by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022
Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia
The first of the two wives of Felipe V, King of Spain, Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy was born on September 17, 1688, at the Royal Palace of Turin in Turin, Duchy of Savoy, now in Italy. She was the third of the six children and the third of the three daughters of Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia and Anne Marie of Orléans. Maria Luisa’s paternal grandparents were Carlo Emanuele II, Duke of Savoy and his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Nemours. Her maternal grandparents were Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (son of King Louis XIII of France and the only sibling of King Louis XIV of France) and Princess Henrietta of England (daughter of King Charles I of England).
Maria Luisa had five siblings:
- Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1685 – 1712), married Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin, eldest son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, had three children including King Louis XV of France
- Maria Anna of Savoy (1687 – 1690), died in early childhood
- Vittorio Amadeo of Savoy (1699 – 1715) died in his teens
- Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia (1701 – 1773), married (1) Anna Christine of Sulzbach, had one son who died in infancy (2) Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, had six children, two died in infancy (3) Elisabeth Thérèse of Lorraine, had three children, only one survived childhood
- Emanuele Filberto of Savoy (born and died 1705), died in infancy
In 1700, Carlos II, King of Spain died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, son of King Louis XIV of France and the heir apparent to the French throne had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne because his mother Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Louis, Le Grand Dauphin nor his elder son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, Carlos II, King of Spain, in his will, had named the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, 16-year-old Philippe, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. He reigned as Felipe V, King of Spain, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain.
Felipe V, King of Spain, 1701; Credit – Wikipedia
Soon after he arrived in Spain, King Felipe V’s grandfather King Louis XIV arranged a marriage for him. In order to strengthen Felipe V’s shaky authority over Spain due to his French birth, King Louis XIV decided to maintain ties with Vittorio Amadeo II, then Duke of Savoy, whose eldest daughter Marie Adelaide of Savoy was already married to Felipe V’s elder brother Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin. Felipe V was betrothed to thirteen-year-old Maria Luisa of Savoy. In Turin, Duchy of Savoy, Felipe and Maria Luisa were married by proxy on September 12, 1701. Maria Luisa then left for Spain where the young couple met for the first time on November 2, 1701, and were married in person at a local parish church in Figueres, Spain.
Maria Luisa with her eldest child, the future King Luis I of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia
Maria Luisa and Felipe V had four sons but only two survived childhood and they both had childless marriages:
- Luis I, King of Spain (1707 – 1724), married Louise Élisabeth of Orléans, no children
- Felipe, Infante of Spain (born and died 1709), died in infancy
- Felipe, Infante of Spain (1712 – 1719), died in childhood
- Fernando VI, King of Spain (1713 – 1759), married Bárbara of Portugal, no surviving children
The death of Maria Luisa; Credit – Wikipedia
Maria Luisa and Felipe V had a loving, happy marriage. She acted as Regent of Spain from 1702 until 1703 during Felipe V’s absence due to the War of the Spanish Succession and had great influence over him as his adviser. Sadly, Maria Luisa died from tuberculosis at the age of 25 on February 14, 1714. She was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Basilica of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.
Tomb of Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com
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Works Cited
- Flantzer, Susan (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 1, 2022).
- Flantzer, Susan (2021) Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/vittorio-amedeo-ii-king-of-sardinia/ (Accessed: November 1, 2022).
- Maria Luisa di Savoia (2022) Wikipedia (Italian). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Luisa_di_Savoia (Accessed: November 1, 2022).
- María Luisa Gabriela de Saboya (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Luisa_Gabriela_de_Saboya (Accessed: November 1, 2022).
- Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Luisa_Gabriella_of_Savoy (Accessed: November 1, 2022).