of her parents. Her father became King of Spain as Charles III in 1759, and she moved with her family to Spain. Her first cousins included Louis XVI, Maria I of Portugal
and Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia
.
to Archduke Peter Leopold, the second son of Emperor Francis I
and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria
, and the heir apparent
to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
. The next year, on 5 August, she married him in person at Innsbruck
. Only a few days later, the death of Emperor Francis made Maria Louisa's husband the new Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the newly married couple moved to Florence
, where they would live for the next twenty-five years.
, Maria Luisa's husband inherited the Habsburg
lands in Central Europe, and was shortly thereafter elected Holy Roman Emperor. Taking the name of Leopold II, the new Emperor moved his family to Vienna
, where Maria Luisa took on the role of imperial consort. Leopold died scarcely two years later, dying on 1 March 1792. Maria Luisa followed her husband to the grave in less than three months, not living long enough to see her eldest son Francis elected as the last Holy Roman Emperor.
Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito
was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia
as part of the festivities that accompanied the coronation
of Maria Luisa and her husband Leopold as king and queen of Bohemia
in Prague
on 6 September 1791. In musical circles, Maria Luisa is famous for her putative denigration of Mozart's opera as "German rubbish" ("una porcheria tedesca"), however no claim that she made this remark pre-dates the publication in 1871 of Alfred Meissner
's Rococo-Bilder: nach Aufzeichnungen meines Grossvaters, a collection of stories about cultural and political life in Prague in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
|-
|-
|-
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: María Luisa, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Maria Ludovika) (24 November 1745 – 15 May 1792) was Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary as the spouse of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II , born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa...
.
Names
Due to her father, the future Charles III of SpainCharles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
being given the throne of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in 1735, Maria Luisa was born a Princess of Naples and Sicily. When her father became King of Spain at the death of her half-uncle, Ferdinand VI of Spain
Ferdinand VI of Spain
Ferdinand VI , called the Learnt, was King of Spain from 9 July 1746 until his death. He was the fourth son of the previous monarch Philip V and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy...
in 1759, she became known as Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. She still had the use of the style of Royal Highness
Royal Highness
Royal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...
.
Background
Maria Louisa was born in PorticiPortici
Portici is a town and comune of the Province of Naples in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is the site of the Portici Royal Palace.-Geography:...
, in Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, the site of the summer palace (Reggia di Portici) of her parents, King Charles, King of Naples and Sicily
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
and Maria Amalia of Saxony
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...
. She was the fifth daughter, and second surviving child, of her parents. Her father became King of Spain as Charles III in 1759, and she moved with her family to Spain. Her first cousins included Louis XVI, Maria I of Portugal
Maria I of Portugal
Maria I was Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious , or Maria the Mad , she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...
and Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia
Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia
Charles Emmanuel IV was King of Sardinia from 1796 to 1802. He abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I...
.
Grand Duchess of Tuscany
On 16 February 1764 she was married by proxy at MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to Archduke Peter Leopold, the second son of Emperor Francis I
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...
and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, and the heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence...
. The next year, on 5 August, she married him in person at Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
. Only a few days later, the death of Emperor Francis made Maria Louisa's husband the new Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the newly married couple moved to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, where they would live for the next twenty-five years.
Holy Roman Empress
In 1790, on the death of Peter Leopold's childless brother, Joseph IIJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
, Maria Luisa's husband inherited the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
lands in Central Europe, and was shortly thereafter elected Holy Roman Emperor. Taking the name of Leopold II, the new Emperor moved his family to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where Maria Luisa took on the role of imperial consort. Leopold died scarcely two years later, dying on 1 March 1792. Maria Luisa followed her husband to the grave in less than three months, not living long enough to see her eldest son Francis elected as the last Holy Roman Emperor.
Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
as part of the festivities that accompanied the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of Maria Luisa and her husband Leopold as king and queen of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
on 6 September 1791. In musical circles, Maria Luisa is famous for her putative denigration of Mozart's opera as "German rubbish" ("una porcheria tedesca"), however no claim that she made this remark pre-dates the publication in 1871 of Alfred Meissner
Alfred Meissner
Alfred Meissner was an Austrian poet.-Biography:He is a grandson of the voluminous miscellaneous author August Gottlieb Meissner . He studied medicine, taking his degree at Prague in 1846. To elude the Austrian censorship, he published in the same year at Leipzig his epic poem Ziska...
's Rococo-Bilder: nach Aufzeichnungen meines Grossvaters, a collection of stories about cultural and political life in Prague in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Issue
- Maria Theresa of Austria (14 January 1767 - 7 November 1827) married Anton of SaxonyAnthony Clement of SaxonyAnthony , also known by his German name Anton , was a King of Saxony from the House of Wettin...
and had issue. - Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorFrancis II, Holy Roman EmperorFrancis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz...
(12 February 1768 - 2 March 1835) married Elisabeth of WürttembergDuchess Elisabeth of WürttembergElisabeth of Württemberg was by birth a Duchess of Württemberg and by marriage an Archduchess of Austria.-Family:...
and had issue; married Maria Teresa of Naples and Sicily and had issue; married Maria Ludovika of Austria-EsteMaria Ludovika of Austria-EsteMaria Ludovika of Austria-Este, also known as Maria Ludovika of Modena, was daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife, Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este...
no issue; married Caroline Augusta of BavariaCaroline Augusta of BavariaCaroline Augusta of Bavaria was a daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria and his wife, Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt , and a member of the House of Wittelsbach. She was married to Crown Prince William of Württemberg and to Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor...
no issue. - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of TuscanyFerdinand III, Grand Duke of TuscanyFerdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1790 to 1801 and, after a period of disenfranchisement, again from 1814 to 1824. He was also the Prince-elector and Grand Duke of Salzburg and Grand Duke of Würzburg .-Biography:Ferdinand was born in Florence, Tuscany, into the...
(6 May 1769 - 18 June 1824) married Luisa of Naples and Sicily and had issue; married Maria Ferdinanda of SaxonyPrincess Maria Ferdinanda of SaxonyPrincess Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony was a daughter of Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony and his first wife Princess Caroline of Parma...
no issue. - Maria Anna of Austria (22 April 1770 - 1 October 1809) died unmarried.
- Charles of Austria (5 September 1771 - 30 April 1847) married Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg and had issue.
- Alexander Leopold of AustriaArchduke Alexander Leopold of AustriaArchduke Alexander Leopold of Austria was the fourth son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Maria Louisa of Spain. After the accession of his father to the Imperial throne in 1790, Alexander Leopold was appointed Palatine of Hungary...
(14 August 1772 - 12 July 1795) died unmarried. - Albrecht Johann Joseph of Austria (19 September 1773 - 22 July 1774) died in infancy.
- Maximilian of Austria (23 December 1774- 10 March 1778) died in infancy.
- Joseph of Austria (9 March 1776 - 13 January 1847) married Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of RussiaGrand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, was a daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and sister of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. She became Archduchess of Austria upon her marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria, Governor of Hungary.-Life:...
and had issue; married Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-HoymPrincess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-HoymPrincess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym was by birth a princess of the House of Ascania and by marriage an Archduchess of Austria.-Family:...
and had issue; married Maria Dorothea of WürttembergDuchess Maria Dorothea of WürttembergMaria Dorothea Luise Wilhelmine Caroline of Württemberg was the daughter of Duke Louis of Württemberg and Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg ....
and had issue. - Maria Clementina of AustriaArchduchess Maria Clementina of AustriaMaria Clementina of Austria was an Austrian archduchess and the tenth child and third daughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Spain. In 1797 she married her first cousin Francis I of the Two Sicilies, then Duke of Calabria, heir of Naples and Sicily...
(1777 - 1801) married Prince Francesco, Duke of CalabriaFrancis I of the Two Sicilies-Biography:Francis was born in Naples, the son of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. He was also the nephew of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI the last King and Queen of France before the first French Republic....
and had issue. - Anton of Austria (1779 - 1835) died unmarried unmarried, Grand Master of Teutonic Knights
- Johann of AustriaArchduke Johann of AustriaArchduke John of Austria was a member of the Habsburg dynasty, an Austrian field marshal and German Imperial regent .-Biography:...
(1782 - 1859) married morganatically. - Rainer of AustriaArchduke Rainer of AustriaRainer Joseph of Austria was a Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from 1818 to 1848. He was also an Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia.-Biography:...
(30 September 1783 - 16 January 1853) married Elisabeth of Savoy and had issue. - Louis of AustriaArchduke Louis of Austriaright|thumb|Archduke LouisArchduke Louis Joseph Anton Johann, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia and Prince of Tuscany , was the 14th child of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.Archduke...
(13 December 1784 - 21 December 1864) died unmarried. - Rudolph of Austria (8 January 1788 - 24 July 1831) died unmarried.
Ancestry
Titles and Styles
- 24 November 1745 – 16 February 1764 Her Royal Highness The Infanta Dona Maria Luisa
- 16 February 1764 – 20 February 1790 Her Royal Highness The Grand Duchess of Tuscany
- 20 February 1790 – 15 May 1792 Her Imperial Majesty The Holy Roman Empress
External links
|-|-
|-
|-