Category Archives: Former Monarchies

Louise Marie Thérèse of France, Duchess of Parma, Regent of Parma

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

The Duchy of Parma was in today’s northwest Italy and came into existence in 1545 when Pope Paul III made his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, territories that previously were a part of the Papal States. The House of Farnese reigned until 1731 when the male line went extinct. The duchy passed to Felipe V, King of Spain from the Spanish House of Bourbon whose second wife Elizabeth Farnese was the Farnese heiress. Felipe V made Carlos, his only son with Elizabeth Farnese, the Duke of Parma. However, in 1738, Felipe V traded the Duchy of Parma to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine for the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and Carlos became King of Naples and Sicily.

In 1748, the Duchy of Parma was ceded back to the Bourbons. Infante Felipe of Spain became Duke of Parma and was the founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma, a cadet branch of the Spanish House of Bourbon. In 1796, the Duchy of Parma was occupied by French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte. It remained in French hands until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 when the duchy was given to Napoleon’s second wife, Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine. She reigned until her death in 1847 when the Duchy of Parma was restored to the House of Bourbon-Parma. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

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Louise Marie Thérèse of France, Duchess of Parma, Regent of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Louise Marie Thérèse of France was the wife of Carlos III, Duke of Parma and Regent for their son Roberto I, Duke of Parma until the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. Louise Marie Thérèse was born on September 21, 1819, at the Élysée Palace in Paris, France. She was the third of the four children and the second of the two daughters of Prince Charles Ferdinand of France, Duke of Berry and Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Louise Marie Thérèse’s paternal grandparents were King Charles X of France (grandson of King Louis XV and brother of King Louis XVI) and Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy. Her maternal grandparents were King Francesco I of the Two Sicilies and his first wife Maria Clementina of Austria.

Louise Marie Thérèse with her brother younger brother Henri and her mother Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies; Credit – Wikipedia

Louise Marie Thérèse had three siblings but her two eldest siblings died soon after birth:

Princess Louise Élisabeth (born and died 1817)
Prince Louis (born and died 1818)
Prince Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, Count of Chambord (1820 – 1883), married Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, no children

The House of Bourbon was restored to the French throne in the aftermath of Napoléon I’s defeat and final exile and reigned from 1815 to 1830. The two kings who reigned during the Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII and Charles X, were younger brothers of the guillotined King Louis XVI.

Maria Carolina, Duchess of Berry in mourning for her husband with her two children, Louise Marie Thérèse’ and Henri; Credit – Wikipedia

Five months after her birth, on February 13, 1820, Louise Marie Thérèse’s father Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry was stabbed while leaving the opera house in Paris with his wife and died the next day. The assassin was a saddlemaker named Louis Pierre Louvel, a Bonapartist who wanted to end the House of Bourbon. At the time of his death, Charles Ferdinand’s childless uncle Louis XVIII was the King of France, and his father, the future King Charles X was the heir to the throne. Charles Ferdinand was third in the Bourbon line of succession to the French throne after his childless elder brother Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême. Louise Marie Therese’s mother was pregnant and gave birth to a son seven months later who became the third in the line of succession.

Louise Marie Thérèse in 1830; Credit – Wikipedia

As a child, Louise Marie Thérèse lived at her birthplace, the Elysée Palace in Paris. and Château de Rosny-sur-Seine, her mother’s main residence, just a short distance from Paris. Marie-Joséphine Louise de Montaut-Navailles, Marquise de Gontaut Saint-Blacard, a former lady-in-waiting to Louise Marie Thérèse’s mother was appointed the governess to Louise Marie Thérèse and her brother Henri and was responsible for their education.

The French Royal Family in 1823 – left to right: Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême; Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême; Prince Henri; Charles-Philippe, Count of Artois (future King Charles X); King Louis XVIII of France; Princess Louise Marie Thérèse; Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry; Credit – Wikipedia

Louise Marie Thérèse’s grandfather King Charles X of France succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother King Louis XVIII of France in 1824. He would prove to be very unpopular with the French people, and would not remain on the throne for very long. When he issued very restrictive ordinances, in July 1830, there were quick calls for revolution, now called the July Revolution of 1830. When rioting began, Charles X’s government ministers pleaded with him to revoke the ordinances but he refused. By the end of the night, the members of the Chamber of Deputies had decided that Charles X must go and that Louis-Philippe III, Duke of Orléans, a descendant of Philippe I, Duke Orléans, the brother of King Louis XIV of France, would become Louis-Philippe, King of the French.

Maria Caroline, Duchess of Berry and her two children Louise Marie Thérèse and Henri joined the rest of the French Bourbons in exile in the United Kingdom. Initially, Maria Carolina and her children lived in Bath but then they moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to be closer to the former king, Charles X, who was living at Holyrood Palace. Maria Carolina did not like living in Edinburgh agreeable, nor did she like the exclusion of her son Henri from the French throne by Louis Philippe, King of the French. She declared her son Henri to be the legitimate king, and herself to be regent. In 1831, she left Edinburgh and returned to her family in Naples.

Louise Marie Thérèse’s guardian Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 14, 1831, Maria Carolina secretly married an Italian nobleman, Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli, 8th Duca della Grazia. After the scandal of her secret morganatic marriage, the subsequent birth of a child in 1833, and an abortive insurrection to put her son on the French throne, Maria Carolina lost all her prestige. Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême, the only surviving child of the guillotined King Louis XVI of France, who had married her first cousin and Louise Marie Thérèse’s paternal uncle, Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême became the guardian of Louise Marie Thérèse and her brother Henri:

Louise Marie Thérèse had six half-siblings from her mother’s second marriage to Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli, 8th Duca della Grazia:

Anna Maria Rosalia Lucchesi-Palli (born and died 1833)
Maria Bianca Lucchesi Palli (born and died 1834)
Clementina Lucchesi-Palli (1835 – 1925), married Count Camillo Zileri dal Verme degli Obbizi;
Francesca di Paola Lucchesi-Palli (1836 – 1923) married Camillo Massimo, Prince of Arsoli
Maria Isabella Lucchesi-Palli (1838 – 1873), married (1) Massimiliano dei Marquis Cavriani (2) Count Giovanni Battista de Conti
Adinolfo Lucchesi-Palli, Duke of Grace (1840 – 1911), married Lucrezia Nicoletta Ruffo di Bagnara

Carlos III, Duke of Parma, Louise Marie Thérèse’s husband; Credit – Wikipedia

When it came time to arrange a marriage for Louise Marie Thérèse, her guardian and aunt Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême rejected several marriage proposals and was adamant that Louise Marie Thérèse should marry a Bourbon. There were few Bourbon princes to choose from and by the time she reached the age of twenty-five Louise Marie Thérèse was still unmarried. Finally, in 1845, a marriage was arranged. The groom was the future Carlo III, Duke of Parma from the House of Bourbon-Parma, a cadet branch of the Spanish House of Bourbon which was originally a branch of the French House of Bourbon. His father Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma was in financial difficulty and so he decided to marry his son to a princess with a large dowry. Carlo was four years younger than Louise Marie Thérèse and they had first met as children. They were married on November 10, 1845, at Schloss Frohsdorf in Lanzenkirchen in Austria, the home in exile of the bride’s aunt by marriage and guardian Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême.

Louise Marie Thérèse and her four children in 1860. Left to right: Roberto, Louise Marie Thérèse, Margherita, Enrico, and Alice: Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo and Louise Marie Thérèse had four children:

Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma (1847 – 1893), married Infante Carlos, Duke of Madrid, had five children
Roberto I, Duke of Parma (1848 – 1907), married (1) Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, had twelve children including Princess Maria Luisa who married Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (2) Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, had twelve children including Princess Zita who married, Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria and Prince Felix who married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma (1849 – 1935), married Ferdinando IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany, had ten children
Prince Enrico, Count of Bardi (1851 – 1905), married (1) Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, died three months after marriage (2) Infanta Adelgundes of Portugal, Duchess of Guimarães, no children

In December 1847, Napoleon’s second wife Marie-Louise of Austria, reigning Duchess of Parma died. As stipulated by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the Duchy of Parma was restored to the House of Bourbon-Parma and Carlo’s father became Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma. However, the reign of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma was short. He was very unpopular with the citizens of Parma, and within a few months, he was ousted by a revolution. Carlo II Ludovico regained control of Parma with the help of Austrian troops but finally abdicated in favor of his son Carlo III, Duke of Parma on March 14, 1849.

The authoritarian policies of Carlo III, Duke of Parma made him unpopular. He placed Parma under martial law, inflicted heavy penalties on the members of the former provisional government, closed the university, and instituted persecution policies. Plots to remove Carlo III from power began to circulate in 1853. His personal life was also in trouble. Carlo had separated from Louise Marie Thérèse who had become obese. He began an open affair with Countess Emma Guadagni. The marriage of Carlo and Louise Marie Thérèse became completely irreconcilable when Carlo took his mistress on a semi-official visit to Queen Isabella II of Spain in December 1853.

On March 26, 1854, while taking his usual afternoon walk through the streets of Parma, Carlo III was attacked by two men who stabbed him in the stomach. After much suffering, which he endured bravely, thirty-one-year-old Carlo III, Duke of Parma died the following evening, March 27, 1854. Ireneo Bochi and Antonio Carra, Carlo’s murderers, escaped prosecution. They were briefly arrested but since they looked similar, witnesses were confused and deemed unreliable. Bochi and Carra did not act for political reasons but were hired killers. However, exactly who paid them remains unknown.

Louise Marie Therese, Regent of Parma with her son Roberto I, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo III’s six-year-old son Roberto became Duke of Parma with Louise Marie Thérèse as regent but had a short reign. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

The crypt with the tombs of King Charles X of France and other members of the former French royal family; Credit – By Viator slovenicus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7164631

Louise Marie Thérèse took her children to Venice, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, now in Italy where she spent the rest of her life in exile. She survived her husband by ten years, dying on February 1, 1864, at the age of 44, at the Palazzo Giustinian in Venice. She was buried in the crypt of her grandfather, King Charles X of France, at the Kostanjevica Monastery in what is now Pristava, Slovenia. Other members of the former French royal family buried there include her brother Henri, Count of Chambord, and her uncle and aunt Louis Antoine and Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duke and Duchess of Angoulême.

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Works Cited

Almanachdegotha.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – House of Bourbon-Parma. [online] Available at: <http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id29.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Berry – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Marie_Caroline_of_Naples_and_Sicily> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Princess Louise d’Artois – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Louise_d%27Artois> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Carlo III, Duke of Parma. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlo-iii-duke-of-parma/> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Luisa Maria di Borbone-Francia (1819-1864) – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luisa_Maria_di_Borbone-Francia_(1819-1864)> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
Louda, Jiri and MacLagan, Michael, 2002. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Mehl, Scott, 2016. King Charles X of France. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-charles-x-of-france/> [Accessed 16 October 2021].

Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen

by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen was Head of the House of Saxony and pretender to the former throne of Saxony from 1968 until he died in 2012. Having no children, his death brought about a dispute over the headship of the family between several of his relatives.

Maria Emanuel, Prince of Saxony was born on January 31, 1926 at Prüfening Abbey in Regensburg, the eldest child of Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony, Margrave of Meissen, and Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn und Taxis. He had four younger siblings:

Princess Maria Josepha (1928) – unmarried
Princess Anna (1929) – married Roberto de Afif, had issue
Prince Albert, Margrave of Meissen (1934) – married Elmira Henke, no issue
Princess Mathilde (1936) – married Prince Johannes Heinrich of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue

In 1944, he was arrested due to a letter he wrote against the Nazi regime following the attempted assassination of Hitler. He was transferred to Potsdam to be put on trial. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts and connections of his father, he was charged as a juvenile and avoided the death penalty. Finally, at the end of the war in 1945, he was released and rejoined his family. After studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Maria Emanuel worked as a painter and graphic artist in Munich, before moving to Switzerland in 1958.

Embed from Getty Images

On June 22, 1962 in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, Maria Emanuel married Princess Anastasia of Anhalt. She was the daughter of Prince Eugen of Anhalt and Anastasia Jungmeier. The couple had no children.

Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen died in La Tour-de-Peilz on July 23, 2012. He is buried alongside his parents in the grounds next to the Königskapelle in Karrösten, North Tyrol.

SUCCESSION DISPUTE

Having no children, in May 1977 Maria Emanuel named his nephew, Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe, as his heir. Alexander was the son of the Margrave’s eldest sister Anna. A document was drafted, agreed to, and signed by all the other members of the former royal house. Two years later, in September 1999, Maria Emanuel legally adopted Alexander. However, in 2002, three of the family members retracted their agreement. One of them was Maria Emanuel’s younger brother, Albert, who stated that the headship of the family should eventually pass to Prince Rüdiger – the son of their late cousin, Prince Timo of Saxony. Despite this disagreement, Maria Emanuel continued to assert that Prince Alexander was his rightful heir. Following his death in July 2012, both Albert and Alexander claimed the headship of the family. When Albert died just three months later, the dispute intensified. Prince Rüdiger claimed that he was the rightful heir, and assumed the title Margrave of Meissen, just as Prince Alexander had done upon Maria Emanuel’s death.

In 2015, the heads of three Ernestine branches of the House of Wettin – Michael, Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Konrad, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen – issued a statement stating that they did not recognize Prince Alexander as Head of the House of Saxony, nor as Margrave of Meissen. It is notable that their statement did not specifically recognize Prince Rüdiger either.

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Saxony Resources at Unofficial Royalty

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Carlo III, Duke of Parma

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

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Carlo III, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo III, Duke of Parma reigned for only five years and was assassinated for his authoritarian policies. Ferdinando Carlo Vittorio Giuseppe Maria Baldassarre was born on January 14, 1823, at the Villa delle Pianore (link in Italian) near Lucca in the Duchy of Lucca, now in Italy. He was the only son and the second of the two children of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma and Maria Teresa of Savoy. Carlo’s paternal grandparents were Ludovico of Parma (King of Etruria from 1801 – 1803) and Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca in her own right. His maternal grandparents were Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.

Carlo had one elder sister who died in childhood:

Luisa Francesca of Parma (1821 – 1823), died in early childhood

The marriage of Carlo’s parents was a mismatch. His mother Maria Teresa was very religious and a secular member of the Dominican Order. His father Carlo Ludovico lived for his own pleasure and preferred entertainment and travel over praying. Carlo spent much of the first ten years of his life accompanying his parents on their frequent trips throughout Europe. The seemingly endless travels all over Europe shattered his mother’s nervous system. In 1833, Maria Teresa stopped accompanying her husband Carlo Ludovico on his travels. Eventually, Carlo’s mother permanently left the court, surrounded herself with priests and nuns, and dedicated her life to religion. After 1840 she lived in complete religious seclusion and Carlo saw her infrequently.

Carlo’s wife Louise Marie Therese of France; Credit – Wikipedia

By 1845, Carlo’s father was in financial difficulty so he decided to marry his son to a princess with a large dowry. The chosen bride was Louise Marie Therese of France. She was the daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry and Marie Caroline of Naples and Sicily. Louise Marie Therese’s paternal grandparents were King Charles X of France (grandson of King Louis XV and brother of King Louis XVI) and Maria Theresa of Savoy. Her maternal grandparents were Francesco I, King of the Two Sicilies and his first wife Maria Clementina of Austria. Carlo and Louise Marie Therese were married on November 10, 1845, at Schloss Frohsdorff in Lanzenkirchen in Austria, the home in exile of the bride’s aunt by marriage and guardian Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême, the only surviving child of the guillotined King Louis XVI of France.

Louise Marie Therese and her four children in the 1860s; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo and Louise Therese Marie had four children:

Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma (1847 – 1893), married Infante Carlos, Duke of Madrid, had five children
Roberto I, Duke of Parma (1848 – 1907), married (1) Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, had twelve children including Princess Maria Luisa who married Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (2) Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, had twelve children including Princess Zita who married, Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria and Prince Felix who married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma (1849 – 1935), married Ferdinando IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany, had ten children
Prince Enrico, Count of Bardi (1851 – 1905), married (1) Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, died three months after marriage (2) Infanta Adelgundes of Portugal, Duchess of Guimarães, no children

The authoritarian policies of Carlo III, Duke of Parma made him unpopular. He placed Parma under martial law, inflicted heavy penalties on the members of the former provisional government, closed the university, and instituted persecution policies. Plots to remove Carlo III from power began to circulate in 1853. His personal life was also in trouble. Carlo had separated from his wife who had become obese. He began an open affair with Countess Emma Guadagni. The marriage of Carlo and Louise Marie Therese became completely irreconcilable when Carlo took his mistress on a semi-official visit to Queen Isabella II of Spain in December 1853.

Every afternoon, Carlo would take a walk on the streets of Parma accompanied only by an aide-de-camp, and Sunday, March 26, 1854, was no different. As he was returning to the palace, he stopped to speak with a person and saluted two soldiers who were passing by. Carlo was then attacked by two men from behind. One of the men knocked him down and stabbed him in the stomach with a knife. Everything happened so fast that initially, Carlo did not realize what had happened. In the confusion, the two men escaped by running in opposite directions and mixing with the crowd.

The assassination of Carlo III; Credit – http://associazione-legittimista-italica.blogspot.com/

Carlo fell to the ground in a pool of blood with the blade still in his stomach. He was carried back to the palace where he received treatment. Carlo asked the doctors if his life was in danger, and lying, the doctors assured him that it was not, and he passed out. However, in moments of consciousness, Carlo realized the seriousness of his condition. He received the last rites and was able to see his wife and children. After much suffering, which he endured bravely, thirty-one-year-old Carlo III, Duke of Parma died the following evening, March 27, 1854, at 5:30 p.m. He was buried at the Chapel of the Villa Borbone (link in Italian) in Viareggio, Italy.

Ireneo Bochi and Antonio Carra, Carlo’s murderers, escaped prosecution. They were briefly arrested but since they looked similar, witnesses were confused and deemed unreliable. Bochi and Carra did not act for political reasons but were hired killers. However, exactly who paid them remains unknown.

Louise Marie Therese, Regent of Parma with her son Roberto I, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo’s six-year-old son Roberto became Duke of Parma with his mother as regent but had a short reign. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy. Carlo’s wife Louise Marie Therese of France survived him by ten years, dying on February 1, 1864, at the age of 44. Carlo’s parents lived long lives. His mother Maria Teresa of Savoy continued to live a secluded, religious life and died on July 16, 1879, aged 75. His father, the former Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma died on April 16, 1883, at the age of 83.

Works Cited

Almanachdegotha.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – House of Bourbon-Parma. [online] Available at: <http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id29.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Charles III, Duke of Parma – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_III,_Duke_of_Parma> [Accessed 13 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlo-ii-ludovico-duke-of-parma/> [Accessed 13 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Maria Teresa of Savoy, Duchess of Parma. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/maria-teresa-of-savoy-duchess-of-parma/> [Accessed 13 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Carlo III di Parma – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_III_di_Parma> [Accessed 13 October 2021].
Louda, Jiri and MacLagan, Michael, 2002. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes and Noble.

Maria Teresa of Savoy, Duchess of Parma

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

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Maria Teresa of Savoy, Duchess of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Teresa of Savoy was the wife of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma. Maria Teresa Fernanda Felicitas Gaetana Pia was born on September 19, 1803, at the Palazzo Colonna in Rome, Papal States, now in Italy. She had a twin sister, Maria Anna Ricciarda Carolina Margherita Pia. The twin sisters were the fifth and sixth of the seven children and the fourth and fifth of the six daughters of Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria-Este. Maria Teresa’s paternal grandparents were Vittorio Amadeo III, King of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa.

Vittorio Emanuele I, Maria Theresa, and their three youngest surviving daughters: twins Maria Teresa and Maria Anna and Maria Cristina; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Teresa had six siblings. Two of Maria Teresa’s sisters died in infancy and her only brother died at the age of three from smallpox. Maria Teresa and her three surviving sisters all married sovereigns. Children of Kings of Sardinia were often styled “of Savoy” as their fathers were also Dukes of Savoy from the House of Savoy

Maria Beatrice of Savoy (1792 – 1840), married her uncle Francesco IV, Duke of Modena, had four children
Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1794 – 1795), died in infancy
Carlo Emanuele of Savoy (1796 – 1799) died in early childhood from smallpox
A daughter (1800 – 1801), died in infancy
Maria Anna of Savoy (1803 – 1884), twin of Maria Teresa, married Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria, no children
Maria Cristina of Savoy (1812 – 1836), married Ferdinando II, King of the Two Sicilies, had one son, died due to childbirth complications, in 2014 she was beatified by Pope Francis and is known as Blessed Maria Cristina of Savoy

Maria Teresa spent much of her early life on the island of Sardinia. In 1796, before her birth, the French occupied Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, and forced her uncle Carlo Emanuele IV, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy to give up all his territories on the Italian mainland. Carlo Emanuele IV and the rest of the Sardinian royal family withdrew to the island of Sardinia in 1799. When Carlo Emanuele’s beloved wife Marie Clotilde of France died from typhoid fever in 1802, the childless Carlo Emanuele IV was so upset by her death that he decided to abdicate. He left the throne of Sardinia to his brother, Maria Teresa’s father who reigned as Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia. In 1814, two-thirds of Savoy was restored to the Kingdom of Sardinia following Napoleon’s defeat, and the family was able to return to Turin.

Maria Teresa’s husband Carlo Ludovico in 1824; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1819, Maria Teresa was betrothed to the future Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma. A proxy marriage was held on August 15, 1820, at the Villa Reale in Turin with the groom being represented by Maria Teresa’s paternal uncle Carlo Felice, then the Duke of Genoa, later King of Sardinia. Soon Maria Teresa left for Viareggio, Duchy of Lucca, now in Italy. There she met Carlo Ludovico and married him at the court of his mother Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca in her own right. Carlo Ludovico’s father Ludovico of Parma (King of Etruria from 1801 – 1803) had died at the age of 29 in 1803.

Carlo Ludovico and Maria Teresa had two children:

Luisa Francesca (1821 – 1823), died in early childhood
Carlos III, Duke of Parma (1823 – 1854), married Louise Marie Thérèse of France, had four children, assassinated

The marriage was a mismatch. Maria Teresa was very religious and a secular member of the Dominican Order. Carlo Ludovico lived for his own pleasure and preferred entertainment and travel to praying. In 1824, Carlo Ludovico’s mother died and he became the reigning Duke of Lucca. However, he had no interest in reigning. He left the Duchy of Lucca in the hands of his government ministers and instead traveled around Europe. The seemingly endless travels all over Europe with her husband shattered Maria Teresa’s nervous system. In 1833, she stopped accompanying Carlo Ludovico on his travels.

Eventually, Maria Teresa left the Duchy of Lucca court, first settling at the Villa Marlia in the Duchy of Lucca and then at the Villa delle Pianore (link in Italian) also in the Duchy of Lucca, which became a favorite of future members of the House of Bourbon-Parma. Maria Teresa’s grandson Roberto I, the last Duke of Parma enlarged the villa, and his daughter Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the wife of Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria, was born there. Maria Teresa surrounded herself with priests and nuns and dedicated her life to religion. After 1840 she lived in complete religious seclusion.

In 1847, Carlo Ludovico ceded the Duchy of Lucca to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for financial compensation. Two months later, in December 1847, at the death of Napoleon’s second wife Marie-Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma, he succeeded her as the reigning Duke of Parma according to the stipulations of the 1815 Congress of Vienna. However, the reign of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma was short. He was very unpopular with the citizens of Parma, and within a few months, he was ousted by a revolution. Carlo Ludovico regained control of Parma with the help of Austrian troops but finally abdicated in favor of his son Carlo III, Duke of Parma on March 14, 1849.

Maria Teresa’s son Carlo III, Duke of Parma, circa 1852; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Teresa’s son Carlo III, Duke of Parma reigned only five years. He was assassinated on March 27, 1854, due to his authoritarian policies. He was succeeded by his six-year-old son Roberto I, Duke of Parma with his mother Louise Marie Thérèse of France acting as regent. Roberto reigned for only five years. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

Villa Borbone; Credit – Di I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27517303

After the assassination of her son, Maria Teresa lived at the Villa Borbone (link in Italian) in Viareggio, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, after 1861 in the Kingdom of Italy. Here she had a chapel built as a burial place for her assassinated son Carlo III, Duke of Parma.

Tenuta Maria Teresa (Villa Maria Teresa); Credit – Di Sailko – Opera propria, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63147242

Maria Teresa’s final residence was the Tenuta Maria Teresa (Villa Maria Teresa) – link in Italian), built for her by the Italian architect by Lorenzo Nottolini in San Martino, Vignale in the hills, just north of Lucca in Italy. It is still called Tenuta Maria Teresa in her honor and is now a winery. There Maria Teresa led a very secluded life. She never left the villa and her only visitors were her confessor and the administrator of the property. The local citizens gave her the nickname “sepolta viva” (buried alive). During the last years of her life, Maria Teresa suffered from progressive atherosclerosis of the cerebral blood vessels.

Chapel of the Dominican Order at the Verano Cemetery in Rome; Credit – By Fczarnowski – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29347833

Maria Teresa of Savoy died on July 16, 1879, aged 75, at the Tenuta Villa Maria. Her funeral was held on July 23, 1879, at Saint Romano Church in Lucca, Italy. Her body, dressed in a Dominican nun’s habit, was taken by train to Rome, Italy where it was buried in the Chapel of the Dominican Order at the Verano Cemetery. Maria Teresa’s husband survived his wife by nearly three years, dying in Nice, France on April 16, 1883, at the age of 83. He was buried at the Chapel of the Villa Borbone (link in Italian) in Viareggio, Italy where his assassinated son was buried and where many subsequent members of the House of Bourbon-Parma were buried.

Works Cited

Almanachdegotha.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – House of Bourbon-Parma. [online] Available at: <http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id29.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Teresa of Savoy (1803–1879) – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Teresa_of_Savoy_(1803%E2%80%931879)> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlo-ii-ludovico-duke-of-parma/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/vittorio-emanuele-i-king-of-sardinia-and-duke-of-savoy/> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Teresa di Savoia (1803-1879) – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Teresa_di_Savoia_(1803-1879)> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Louda, Jiri and MacLagan, Michael, 2002. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Ru.wikipedia.org. 2021. Мария Тереза Савойская (1803—1879) — Википедия. [online] Available at: <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_(1803%E2%80%941879)> [Accessed 11 October 2021].

Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

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Carlo II, Ludovico, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo Ludovico was King of Etruria (1803 – 1807), Duke of Lucca (1824 – 1847) and Duke of Parma (1847 – 1849). Carlo Ludovico Ferdinando was born on December 22, 1799, at the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain. He was the elder of the two children and the only son of Ludovico of Parma (King of Etruria from 1801 – 1803) and Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca in her own right. Carlo Ludovico’s paternal grandparents were Ferdinando, Duke of Parma and Maria Amalia of Austria. His maternal grandparents were Carlos IV, King of Spain and Maria Luisa of Austria.

Carlo Ludovico with his parents and younger sister; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlo Ludovico had one younger sister:

Luisa Carlota of Parma (1802 – 1857) married Hereditary Prince Maximilian of Saxony, no children

Carlo Ludovico’s parents married in 1795 and stayed in Spain during the early years of their marriage. In 1796, the Duchy of Parma was occupied by French troops. Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to gain Spain as an ally against Great Britain, and so he proposed to compensate the Spanish House of Bourbon for their loss of the Duchy of Parma with the Kingdom of Etruria, a new state that he created from part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Carlo Ludovico’s father Ludovico was invested as King of Etruria in 1801 and the family moved to Florence, the capital of the Kingdom of Etruria.

However, Ludovico’s reign as King of Etruria did not last long. In ill health since his childhood, 29-year-old Ludovico died in 1803. He was succeeded by his three-year-old son Carlo Ludovico as King Ludovico II of Etruria, under the regency of his mother Maria Luisa. In 1807, Napoleon dissolved the Kingdom of Etruria. Carlo Ludovico, his mother, and his sister returned to Spain. Shortly after their arrival, Napoleon ordered all members of the Spanish royal family to be brought to France and placed under house arrest. Napoleon then created his brother Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain.

After the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the Duchy of Parma was not returned to the Bourbon-Parma family. Instead, the Congress of Vienna gave it to Napoleon’s second wife Marie-Louise of Austria. The Congress of Vienna compensated Maria Luisa and her son Carlo Ludovico with the smaller Duchy of Lucca, which was carved out of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. However, Maria Luisa refused this compromise for more than two years. Finally, in 1817, Maria Luisa accepted the compromise. Upon the death of Marie-Louise of Austria, the Duchy of Parma would revert to Carlo Ludovico and the House of Bourbon-Parma. Maria Luisa became Duchess of Lucca in her own right and Carlo Ludovico would succeed to the Duchy of Lucca upon her death. However, the Duchy of Lucca would be annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany when the Bourbon-Parma family regained possession of the Duchy of Parma.

Maria Teresa of Savoy, wife of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 5, 1820, Carlo Ludovico married Maria Teresa of Savoy, one of the twin daughters of King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia and Maria Teresa of Austria-Este. The marriage was a mismatch. Maria Teresa was very religious and Carlo Ludovico lived for his own pleasure. The couple lived apart during most of their marriage.

Carlo Ludovico and Maria Teresa had two children:

Luisa Francesca (1821 – 1823), died in early childhood
Carlos III, Duke of Parma (1823 – 1854), married Louise Marie Thérèse of France, had four children, assassinated

Carlo Ludovico as Duke of Lucca in 1824; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1824, Carlo Ludovico’s mother died and he became the reigning Duke of Lucca. However, he had no interest in reigning. He left the Duchy of Lucca in the hands of his government ministers and instead traveled around Europe. In 1847, Carlo Ludovico ceded the Duchy of Lucca to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for financial compensation. Two months later, in December 1847, at the death of Napoleon’s second wife Marie-Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma, he succeeded her as the reigning Duke of Parma according to the stipulations of the Congress of Vienna. However, the reign of Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma was short. He was very unpopular with the citizens of Parma, and within a few months, he was ousted by a revolution. Carlo Ludovico regained control of Parma with the help of Austrian troops but finally abdicated in favor of his son Carlo III, Duke of Parma on March 14, 1849.

Carlo Ludovico, circa 1850; Credit – Wikipedia

After his abdication, Carlo Ludovico lived at Weistropp Castle (link in German), a castle he had purchased in Klipphausen, Kingdom of Saxony, now in the German state of Saxony. He also spent time in Paris, France, and Nice, France. His only son and successor Carlo III, Duke of Parma was assassinated on March 27, 1854, due to his authoritarian policies. He was succeeded by his six-year-old son Roberto I, Duke of Parma with his mother Louise Marie Thérèse of France acting as regent. Roberto reigned for only five years. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

Chapel of the Villa Borbone in Viareggio, Italy; Credit – Di I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27517360

Carlo Ludovico’s wife Maria Teresa of Savoy had lived in religious seclusion. She died on July 16, 1879, aged 75, at her villa in San Martino, Vignale, Italy, and was buried in the Chapel of the Dominican Order at the Verano Cemetery in Rome, Italy. Carlo Ludovico survived his wife by nearly three years, dying in Nice, France on April 16, 1883, at the age of 83. He was buried at the burial site of the House of Bourbon-Parma, the Chapel of the Villa Borbone (link in Italian) in Viareggio, Italy. The chapel was built by Carlo Ludovico’s wife Maria Teresa in memory of their assassinated son Carlo III, Duke of Parma.

Works Cited

Almanachdegotha.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – House of Bourbon-Parma. [online] Available at: <http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id29.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Charles II, Duke of Parma – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II,_Duke_of_Parma> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Parma> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Louisa,_Duchess_of_Lucca> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Carlo II di Parma – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_II_di_Parma> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
Louda, Jiri and MacLagan, Michael, 2002. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes and Noble.

Adelgunde of Bavaria, Duchess of Modena and Reggio

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

The Duchy of Modena and Reggio was a small northwestern Italian state that existed from 1452 to 1859, except during the Napoleonic Wars (1796 – 1814). The House of Este ruled the duchy from 1452 – 1796, and then the House of Austria-Este ruled from 1814 – 1859. In 1796, Modena was occupied by a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, who deposed Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, and added the duchy to the French Empire. Ercole III died in exile in 1803.

Ercole III’s only surviving child of Maria Beatrice d’Este, the heiress of Modena and Reggio married Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, son of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, in her own right Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The son of Maria Beatrice and Ferdinand Karl regained the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as Francesco IV in 1814, after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Duchy of Modena and Reggio was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

Below is an indexed listing with links to biographical articles about the Modena royal family at Unofficial Royalty. If it says “Notable Issue” before a name, that means not all of the children for the parent of that person are listed.

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Adelgunde of Bavaria, Duchess of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

Adelgunde of Bavaria was the wife of Francesco V, the last Duke of Modena and Reggio. Adelgunde Auguste Charlotte Caroline Elisabeth Amalie Marie Sophie Luise was born on March 19, 1823, at the Würzburger Residenz, a palace in Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria. She was the sixth of the nine children and the third of the five daughters of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Adelgunde’s paternal grandparents were King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his first wife Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her maternal grandparents were Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen (later Duke of Saxe-Altenburg) and Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Adelgunde and her family, Adelgunde is on the left next to her mother and the painting; Credit – Di Baranzoni Angela – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107172103

Adelgunde had eight siblings:

Maximilian II, King of Bavaria (1811-1864), married Princess Marie of Prussia, had two sons, King Ludwig II and King Otto
Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria (1813 – 1862), married Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, no children
Prince Otto of Bavaria, later King Otto I of Greece (1815 – 1867), married Duchess Amalie of Oldenburg, no children
Princess Theodelinde of Bavaria (1816 – 1817), died in infancy
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria (1821 – 1912), married Archduchess Auguste of Austria, had four children including King Ludwig III
Princess Hildegard of Bavaria (1825 – 1864), married Archduke Albert of Austria, had three children
Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (1826 -1875), unmarried
Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828 -1875), married Infanta Amelia Philippina of Spain, had five children

Adelgunde’s husband Francesco, circa 1845 – 1850; Credit – Wikipedia

Adelgunde first met her future husband Francesco, then heir to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, in 1839 when his parents Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio and his wife and niece Maria Beatrice of Savoy visited the Kingdom of Bavaria. On March 30, 1842, 19-year-old Adelgunde married 23-year-old Francesco at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche (Court Church of All Saints), a church in the Munich Residenz, the royal palace of the Bavarian royal family in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria. The newlyweds made their entrance into Modena on April 16, 1842.

Francesco and Adelgunde had one daughter who died in infancy:

Princess Anna Beatrice (1848 – 1849), died in infancy

Francesco became Duke of Modena and Reggio upon the death of his father on January 21, 1846. Two years later, during the Revolutions of 1848, Adelgunde and Francesco were expelled by revolutionaries and fled to Austria for a short time before they were able to return to Modena. Soon thereafter, King Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and politician became the driving forces behind the Italian unification movement. During the Second Italian War of Independence (April – July 1859), following the Battle of Magenta, Francesco V and his wife were forced to permanently flee the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. In 1860, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Adelgunde and her husband Francesco in 1870; Credit – Wikipedia

Adelgunde and Francesco lived the rest of their lives in exile, mostly at the Palais Modena in Vienna, Austria, and at their summer residence Schloss Wildenwart (link in German) in the Kingdom of Bavaria. On November 20, 1875, in Vienna, Austria, Francesco died at the age of 75 and was buried in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna. After Francesco’s death, Adelgunde lived at the Palais Modena in Vienna, Austria, the Munich Residenz in Munich, Bavaria, and Schloss Wildenwart in Frasdorf, Bavaria.

In 1886, Adelgunde’s brother Luitpold became Prince Regent of Bavaria after their nephew King Ludwig II of Bavaria was declared mentally incompetent. Ludwig II died three days later under mysterious circumstances, and the throne passed to Ludwig’s brother King Otto of Bavaria. However, Otto had also been declared mentally incompetent, and Luitpold continued as Prince Regent. During this time, Adelgunde became a grey eminence, a powerful decision-maker or adviser who operates behind the scenes. At the Bavarian court, she was known as Tante Modena (Aunt Modena) and had a great influence on her brother Luitpold. The formidable Adelgunde was considered the voice of the Viennese Habsburg court in Munich and was viewed with suspicion by Bavarian government ministers. In 1889, after the death of Marie of Prussia, Queen Dowager, the mother of King Ludwig II and King Otto, and the sister-in-law of Adelgunde and Luitpold, Adelgunde took on the role of the first lady of Bavaria and took on all the necessary family and social obligations.

A postcard celebrating Adelgunde’s 90th birthday; Credit – Wikipedia

Adelgunde survived her husband Francesco V, former Duke of Modena and Reggio by thirty-nine years, dying on October 28, 1914, at the age of 91. She was buried with her husband at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Works Cited

De.wikipedia.org. 2021. Adelgunde Auguste von Bayern – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelgunde_Auguste_von_Bayern> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Adelgunde_of_Bavaria> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Francesco V, Duke of Modena and Reggio. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/francesco-v-duke-of-modena-and-reggio/> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Adelgonda di Baviera – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelgonda_di_Baviera> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
Mehl, Scott, 2016. King Ludwig I of Bavaria. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-ludwig-i-of-bavaria/> [Accessed 9 October 2021].

Francesco V, Duke of Modena and Reggio

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

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Francesco V, Duke of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

Francesco V was the last Duke of Modena and Reggio. He was also the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England and Scotland from 1840 – 1875 (see below). Francesco Ferdinando Geminiano was born on June 1, 1819, at the Ducal Palace in Modena, Duchy of Modena and Reggio, now in Italy. He was the elder of the two sons and the second of the four children of Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio and his wife and niece Maria Beatrice of Savoy. Francesco V’s paternal grandparents were Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and Carrara in her own right. His maternal grandparents were Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy and Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.

Francesco had three siblings:

Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1817 – 1886), married Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, Legitimist pretender to the French throne, no children
Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria-Este (1821 – 1849), married Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria, had one daughter Maria Theresia of Austria-Este who became the last Queen of Bavaria. Maria Theresia also became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland upon the death of her uncle Francesco V, Duke of Modena and Reggio
Archduchess Maria Beatrix of Austria-Este (1824 – 1906), married Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Montizón, Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, had two sons

As the senior surviving descendant of Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans, daughter of King Charles I of England and sister of James II, King of England/James VII, King of Scots, Francesco became the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England and Scotland after the death of his mother Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Duchess of Modena and Reggio in 1840. James II had been deposed by the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The goal of the Jacobites was to restore the Roman Catholic heirs of King James II of England/VII of Scotland to the thrones of England and Scotland. However, unlike the Stuart Jacobite pretenders – James II’s son James Edward Francis Stuart and James II’s grandsons Charles Edward Stuart and Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart – none of the later Jacobite pretenders ever claimed the title.

James II’s last legitimate Stuart descendant Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart died in 1807. There were no surviving siblings of King James II/VII, son of King Charles I of England, or their legitimate descendants, except for the descendants of his youngest sister Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans. Henrietta married Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and they had one son who died in infancy and two daughters. Only their daughter Anne Marie d’Orléans, who married Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia, had children and so the Jacobite line of succession proceeded in the House of Savoy. See how the Jacobite succession arrived in the House of Austria-Este via Henrietta of England below.

Charles I of England → his daughter Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans → her daughter Anne Marie d’Orléans, Queen of Sardinia → her son Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia → his son Vittorio Amadeo III, King of Sardinia → his son Carlo Emanuele IV, King of Sardinia → his brother Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia → his daughter Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Duchess of Modena and Reggio → her son Francesco V, Duke of Modena and Reggio

Unofficial Royalty: The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne

Adelgunde of Bavaria, the wife of Francesco V; Credit – Wikipedia

On March 30, 1842, 23-year-old Francesco married 19-year-old Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria, daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche (Court Church of All Saints), a church in the Munich Residenz, the royal palace of the Bavarian royal family in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria.

Francesco and Adelgunde had one daughter who died in infancy:

Princess Anna Beatrice (1848 – 1849), died in infancy

Francesco became Duke of Modena and Reggio upon the death of his father on January 21, 1846. As Duke of Modena and Reggio, Francesco continued the conservative and autocratic policies of his father and was strongly aligned with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. During the Revolutions of 1848, Francesco was expelled by revolutionaries and fled to Austria for a short time before he was able to return to Modena. Initially, Francesco moderated his policies, but after an assassination attempt, he returned to his conservative and autocratic policies.

The Revolutions of 1848 sowed the seeds of the Italian unification movement. King Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a noted general and politician, led the drive toward a unified kingdom. During the Second Italian War of Independence (April – July 1859), following the Battle of Magenta, Francesco V and his wife were forced to permanently flee the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. In 1860, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Francesco and Adelgunde; Credit – Wikipedia

Thereafter, Francesco and his wife mostly lived at the Palais Modena in Vienna, Austria, where his second cousin once removed Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria reigned over the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Francesco also had a summer residence at Schloss Wildenwart (link in German) in the Kingdom of Bavaria, his wife’s homeland.

Exterior of the Capuchin Church in Vienna (Cloister on left, Church in middle, Imperial Crypt on right); Credit – © Susan Flantzer

Francesco V, the former Duke of Modena and Reggio, died at the age of 56, on November 20, 1875, in Vienna, Austria. He was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria. Francesco left his fortune to his first cousin twice removed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination in 1914 was one of the causes of World War I, on the condition that he use the title Archduke of Austria-Este. Francesco’s wife Adelgunde survived him by thirty-nine years, dying on October 28, 1914, at the age of 91. She was buried with her husband at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Works Cited

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Francis V, Duke of Modena – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_V,_Duke_of_Modena> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/francesco-iv-duke-of-modena-and-reggio/> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Duchess of Modena and Reggio. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/maria-beatrice-of-savoy-duchess-of-modena-and-reggio/> [Accessed 9 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Francesco V d’Austria-Este – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_V_d%27Austria-Este> [Accessed 9 October 2021].

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen of Sweden

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen of Sweden; Credit – Wikipedia

Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp was the wife of Karl X Gustav, King of Sweden, and served as regent during the minorities of her son Karl XI, King of Sweden and her grandson Karl XII, King of Sweden. She was born on October 23, 1636, at Gottorp Castle at Schleswig, in the Duchy of Schleswig, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Hedwig Eleonora was the sixth of the sixteen children and the fourth of the eight daughters of Friedrich III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Marie Elisabeth of Saxony. Hedwig Eleonora’s paternal grandparents were Johann Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Augusta of Denmark, a daughter of Frederik II, King of Denmark. Her maternal grandparents were Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxony and Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia.

Hedwig Eleonora had fifteen siblings but only six survived childhood:

Sofie Auguste of Holstein-Gottorp (1630 – 1680), married Johann VI, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, had fifteen children, great-grandparents of Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia, born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst who married Peter III, Emperor of All Russia (see below)
Magdalene Sibylle of Holstein-Gottorp (1631 – 1719), married Gustav Adolph, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, had eleven children including Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow who married Frederik IV, King of Denmark
Johann Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp (1632 – 1633), died in infancy
Marie Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp (1634 – 1665), married Ludwig VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, had eight children, died in childbirth
Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp (1635 – 1654), died in his teens
Adolf August of Holstein-Gottorp (born and died 1637), died in infancy
Johann Georg of Holstein-Gottorp (1638 – 1655), died in his teens
Anna Dorothea of Holstein-Gottorp (1640 – 1713), unmarried
Christian Albrecht, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1641 – 1695), Frederica Amalia of Denmark, daughter of Frederik III, King of Denmark, had four children, great-grandparents of Peter III, Emperor of All Russia, born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp who married the future Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia (see above)
Gustav Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp (born and died 1642), died in infancy
Christine Sabine of Holstein-Gottorp (1643 – 1644), died in infancy
August Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince-Bishop of Lübeck (link in German) (1646 – 1705), married Christine of Saxe-Weissenfels, no children
Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp (born and died 1647), twin of Elisabeth Sofie, died in infancy
Elisabeth Sofie of Holstein-Gottorp (born and died 1647), twin of Adolf, died in infancy
Auguste Marie of Holstein-Gottorp (1649 – 1728), married Friedrich VII, Margrave of Baden-Durlach, had eleven children

Hedwig Eleonora’s husband Karl X Gustav, King of Sweden; Credit – Wikipedia

Hedwig Eleonora’s future husband Karl Gustav became King of Sweden in 1654 upon the abdication of his cousin Christina, Queen of Sweden. The 32-year-old new King of Sweden was unmarried as he expected he would marry his cousin Queen Christina, and he needed to find a bride as soon as possible to provide an heir. The former Queen Christina of Sweden had met Hedwig Eleonora on her way to Rome, where she would spend the rest of her life. Concerned that Karl Gustav was unmarried, Christina suggested the match. However, Hedwig Eleonora was already engaged to Gustav Adolph, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, and so Christina recommended Hedwig Eleonora’s elder sister Magdalene Sibylle instead. After seeing portraits of both sisters, Karl Gustav chose Hedwig Eleonora because of her beauty, and her current fiancé was instead married to her sister Magdalena Sibylle.

The marriage of Karl Gustav and Hedwig Eleonora; Credit – Wikipedia

On October 24, 1654, the day after her eighteenth birthday, Hedwig Eleonora married Karl Gustav at the Tre Kronor Castle in Stockholm, Sweden. Three days later, Hedwig Eleonora was crowned Queen of Sweden at the Storkrykan (Great Church) in Stockholm.

Karl Gustav and Hedwig Eleonora had only one child, a son who succeeded his father:

Karl XI, King of Sweden (1655 – 1697), married Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, had seven children but only three survived childhood

Sweden was involved in the Second Northern War against Denmark-Norway and Poland-Lithuania and Karl Gustav was often away on military campaigns. However, after the birth of her son Hedwig Eleonora frequently accompanied Karl Gustav on his military campaigns. She was very interested in the arts, particularly painting and architecture. Under her leadership, Drottningholm Palace, the current residence of the Swedish monarch, was built. Sadly, Hedwig Eleonora’s marriage lasted less than six years. Her husband Karl X Gustav, King of Sweden died at the age of 37 on February 13, 1660, from influenza and pneumonia, leaving his four-year-old son to succeed him as Karl XI, King of Sweden.

Hedwig Eleonora’s son Karl XI, King of Sweden at five years old; Credit – Wikipedia

After the death of her husband, Hedwig Eleonora was the dowager queen for 55 years. She remained visible in Swedish politics and society until her death. Karl X Gustav left specific instructions in his will for the regency of his son. Hedwig Eleonora was to be the Regent of Sweden and her son’s guardian until he reached his majority. She would be the chairperson of the regency council and be responsible for the government along with five senior government officials. However, Hedwig Eleonora would have the advantage of having two votes on the regency council. Throughout her son’s regency, Hedwig Eleonora was present at all council meetings except when she was away to administrate her dower lands. She did not take an active part in politics but used her position as regent to protect her son’s interests and rights. Aware that she lacked the knowledge and support to pursue politics, Hedwig Eleonora did not want to give the regency council any excuse to prevent her from attending the meetings. She learned about the issues discussed, made statements, and suggested solutions, but did not actively pursue any of her own opinions.

Hedwig Eleonora was only 24-years-old when her husband died and in 1661, she was considered a possible wife for King Charles II of England. She refused the proposal with the official excuse that she wished to remain faithful to her deceased husband. In 1667, 18-year-old Count Carl Gyllenstierna (link in Swedish) became Hedwig Eleonora’s chamberlain. He became her favorite and his career quickly advanced. It is possible that he also became her lover.

Left to Right: Hedwig Eleonora; her son Karl XI; her grandson the future Karl XII; her daughter-in-law Ulrika Eleonora; her granddaughter Ulrika Eleonora; husband of her granddaughter Hedwig Sofia Fredrik IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp; her sister-in-law and the mother of Fredrik IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Fredrika Amalia of Denmark, Dowager Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp; and her granddaughter Hedwig Sofia; Credit – Wikipedia

Even after her son married Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Hedwig Eleonora remained the first lady of the court. Foreign ambassadors always paid their respects to Hedwig Eleonora first, and then Ulrika Eleonora. The hostility between Hedwig Eleonora’s homeland Holstein-Gottorp and Ulrika Eleonora’s homeland Denmark made the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law even more tense.

Hedwig Eleonor’s tomb at Riddarholmen Church; Credit – Wikipedia

Hedwig Eleonora survived her husband by fifty-five years and her son by eighteen years, dying on November 24, 1715, in Stockholm, Sweden at the age of 79. She was buried with her husband at Riddarholmen Church.

Works Cited

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_III,_Duke_of_Holstein-Gottorp> [Accessed 29 August 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedwig_Eleonora_of_Holstein-Gottorp> [Accessed 29 August 2021].
Flantzer, Susan. 2021. Karl X Gustav, King of Sweden. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/karl-x-gustav-king-of-sweden/> [Accessed 29 August 2021].
Sv.wikipedia.org. 2021. Hedvig Eleonora av Holstein-Gottorp – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedvig_Eleonora_av_Holstein-Gottorp> [Accessed 29 August 2021].

Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Duchess of Modena and Reggio

Ercole III’s only surviving child of Maria Beatrice d’Este, the heiress of Modena and Reggio, married Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, son of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, in her own right Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The son of Maria Beatrice and Ferdinand Karl regained the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as Francesco IV in 1814, after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

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Maria Beatrice of Savoy, Duchess of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Beatrice of Savoy was the niece and the wife of Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio. She was also the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England and Scotland from 1824 – 1840 (see below). Maria Beatrice Vittoria Giuseppina was born on December 6, 1792, in Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia, now in Italy. She was the eldest of the seven children and the eldest of the six daughters of Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy and Maria Theresa of Austria-Este. Maria Beatrice’s paternal grandparents were Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. Her maternal grandparents were Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and Carrara in her own right.

Two of Maria Beatrice’s sisters died in childhood and her only brother died at the age of three from smallpox. Maria Beatrice and her three surviving sisters all married sovereigns. Children of Kings of Sardinia were often styled “of Savoy” as their fathers were also Dukes of Savoy from the House of Savoy.

Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1794 – 1795), died in infancy
Carlo Emanuele of Savoy (1796 – 1799) died in early childhood from smallpox
A daughter (1800 – 1801), died in infancy
Maria Teresa of Savoy (1803 – 1879), twin of Maria Anna, married Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma, had two children
Maria Anna of Savoy (1803 – 1884), twin of Maria Teresa, married Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria, no children
Maria Cristina of Savoy (1812 – 1836), married Ferdinando II, King of the Two Sicilies, had one son, died due to childbirth complications, in 2014 she was beatified by Pope Francis and is known as Blessed Maria Cristina of Savoy

In 1798, when Maria Beatrice was six years old, the French occupied Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, and forced her uncle Carlo Emanuele IV, King of Sardinia to give up all his territories on the Italian mainland. Carlo Emanuele IV and the rest of the Sardinian royal family withdrew to the island of Sardinia in 1799. When his beloved wife Marie Clotilde of France died from typhoid fever on March 7, 1802, the childless Carlo Emanuele IV was so upset by her death that he decided to abdicate. He left the throne of Sardinia to his brother, Maria Beatrice’s father who reigned as Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia. Maria Beatrice and her family remained on the island of Sardinia for fifteen years, living mostly in Cagliari. In 1814, two-thirds of Savoy was restored to the Kingdom of Sardinia following Napoleon’s defeat, and the family was able to return to Turin.

Maria Beatrice’s husband and uncle, Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

On June 20, 1812, at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God and Saint Cecilia in Cagliari, Kingdom of Sardinia, now in Italy, 20-year-old niece Maria Beatrice married her 33-year-old maternal uncle Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio. Due to their close relationship, a special dispensation was received for their marriage from Pope Pius VII. Francesco was convinced that if he married Maria Beatrice, and her father and his two surviving brothers had no sons, he could become King of Sardinia. However, this plan did not work out. At a later date, Maria Beatrice’s mother and Francesco’s sister (and his mother-in-law) Maria Theresa was accused of trying to convince her childless brother-in-law Carlo Felice, King of Sardinia to name her brother Francesco as the heir to the throne of Sardinia and was exiled from the Kingdom of Sardinia for a while. On his deathbed, Carlo Felice, King of Sardinia named Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, the senior male member of the House of Savoy-Carignano, a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, as his heir.

Francesco and Maria Beatrice had four children:

Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1817 – 1886), married Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, Legitimist pretender to the French throne, no children
Francesco V, Duke of Modena (1819 – 1875), married Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria, had one daughter who died in infancy, Francesco became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland upon the death of his mother
Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria-Este (1821 – 1849), married Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria, had one daughter Maria Theresia of Austria-Este who became the last Queen of Bavaria. Maria Theresia also became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland upon the death of her uncle Francesco V of Modena.
Archduchess Maria Beatrix of Austria-Este (1824 – 1906), married Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Montizón, Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, had two sons

Like Maria Beatrice’s family, her husband Francesco had also been exiled since 1796 from the Duchy of Modena and Reggio due to the occupation of Napoleon’s French forces. After the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the couple was able to return and made their solemn entry into Modena on July 14, 1814.

Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans, Maria Beatrice’s great-great-great-grandmother; Credit – Wikipedia

As the senior surviving descendant of Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans, daughter of King Charles I of England and sister of James II, King of England/James VII, King of Scots, Maria Beatrice became the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England and Scotland after the death of her father Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia in 1824. James II had been deposed by the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The goal of the Jacobites was to restore the Roman Catholic heirs of King James II of England/VII of Scotland to the thrones of England and Scotland. However, unlike the Stuart Jacobite pretenders – James II’s son James Edward Francis Stuart and James II’s grandsons Charles Edward Stuart and Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart – none of the later Jacobite pretenders ever claimed the title.

Unofficial Royalty: The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne

Castello del Catajo; Credit – By Alessandro Vecchi – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25277385

During the last years of her life, Maria Beatrice preferred to live at the Castello del Catajo in Battaglia Terme near Padua, then in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, now in Italy, a summer home that had been purchased by Francesco IV in 1803. It was there that Maria Beatrice died from heart failure on September 15, 1840, at the age of 47. She was interred at the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena, Duchy of Modena and Reggio, now in Italy, in the funeral chapel her husband had built in 1836 for members of his family. Francesco IV survived his wife by less than six years, dying on January 21, 1846, aged 66, and was buried with his wife.

Funeral chapel of the House of Este and House of Austria-Este at the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena; Credit – Wikipedia

Works Cited

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Beatrice of Savoy – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Beatrice_of_Savoy> [Accessed 8 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/francesco-iv-duke-of-modena-and-reggio/> [Accessed 8 October 2021].
Flantzer, S., 2021. Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/vittorio-emanuele-i-king-of-sardinia-and-duke-of-savoy/> [Accessed 8 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Beatrice di Savoia (1792-1840) – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Beatrice_di_Savoia_(1792-1840)> [Accessed 8 October 2021].
Ru.wikipedia.org. 2021. Мария Беатриче Савойская — Википедия. [online] Available at: <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F> [Accessed 8 October 2021].

Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio

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Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio was born an Archduke of Austria-Este on October 6, 1779, at the Royal Palace of Milan in Milan, Duchy of Milan, now in Italy. Francesco Giuseppe Carlo Ambrogio Stanislao was the fifth of the ten children and the second but the eldest surviving of five sons of Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and Carrara in her own right. At the time of Francesco’s birth, the Duchy of Milan was under Austrian Habsburg rule and his father was the Governor of Milan.

The marriage of Francesco’s parents, Ferdinand Karl and Maria Beatrice, created the House of Austria-Este, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Francesco’s paternal grandparents were Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, in her own right Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. His maternal grandparents were Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning Duchess of Massa and Carrara.

Francesco’s parents with his two eldest surviving sisters; Credit – Wikipedia

Francesco had nine siblings:

Archduke Josef Franz of Austria-Este (born and died 1772), died in infancy
Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1773 – 1832), married Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia, had seven children
Archduchess Josepha of Austria-Este (1775 – 1777), died in childhood
Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria-Este (1776 – 1848), married (1) Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, third wife, Karl Theodor was 52 years older than Maria Leopoldina, he died four years after the wedding, no children (2) Count Ludwig von Arco, had three children
Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este (1781 – 1850), Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Army during the Napoleonic Wars, unmarried
Archduke Maximilian Joseph of Austria-Este (1782 – 1863), Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Major General in the Austrian Army, unmarried
Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria-Este (1784 – 1786), died in childhood
Archduchess Karl Ambrosius of Austria-Este (1785 – 1809), Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary
Archduchess Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este (1787 – 1816), married her first cousin Franz I, Emperor of Austria, third of four wives, no children, died from tuberculosis

In 1796, Modena was occupied by a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte. Francesco’s grandfather Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio was deposed and exiled, and then the duchy was added to the French Empire. Ercole III died in exile in 1803. When Maria Beatrice’s mother died in 1790, she succeeded her as the reigning Duchess of Massa and Carrara. However, as the Duchy of Modena and Reggio did not allow female succession, Maria Beatrice’s rights to the throne of Modena and Reggio passed to her son Francesco when her father died. In 1814, after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, Francesco was recognized as Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio by the Congress of Vienna. After the death of his mother in 1829, the Duchy of Massa and Carrara was annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.

Francesco’s wife Maria Beatrice of Savoy; Credit – Wikipedia

On June 20, 1812, at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God and Saint Cecilia in Cagliari, Kingdom of Sardinia, now in Italy, 33-year-old Francesco married his 20-year-old niece Maria Beatrice of Savoy, the daughter of his sister Maria Theresa and Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia. Due to their close relationship, a special dispensation was received for their marriage from Pope Pius VII. Maria Beatrice was one of the four surviving children of Francesco’s sister Maria Theresa who married Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia. Francesco was convinced that if he married Maria Beatrice, and her father and his two surviving brothers had no sons, he could become King of Sardinia. Francesco’s sister (and his mother-in-law) Maria Theresa was accused of trying to convince her childless brother-in-law Carlo Felice, King of Sardinia to name her brother Francesco as the heir to the throne of Sardinia and was exiled from the Kingdom of Sardinia for a while. On his deathbed, Carlo Felice, King of Sardinia named Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano, the senior male member of the House of Savoy-Carignano, a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, as his heir.

Francesco and Maria Beatrice had four children:

Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1817 – 1886), married Prince Henri, Count of Chambord, Legitimist pretender to the French throne, no children
Francesco V, Duke of Modena (1819 – 1875), married Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria, had one daughter who died in infancy, Francesco became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland upon the death of his mother
Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria-Este (1821 – 1849), married Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria, had one daughter Maria Theresia of Austria-Este who became the last Queen of Bavaria. Maria Theresia also became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland upon the death of her uncle Francesco V of Modena.
Archduchess Maria Beatrix of Austria-Este (1824 – 1906), married Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Montizón, Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, had two sons

While Francesco IV’s grandfather Ercole III reigned the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as an enlightened monarch who continued the reforms started by his father, Francesco IV’s reign was more autocratic. He saw conspiracies everywhere and was known for his stern and tyrannical rule and his repression of democratic movements. Francesco abolished all reforms and introduced censorship and the secret police. Like his mother, he believed that the people were never satisfied and that it was better to keep them as poor as possible. Francesco was reinforced in his extreme conservatism and his opposition to political or social change by the Jesuits, a religious order of the Catholic Church. He gave the Jesuits a great deal of authority, especially in the field of education.

Funeral chapel of the House of Este and House of Austria-Este at the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena; Credit – Wikipedia

Francesco IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio died January 21, 1846, aged 66, at the Ducal Palace in Modena, Duchy of Modena, now in Italy. He was buried with his wife Maria Beatrice who had died in 1840, at the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena in the funeral chapel he had built in 1836 for members of his family.

Works Cited

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Karl,_Archduke_of_Austria-Este> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Francis IV, Duke of Modena – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_IV,_Duke_of_Modena> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Beatrice_d%27Este,_Duchess_of_Massa> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Beatrice of Savoy – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Beatrice_of_Savoy> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, Queen of Sardinia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/maria-theresa-of-austria-este-queen-of-sardinia/> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Francesco IV d’Austria-Este – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_IV_d%27Austria-Este> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
Nl.wikipedia.org. 2021. Frans IV van Modena – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_IV_van_Modena> [Accessed 7 October 2021].

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