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.

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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

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.

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.

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.

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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].