by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2017
Maria Anna of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony; Credit – Wikipedia
Queen Maria Anna of Saxony was the second wife of King Friedrich August II of Saxony. She was born Princess Maria Anna Leopoldine Elisabeth Wilhelmine of Bavaria, in the Electorate of Bavaria, now in Bavaria, Germany, on January 27, 1805, to the future King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Caroline of Baden. She was the identical twin of Sophie Friederike, the mother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.
Maria had six full-siblings:
- Prince Maximilian (1800-1803) – died in early childhood
- Princess Elisabeth Ludovika (1801-1873) – twin of Amalie Auguste, married King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, no issue
- Princess Amalie Auguste (1801-1877) – twin of Elisabeth Ludovika, married King Johann of Saxony, had issue
- Princess Sophie Friederike (1805-1872) – Maria Anna’s twin, married Archduke Franz Karl of Austria, had issue, including Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
- Princess Ludovika Wilhelmine (1808-1892) – married Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria, had issue, including Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria
- Princess Maximiliana (1810-1821) – died in childhood
Maria Anna had five older half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to Princess Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt:
- King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786-1868) – married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, had issue
- Princess Augusta (1788-1851) – married Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, had issue
- Princess Amalie (1790-1794) – died in childhood
- Princess Caroline Augusta (1792-1873) – married (1) the future King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, no issue; (2) Emperor Franz I of Austria, no issue
- Prince Karl Theodor (1795-1875) married (1) Maria de Pétin, had issue; (2) Henriette Schöller, no issue
Maria Anna’s husband Friedrich August of Saxony. source: Wikipedia
On April 24, 1833, in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, now in the German state of Saxony, Maria Anna married Crown Prince Friedrich August of Saxony. He was the son of Prince Maximilian of Saxony and Princess Caroline of Parma. They had no children.
Three years later, on June 6, 1836, she became Queen of Saxony upon her husband’s accession to the throne. Shortly after becoming Queen, she founded a women’s association to combat the famines that were plaguing parts of Saxony. This association continued to exist until the early 1930s.
photo: Von Haeferl – Eigenes Werk, CC-BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43093011
On August 9, 1854, King Friedrich August II was killed in an accident while traveling in Tyrol, Austria. Queen Maria Anna had a chapel built on the site that was dedicated a year later.
The Dowager Queen Maria Anna died on September 13, 1877, in Wachwitz, Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony. She is buried in the Wettin Crypt at the Dresden Cathedral, formerly known as the Katholische Hofkirche (Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony), in Dresen.
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Saxony Resources at Unofficial Royalty